Permaculture Technology Jamboree
(Previously known as the Appropriate Technology Course)
June 28th - July 9th, 2021
We're sold out BUT we came up with a way to squeeze two more people in if those two people part with a bit more coin to pull it off. Attendees can wander among all TEN of the tracks and participate or observe as much or as little as they like. The instructors will see a
project to completion either with or without help.
Ten Tracks of Permaculture Technology
TRACK ONE – SOLAR GLASS RECYCLING:
optimize the fresnel lens glass meltermelt more glassmelt glass fasterdesign to reduce costs
TRACK TWO – WOFATI GREENHOUSE AND GREYWATER SYSTEM:
a greenhouse that requires zero heat in the winter greywater system that can function year rounda passive solar garden heaterwofati construction
TRACK THREE – ROCKET SAUNA:
roundwood timber framing techniquesrocket heaterskiddable foundationdry wall stack walls, earhworks, rocket stoves
TRACK FOUR – EARTH AND FIRE:
spring terrace: shape dry land to be able to extract 400 gallons of water per day
passive garden heater: a technique to help grow citrus, outdoors, in Montanadry stack moon gate: correctly stacking rock to have a wall with a 2-foot round holerocket forge: a metalworking forge that does not require coal, propane or electricity
TRACK FIVE – WOOD AND COB:
roundwood timber framing paviliontwo styles of innovative deer/chicken fencing with a per foot price that is less than 10% of normaladd a night mode (rocket mass heater) to the giant solar food dehydratorbuild a cob sink from clay and sand on-site. It will be formed and then made waterproof with natural materialtrombe wall. Move air 24 hours a day without electricity
TRACK SIX – ZAPPITY ZAP:
create an electric tractor hayride tourinstall a heliostat: A sun tracking mirror to add light and heat to a houseadd permanent solar power to a tiny houserepair cafebetter crockpot: cook triple the food with less than 10% of the energy of a standard crockpotwindow quilts and harvesting winter window condensation
TRACK SEVEN – SKIP: Skills to Inherit Property
Part of our formal SKIP/PEP1 Program
woodburning a signcarve tool handlesmake fireplace toolssharpen toolsmake roundwood malletsmake a three-log benchmake adobe bricksbuild a dry-stack retaining wallcut down trees for use in log structures and/or firewoodmake a rock jack to support a fence without digging post holessealing a pond without a liner
TRACK EIGHT – HOMESTEADING:
make a bird house, insect hotel, snake and toad habitatmake a hugelkulture gardenhot water bath canningfermentingpicklingforagingharvest and eat wild edibesharvest and preserve natural medicine: comfrey poultice, dried mullein leaves, and more! make public art and branding a locationtextiles: sewing, darning, crochet, basket weaving, making twineusing rocket stoves, rocket ovens, and rocket water ovenseveryone who wants to can drive the excavator
TRACK NINE –BOOTCAMP:
Some people have attended our events and opted to join our ongoing permaculture bootcamp for half a day for whatever they are working on for that day.solar cooking, sawmill, natural building
TRACK TEN– SPONTANEOUS INNOVATION:
With all of the other innovation, combined with a mountain of tools and materials, several attendees and instructors get ideas for projects that we didn't think of before the event started. Track 10 is for working on projects that were thought of during the event!
Daily Schedule
7:00am – breakfast
8:00am – summary of the day
8:30am – session 1
10:00am – session 2
noon – lunch
1:00pm – session 3
3:00pm – session 4
5:00pm – cleanup
6:00pm – dinner
7:00pm – evening presentations
9:30pm to 6:30am – quiet time
For the detailed schedule, click HERE!
Instructors
Chris McClellan -- Instructor:
Uncle Mud (aka Chris McClellan) raises free-range, organic children in the wilds of northeast Ohio. Between building things out of mud and junk he writes for Mother Earth News
Magazine and teaches simple DIY skills at workshops and fairs.
Alan Booker -- Instructor
Alan Booker is the founder and executive director of the Institute of Integrated Regenerative Design, which trains professional design practitioners to create systems that are ecosystemic, biocompatible, and regenerative. With over 30 years
experience in engineering and 20 years in
sustainable design, Alan is the author of multiple
books. In addition to teaching PDCs, he also provides consulting and workshops on
earthworks, soil remediation, composting, forest
gardening, holistic management of pastureland, keyline design,
aquaculture and aquaponics, off-grid energy systems, and natural building systems.
Reisha Beck -- Instructor
Reisha Beck is a mother,
medicinal herb farmer and wildcrafter. She runs Wayside Botanicals, a small-scale permaculture based medicinal herb farm in Ferndale, WA. She has a back ground in organic farming,
permaculture design, pacific northwest ethnobotany and western herbalism. She teaches at Wildroot Botanicals herb school in Alger, WA and First Light Farm and Learning Center in Carnation, WA.
Paul Wheaton -- Host/Instructor
Paul Wheaton, The Duke of Permaculture, is an author, producer, and certified advanced master gardener. He has created hundreds of youtube videos, hundreds of podcasts, multiple DVDs, and written dozens of articles and a book. As the lead mad scientist at
Wheaton Labs, he's conducted experiments resulting in rocket stoves and ovens, massive earthworks, solar dehydrators and much more.
