Permies In Geoff Lawton's 2014 online PDC

Hey Permies..

How about those of us that are in Geoff's Online PDC course share in our own forum? That way we can discuss outside of that online community things that Paul does differently without creating some sort of community on there that may alienate those folks.

This is for those that took it last year too, since you can help us, and maybe even share your projects from last year so we can have some ideas of what to expect.

Hope this is OK with Paul..and let us know if this is the right space to be in.

In Geoffs Online course I am Montana Diva. Lets friend each other on there as well..and share the ride together.

Here are links to Paul's most recent Chats with GEoff as well.

http://www.richsoil.com/permaculture/75906-podcast-276-geoff-lawton-permaculture-part-1/
http://www.richsoil.com/permaculture/75918-277-geoff-lawton-permaculture-part-2/
http://www.richsoil.com/permaculture/75983-279-geoff-lawton-qa/
http://www.richsoil.com/permaculture/76026-280-geoff-lawton-qa-round-2-part-1/
http://www.richsoil.com/permaculture/76030-281-geoff-lawton-qa-round-2-part-2/

Here is an entire Thread on the Geoff Lawton Podcasts
https://permies.com/t/37281/podcast/Paul-Wheaton-Geoff-Lawton-Library
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Here are the Topics, I will start a new thread for each one and link to it for easy access

Week 1 - Introduction
Week 2 - Concepts
Week 3 - Methods
Week 4 - Pattern
Week 5 - Climate
Week 6 - Trees
Week 7 - Water
Week 8 - Soils
Week 9 - Earthworks
Week 10 - Climate Design
Week 11 - Aquaculture
Resources -
Greening The Desert
Geoff Lawton Free Videos - I have these already posted under the Introduction.

Awesome Help for when you are ready to make your design - Tutorials for permaculture design with free software

Note from Geoff Desk about how long the course is available.

The course will be online and available until the end of the year. If you do not do your design this year you cannot do it in the next course. There is no guarantee you will be allowed back in as an observer as students were this year. We are going to extend the deadline for submissions this year to 6 weeks that is until August 16 but we will not be allowing any extensions.

Count me in. I signed up on Tuesday.

I'm a newbie to the permies crew...so I'm stoked to be a part of all this.

Rob

Yep, I'm in too. I actually stayed up till 3 a.m.last weekend to make sure that I got my spot.
Never been excited at the thought of going back to school
before.
JB

Excellent idea, Rebecca! I am a "veteran" of the course so thanks for including us here. I am also thankful for Geoff's new "reading the landscape" course that he included with this PDC (along with the earthworks course he did for the first PDC).

How are you guys liking the course so far?

I'm in too.

So far it seems like it'll be good. I've gone through all of the intro stuff and am waiting for the thing to kick off this weekend. My wife and kids are watching along so it's a family learning experience.

I am a vet from last year, so I'll be happy to participate.

I ended up not finishing the design exercise, but Geoff emailed and said I have till April 30 to finish! So I'll be working on that this month, it's too good of an opportunity to let go to waste.

Rob Kaiser wrote:Count me in. I signed up on Tuesday.

I'm a newbie to the permies crew...so I'm stoked to be a part of all this.

Rob

Rob I too am new, recently infected by none other than Paul himself last year...so I too am excited, scared and justifiably awestruck.

I am going through the Free videos and intro stuff so I am ready for Saturday.

Note that I included Paul's most recent Podcasts with Geoff here, but there are others he has done with Geoff in the past so if you find them post them here too, it will help us know more about him. I think there are also some Video's Paul did but I have not had time to find them.

After watching the videos Absolute in Abundance and 5 Acre Abundance on a Budget I have been driving around my area saying wow that house is in the wrong place..hahaha

If I my eyes are opening just from this little bit, I can NOT wait for the drinking out of the fire Hydrant part..Looking at the agenda there is alot to learn each week.

I am a veteran from last year as well. Simply known as Jen on the Lawton site. I, too am looking forward to the new "reading the landscape". Hoping to follow along with everything.

I signed up the night it opened. Same name as here. I found permies.com through Paul's youtube videos on homesteading. I wasn't completely sold on the whole permaculture thing until I saw Geoff's video at Ben Faulk's place. After seeing that I knew this was what I wanted to do. This PDC came along at the perfect time. I just bought 17 acres in Idaho and wanted to design it correctly the first time. I'm really liking the course so far and am chomping at the bit for the next round of videos on the 12th.

I am signed up, should be fun.

brad millar wrote: I'm really liking the course so far and am chomping at the bit for the next round of videos on the 12th.

Awesome, you are right next door to us here in Montana.. umm if you check out the Course outline..the training starts this Saturday April 5th.. all the 21 videos and the intro stuff are just that..INTRO...LOL. We get 3 hours of videos on Saturday to start us off.

Awesome, you are right next door to us here in Montana.. umm if you check out the Course outline..the training starts this Saturday April 5th.. all the 21 videos and the intro stuff are just that..INTRO...LOL. We get 3 hours of videos on Saturday to start us off.

