The Chatelaine's Keys

Sharon July 24th, 2008

Before I head off to a weekend of guests and cleaning up from our flood, I wanted to let you know a couple of things.

1.Believe it or not, _Depletion and Abundance_ will be out next month!  I somehow find it very hard, while working on book #3 and getting ready to edit book #2, to believe that there’s actually going to be a book with my name on it, but since it is actually at the printers, I guess it really is coming out. I should get my copies by the end of August, and it should be in stores by mid-September. 

 If you’d like to pre-order it, New Society Publishers is offering a 20% discount for preorders here: http://www.newsociety.com/bookid/4015

And, While they last, I will  have a limited number of autographed copies available directly from me for 18.95 USD (not as cheap as the above) plus shipping (which I do not yet know the cost of - I will figure it out early next week and let everyone who emails me know).  If you’d like one, email me with “Book Preorder” in the subject line, and bear with me while I figure out how to do this.  It will probably take me a few days to get back to you - I’m not ignoring you, just slow.  The good part of this is that you should get your book before the local store does, with luck, and if it matters to you, it will have my name (and if you want me to inscribe it a particular way, let me know) in it.  I don’t take credit cards, btw, so this requires paypal or a check.

2. Next week will be the second week on Lucifer’s Hammer of the Post-Apocalyptic Book Club, and after that, in August, our next books will be Susan Beth Pfeiffer’s _Life as We Knew It_ and Sherri Tepper’s _The Gate to Women’s Country_.   And this is sort of controversial, but if you are interested in working with a third text, I’d like to read them in conjunction with Derrick Jensen’s book _Endgame_ which ties interesting into the questions of gender, sex, resistance and what level of social engineering is possible or desirable. 

3. I still have several spots in the August class (which actually runs into early September) on Adapting in Place.  The class will focus on preparing for a lower energy, lower money life that works in a volatile climate either in the place you are now or the one you will be in shortly.  This is for people who aren’t going to get to their dream homestead anytime soon - or whose dreams have changed to include the place they already live in.

More info:

Week 1 (August 5 and 7) - How to evaluate what you have.  We’re going to concentrate on figuring out what the major concerns are for your place and your community.  We’ll talk about your region and its climate, culture and resources, your house itself, your community and neighborhood - the challenges you forsee and maybe ones you haven’t thought about yet, and your personal circumstances - how much money, time and energy you have to deal with it. 

Week 2  (August 12 and 14) Will focus on your house itself - we’ll talk primarily about low energy infrastructure for heating, cooling, cooking, lighting, washing, etc…  About costs and options and choices for both private homes and for communities.

***August 19 and 21 CLASS IS NOT IN SESSION (Eric and I are celebrating our 10^th anniversary by going away - I’m teaching a Permaculture class, and we’re going to treat it as a second honeymoon)

Week 3 (August 26 and 28) We’ll focus on Community Issues - Sharing resources, Building collective infrastructure, cannibalizing existing options, security, privacy, consolidating housing, dealing with the brother-in-law on the couch.

Week 4 (September 2 and 4) - We’ll focus on larger regional issues, especially foodsheds and watersheds, and on employment and economic issues.  We’ll also try to pull together an organizational plan for each household with strategies for the short, medium and long term.

There are Four Components of the Class

• 1. My blog posts - lots of other people will be following along, which means that you usually get a lot of good info in the comments. There will be 2-4 each day that the class runs. I’m assuming if you registered you know where my website is /
• 2. The yahoo discussion group that I will set up a bit nearer - this is a place where I’ll post discussion topics and answer any questions, and we can share our knowledge and ideas. The group will be for the participants only.
• 3. Email - I’m available by email for anything you want to discuss privately. I’m available most days all day Tuesday and Thursday and regularly thereafter. Do use this email [email protected] and put AIP in the subject line if you can, just so that I keep track.
• 4. Phone - I want to do one 20 minute phone conversation so we can talk in person and deal with whatever you are concerned about. I’ll set up scheduling for that - my hope is that most can be done on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, but I’ve got some flexibility - more details on that coming.

Finally, payment.  The cost of the class is $125.  I do, however, have a couple of spots left for low income participants and one scholarship unfilled, provided by a kind person who wants to help.  So email me if you need a spot and can’t pay.

Cheers,

Sharon

• Classes , books
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