Book Drawing and Class Info

Sharon December 8th, 2008

Ok, the winners are….  Wait a minute, did she say…winners?  Yup, I know I offered one signed copy of Kathy Harrison’s wonderful _Just in Case: How to be Self-Sufficient When the Unexpected Happens_ but it occurred to me as I was doing the drawing with the boys that 1. Kathy kindly sent me a copy for me, too, which means I no longer need the copy that I bought this summer and 2. The kids really wanted to keep on pulling names out of a hat so, I actually have two copies to give away (actually, shortly afterwards Asher dumped the whole hatful out, but I ran out of copies, so that doesn’t count).  The winnah gets the autographed and pristinely perfect copy.  The runner-up gets my own, very lightly used copy, which is not signed and has only a little wear and tear.  If you won the second copy and don’t want it, because it is used and not autographed, that’s fine, just email and I’ll draw another name until I find someone who wants it. 

 Ok, the winners are…The Screaming Sardine and Dalene!  Send me an email at [email protected] with your address and I’ll get those right out in the mail to you.  Congratulations - and thanks everyone for participating. 

Second, I want to update you all on our class situation. I’m finally opening all three classes for registration. Just so you know, all classes are offered entirely online, and primarily (on my end, and Aaron’s end for the joint classes) two days a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  But you are free to read at your own pace and participate at your own pace - that’s when Aaron and/or I will be devoting ourselves full time to the class, not when you need to participate.

To register for each class, send me an email at [email protected].  Registration is complete when we receive payment.  We have some free spots available for low income participants, but there are always more requests for those than there are spots.  We apologize if we can’t take everyone.  In the past, some kind people have allowed me to offer more spots by donating a scholarship to one class or another - if you’d like to do so, let me know.  If you can’t join us, remember, as always, a portion of the class material will be posted on the blog so that everyone can follow along.

FYI, we have lowered the previously mentioned cost of our classes.  Both Aaron and I know that times are tough, and that money is tight.  We want people to be able to afford these classes, and we don’t want anyone to struggle.  We’re trying to balance our need to make a living with the desire to make this as affordable as possible.  So we’ve decided that we’re going to reduce the cost, in the hopes that more people will be able to afford them.  I apologize if you were told a different figure than this - we have just sat down and run the numbers.  If you have already sent payment at a different price, we’ll refund you ASAP.  These are the correct figures:

For the food storage class: $100 per household (ie, you can have as many members of your household participating as you’d like). 

For the Garden Planning and Adapting In Place Classes (taught jointly with Aaron and including a host of new design elements), $150 per household. 

Both AIP and Garden Planning: $250 

Food storage plus one of the other classes: $ 225

All three classes together: $360

To register, send me an email at [email protected] to confirm that there’s still space in the class(es) you want, and then payment can be sent to me by paypal to [email protected] or by check to Sharon Astyk PO Box 342 Delanson, NY 12053.  Registration is complete upon receipt of payment (or upon confirmation for those receiving scholarship spots).

All classes include online materials, one on one help with designing your own program or projects, and one in-person phone call to connect and discuss any issues you don’t want to talk about in a group.  Our goal is to have you come out with a plan and a sense that you are ready to move forward with each project.

In January, I’ll be teaching Food Preservation and Storage with a new emphasis on community level food storage.  I’ll include all the info I’ve included in previous food storage classes, plus more of a discussion on how you can bring localized food security to your community.  We’ll cover all the major methods of food preservation, how to build up a reserve of stored food, how to organize and manage it,  food storage for infants, children, the elderly and people with special medical conditions, dealing with medications, storing non-food items, garden planning for canners and other preservers as well as ways to get community reserves built up, coops, community kitchens, and I’ll be offering some models for sample talks and classes you can teach in your own community. 

In February, Aaron and I will teach Garden Design and Planning - we’ll help you sit down with the space you have - whether it be balcony and containers or a 50 acre farm, and help you figure out what to grow, how to get maximum food security out of your space, how to plan a landscape for the long term, how to set up your site so that you require minimum inputs, can adapt to local challenges and can manage the site even as your circumstances change.  Aaron is landscape architect by training, so he’ll bring his skills to the table, while I bring my own farming experience.  I think it will be a truly exciting course.