That's good to hear. I read the outline when it was first posted two weeks ago or so and hadn't looked through it again. Lol. I live in Southern California right now, but bought land in kamiah ID, right around the corner from you guys in Missoula.


Edit: I went back and read the outline for the course. It looks like Sam (below this post) is correct. We have to wait until the 12th.

Rebecca Holman wrote:

brad millar wrote: I'm really liking the course so far and am chomping at the bit for the next round of videos on the 12th.

Awesome, you are right next door to us here in Montana.. umm if you check out the Course outline..the training starts this Saturday April 5th.. all the 21 videos and the intro stuff are just that..INTRO...LOL. We get 3 hours of videos on Saturday to start us off.

I`m pretty sure that at this point we have to wait til April 12th for new videos. With intro videos officially starting April 5th... Though they have been accessible in advance.


Anyway, I`m in too! In a way I almost find it more exciting that there are 1500 people signing up for this every year. And maybe even more who are watching the course. I`m personally watching it with my partner. Also I was told it was ok to organize viewings of the videos with local permaculture enthusiasts... Now I`m kinda wondering the logistics of showing 60 hours worth of videos to people around me... Might take quite a few meetings!

My wife, Rachel Wittenberg, and I are in too. We are under the name thefullcirclefarm. We're really looking forward to learning all that we can! Great idea for a forum here.

I've signed up as well... Kevin from Oklahoma.

Signed up, too. I am using the Design Manuel along with the videos to reinforce the ideas.

I've signed up and I'm soooo excited. I've been through all the Intro vids twice , now going through again and taking notes. Surprisingly I did miss some things! I've also been reviewing the Resource vids. Those are great!
Looks like my brother wants me to come out and take a look at his property, lol, I haven't even done much on the course yet, but, I've noticed, people get the message, and keep it in their mind about more sustainable and nutritous food. I was scolding my brother at xmas about his bad habits in his garden last summer that suffered because of the drought, so now he wants me to come fix it all up for this year. Should I make him pay?!! j/k

I'm in it with my wife. She'll get the certification, but I'm going to learn it all as well.

I signed up today, hopefully my husband will participate with me. When we think of a sign in name, I'll post it here. . .

Sam Boisseau wrote:I`m pretty sure that at this point we have to wait til April 12th for new videos. With intro videos officially starting April 5th... Though they have been accessible in advance.

Anyway, I`m in too! In a way I almost find it more exciting that there are 1500 people signing up for this every year. And maybe even more who are watching the course. I`m personally watching it with my partner. Also I was told it was ok to organize viewings of the videos with local permaculture enthusiasts... Now I`m kinda wondering the logistics of showing 60 hours worth of videos to people around me... Might take quite a few meetings!

Sam, yes, you are right on.. now that I am going through the site, those videos outlined on April 5th roster, are in the Intro area..plus all the Free Videos that Geoff made and then has taken off line so only exist in the course. So lots and lots of videos over 30 to watch..so Geoff is giving us lots of time to watch what is there.

If we are in deed allowed to share our treasure trove of DVDs with local enthusiasts, I would recommend going to Meetup.com and starting a group to attract people beyond just those you know. Then you can set dates, times and locations. I know my local library has a large meeting room with a screen and all the workings to show DVDs and you can use it for free, and schedule several weeks in a row. Maybe your library offers the same arrangement.

Sam Boisseau wrote:
Anyway, I`m in too! In a way I almost find it more exciting that there are 1500 people signing up for this every year. And maybe even more who are watching the course. I`m personally watching it with my partner. Also I was told it was ok to organize viewings of the videos with local permaculture enthusiasts... Now I`m kinda wondering the logistics of showing 60 hours worth of videos to people around me... Might take quite a few meetings!

Hi Sam:

I was under the impression that people in your household could watch the course material with you but it could not necessarily be shared with others. However I could be wrong. Could you clarify if you have permission from Geoff or PRI to share the materials on the 18 videos of the class material (this is separate from the 6 additional dvds that come with the course)?

Many thanks,
Jen

I have a great way to watch these videos if you are wanting to watch with your partner at home and have a modern TV with a USB port and wifi access. Chromecast.

Chromecast is a dongle sort of thingy. I costs $35, you plug it into your TV and you can cast anything you have on your laptop on to your TV screen.

So I can watch the videos and my partner Todd can watch with me on the big Screen.

Link to buy it- you can buy from Amazon as well, if you are a prime member you don't pay shipping
http://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/devices/chromecast/index.html

Then you just add an app to your chrome browser and you can cast anything from the browser to the big screen..

Brilliant.

FYI There is another forum that may be of interest to us here at Permies.

It is a study group here going through Mollison's Permaculture a designers manual. So that is an additional resource for us to check out as we start our journey.

https://permies.com/forums/f-142/pdm

Hi Jennifer,

I'll clarify. I asked this question to support:

I understand that I can share the course with my household and that only 1 person gets a certificate.

My question is: would it be OK to organize viewings of the course material for my local community? We have a small group of people interested in permaculture and I'm wondering if it would be alright to share Geoff's teachings with them.

