Traditional Wisdom, Simple Living & Permaculture Design for Mothers

Taught by Krista & David Arias

So, you want to be a farmer.

You want to get connected to your food, it’s production, preparation and its sharing. You dream of village harmony, rhythm and connection without being in denial, pretending there are no problems, or trying to be nice when you really don’t see eye to eye with your neighbor. You crave traditional wisdom and simple living. You want the real thing: shared goat herding and milking, backyard eggs and poultry, community and connection, shared meals and an end to the isolation of parenting – for REAL. You may have heard of Permaculture Design, but you’re not really sure what it’s about, how it’s unique.

Sound like what you are longing for? Well read on:

Many of the “organic farming” information and education ignores this deeper aspect of “sustainability.” It ignores issues of birth and death, personal transformation, village evolution, and spiritual centered-ness. While they might consider political and social responsibility they often miss the soul-seeking needed to live closely with others. On the other hand some voices in the sustainability movement keep a tight grip on being right, ignoring the essential principle of non-judgement inherent in true self-direction and village living.

This is where we come in with our knowledge of Permaculture Principles, Value-Added farming, Nutrient Density, un-chees-ey Ceremony and Ritual, Contemplation of the Cycle of Life and Death, Trauma Resolution, Myth and Storytelling, Recovery of the Ancestral-Self and un-ending, but lasting Personal and Collective Transformation.

Permaculture is more than a call to small scale and efficient food production. It’s a way of designing community life that is centered in a relationship with the earth and its amazing web of connectedness. It is an un-pollyana-ish solution that embraces the problem instead of resisting it.

You can step forward into the solution without ignoring your personal problems, preferences, and history. You can be whole.

Any of these scenarios sound familiar?

• You want to get chickens, or ducks, or bees, or goats, or an herb spiral, or a kitchen garden and don’t know quite where to start, or what to do first, or if you have enough space for it all.
• You’re struggling to change your family’s eating habits and don’t know which advice to follow or how to do all the work necessary to provide tasty and nutrient dense food to your family.
• You live in the city… and want to participate in the exciting urban farming movement but don’t know where or how to start in such a small space with so many competing needs…. 
• You live in the country and don’t want to be isolated and dependent on driving all the time for school, food, and friendship and you want to design and implement a plan that includes others without losing your own space and autonomy.
• You’ve heard about gray water and alternative energy but are worried about implementing clean and safe systems that your family, neighbors, the city and your guests will feel comfortable with.
• You are facing one of life’s big Rites of Passage and you want it to be more meaningful but aren’t sure of your options.
• You would like to create financial security without selling out to the man and want help crafting a plan and implementing the details

If you’re like most aspiring villagers, at some point you probably find yourself feeling overwhelmed, working a job that doesn’t fulfill you, feeding your family food that doesn’t nourish them, or stalling on the next stage of development because you’re not quite sure how to go about it.

You’ve read a few books and know you want to increase your self-sufficiency, but you feel paralyzed. It seems impossible to find the time or know where to start. You may have had chickens in the past and they all got eaten by racoons, or coyotes and it feels like too much work to do it all over again just for a few eggs. Maybe you’ve joined a forum or listserve to get some feedback and build a sense of community. But despite your best intentions, you’re still feeling discouraged, or stuck, or isolated.

Much of the resources available for people wanting sustainability are either chock full of rules and fear-based guilt-inducing dogma OR they are just watered down superficial appropriations that have lost their ring of truth. They can often lead to isolating self-righteousness and/or guilt if you’re not measuring up.

What you need is inspiration without all the pressure, balance and a system for self-sufficiency that includes others without compromising your own space and autonomy. You need a model that reduces work and expands your sense of peace and harmony.

The approach we use in Lazy-Lady Living works for:

• families
• single people
• children
• teenagers
• elders

and people who value:

Family and Community
Honesty and Healing
Commitment and Connection
Traditional Earth-Based Wisdom
DIY Simplicity and Sustainability
Inquiry and Contemplation
oh yeah, and Butter

Our approach to “sustainability” works for regular people because it considers the issues from four super important angles:

