Programs
Community Sustainability Intern Blog - its awesome!
TLC Farm just completed its first Community Sustainability Immersion Program - and it was a fantastic success. Seven amazing people from all over the country came to TLC Farm to learn, play and grow together.
They created a fantastic blog of stories, facts, pictures, and poems, and we invite you to see for yourself the impact of this program. Visit www.tryoninternship09.blogspot.com and enjoy!
Community Workshops
To see an up-to-date list of scheduled workshops, see our workshop calendar. From there you can also register.
TLC Farm is an amazing place to learn ideas and practices for growing sustainable culture. We host a wide variety of experienced practitioners who teach in their fields of expertise. Past workshop topics have included:
- Earthen plasters
- Wild fermented foods
- Medicinal plant identification
- Introduction to Bonsai
- Basic Gardening
- Permaculture Design
- Carpentry for women
- Primitive Skills
- Cheesemaking
- Chickens!
- Needle Felting
- Bird language and tracking
- Earth Activist Training (a permaculture design course)
- Plant wisdom and earth songs
- Zen meditation
- African drumming
- Food forest design
- Indigenous lifeways
- and many more!
Most workshops ask for a donation on a sliding scale or offer work-trade, to assist in paying for the presenter, facilities, and materials.
Want to present a workshop? email workshops@tryonfarm.org or call our office at 503-245-3847.
Job Posting - Youth Education Coordinator
Tryon Life Community Farm Hands-on Youth Sustainability Program
Program Administrator and Volunteer Coordinator Job Description
Application Deadline: Sept. 15th
Responsibilities Include:
- Outreach for and promotion of TLC Farm's Youth Education Program,
including updating outreach materials and distributing to schools and
youth programs
- Scheduling field trips, via phone & internet
- Recruiting, training and scheduling volunteer teachers (training
materials already exist)
- Maintaining & updating education program supplies and curriculum
- Some fundraising for the expansion and continuation of projects.
Note: this is not primarily a teaching position. The coordinator will only teach classes when other volunteers cannot be scheduled.
October– June, with December and January off
10-15 hours a week, $15 an hour. Hours are flexible, with mandatory meetings every other Wednesday niaght from 7-9.
Ideal applicants will have a background in sustainability education with significant experience with volunteer training and management. Applicants should also have experience in self-motivated work environments, must be very organized and be good communicators.
Please send a cover letter and resume with three references, preferably with two that can speak to the applicant's previous experience in education and volunteer coordination. Send your application materials to apply@tryonfarm.org. Please visit www.tryonfarm.org or call 503-245-3847 for more information about the positions and programs.
About TLC Farm's Hands-on Sustainability Program
TLC Farm is a very unique educational site: 5 acres of farmland surrounded by the 700 acre forest of Tryon Creek State Park, with a residential farm community that tends chickens, goats, sheep & bees and upkeeps the land. The entire farm and forest are the classrooms for field trips, and TLC Farm's educational programs are almost entirely taught outdoors, except in inclement weather when we use our historic barn as classroom space.
TLC Farm staff and trained volunteers lead field trips from schools and youth organizations, providing creative, hands-on educational experiences for students. Not only are participants in the field, each trip involves hands-on projects. Activity themes are flexible based on the group’s interest and need, and fall into these categories:
1.Farm Tour: a general overview of demonstration projects at TLC Farm including natural building, gardening, water and waste management, habitat restoration, and community. development.
2.Natural Building: building with cob, a traditional structural material of clay, sand, straw, and water.
3.Ecological gardening: includes activities on soil, food systems, medicinal plants, and permaculture, along with hands-on gardening tasks.
4.Watershed Restoration & Ecology: includes a variety of restoration techniques, plant identification & uses, the water cycle, and human influences on watersheds.
5.Art & Craft of Sustainable Living: including activities on making food and other environmental arts & crafts.