In March, Aaron and I are going to teach together the most challenging single class I’ve ever taught - Adapting In Place.  For those who for whatever reason are staying where they are, the goal is to transform the sense that you are stuck or trapped, into an ability to optimize your situation, to live well and securely where you were.  Teaching the first AIP class was one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done - it really felt as though people were transforming their lives and finding a great deal of hope.  I’m hoping that with Aaron’s architectural and design skills to bring to the table, we can make the next class even better and more productive. 

I hope you’ll be able to join us!

 Sharon

16 Responses to “Book Drawing and Class Info”

  1. grace says:

    well…you can tell I’m excited. This is the
    THIRD place I have requested a spot in the
    AIP!
    grace
    New Mexico

  2. Susan says:

    When is the deadline for signing up for the Gardening/AIP classes? And is there a limit on the number of students?

  3. Jill says:

    Man oh man I want to be part of the Garden and design class. We’ll have to see if we can fit it in the budget. Either way, I’ll be following along with all the classes right here. I learned so much from the Food Storage class over the summer and have really been able to change the way we do things. Being part of the AIP yahoo group is nice too. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and encouraging others.

  4. AmyD says:

    Sharon,

    have you a location where your 52 week changes are located “en-block” so that they could be downloaded & printed? I would really encourage you to have those compiled into pamphlet or book form! or a pdf file that can be printed?

    Let me add that I really wish you would take your daily entry blogs and put them into book format. There are so many people who I would love to give a copy too…

    so much humor, wisdom, and good common sense. So selfish to keep it under-wraps for JUST computer literates!

    We just took our 2 nigerian milking goats to be bred. Looking forward to milking in the spring… it was so mellow and relaxing to milk… a nice unexpected reward. Soon our two “miniature old world jersey heifers will be old enough to be bred”; I’m in a hurry to taste their milk with it’s higher butterfat, to make butter, and cheese. So hard to have to WAIT…. I enjoy hearing the progress you have made, and the pleasures of it.

    I wanted to mention that when we planted fruit trees last year, I choose fruit on dwarf or semi-dwarf root stock (easier to get to) AND those that had been grafted with three or four varieties to extended their season. They produced the year after we planted (a little but enough to get an idea) and it worked great. Just an idea to pass on.

    You are doing some excellent work in creating the “new stories” we need.

    amyd

  5. AmyD says:

    Whoops, forgot to ask to be placed on the list for the garden planning class! amyd

  6. The Screaming Sardine says:

    Oh wow! Thanks so much for having that drawing. Believe me, I rarely win anything. Thank your boys for me as well!

  7. Sarah says:

    Will the AIP class mostly focus on changes that require owning one’s home?

  8. AnnMarie says:

    If the garden planning one goes well, I hope you will consider it as a fall class. I’d love to take it but February is too late for me to plan my garden (I have to hold myself in to wait for the Solstice. I want to plan the instant the catalogs hit the mailbox!). Not to mention needing more time to plan a budget-Feb doesn’t leave much time for planning money to buy things to implement whereas October gives more time (and you might still find stuff on discount at the end of the season).

    Plus, I teach an online course in the spring and can’t imagine taking on taking an online course. Anyway, just a vote for holding it again!

  9. Survivalist News » Casaubon’s Book: Book Drawing and Class Info says:

    [...] Casaubon’s Book » Blog Archive » Book Drawing and Class Info Ok, the winners are…. Wait a minute, did she say…winners? Yup, I know I offered one signed copy of Kathy Harrison’s wonderful _Just in Case: How to be Self-Sufficient When the Unexpected Happens_ but it occurred to me as I was doing the drawing with the boys that 1. Kathy kindly sent me a copy for me, too, which means I no longer need the copy that I bought this summer and 2. The kids really wanted to keep on pulling names out of a hat so, I actually have two copies to give away (actually, shortly afterwards Asher dumped the whole hatful out, but I ran out of copies, so that doesn’t count). The winnah gets the autographed and pristinely perfect copy. The runner-up gets my own, very lightly used copy, which is not signed and has only a little wear and tear. If you won the second copy and don’t want it, because it is used and not autographed, that’s fine, just email and I’ll draw another name until I find someone who wants it. [...]