Answer was: "absolutely. Enjoy."


I guess if you want things to be clear in your specific situation, maybe ask them yourself? I could imagine that having a big event with thousands of random strangers in New York would be different that showing to a dozen permies in your rural community...

Anyway, I'm not sure I'll be able to organize that as there are 60 hours of videos, and it's hard to get people together around here. Might take two years if we meet once a month to watch 3 hours of the course.

Jennifer Wadsworth wrote:
Hi Sam:

I was under the impression that people in your household could watch the course material with you but it could not necessarily be shared with others. However I could be wrong. Could you clarify if you have permission from Geoff or PRI to share the materials on the 18 videos of the class material (this is separate from the 6 additional dvds that come with the course)?

Many thanks,
Jen

Sam - thanks for that response!

I've just created a whole new forum just for discussion of Geoff Lawton's PDC. All students, past, present and future, can create threads on any aspect of the course or join in existing threads.

Here's a link to the forum - Geoff Lawton's online PDC forum

Burra THANK YOU - that's awesome!

Sam Boisseau wrote:
I'll clarify. I asked this question to support:

"I understand that I can share the course with my household and that only 1 person gets a certificate.

My question is: would it be OK to organize viewings of the course material for my local community? We have a small group of people interested in permaculture and I'm wondering if it would be alright to share Geoff's teachings with them."

Answer was: "absolutely. Enjoy."

Just confirmed this with Geoff - absolutely true! How cool is that?

That is really exciting that we can share this information.. infect as many minds as we can.. I would gather that since getting the certificate is what is really worth the money, that sharing the information only really drives people to want to learn and then take a PDC course. If Geoff's desire is to infect as many minds as possible then this makes sense to me.

I've just created a whole new forum just for discussion of Geoff Lawton's PDC. All students, past, present and future, can create threads on any aspect of the course or join in existing threads.

Here's a link to the forum - Geoff Lawton's online PDC forum

- This is awesome, thanks so much..for keeping us organized.

I'm in, too. Vet from last year's offering! Great idea, and Burra -- thanks for the setup!

Mariamne

I'm in as well!

2013 certified alum here. Feel free all of you to PM me with questions here or on the course site directly ( User name LEOS.MIKE there).

RE: the sharing, standard copyright applies. So yeah, put your DVDs in and show the material but don't copy them and don't upload them anywhere. One thing I do know that Geoff stressed heavily last year is that anyone pirating the course material would be treated serious as a heart attack.

My wife and I have talked a lot and shared much of the material and my children watched a lot of it with me Saturday mornings during the class too, talk about a good time. My son (5) talks all the time about being a "perma-teacher".

TL:DR It's a great thing to share if you respect the work their team is doing too. ::puts soapbox away::

Hi all,

I got signed up the first night, too. While I was excited to begin with, now that I've had a chance to watch the introductory videos I'm really pumped about what we stand to learn over the next few months. Geoff is giving us so many tools, that it will be difficult NOT to walk away with high levels of competence and confidence at the end of it all. So far the course seems extremely well put together and I'm pleased as punch with my investment.

I was nerdy enough to stay up late the night enrollment opened to insure I got a spot. I knew I would be traumatized if I woke up and the course was full.

It's going to be a challenge doing this in addition to my full-time job and other commitments, but it is worth it to me.

I've viewed parts of the other PDCs that are available online. I've finished all the videos in the Intro section. There's no comparison. Geoff is much more interesting and engaging.

I'm very excited about this new adventure.

Julie

I'm in it. I signed up the 2nd day & I'm already through the first week & on page 300 of the Permaculture Designer's Manual... I know: eager much? Forgive!!!

Ha! I'm laughing that I'm not the only one who stayed up the first night "just in case"!! Geoff's videos are just fantastic. And he speaks so clearly and explains concepts so concisely, I couldn't pass on a chance to take this course! My husband has been asking about when I might be interested in going back to school and I said, "RIGHT NOW, actually!" ...not exactly what he was thinking, but he's totally on board and is watching the videos as well.

Can't wait for the new videos!!
Trista

Hi, I just joined this site (though I've been on the email list and land on permies.com all the time when I Google stuff). I also am in the Geoff Lawton course, Darcy_B. I'm glad to join in any permaculture discussion, so it will be interesting to follow the topics here. Hope everyone has a great time with the PDC!

Hey all, I am a part of this year's PDC w/ Geoff Lawton as well, and I'm so excited for the next batch of videos, it is like purgatory waiting for the release after watching the Intro directly after enrolling.

But yeah, my name handle over there is Dan Slee, and looking forward to lots of interesting discussions and some great learning experiences.

I am a veteran from last year and am looking forward to going through the course again, though how to find the time is a concern. I am in Yuma, AZ on one acre of clay soil with flood irrigation every couple of weeks. I have not been very active in either community, but my mind is full of ideas to implement. On the college campus where I teach the students and I just finished building a wildlife habitat/native plant garden and desert tortoise pens using superadobe. The fun thing is that I designed it as my project, and now I can see the finished product.