Lara Bigotti -- Event Coordinator
Lara became interested in Permaculture while living and teaching English in Japan. She worked on an organic vegetable farm in her hometown for two years after returning to the U.S., and then fulfilled her longtime dream of hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. After participating in Wheaton Labs Bootcamp in September 2020, she returned to Missoula in February 2021 to take on the role of Event Coordinator and Rental Manager for Wheaton Labs. She is excited to learn more about gardening, natural medicine, photography & videography, and building.
Thomas Elpel -- Instructor
Thomas is an author, natural builder, educator, and conservationist. He has authored multiple books: Foraging the Mountain West, Botany in a Day, Shanleya's Quest and numerous others about plant identification, wilderness survival, and sustainable living. He has multiple videos: Building a Slipform Stone House from the Bottom Up, How to Make a Grass Rope, Build Your own Masonry Fireplace - Masonry Heater - Masonry Stove, and many more. Thomas regularly teaches classes on plant identification, primitive skills and natural building. He is founder/director of Green University, LLC in Pony, Montana.
Mike Haasl --Instructor
Mike Haasl is a mechanical engineer, woodworker, blacksmith, and permaculture homesteader in northern Wisconsin. He constructed a sweet greenhouse, builds with
pallets and upcycled material, and experiments with
compost heat. He is developing a demonstration site for permaculture homesteading, and collaborating to create the SKIP program.
Erik Pehoviack -- Instructor
Erik is the co-owner of PermaRecycling, specializing in repurposing vintage cars and home rehabilitation in western Nebraska. He is a handyman, auto recycler, mechanic, welder, mason, carpenter, and teacher of all things hands on. Major hobbies geared toward partial independence are renewable energy and food based
perennial horticulture systems
Fred Tyler -- Instructor
Fred has
led the Bootcamp at Wheaton Labs for three years now. He's directed and taught skills ranging from organic gardening to woodworking to natural building.
Dre Oeschger -- Instructor
Dre runs a healthy side hustle aptly named Strong Wife
Sourdough. She also loves to crochet and occasionally sells custom crochet items via another side hustle, Dre's Crochet. She is a mother of three and loves unschooling her boys. She has also lent her experience and knowledge in the implementation of Acton of the Rubies, an alternative learning studio in Elko, Nevada that applies many of the unschooling and Montessori principles.
James S Juczac --Instructor:
James is an author and lecturer on topics such as self-reliance, true sustainability, building off-grid energy systems and mortgage-free housing. He has been dubbed "The King of Scrounge." Jim lives with his wife, Krista, in their round, cordwood and papercrete home on the property where they have established an off-grid
intentional community. He is an EMT and an adjunct professor at SUNY Jefferson where he teaches the NABCEP Solar Installers course.
Josiah Kobernik -- Instructor
Josiah cobbled together a diverse background in commercial agriculture, horticulture, market gardening, raising livestock, homesteading, and other general build/fix skills before landing at Wheaton Labs in 2019. Since moving to the labs, he has taken to working with roundwood timber framing, earthen plasters, videography, rocket contraptions, and any other inventions he can get his hands on.
Opalyn Brenger -- Instructor
Opalyn Brenger has been exploring a truly raw-material life while stewarding land and community in south-central Washington. Opalyn tends the sheep and the forest, transforming a fleece or a tree into not only yarn and lumber but clothing and snowmen too. She brings her love of that transformation to the classroom sharing her skills while helping you develop yours.
Jennifer Richardson --Instructor
Jennifer Richardson is a former
cattle rancher and current resident of Wheaton Labs. She is participating in the boot camp and living in Allerton Abbey, the first wofati, in order to test the thermal inertia of the structure.
Abe Coley -- Instructor
Abe Coley is a 1,123rd generation fence builder living in Missoula, MT. His daddy had him peeling logs when he was three years old, and he's built just about every kind of fence ever since - from
cast iron and wire to dry stacked stone to wattles, hurdles, and stick fences. If the saying is true that good fences make good neighbors, then that pretty much makes Abe Coley, Mr. Rogers.
Austin Durant -- Instructor
Austin Durant has been playing with his food his whole life, and fermenting it for over ten years. In 2011, he created Fermenters Club with a mission: To improve people’s lives by teaching them why and how to make and enjoy fermented foods; and to create communities that are connected through their guts. He teaches classes (online courses and hands-on workshops) on many fermented food traditions such as sauerkraut, pickles, kimchi, kombucha, miso, as well as seasonal specialties. He writes and shares recipes, videos and other fermentation adventures on his blog, fermentersclub.com. An otherwise
permie newbie, Austin tends to his small garden in zone 10a, urban/coastal San Diego, California and is greatly looking forward to attending his first
PDC and instructing at the PTJ at the Lab this year!
Melody Rothwell -- Chef
Melody Rothwell is an avid and creative cook, a world traveler, a free spirit, and a connector of people. She is an apprentice herbalist and yoga teacher, a life coach, & an Enneagram and Human Design practitioner. When she's not experimenting in the kitchen you can find her nerding out reading books on fermentation, learning to forage, and spending time outside. She's excited for the opportunity to bring her love of food and community to Wheaton Labs this summer.
Tickets
Work Trades for Permaculture Technology Jamboree, PDC, and SKIP
Work a 7 weeks in Bootcamp for a ticket to the PTJ!
We're sold out BUT we came up with a way to squeeze two more people in if those two people part with a bit more coin to pull it off. 
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