  10. Sharon says:

    Ok, folks, initially I screwed up the discounts for multiple classes - I’ve changed it, so check before you send money ;-) . My apologies for being a ditz.

    Susan, the deadline is when class starts, or when we max out on spots. I don’t like to have much over 30 students when teachig solo, but we might go a bit higher for the other two, since there are two of us and we can give people more attention. I always end up giving in to someone’s pleas for an extra spot at the last minute, though, so nothing is written in stone ;-) . Historically, the AIP class has filled fast, as have all low-income scholarship spots.

    AmyD, I’m so pressed for time right now that putting things together is not high on my list, but remind me again in the spring, and it might be possible. I’d have to come up with a few more 52 week down posts, since I think I petered out at 39 weeks ;-) . Do email if you want a spot - I only reserve that way.

    Sarah, no, the class won’t focus on mandated home owning, but there probably will be some material that won’t apply to renters - you aren’t going to dig a root cellar or put on a new roof ;-) . But no, most of the material won’t be owner-specific, and I feel like it is really important it not be, because a lot of people are moving into rental markets right now.

    AnnMarie, I’m hoping we can do just that - I’d like to run the class again, perhaps even twice - once in the early summer here on fall and winter garden planning, and maybe in November for next year. But I’ve got to get through the first one first ;-) .

    Sharon

  11. Michelle says:

    What are “52 week down posts”? And could I get an invite or a link to the AIP yahoo group, please?

    I’m so very excited about the food storage class! I’d love to do the garden design as well… I’m actually already in the process of redesigning my yard to accommodate the half dozen more apple trees and couple more peach trees I ordered this fall. I intend to rip out my (very unimpressive) foundation plantings and replace them with blueberries as well. So… I’ll have to crunch a bunch of numbers and see if I can swing the design class amid a full load of graduate classes and four children (and three dogs and six rabbits, who will be many more than six by the end of spring semester)….

  12. Tamara says:

    Is there documentation with these classes that I could, say, use for a county annual review for a homeschooler?

    Tamara

  13. Elizabeth says:

    Please, please put me down for a garden design class. We’ve been in our house (new construction on family land) for nearly 2 years and have done pretty much diddly-squat as far as landscaping. Kind of like starting with a blank canvas! (I’m going to keep telling myself it was my intuition and NOT procrastination that made us wait this long to get started ….)

  14. Elizabeth says:

    Oops … following up my post with an e-mail like you said in the instructions … sorry!

  15. Steven Earl Salmony says:

    On the need for scientific education regarding the human overpopulation of Earth in these early years of Century XXI………..

    Dear Sharon and Friends,

    I want to at least try to gain your quick help. I’m not sure if you’ve heard, but yesterday the “AWAREness Campaign on the Human Population” submitted an idea for how we think the Obama Administration could change America. It’s called “Ideas for Change in America.”

    I’ve submitted an idea and wanted to see if you could vote for it. The title is: Accepting human limits and Earth’s limitations. You can read and vote for the idea by clicking on the following link:

    http://www.change.org/ideas/view/accepting_human_limits_and_earths_limitations

    The top 10 ideas are going to be presented to the Obama Administration on Inauguration Day and will be supported by a national lobbying campaign run by Change.org, MySpace, and more than a dozen leading nonprofits after the Inauguration. So each idea has a real chance at becoming policy.

    Thanks.

    Sincerely yours,

    Steve

    Steven Earl Salmony
    AWAREness Campaign on the Human Population,
    established 2001
    http://sustainabilityscience.org/content.html?contentid=1176

  16. Lance says:

    Sharon, I thought you and your readers might be interested in this.

    No, you aren’t mistaken, there has been sneaky stuff happening on sneaky manufacturer downsizing of packages of food and such at the supermarkets we all shop at:

    http://www.hulu.com/watch/47847/nbc-today-show-smaller-sizes-same-prices-at-the-market#s-p1-so-i0

    (this is a short newspot video so don’t click the link if you only have a dial-up connection, it will be too slow)

    -Lance

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