permaculture

["Scott Pittman" <scott@permaculture.org>]

Just to add my 2cents.
We had open house yesterday and received 40 people at $10.00 a head for five
hours of touring gardens, wetland, natural built house, goats, chickens, and
etc.  We do this twice a year in late spring and autumn.  These are the best
times for us to "show off" our place.  In years past we tried to accommodate
drop-ins and wound up without a life.  We couldn't get anything done and our
life was constantly disrupted.  We also found we couldn't charge enough to
make it worth while nor did it discourage insistent passers through.

Now we can prepare and set aside time to accommodate people and it winds up
being a community builder with many repeat visitors.  It is pot luck and is
limited to 40 people each year with RSVP required to participate.  We get
volunteers to help us set up and direct people to parking spots.

We don't consider this a demonstration site for the public except two days a
year the rest of the time it is for teaching, and trying out different
approaches to pc practices to improve our success on the land and in our
community.

Scott Pittman
Director
Permaculture Institute
www.permaculture.org

-----Original Message-----
From: permaculture-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:permaculture-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Jim
Sent: Sunday, June 08, 2008 11:44 AM
To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: [permaculture] Permaculture Sites- Always best to call first

Hi-
I'd like to echo what Toby said about calling first, and add checking 
the website of
any permaculture site first.

Both Ashevillage Institute and Earthaven explicitly discourage drop-ins.
While both places ARE partially demonstration sites, it just doesn't 
work for their lives to have drop ins.

Good news is this, there are two Open House tours of folks who want to 
show off their stuff in the greater Asheville, NC area this month.

http://asapconnections.org/special/2008/MFT.htm
13th Annual Mountain Farm & Garden Tour
* Saturday & Sunday*
* June 28 & 29, 2008*
* 1 PM - 6 PM*
$25 per car to visit all farms
$10 per car to visit an individual farm

The other is a first-time effort this is starting out unpublicized.
Email me off list for more info

-- Jim
smithmillcreek.blogspot.com
****************************
Jody Troupe wrote:
> > And, just a heads' up on visiting some of the places, at least in our  
> > experience. It would be worth calling ahead so they know you're  
> > coming. We showed up at the Bullocks on Orcas Island 3 years ago in  
> > early June, unannounced, and found no one there except 2 interns.
>   

Sage advice, Jody, and the polite thing to do. I've had folks from OAEC, 
RDI, and the Bullocks' rant at me about people showing up unannounced, 
expecting a tour. It's their home! It happens often enough to piss them 
off.  Call ahead and see if it fits into their schedule, offer a 
donation or to work for them in exchange, and be sensitive to their 
needs. These busy folks are doing important work, and the world loses 
when they are pulled away from it.

Toby

_______________________________________________
permaculture mailing list
permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
Subscribe or unsubscribe here:
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/permaculture
Google command to search archives:
site:https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/permaculture searchstring





-- 
No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG. 
Version: 7.5.524 / Virus Database: 270.0.0/1489 - Release Date: 6/7/2008
11:17 AM