August 5 – 18: 2-Week PDC at Terra Alta, Almocageme, Portugal

TAKE THE JOURNEY OF SEEING WITH NEW EYES!!!!!!!

Dates: August 5th-18th, 2013

Location: Terra Alta, Almoçageme, Sintra, Portugal

Facilitators: Doug Crouch, Pedro Valdiju, and Eva Wimmer with guest speakers

Language used: English (with help to translate unknown words whenever needed)

Course Fee:  550€

****includes camping accommodation and all meals that are organic, delicious, and homemade****

For more information and to register contact the following:

Melissa at terraalta.sintra@gmail.com

and to get a sense of the course from last year

click here for the course recap

or watch our R-Evolution video.

and we also have a Natural Building Course just before the PDC: July 29th-Aug 3rd

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THE COURSE: Format and Content

The course will be an 80-hour Permaculture Design Certificate Course spread out over 14 days. This allows for ample time for students to digest the material, get hands-on experience and work on the final design project and presentation. The course will be a certified  through TreeYo Permaculture as we are guided by Bill Mollison’s curriculum that comprises the 14 chapters of his book “Permaculture: A Designer’s Manual”. Our schedule reflects this commitment and has a strong emphasis on how the design principles and process influence site develop and systems management. We will cover the following topics throughout the course:

• Ethics, Principles, and Methods of Permaculture Design
• Pattern Understanding: Interpretation and Application
• Climatic Factors: Broad Climatic Zones and Microclimate – Effects on Landscape and Design
• Water: Harvesting, Conservation, Purification, and Revitalization
• Trees and their Energy Transactions: SoilWaterTrees
• Soils: Classification, Food Web, and Restoration
• Aquaculture: Food Web, Aquatic Plants, Chinampas, Tyre Ponds, Water Quality Parameters
• Animal Systems: Integrate worms, chickens, goats, and many other animals in your design
• Strategies for Tropical, Dry-land, and Temperate Climates: Influences on Vegetation, Housing, and Earthworks
• Introduction to Natural Building: Earth as a Building Material
• Fermentation and Nutrition: Sauerkraut, Kimchi, Sourdough Bread and Pickles
• Local Food Systems:  CSA-Community Supported Agriculture,  Cooperatives, Food-Coops
• Social and Economic Permaculture: Bio-Regional Organisation, Living in Communities, Transition Towns and Local Resiliency

• And last but not least: Lot´s of laugh, fun and happy faces, music, music, music, a sound journey, drumming, dancing – in the mud and around the bonfire, trips to the near beaches, yoga, group activities and lot’s of work! A Transformation of Your Life is guaranteed at this one of a kind seaside project!

FINAL DESIGN PROJECTS

The course will end with the required student design projects that will utilize the landscape around Terra Alta, which is where participants will be camping. By using an actual physical site for the design projects, students will gain the experience of completing a full design from walking the land during the initial assessment to mapping

and measuring to client interviews and final presentations.

The design project process increases learner retention by allowing for immediate application and direct practice of learned skills while offering a means to evaluates students’ comprehension of the theory and lecture sections of the course. All of which are necessary to become successful, effective, and certified Permaculture designers.

The final design project is also considered to be a direct hands-on project because students will be engaged in a process that will yield a viable design proposal. Our commitment to practicing the design principles throughout the course process itself reinforces the theory and lecture sessions. To bring the material alive we engage in facilitating the course so that numerous learning styles are supported. One of our teaching techniques is through design exercises that compliment the lecture material and add an element of fun to the atmosphere.

