Plans are flying back and forth as we prepare the host the largest Convergence gathering in Western Canada. ( August 24-26,2012 )
To make this event a stellar experience of permaculture immersion, we are planning to create a site that offers many permaculture amenities, so folks can experience first hand the pleasure of community with little impact.
May 16 through to May 20 there will be a skill building event held at the beautiful Woodland West retreat centre in Millarville, Alberta.
Workshops offered in May.
Rocket mass heater shower installation with Rob Avis of Verge Permaculture. Rob will build a shower install using a rocket mass heater built with fire brick and local clay. Great opportunity to learn about heat exchangers.
Cob Oven Building with Ashley Lubyk, Heather Noakes of Dirt Craft Natural Builders. Using material on site participants will create two ovens which will become the centre of the eating areas on site.
You will learn how to build your very own wood-fired oven from natural materials, including clay, sand, straw, and bricks. This type of oven (also called a cob oven) can be built in a day with minimal cost and creates an exceptional environment for baking artisan breads and amazing pizza, as well as stews, roasts, delicious veggies, cinnamon buns, baked desserts and more!
Topics covered in the workshop include how to:
- identify ideal place for your oven
- create a base for an oven
- identify suitable soil for making cob
- lay firebricks
- build a form
- mix thermal cob & insulative cob
- build cob layers for the oven
- build the perfect door
- use wood efficiently
- bake perfect bread
Site design and Garden installation with Adrian Buckley of Big Sky Permaculture. Come learn how to put in a garden in a day and build infrastructure for the Western Canadian Convergence. Join Adrian Buckley (Calgary's Best Permaculture Designer) as he leads a small group of folks to put in a huge garden in two days. Day one will be setting the garden up, day two will be planting it out.
You will learn the following:
- Water harvesting for large gardens
- sheet mulch techniques
- cover crop techniques
- contour garden design
- micro climate assessment
- zone and sector analysis
- connected design
- planting techniques in space and time
In addition to this workshop there is going to three other awesome workshops going on that you can watch unfold as you are participating in this garden install! The best part of this workshop is that you are going to be able to eat the food later in the year!
This is an important element to any kind of event planning. Adrian will orchestrate the flow of people and elements through the landscape to create less harm to this pristine natural environment.
Timber frame Structure building with Rob Smulders of Sage Permaculture. Bring 35 years of building experience to the table, Rob will create a permanent structure that will house the eating area and be used as a outdoor classroom. Most of the materials will be harvested from Woodland West. This is a great opportunity to learn about wood selection and harvesting, creating a design from an idea and the practical skills to make it happen.
You will learn:
Woodland harvesting skills
How to use a draw knife to peel a log
Designing from the ground up
Choosing a site
Environmental considerations on placement
Hands on carpentry skills.
Composting Toilets and creating a humanure compost with Evonne Smulders of Sage Permaculture. Ever wonder why we can compost animal manure but not human manure? Learn about our waste streams and how to create sanitary toilet facilities for large groups while achieving a closed loop system.
You will learn:
The basics of composting toilets
Creating closed loop systems
Building skills to construct your own composting toilet
Safe and effective ways to create compost bins for your closed loop system.
How to create a Permaculture awareness in your community. with Jeff and Julilynn Gilles of Rancho Relaxo? Permaculture site in Rocky Mountain House. Having recently won the prestigious Martha Kostush environmental award, Jeff and Julilynn are leaders in rallying community support for permaculture.
Ok, now you are really excited about attending......
Here is the goods.
The cost for this amazing skills pooloza is $189. (plus fees) This includes meals and camping. The extra bonus is that you will also receive a special registration price for convergence as a way to say thanks! Registration will open April 27th. There is a limit of 40 people. Registration link on the right side of page.
This is a fundraising event to give Alberta Convergence a good start and enable us to continue to offer this gathering on a yearly basis.
With your registration you will be immersed in a sea of knowledge and experience. The workshops will enable you to gain new skills, and you can observe the other workshops which will be running concurrently. The great part will be the evening get together. There will be informal talks and information sharing.
On site camping is encouraged! Sorry no hook ups of any kind. We respectfully request that you not bring dogs on site, because of livestock free- roaming.
A bit about Woodland West......
Woodland West is a 40 acre retreat center nestled in a valley that borders Kananaskis country. Surrounded by crown land and so life here is very quiet except for the donkeys horses chickens and dogs. It includes a tiny cabin with fire pit and frontage to Ware Creek, a large swimming pond, lots of walking trails with both aspen and spruce forests which are interspersed with small streams, beautiful open fields full of wildflowers complete with a tree house built on the hillside.
Woodland West enables people and nature to interact in one place of solace. Everyone experiences nature on a different level, a chance to reconnect with nature; to touch the earth, to smell the air, to sit in front of a fire or a flowing stream, to recharge and reconnect with what is important. Woodland West offers the opportunity to come and experience nature in a pure, unspoiled form.