Land Projects
At TLC Farm, Portland's sustainability movements are creating one example of how urban density human habitat can coexist with thriving food systems and native ecologies. Our demonstration projects, all of which are workshopped and volunteer-run, illustrate how specific technologies and practices work, and how they can interconnect.
Mother Earth School
Permaculture Design Course at TLC Farm
TLC Farm will be hosting a full 72-hour Permaculture Design Course this summer. This course will be a two-week intensive that will meet from June 11th to 27th. The course can be taken as residential, or not. The fee for the non-residential option is $1000 - 850 sliding scale. The fee for the residential option is $1300 -1100. Limited work trade may be available. More about the course: A Permaculture Design Course explores sustainable human habitation. We begin with the ethics and principles of permaculture which support a philosophical reverence for life and provide a framework for making healthy choices. The objective of a Permaculture Design Course is to provide a comprehensive overview of sustainable futures, based on permaculture philosophy, techniques, and strategies that one could incorporate into their everyday life, or enhance their career. These courses provide hands-on experience. The intention is to facilitate a systems approach to thinking about different issues, encouraging care for the earth and its inhabitants as a diverse community. Topics Include: * Permaculture Philosophy & Ethics * Permaculture Principles * Concepts and Themes in Design * Permaculture methodology * Pattern Understanding * Reading the Landscape * Climatic Factors * Edible Landscaping & Organic Gardening * Trees and their Energy Transactions, Tree Crops * Water, Water Harvesting * Soils & Composting * Earthworking and Earth Resources * Natural Building * Animal Husbandry * Urban Permaculture * Appropriate Technology * Intentional Communities * Sustainable Forestry & Agroforestry * Ethnobotany/ethnoecology * Plant Propagation * Ecosystem & Native Plant Restoration * Mycology * Permaculture Networks * Bioregionalism * Local Economics * Ecological Design * Ecovillages * And more.. Instructor Bios: Marisha Auerbach will be the lead instructor of the course. Marisha has been practicing, studying, and teaching permaculture in the Pacific Northwest for the past decade. She encourages sustainable futures through sharing knowledge with others on a variety of topics including: permaculture, polyculture gardening, seed saving, flower and gem essences, local economics, community building, ethnobotany, herbalism, edible landscape design, and organic gardening among others. Matt received his Master's Degree in Education with a focus on Leadership in Ecology, Culture & Learning from PSU in 2008 and is also a certified Permaculture Designer and Teacher. For more information about this course, please email perm...@tryonfarm.org or call Matt Bibeau at 503-245-3847. To be considered for this course, please fill out the questionnaire below and send to perm...@tryonfarm.org. TLC Farm PDC Application Full and Preferred Name: Address: Phone: Email: 1. What is your experience with permaculture? What do you hope to do with this certification? 2. Do you have any dietary restrictions or allergies that we should know about? 3. Do you have any medical conditions or physical limitations that we should know about? (TLC Farm is not currently an ADA-accessible site, so any alter-abled students should let us know about their needs and concerns). 4. Are you applying for the residential (camping) or non-residential (commuting) option? 5. How did you hear about the course?
ReCode
Welcome to ReCode!
Launched by TLC Farm, Recode is now a semi-autonomous project with its own website: http://recodeoregon.net, office space, and organizer - Melora Golden - who can be reached at: melora[at]recodeoregon[dot]net
Read on for a brief summary of Recode's goals, and see bottom of page to sign up for email announcement list, and download relevant files.
Portland is an amazing place, with thousands of people and dozens of organizations working hard at creating a more sustainable urban future. It's great, but it can often be difficult for everyone to be in touch with what others are doing, and for newcomers or grassroots group to be involved in the process. That's why ReCode Portland is so exciting.
We are a campaign bringing together citizens, planners, builders, activists, and other stakeholders in developing, coordinating, and building the movement for regulations that support grassroots sustainability. We
- facilitate collaboration among the existing organizations and people doing various aspects of the work;
- create space for grassroots groups in the discussion; and
- specifically advocate for acting within a strategy of systemic change.
