21 F in GA Looking for Friends to talk Permie With :)

To be frank, I'm new to this community, so of course, I find myself lacking friends to talk seriously with about buying/owning land, homesteading, permaculture, and what have you. So I would love to plant roots so to speak with others who "get me" male or female. If you'd like to make a new friend, then certainly message me or drop a line here and we can get some rapport going for sure!

I am not living in GA now, but did live there, on 3 different sites, for over 25 years (from roughly 1988-2010, plus 1983-85), and I'm pretty familiar with what's going on there. I helped teach the first three PDC's offered in the state....all at Koinonia near Americus.....now there is a team led by Brandy Hall in ATL that is teaching frequently. I think there are a couple of other GA and Southeastern focused threads on here that would be worth following. Ive never heard tell of anyone else near Statesboro, not unti you get further down toward Savannah, but things have changed for sure. Georgia Organics is a good group to join. If you can afford to go to their conference, you will meet friends there! Also the Southeastern Permaculture Gathering, held each year (usually the first weekend in Aug.) near Celo, NC. is well worth attending.....

Oh wow, thank you. I never really had any idea where to start when looking for PDCs and other such lessons. I do know that Statesboro has a very large farming community. I've just never made the time to reach out with all the time I devote to my classes, but I frequently go to the farmer's market that we hold each Saturday. There is always a good turn out there. I think Statesboro is going through its own food revolution at the moment and its always nice to see the activities we have going on all the time. If only I had the time to go.

But I am definitely going to try and put forth more effort into seeing what is around me. Thank you, a lot for the input. I saw where you mentioned Koinonia on another post, and man did that bring back memories!! I actually visited there as a class trip during high school , because I happened to attend a Catholic school for my secondary education. It's really lovely there, and super peaceful. I think we went to study the idea of small, Christian communities and how they developed and worked in practice moreso than we went to study the agriculture though. So it would be awesome to go back and look at how they produce their food and have their communities set up.

Also during that same trip, we visited the Habitat for Humanity base in Americus and that was cool to see as well. I think I would like to reproduce that field trip with a different set of eyes as an adult. And it's a good excuse to get some delicious fresh, roasted coffee in Americus from Cafe Campesino. I never forgot how amazing it tasted and that was when I was 15!

I took Brandy's PDC last year, and there's a decent number of permaculture peeps in the ATL area. Some of us have been tossing around the idea of starting up a monthly potluck or get together since there doesn't appear to be a regular forum for like minded folks to get together and talk regularly. I've found the growing community in Atlanta to be pretty fragmented - lots of really cool projects, but also lots of people who don't know what else is going on outside of their own circles.

GA Organics does great work, but I have to say it's the only conference I've ever had difficulty talking to people at. I'd introduce myself, ask questions, etc, and get warm smiles and zero effort to pull the new person into the conversation. Very odd, as I rarely have trouble at other events where I know very few people.

If I were closer to Atlanta, I would love to get involved with you all in that area. I wish the community wasn't fragmented, because that sounds like a bummer, but I'm sure if the potluck pulls through the brainstorming phase, it would really help on that front. When people get together around food, it always seems to make for a very relaxed and colloquial atmosphere.

I'm considering looking further into the groups around campus to see if there are individuals here who might want to get together some time. We have a gazillion organizations and clubs, so I'm almost positive there is probably one that would be toward my interests as far as permaculture goes. We are a very green school. And if there isn't maybe I could try getting my leadership juices going to start one up. At least it would look good on my resume if nothing else was forthcoming about it.

Thanks for the info, Kirsten. I will have to look Brandy up and see if she may be holding a PDC class again sometime in the next year.

She does one each year with a community partner - it's one weekend a month starting in September and running through March, with December off. The class works together to create a full site plan for the community partner, so you get the experience of doing larger site design. Last year she partnered with the town of Pine Lake, so we actually got to do municipal level permaculture design. Really cool experience.

I am always down to discuss permaculture and finding land. I am taking a farm job in Texas soon. But my goal is to get my own farmland before I'm 30. If youd like to chat id love to see if we share similar goals to maybe work on a project together. Hit me up if you are interested. ☺

Hey, I don't know if you are still around, but I am moving back to GA this fall.  I want to continue working on a phd in Horticulture and a few other things at UGA.  I have found a nice little property in north GA on which I will be implementing my permaculture systems... plans for all kinds of creative polycultures and such.  It isn't far from your area, and I would be pleased to meet you should you be interested.  

Hey, I'm Demitri I was wondering if there is any other way of contacting you.