Check out the workshops that are happening in the days and week leading up to the convergence!!!

Temperate Climate Syntropic Agroforestry ($50)

September 4th-5th, Rinelander, Wisconsin

Learn the theory and practice of syntropic agroforestry in a temperate climate. Syntropic agroforestry is a method of regenerative agriculture that optimizes natural processes to generate high yields, disease resistance and drought resistance.  We will cover the theory of syntropic agroforestry, and we will plant some tree lines on location. 

Thursday & Friday

10:00am - 1:00pm Hands on activities to learn prep and isntallation

1:00pm - 2:30pm Lunch and Break

2:30pm - 5:00pm Principles of Syntropic Agroforestry

Roger Gietzen

Roger Gietzen is a father, doctor, and humanitarian worker who first started learning about syntropic agroforestry in 2016 when he hired a consultant to come to Haiti. He could see that this approach could help address the food insecurity, soil erosion and deforestation that is ravaging the country, as well as provide a path for financial security. The journey to bring this method to Haiti and make it simple enough that an average family farmer can grasp it, has taken Roger to Brazil and eventually to Ernst’s cacao farm. After years of intense study in the tropics, Roger started applying this method in the temperate climate and now looks forward to sharing what he has learned with others.

Amenities
- Camping onsite is available at no cost. 
- This will include access to bathrooms, water and a kitchen to prepare food..
- To keep cost low, food is not provided but access to a kitchen will be available.

Come learn how to use Sytropic Agroforestry in the cold climate!

Wild Rice Harvesting ($50)

September 3rd, Rinelander, Wisconsin

Wild rice has been a staple crop in this area for thousands of years. Join us to collect wild rice along with the ducks and swans. We'll spend around 2 hours on the water filling our canoes with yummy rice. 

Wednesday

9:00am - Carpool leaves from Holiday Acres

9:45am - 12:00pm - Harvesting of Wild Rice

12:00pm - 12:30pm - Carpool to Holiday Acres

Mike Haasl

Mike Haasl promotes permaculture homesteading with an emphasis on high rewards for less effort. He teaches, writes and experiments with ways to homestead with a lighter footprint. He lives in northern Wisconsin and tends a big garden, greenhouse and flock of chickens.

Aimee Heavey

Biologist and Herbalist Aimee Heavey lived and breathed permaculture at sustainability education center, Rancho Mastatal, in Costa Rica, for 6 months. She received her PDC from the Finger Lakes Permaculture Institute in Ithaca, NY, and her Teacher Training Certification from Midwest Permaculture. Aimee is passionate about embodied movement, dance and drum, rewilding, plant medicine, bodywork, wildlife tracking, and ancestral nutrition.

Wild Rice Processing ($50)

September 3rd, Rinelander, Wisconsin

Processing wild rice is the tricky part of foraging for wild rice. In this workshop we'll parch, dance and winnow rice to turn it into a finished product using semi-traditional techniques. You will go home with some of the rice we process.

Wednesday

1:00pm - 4:00pm

Instruction and practice of processing rice harvested earlier in the day

Biologist and Herbalist Aimee Heavey lived and breathed permaculture at sustainability education center, Rancho Mastatal, in Costa Rica, for 6 months. She received her PDC from the Finger Lakes Permaculture Institute in Ithaca, NY, and her Teacher Training Certification from Midwest Permaculture. Aimee is passionate about embodied movement, dance and drum, rewilding, plant medicine, bodywork, wildlife tracking, and ancestral nutrition.

Rocket Mass Heater Build ($42)

September 2nd - 5th, Rinelander, Wisconsin

A Holiday Acres cabin could use an improved heating system. A Rocket Mass Heater will reduce wood usage by a significant amount while providing a more even heat profile and removing chances of creosote build up. We will install the guts of an RMH in the workshop, and apply a coating of cob over the weekend sessions to make a true heated hearth for this cabin.

Tuesday - Friday

9:00am - 12:00pm Morning Session

12:00pm - 12:45pm Self Provided Lunch

12:45pm - 4:00pm Afternoon Session

What to Know

- Camping will be provided onsite

- Wear clothes that can get muddy and abraded

Jeff Wala

Jeff is a campsteader who has learned about rocket mass heaters from multiple sessions with experts at Wheaton Labs in Montana. He currently lives comfortably in a yurt in the woods East of Rhinelander, including winters, thanks to an RMH build completed two years ago. He is working on experimental builds and looking for other adventurous spirits seeking to pursue a deep permaculture lifestyle.

Pig to Pork (Free)

September 4th, Lake Tomahawk, Wisconsin

You will learn how to dispatch, dress, scald and scrape a pig that will be eaten during the potluck on Friday for the convergence.  

Thursday - 8:00am - 12:00pm

Dave Kroll

Join Dave at his homestead which features a sawmill, gardens and other interesting elements.

Flax to Fiber (Free)

September 4th, Eagle River, Wisconsin

Learn to process flax fiber. Flax grown at the Northwoods Community Garden will be processed using hand tools. After fiber processing, there will be a chance to make some handmade paper samples out of flax to take home.

Thursday - 9:00am - 12:00pm

Debra Ketchum Jircik

Debra  is a native of Milwaukee.  After working with clay for over thirty years, she has shifted her focus to fiber.  She has been hand papermaking for over 20 years, working with the medium in a variety of ways, and has been fortunate to study with generous teachers. She enjoys sharing art through teaching and organizing/working on collaborative community art projects and environmental installations. Her current creative practice reflects her interest in minimizing her environmental impact. Debra’s most recent creative forays have been into natural dyeing and growing her own dye plants including Japanese Indigo and eco-printing as they relate to her handmade paper.

Growing a Dye Garden & Dyeing Fabrics (Optional Materials Fee)

September 5th, Rhinelander, Wisconsin

Come learn the different ways to use plant colors. Such as flower pounding on silk, fresh leaf indigo dyeing on silk scarves, using mordant paste and stencils on cotton and painting with pigments made from flowers.

Friday - 12:00pm - 4:00pm

Jeanne Debbink

My career was decorative painting working in homes. Most of my career involved lots of ladder climbing in big homes with high ceilings. I’m happily retired from that career. Color has always been part of my life. I have an art degree and have been doing collage and mixed media work. In the last few years I’ve been opposed to using polymer mediums because of the micro plastics. I have an adversity to the plastic sheen of acrylics. Natural pigments and binders are so amazing! I’m just beginning my study of these pigments. I’ve been growing Japanese indigo at the Northwoods Community Garden for four years now. Two years ago we added the “color” garden. I’ve been an online dye student of Maiwa in Vancouver, BC for a few years learning the basics of dyeing fabrics and making inks. Now my passion is flowers and working with plants.