42 Billion Questions in the Flathead Valley

Hello!
My family is new to Montana (from Portland, OR) and we intend to move toward off-the-grid living and have fallen in love with the principals and ideas of permaculture. (really digging this site too!) I have had my own garden two summers in a row (our last two summers in Oregon's Willamette Valley with only a little success, so I'm sure our learning curve is pretty high. We are determined, however, and understand it is a process that will take several years (for us, anyway).

The reason for the post? We are DYING to meet and mingle with other permies in our area and participate in ANYTHING that we can learn from. I can't imagine building a home (bale-cob) in one short Montana summer and am not sure if one could build in the winter. Wondering if any folks in the area are building or doing anything we could help with in exchange for the opportunity to learn.

Flathead Valley peeps....HOLLA!

-Mary

Hi Mary,
While we do not consider ourselves Permies,LOL we do utilize some techniques that are just plain old that seem to now fall under the label of permaculture.We are south of Lakeside and used to teach alternative gardening classes for growing in the area.We do alternative building as well but do not have anything in the works at this time.Not sure if we will be offering our usual full blown free classes this year, hoping to not have to set up demos or do lectures either,,LOL but we are always willing to help others learn how do their own..
Mary and James

One of the first things I did on this site was sign up for the emails! So glad I did too!

Mary James....I would love to come visit your place...maybe help with a project? Not sure what the protocol is, but it would be great to meet other like minded folks in the valley!

Mary , you may also want to look for Kelly Ware. She seems to know where and what permaculture events are going on in the Flathead.

I saw a link to this post on FB, and I am excited to see another person in the Flathead in a similar position to me! My family moved here from the NoCal Coast late last Spring. I have been trying to find my new permie tribe since I arrived. I am attending Michael Pilarski's class this Friday, and hope to meet some folks there. I would love to network and learn more about Permaculture. I took my PDC back in NoCal, and loved every minute of it. I am using much of what I have learned to develop our little farmstead here in the Valley. I would love to share my knowledge with others and continue to add to it as our family moves toward homesteading as a way of life. I see there is so much to learn, and am very eager to get my hands dirty! Mary Powell (and Mary James for that matter!) - I would love to meet you - maybe we could have some tea at one of our homes and chat. I'm not super tech-savvy, and prefer in-person contact, but am happy to have found this site. I had the pleasure of meeting one of Paul's interns at Tum Tum this fall, and love watching things fall into place!