At 02:02 PM 8/29/97 GMT, Permacltur wrote:
>The following letter is our annual Permaculture report. Send SASE or
>international return mail coupons and address label for the hard copy,
>which includes drawings and additional information.
>>Dan Hemenway
>***
>>Barking Frogs Farm
>Home of Yankee Permaculture and Elfin Permaculture
>P.O. Box 52, Sparr FL 32192 USA Email: Permacltur at aol.com>Dear Brothers and Sisters:
> Greetings from our new permaculture center, Barking Frogs Farm.
>Our new place is on good-old Florida wetland, real alligator and
>cotton-mouth snake country. We were just looking for a temporary
>residence, to avoid paying rent, when we found this place. It is so
>beautiful we both immediately wanted to settle here, despite the fact that
>anything one does in the state of Florida is fouled with regulations and
>red tape.
> So here we are, under giant oaks, huge water hickories and
>gorgeous sabal palms, polishing up our design for the place and trying to
>get our various permaculture programs under way. We have acquired two
>adjacent homesteads, one house for a permaculture center with room for
>guests and the other for our private residence.
> Since 1981, we subsidized our permaculture work, particularly the
>publications, with other earnings. Now we intend to make permaculture pay
>for itself. Permaculture outreach does not pay. But our land-based
>projects have profit potential, so that they can help retire the mortgage
>on the permaculture center.
> So whats new. The most exciting new event, after our new home,
>is Dans development of a Permaculture Design Correspondence Course for the
>internet. The course combines the practicality of good old fashioned book
>study with the dynamic of an email classroom. Dan appears to be the last
>hold-out for the three-week live course, preferring the longer formats, and
>the new course fits the bill. It runs between 20 and 26 weeks, depending
>on the needs of the particular group. Students in the course have gained
>a good grasp of the design principles and we are sure that the longer
>course duration makes it easier to integrate them into daily life. For
>more about the course, email us at <Permacltur at aol.com>. Ask for a course
>protocol and reading list.
> Tuition is $1,000, of which half covers individual assistance on
>the students personal design project. Monitors pay $100. The course may
>be taken in segments--it has three parts plus the design project. We do
>not charge extra for permaculture course graduates who wish to do advanced
>work in any of our programs.
> The next email course begins in October 1997. Enrollment is
>limited to 20. We also offer a similar program as a conventional
>correspondence course, but because the program is one-on-one, tuition is
>higher. We feel that the new email format enables people in remote areas
>to attend as well as folks who cannot take off 3+ weeks to attend our
>conventional course.
> Here at Barking Frogs Farm, we now can accept residential students
>in our APT (Advanced Permaculture Training) program. (APT also allows for
>advanced students to work at home or in the field.) By the time you get
>this, we will have room for a total of two APT students and interns.
>Interns have the opportunity to work on our publications, help in
>documenting our permaculture design, and assist in such projects as our
>aquaculture, agroforestry and chinampas systems, all, obviously, in the
>early stages of development. APT students design their own programs,
>which include producing a design, implementing it, and participating in
>some form of research and outreach.
> Not all was progress. After four different residences in 1996,
>our publications program slowed considerably. We continue to upgrade some
>publications, most recently with an improved rendering of John Farghers
>The Oaks (Yankee Permaculture Paper #12.) We issued no new publications.
>Pending publications are listed on the reverse of this sheet. We are
>hopeful that we will get a publications intern interested in benefiting
>from Dans 40 years of editorial experience.
> Our involvement in the Kenya project is now minimal, as the local
>organizers have identified a suitable permaculture expert right over the
>border in Uganda. This is much more practical. We may offer a program in
>Paraguay. Contact us in three months if you want details. Otherwise, we
>have done little in the way of marketing workshops and courses. Dan likes
>staying at home.
> Plans include development of two poultry forage systems: a movable
>chicken coop that we can haul to places where we want weeds or insects
>cleaned up and a hexagonal array of fenced forage areas so that we can
>move chickens around to harvest or glean in various rotation schemes.
>(Well, there are two other poultry systems in the works, but we will limit
>this report to one sheet of paper.) We hope to acquire a few Asian water
>buffalo as draft and meat animals that can pasture in part on the weeds
>that clog our waterways. One of our main thrusts is developing a system of
>chinampas. Dan has a grant proposal out seeking funds to document
>chinampas still operating near Mexico city. He has a few other grant
>prospects in mind. Suggestions are welcome. Meanwhile, the first prototype
>Barking Frogs Farm chinampa is nearly finished and promises to be as high
>yielding as reputed.
> Cynthia has taken the next step as a Certified Nurse Midwife, and
>is teaching at the nearby University of Florida. She is very interested in
>identifying medicinal herb crops suited for our place, particularly those
>that we can process with value added steps. Wetland species of hawthorns,
>including mayhaws, fit the bill perfectly. We have started planting them.
>We have also found that the old standby, echinacea, does well on our sandy
>land where moisture hungry sabal palms create arid conditions, regardless
>of rainfall.
> We invite you to pass the word about our email course and
>internships. This is a good time to be thinking about getting presents for
>the Solstice season holidays. Please check out our order form to see if
>there is something you would like to give, maybe to yourself. We are still
>willing to do a limited amount of away-from-home teaching and consulting.
> We know that most of you are also working hard for Mother Earth in
>many ways. We thank you for your efforts and look to join forces when
>appropriate.
>For Mother Earth
>>>Dan Hemenway
> Cynthia Hemenway
>>>