• Lazy-Lady Living  or what many people know as Permaculture: In order to have a balanced and spacious life you will first need to create a self renewing food system and social structure. There are so many stories of Farm life being difficult and impoverished. With the help of Lazy Lady Living you will take advantage of natural relationships and decrease the work load of producing food. Rather than planting rows of single varieties you will learn to plan ahead and plant perennial bearing plants shrubs and trees. Instead of farming huge herds or flocks you carefully consider and integrate diverse animal life into your system. By imitating nature herself and incorporating indigenous methods of cultivated ecology you actually re-create a backyard wilderness where you can then wildcraft and forage like your ancestors.
• Value added Farming and Nutrient Density: Once you are able to “hunt and gather” from your small plot, you will then need to know how to store, preserve and “add value” to your harvest. You realize you actually need to grow less if you are careful and smart about using traditional fermentation, culturing, drying, salting, smoking and fat preserving techniques. You learn the difference between processes that destroy nutrients like pasteurization and water-bath canning and ones that increase enzymes and nutrients. Pretty soon you’re stepping into a new, but resonant rhythm of growing, foraging and feeding yourself, your family and your village.
• Access to your ancestral knowing: As you become more and more connected to your food, the animals and the earth you begin to have access to a deep wellspring of knowledge. You want to engage in processes that help you recover your indigenous self, your instinctual animal and ancestral knowing. Using facilitated innovative techniques to repair the ruptures in your body that takes you out of the here and now you begin to feel whole for the first time in a long long while. You discover a coherent story of yourself, your people and your lineage in a way that is grounded and intelligent. Pretty soon, you are living by your calling and experiencing deep and lasting peace.
• Awareness of Rhythms and Harmonic Resonance in the ecosystem and in relationships: The peace you feel is not a static emptiness, but a dynamic and pulsing organismic fever. One that molds and melds with others. You start being able to feel when you are in synch with others and with the cycles of nature and her creatures. You are attuned to the cycle of birth and death and grow less and less afraid of its intensity and embrace its lessons. Whether you are holding vigil as a loved one passes out of this realm, singing all night for a mama blessing, or dancing around the May Pole, you feel connected and authentic, joyful, abundant… and able to grieve when its needed, protect your family and be still in the face of conflict. You are part of the web.

Topics in Lazy Lady Living

1. Permaculture Philosophy & Ethics
2. Weston A. Price & Nutrient Density, Value added farming
3. Anthroposophy & Biodynamic Agriculture
4. Trauma, Initiation & Myth Mending
5. Patterns & Design Elements
6. Cultivated Ecology & Wildlife
7. Urban Ambrosia, Backyard Milk, Meat, Eggs and Honey
8. Urban Apothecary, Lazy-lady soap, salve, tincture and tonic
9. Sacred Slaughter & the Vegetarian Myth
10. Soil & Trees
11. Water & Aquaculture, ponds, dams & bridges, Water catchment, Grey water & composting toilets
12. Recycling, waste streams & DIY pitfalls, Diverse climate solutions
13. Earth Rhythms & Seasonal Celebrations
14. Undisturbed Birth & Home-Funerals, Sacred Union & Family Harmony
15. Ethical Business & Investing, Licensure vs. Free Marketplace, Personal Abundance & Giving Back
16. Energy, Climate & Catastrophe

Includes assignment reviews & feedback and Design Project support & review for your hand-crafted Permaculture Design Certificate!

There are 3 ways to do Lazy-Lady Living:  Virtual, Live or DIY

Register Now:

Lazy-Lady Living ~ VIRTUAL

offered once in 2012

16 week virtual class January 11 – April 25, 2012

• Wednesday Video Classes at 1pm-3pm Central Standard Time. Visit Time and Date to compare your time zone.
• Weekly readings, viewings, and assignments
• Includes access to virtual forum for questions and discussion
• Final design project required
• Handcrafted Certificate of Completion/Certification

Limited to 15 participants
Lazy-Lady Living ~ VIRTUAL,

Your Investment:

Folklore Foods, Sliding Scale: $400-$800 (plus books*)
Consider what you can safely and with integrity offer and adjust it in the shopping cart:

Nervous about making a commitment? I get it. Read my Guarantee.

* Book costs will be under $200 USD if you are in the USA for required texts.
There will also be a list of recommended/optional reading

Lazy-Lady Living ~ LIVE

offered once in 2012, price TBA

• Tentatively scheduled for May 2012, location TBA (probably Mexico or Oregon)
• Same great topics in face to face and hands-on environment
• Handcrafted Lazy-Lady Living / PDC Certificate

Lazy-Lady Living ~ DIY

Due to be released in June 2012

• It will consist of a bundle of lectures with reading and viewing assignments
• PDC Certification – assignment and design review available as optional add on with Handcrafted Certificate of completion/certification.
• Consulting hours add on option as well