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Summary
For the second time this year, Paul finds himself in the interviewee seat, this time for Jan Spencer, and accompanied by Dez Choi at
bootcamp.
Some of the questions asked (and their answers) include:
What is your homestead?
A couple hundred acres divided into two properties: Basecamp (normal homestead stuff), and the off-grid Lab with much deeper alluvial soil, despite being in the Rocky Mountains. Current experiments going on in the Lab include the wofati, annualized thermal inertia (heat a home using only heat gathered from the summer and based off of John Hait's work) and the wofati
greenhouse.
What is bootcamp?
A $100
experience that lasts at least a week (Dez has been there for 10 months) - on weekdays you work on advancing Paul’s projects along the lines of natural building and
gardening, with the weekends leaving you free to work on your own “soul-labour”. Jan describes it as a permaculture summer camp.
What caused you to move into this realm of education and concern for the planet?
Back in the days of the
newspaper, you’d see tales of horrible problems and you’d get some ideas about what you can personally do to help, and prepare for when it happens here. Even back then, Paul was obsessed with
gardening and it seemed that almost all of the problems he read about could be solved with homesteading. In 2004 he was working on the systems behind the photography for Google Earth and had the idea that if he infected hundreds of thousands of people with the idea of permaculture and the knowledge behind it, the would would move away from all the horrible things he saw in the news.
What is SKIP?
While
Mike Oehler was still around, he would bug Paul every couple of months to try to get the name of someone who was worthy to will his
land to. He wasn’t the only person to do this, so Paul started developing an idea that offers basic guidance to people so that they develop the skills and experience appropriate for owning and caring for a permaculture farm. In order to get certified, you have to go and do a collection of BBs (
Badge Bits) like cleaning a
cast iron skillet, bake two loaves of bread, etc, and prove that you’ve actually done them. They show that you’re motivated to get up and do stuff and competent
enough to do them decently (or can learn to). This is all free and can mostly be done from your own home.
Relevant Threads
Jan Spencer's Youtube page
Dez's Bootcamp Experience
permaculture bootcamp - learn permaculture through a little hard work
SKIP forum
Wofati forum
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This podcast was made possible thanks to:
Dr. Hugh Gill Kultur
Eivind W. Bjørkavåg
Suleiman, Karrie, and Sasquatch
Kyle Neath
Bill Crim
anonymous
Kerry JustTooLazy
Jocelyn Campbell
Chris Sugg
Sasquatch
Bill Erickson
G Cooper
Dominic Crolius
havokeachday
Penny McLoughlin
Mehron Kugler
Julia Winter, world's slowest mosaic artist
Pasquale DeAngelis
Greg Martin
Mark
Sean Benedict
Rita Bliden
Dana Martin
Candace Dahlk
Keith Kuhnsman
Eric Tolbert
Matthew Stone
Nuno Marta
Polly Jayne Smyth
Opalyn Brenger
ellen fisher
Eliot Mason
Katie Young
Ivar Vasara
JMBlackwater226R
Nathan Hale
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