Sam Chrisinger

The focus of this workshop is finishing a roundwood/conventional framed structure with mixture of strawbale and cob techniques. This is a good opportunity to learn something about post and beam framing, green roofs, natural plasters, and general carpentry work for the natural-built home.

Full details here: https://www.muddauberbuilding.com/2018-schedule/2019/2/22/strawbale-cob-immersion

I'll be helping to run the workshop and am happy to answer any questions you might have.

Hi Sharon,
My partner and I are looking for an opportunity this upcoming Spring to learn and practice permaculture. I am a carpenter's helper and my partner currently works on an organic vegetable farm. Neither of us have substantial hands on experience implementing a permaculture design, but we both read extensively on the topic and are eager to try translating theory into practice. If you wouldn't mind having relative novices working for you, we would be very excited to help with a project like this.

We plan to be traveling by bicycle in your area this upcoming Spring. At the moment our plans are very flexible. If you would be interested in hosting us for a week or more we would be happy to trade labor for housing and meals.

Hi. My partner and I are in the process of planning some travels in the Spring and Summer of next year. I (Sam) will be leaving behind a job as a carpenter and Hannah will have just ended a season on an organic vegetable farm. Neither of us are afraid of hard work and roughing it a bit. We're interested in working and learning as we travel South from Charlottesville, VA into North Carolina. Especially hoping to spend some time in the Triangle area and near Asheville.

More than anything we're hoping to get some hands on experience with all things permaculture. Our main interests are:
- natural building/ecological design
- earthworks/hugelkulture/irrigation free farming
- ancestral/traditional skills
- intentional community

We'd also love to meet up with local Food Not Bombs or other food rescue chapters or other kinds of waste conscious service work.

Part of our plan is to document and share the stories of people living healthy, happy, and satisfied lives while integrating permacultre principles into their work and homes.

Please share any thoughts/suggestions about people and places to visit. Thanks!

First, thanks all for the thoughtful replies.

Certainly don't mean to imply that there can be no intersection of technology and permaculture (definitely a much broader thought to consider that computing/permaculture). I guess much of my concern comes from seeing how addicted recent generations have become to cell phones, televisions, computers, and their derivatives. It's a bit hard to in my mind justify much of this energy usage (video gaming is an easy example). To me it's obvious that some of this for-pleasure energy usage is incompatible with a future of using less. Is it inevitable that our consumption will continue to grow as technology improves? I have a bit of skepticism towards thinking that says not if we get more efficient, find cleaner energy sources, etc.

Perhaps a better question is how to be deliberate about how we choose to use technology? Certainly permaculture ethics can provide some guidance on this? This all must come with the recognition that (especially in the case of digital) technology requires a long chain of energy to become available to the permies. This includes things like raising/educating/training engineers and factory workers, extracting and heavily refining raw materials, and building and maintaining the infrastructure to facilitate this (which in turn requires more engineers, administrators, buildings, cars, etc).

I'm cautious to praise things like solar panels as a solution to our problems. It's easy to say if I buy a PV panel it will pay for itself in 10 years-- but does this actually consider the full energy cost of a PV panel? I think not as long as we live in a world with artificially cheap energy.

Sorry to rant or ramble, but I feel like something is unaddressed here.

I am a professional software developer, and also interested in permaculture (at this stage in my life this means lots of reading, hobby gardening, and small backyard projects). In reading about Holmgren's ideas about energy descent in Permaculture, there is confusion about whether or not I can reconcile the intensive energy demands of my current profession in terms of a permaculture mindset.

Can anyone respond to this? Does this depend on the nature of my work, etc?

As an extra question-- are there questions or problems in permaculture that would benefit from computing? I have worked to cultivate a skill as a programmer, and wonder if I can use this in a way that would provide knowledge or tools to the permaculture community.

Thanks for any responses.