For more information about our past courses visit the following page: Previous TreeYo Courses. Be sure to take special note of the past courses at the Escola da Terra/ Terra Alta

The HANDS-ON SEGMENT: 

Another integral part of the course is the hands-on segment because it integrates the techniques directly to your body. Proposed hands-on segments for the course are:

• Hot Compost Pile Making and turning throughout the course to address fertility
  

  Mixing clay and sand for a cob oven project, Terra Alta 2011

  maintenance

• Small-scale Earthworks to address rainwater runoff issues and feed associated plantings
• Natural Building Project on a small scale
• Plant Propagation as a way to learn different techniques to quickly fill up a site with useful plants at a low cost
• Food Fermentation as a way to connect food production with culture with health and season extension
• Final Design Project for immediate application and direct practice of learned skills

The TEACHERS and HOSTS

Doug Crouch: With six courses already under our belt at the outstanding community of Escola da Terra and Terra Alta, TreeYo Permaculture facilitator Doug Crouch will be putting on the annual course for 2013 combined with Pedro Valdiju, his long running teaching partner in Portugal.  Doug will continue as the main facilitator of this year’s course. His formal background is in ecology and has been practicing and teaching Permaculture for over seven years in different parts of the world covering all climatic zones. He holds a Diploma in Permaculture Education which demonstrates his commitment to crafting his creative facilitation style. Because Portugal is the longest running host site for TreeYo, the local support team is quite familiar with the TreeYo facilitation style and process. To view some of the presentation you can expect during the course via PowerPoint, please visit Doug’s slideshare account at the following: www.slideshare.net/DougeCrouch

Pedro Valdiju, our host and one of the leaders of the community, will be sharing with us his passion for worms and bees as well as his inspirational attitude and unique perception of life.

This year he will continue his evolution as a permaculture facilitator and take a more active role in teaching sessions as well as blessing us with his sound journey creation talents to enrich the overall experience.

Guest Speakers: In every course we like to invite specialists in their area to teach topics related to Permaculture. A couple of past students will be joining us for some specialized session and the overall facilitation and hosting of the course.  Its a great way to share and exchange and see the growth of old students

Caren: Furthermore, the organic food prepared by community member Caren is always a huge hit, not only because it is delicious and nutritious, but because it is freshly prepared by hand everyday with care and a smile. We also help to stimulate the local food economy by purchasing what ingredients are not grown at Terra Alta from the local organic “Cooperativa” and other local producers and processors.

THE HOST SITE: TERRA ALTA

Terra Alta, this years host site, is the next evolution and extension of the Escola Da Terra project. It’s located in Almoçageme, which is a village just above the sea and the amazing beaches called Praia da Adraga  and Ursa. The on-site Terra Alta team (the Sunrise Collective) is a great addition to this course by ensuring unmatched hospitality and stellar curriculum support. Terra Alta offers a wonderful example of small-scale intensive systems. Because the site has had several years of Permaculture management, it is easy for students to simply walk out the door and see the principles of design in action. The following Permaculture elements and functions that can be experienced are:

• Bee hives for pollination and micro-enterprise
• Composting toilets to help with fertility maintenance on the site
• Small-scale Earthworks to harvest roof water excess, street runoff, and overland flow
• Extensive Food Forest of subtropical, temperate, and Mediterranean species corresponding with the earthworks
• Hot & Cold Composting (Vermiculture) systems for boosting soil life, picking up on waste streams, and cycling nutrients
• Food Preservation and supporting local economy of food production
• Small Intentional Community focused on adult education through Permaculture courses but more importantly holistic, Waldorf and Permaculture inspired education for the children of the local area
• Natural Building techniques utilized for dwellings and other infrastructure including the cob oven
• Greenhouse and micro-climate accentuation techniques for season extension
  

  Circling at Terra Alta before the hands-on natural building session

The REGIONAL CONTEXT and MICROCLIMATE

So please come join us in sunny Portugal for what is going to be a great community experience, an adventure and an awakening to the natural world around us that is ripe with possibilities for connection and interaction.

After all, it will be a fun learning experience sure to give a new perspective on everyday surroundings and bring inspired solutions to the table. Let Permaculture be the systematic approach to make change in the world and your local community alike. Learn to turn Problems into Solutions, to Work with Nature not Against, and how Everything…yes every THING…gardens!!!!!