We're also a work in progress, and invite you to join us in adapting to an ever-changing context. Email recode@tryonfarm.org to get involved.
TLC Farm is currently facilitating the campaign, and we are using this site to collaborate. We're using a working group approach to divide the work:
- Practices and goals.
- Code research and development.
- Networking group.
- Public education.
- Government Relationships.
What are the technologies and practices that we'd really like to encourage? Specifically oriented around grassroots, bottom-up change: how can we unleash the innovation and creativity of inventive people, while ensuring that community values and safety are protected? Let's focus on identifying the details!
Coordinate existing research and materials on regulatory obstacles to sustainable practices. Identify various approaches to changes in code, from overall strategy to detailed written form. Coordinate with "Practices and Goals".
Keep in broader context, bring people in, cross-pollinate, contact allies. Get stakeholders on opposite sides, facilitate roundtables, understand the heart of issue. Networkers talk to people with concerns, not just ready-made allies. Also regionally and nationally, to bolster effort.
Public education through film, web, print media, etc. Create public awareness of the issues and garner support for regulatory change. Also, make easily accessible info about what the current codes are and how to navigate new ones.
Develop relationships with officials and bureaus at all levels. What concerns do they have, what are the hold-ups? Give public support to the many public servants that are working hard to make change; keep the awareness and political strength focused.
For some additional background information, see the documents below. For an introduction to code barriers specific to TLC Farm, as an example, go to Amy Tyson's TLC Farm case study. We are planning on creating space for collaborative work on all the building and zoning approaches we're working on; to see how we're beginning that, go to Technical Research Notes. This site remains skeletal; the networking working group is focused on helping get more information into the public domain here.
ReCode Portland in the blogosphere:
- EcoSpace
- WorldChanging Portland (by Ethan Timm of SERA Architects)
ReCode Portland: organizing
Thu, 01/03/2008 - 15:58 — brushGreetings, ReCoders!
Exciting things are on the move, though we've been a bit delayed getting the word out because of the holidays. Thanks for all the interest and input so far – it seems that this is ready to take on a life of its own!
This forum post is mostly the same as the email we just sent out to ReCode folks. To add to the discussion about how best to organize, new ideas, etc., just respond to this post! Once you're a participant or editor, you can create new topics too.
We had a great organizing meeting on December 13 at Laughing Horse Books. To read the detailed minutes, visit the ReCode blog at: http://tryonfarm.org/share/node/556
The next organizing meeting will be on Thursday, January 17 at 7 pm again at Laughing Horse Books (10 NE 12th). Hope to see you there!
Updates since the last meeting:
ReCode in the media: Our first media piece is happening sooner that anticipated. This past Sunday, TLC Farm got a call from Jim Redden asking “what's new?” and we couldn't resist telling him all about ReCode. Look for an article in Friday's Portland Tribune. Also, there is an article about ReCode in the most recent Communities magazine. Both articles focus on TLC Farm's involvement in ReCode, but we're very excited to be broadening the campaign beyond the work and vision of the farm.
Code Research: Amy Tyson wrote a comprehensive 35-page paper about ReCode, which discusses the history of building codes and zoning and details the specific regulatory issues TLC Farm is approaching in ReCode Portland. A great resource! (link to the website: http://tryonfarm.org/share/node/555)
On that front, we're hoping to use TLC Farm's collaborative web site as a tool to coordinate the great research that folk are doing. See http://tryonfarm.org/share/node/557 for further details on how to add to the site, and what our anticipated structure is. Please log in, and email us to be given editorial permissions!
Establishment of working groups:
To move the campaign forward, the folks at the meeting came up with the following five working groups. Each working group is autonomous and focused on its piece of the project, and all groups will come together once a month general meeting, to share resources and ideas and discuss strategy. Point people for the working groups act as catalysts to set meeting times and keep the group focused. If you're interested in getting involved with one (or more) of the working groups, please contact the point people. Some groups still need point people to help them move forward. Might that be you?
