The ATC will MUCH larger this year. We will definitely being doing the jamboree format. Further, we will announce a detailed schedule featuring
SEVEN TRACKS.
JAMBOREE FORMAT: The instructors will see a
project to completion either with help or without. Students can wander to all of the tracks and either participate or observe as much or as little as they like. There will be some bits happening at an alternative location - so if you miss the ride, you won't go that one thing - and if you catch the ride, then that is the only thing you can do until the ride comes back. There will also be several places for students to sit and visit with others as much as they like throughout the day.
TRACK ONE - SOLAR GLASS RECYCLING: Will be all about
solar glass recycling with the fresnel lens glass melter (FLeGM). So a full two weeks of work to get this to be amazing.
TRACK TWO, THREE and FOUR - ATC: The core of the event. Appropriate Tech, alternative tech, old tech, new tech with
permaculture values ...
solar, natural building, re-use, repair, homestead skills, alternatives to glues and gunks, alternatives to cement and
petroleum ... innovations, merging old techniques with new knowledge ... etc. etc. etc. The schedules for these three tracks will be fleshed out in the following days.
TRACK FIVE - SKIP: Skills to Inherit Property. In the past, a lot of students enjoyed hands on
experience with the basics of woodworking, welding, fermenting, whitewash, cobbing, tool care, etc. We now have carefully documented skills within our SKIP/PEP curriculum. Perform a simple task, combined with taking a before, during and after pic, and you can be certified for having completed this task. When you have
enough certified tasks, you will be PEP1 certified. People that are PEP3 or PEP4 certified are desired for a lot of things, including being named as inheriting farms. More details in the
SKIP forums.
TRACK SIX - HOMESTEADING: Food preservation,
gardening,
hugelkultur, fermenting, pickling, using the haybox cooker, animal care, foraging, building community, textiles, natural medicine,
water bath canning, pressure canning, etc. A varied group of experiences. Each experience can be documented for SKIP/PEP if the student wants to.
TRACK SEVEN - BOOTCAMP: Here at
Wheaton Labs, we have a program called "the
permaculture bootcamp" where you learn permaculture through a little hard work. At a recent event, there was interest in also doing what the bootcamp was doing at the time. We're going to experiment with opening this up to students if this interests them. In the morning we will announce what the boots will be working on throughout the day and students can choose if they want to join them.
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