A question for Wheaton Labs

Dear Paul,
I need to do a PDC to further my plans of global conquest. I want you to be my teacher. You're blunt, down to earth, and straight forward. All things I admire.
I have two years teaching experience and plan to become a certified PDC instructor. I want to buy land, set up shop and certify people by the thousands as cheaply as possible.
I'll be in the USA summer 2017. How much do I need to do a PDC with you?

Please note I'm very open to paying it off with labour.
-I have certificate in Metal fabrication
-I can work with wood too
-I work hard and smart
-I'm used too working long hours (8-15 hour days)
-I actually like to work
-I love to cook
-I can cook pie
-I can cook you a pie everyday of the week if you like
-Did I mention the pie?


p.s. the original plan was summer 2016, but life happened.

Hi Jason, try it, but I remember Paul saying in a podcast, forgot the number he'll never teach a PDC, he's done some lessons in PDC's, some teaching on specific topics in PDC's but he really is not in teaching. Maybe something has changed don't know. You could watch out if another PDC is organised at Wheaton labs like this year with Howard Story.

yeh, I was so disappointed I couldn't go to that.

Don't think that a single 2 week window should be your only way of building your knowledge base. Yes, Paul has some awesome ideas, but I think a PRI certificate would look better on paper (until Paul has some sort of way to recognize/certify people, like PEP1). I think the best way to learn from Paul is to be here for a long time, and learn from everyone else that passes through here.

I thought I might teach at the free pdc we did this year, but I did very little. I got sick at just the wrong time. Along those lines, I think I have figured out why I was feeling so exhausted all the time, and am now on the mend.

Howard is talking about the PDC being a regular event here. I think that is possible. Although there were several things that made me uncomfortable this year: the berm shed wasn't done - so that led to dust storms during the PDC; I did not like the darkness of the classroom (which was done for the sake of the videoing and the projector stuff); I would prefer that the whole thing could happen at the lab instead of basecamp; overall, I just went through way too much stress through the event when I should not have felt any stress at all.

I don't want to teach a PDC, but I don't mind contributing to a PDC. Mostly, I feel it is important that a PDC covers all the bits and bobs that the permaculture king, Bill Mollison insists on. And I like the certification route that the crown prince of permaculture, Geoff Lawton, has laid out. So I like that this format is adhered to for a PDC - but I have so many other things I want to do, learning how to, precisely, respect the wishes of Bill and Geoff .... well, I would rather that somebody else runs point on that to make sure that Bill and Geoff's stuff is 100% respected. Then I can just plop down my own stuff here and there.

I gotta say: there were some super cool people that came to the PDC. And they did super cool things. A lot of them chipped into the berm shed project and said "take my earnings and donate it to the ants." So fucking cool. I am still super grateful that, as part of the PDC, the rmh in the house got it's pea gravel put in.

At the moment, I feel a bit like I cannot think of trying anything close to what you suggest until:

1) the berm shed is done
2) allerton abbey is done
3) we have water on the lab
4) wofati 0.8 is done
5) the road/alley is in at basecamp

All five of these were supposed to be done by now. None of them are. Some of them haven't even been started.

Further, I have books to write, DVDs to create, youtube vids to put up, podcasts ....

I think that if we had a stronger forward velocity, I might feel like such a project could be added.

Jason, if you come out here and do big gobs of hard work, not only will you get paid, but if we get enough done I would be open to doing the thing you are asking for.