1.Code research and development. Point people: Cameron & Julee
Research what code and zoning is existing, and what we want to see. Figure out the process for creating new codes/ easier permitting for sustainable practices.
Folk (already) interested: Cameron, Julee, Matt, Amy, Tim, Jeff
2.Networking group. Point person: Brush
Keep in broader context, bring people in, cross-pollinate, contact allies. Get stakeholders on opposite sides, facilitate roundtables, understand the heart of issue. Networkers talk to people with concerns, not just ready-made allies. Also nationally, to bolster effort.
Folk interested: Brush, Magy, Jenny, Tim
3.Practices and goals. Point people (maybe?): Levin & Magy
What would these code changes look like on the ground? What is the world we want to see built? Work with code folks.
Folk interested: Levin, Magy, Julee, Amanda
4.Public education. Point person: ?
Public education through film, web, print media, etc. Create public awareness of the issues and garner support for regulatory change. Also, make easily accessible info about what the current codes are and how to navigate new ones.
Folk interested: Brenna, Amanda, Matt, Jeff
5.Government Relationships Point Person: Brenna
For both city and state.
Government is not keeping up with the desires/demands of the people. What concerns do they have, what are the hold-ups? Why were codes made in first place, and how can we address those concerns in a more sustainable fashion now?
Folk interested: Brenna, Jeremy
Fundraising: Not yet an established working group; could become so if people are interested. We don't want to wait for funding to get moving on the campaign, but will keep our eyes open for potential sources of funding for a paid organizer. We can write grants through TLC Farm. . .
Take care, and see you soon!
Rooted Spirituality
Come share your unique wisdom here at TLC farm.
We welcome all efforts to inspire dialogue, generate workshops, and spawn ceremonies that inter-activate our highest spiritual potential.
- How does your community root itself in its relationship to the earth?
- How do the lessons and teachings of your community connect us deeper with the web of life?
- How can we learn and work together for a healthier, wiser world?
TLC Farm Arts Action Team
The TLC Farm Arts Action Team invites earth artists of Portland to participate in growing movement for ecological art! We are exploring the use of the arts as a mode of social healing to experience our connectedness to all our relations. We are currently inviting submissions to our online catalog of ecological art. As part of the process, we will feature rotating exhibitions that interact with TLC Farm itself.
To get involved with the Arts Action Team, email: arts@tryonfarm.org.
More about TLC FAAT
The Arts Action Team thinks that some of the most exciting things about TLC Farm are the interweaving of communities, and the creation of new modes of communication-in-place. Using ecology and the land as co-creative muse, metaphor, medium, and mentor, our goal is to facilitate the expression of these ideas and processes in concrete, intentional ways, through performance, sculpture/installation, exhibition, workshops, and other artistic means.Themes
Here are some lenses we use to understand our work:
Place – focusing on the relationships between people, their histories, the land on which they live, how these things interweave in our minds and affect individuals concretely.
Participation – taking art off the pedestal and out of the museum, giving it back to the community, and celebrating collaboration, communication, and the creation of communal experiences.
Evolution – exploring processes of becoming, whether of individuals, communities, nature, or other things entirely, exploring the effects of time and energy on art and the world.
Social change – effecting social change inspired by art or artistic experiences; also celebrating alternative histories through art, using examples from the history of social movements to inspire and activate ourselves.
Ritual – utilizing art to create a spiritual experience for the viewer/participant, creating sacred places and energies to help people connect with their bodies, with the land, with each other, with something greater.
Art as a way to manifest/envision another way of living – We believe there is a better way to be. We believe in the power of art to open up spaces for dialogue, to crystallize and change our consciousness, and to help us envision and create a different world.
Current events: We are currently developing an Invitations for artists to create installation with the land (and elsewhere). Stay tuned for the announcement! Sign up for monthly updates, check the website, etc.
(Later maybe a Projects on the Farm section describing installations etc. that people can visit on the walking tour)
We have just upgraded to a new version of Drupal; please send bug reports to web@tryonfarm.org
Feedback and participation welcome!
