Upcoming Workshops at The Center For Sustainable Living

UNDERSTANDING SOILS AND SOIL HEALTH

Saturday, 9 April 2011, 9:30am - 4:00pm

At the Center for Sustainable Living, 90 Cabbage Lane, Bethlehem, CT. 06751

Course Fee - $75 includes beverages, lunch and snacks.

Pre-registration is required. Please print out a registration form at www.connsoil.com

In this class you will learn what soil is, how it forms and what it is composed of. Learn about soil minerals, organic matter and chemical and physical characteristics.
You will gain an understanding of the soil food web ecosystem and its ability to sustain life on earth.

We will also explore soil classification using soil survey information and topographic maps to assess soil on your own property.

You will learn what steps to take to improve your soil in your home garden to enhance nutrition, and learn how to make compost and vermicompost.

The class will combine lecture and outdoor demonstrations and exploration.

I will be teaching this class. For me, soils are fundamental to everything else we may want to learn about the environment and growing things. I have been a consulting soil scientist and environmental horticulturist for 31 years and I am also a Permaculture Design Consultant.

CLOSING THE LOOP: ECOLOGICAL SANITATION USING WATERLESS TOILETS

Saturday,May 14, 2011, 9:00AM - 4:00PM at the Center For Sustainable Living. The instructor for this class is Giovanni Ciarlo, New Earth Consulting: Sustainability Through Art, Ecology, and Social Responsibility. The course fee is $95.00.

This workshop will focus on the need for changing society's approach to sanitation in the home environment using waterless toilets. We will look at the urgent situation affecting drinking water on the planet, the history of the "crapper" (flush toilet), some design options for building and using "dry" toilets, the disposal and use of human waste materials, regulations affecting dry toilet use, and a hands-on construction of a model dry toilet.

Giovanni has researched, built and used dry toilets all his life. He designed and built one in his ecovillage home in Mexico (www.huehuecoyotl.net) which he and his family have been using for the past 30 years, making design improvements often. He has also designed communal dry toilets and backwoods alternatives that do not contaminate the soil but, rather, improve the soil. Giovannis is President of the Board of The Global Ecovillage Network (GEN). He is a faculty member in the MA program in Sustainable Businesses and Communities at Goddard College, VT. and the Open University of Catalunya, Spain. He is a consultant in sustainable settlement design for small villages and intentional communities.

BUILDING AND USING AN ECONOMICAL TOP-BAR BEEHIVE

Saturday, 21 May 2011, 9:00AM - 4:00PM at The Center for Sustainable Living. The course fee is $75 plus $40 for those who wish to make and take home a hive of their own. You may attend the workshop without building your own hive, if you wish.
Instructors for this class are Stuart Rabinowitz,of the Center for Sustainable Living, and Alphonse Avitabile, retired professor of zoology (University of Connecticut) and well-known bee researcher and author. Stuart will demonstrate building the hive and assist anyone who wishes to construct one, on the day. Al will teach the important need-to-know information about beekeeping, tailored to the use of this particular kind of hive.

PRE-REGISTRATION is required for all of these classes. A registration form is available at www.connsoil.com.

I hope to see lots of you at these interesting events.