Simplifying Your Life

Title: Simplify Your Life

Class time and date: TBD

Instructor: Jack Perrin and Dev Carey, Pitkin Mesa

Location: Paonia Colorado

Cost: $TBD

 There's no lack of advice on sustainable living: replace your light bulbs, recycle, eat locally, drive less ... the list goes on. But do these actions add up to a more harmonious and balanced life, or are they just another set of obligatory tasks?  This workshop is for people who want to take practical, significant steps toward more sustainable, meaningful, and enjoyable lives.

This workshop includes several engaging activities including: an inventory of participants’ attitudes and beliefs about sustainability along with their resources and needs, case studies of folks who are living simply, specific skills to get started, and lots of coaching and encouragement along the way. 

Led by Jack Perrin and Dev Carey, Sustainability Educators since 2004

Title: Natural Plaster Workshop

Class time and date: TBD

Instructor: Jack Perrin, Pitkin Mesa

Location: Paonia Colorado

Cost: $TBD

Natural plasters are the most practical way to cover a wall. It's no surprise that there is a great deal of renewed interest in this historic art.  This workshop will be primarily a hands-on experience with an introductory presentation and short discussions interspersed between work sessions. We will be applying three different coats of plaster on a straw bale structure located on the ‘campus’ of The High Desert Center, a local organization dedicated to sustainable education.  Our goal will be to give participants as much exposure to all the various aspects of plastering, so there will be lots of job rotation and breaks for explanations and discussion whenever and wherever appropriate.

Participants will gain exposure to following concepts/topics.

0. Preparing straw bale and adobe structures for natural plasters;

0. Assessing soils for clay and silt content;

0. Construction/design considerations for natural plasters;

Participants will get hands-on experience in the following techniques/skills:

0. Use of a variety of plaster tools: steel trowel, pool trowel, sponge float, finish/detail trowels;

0. Applying finish and color coats;

0. Making and testing plasters for color and finish.

Participants will have an opportunity to view (on site) finished examples of a variety of plasters, including:

0. Natural plasters on straw bale walls;

0. Natural plasters on adobe walls;

0. Natural plasters on cob walls;

0. Gypsum plasters on straw bale walls;

0. Natural plasters on drywall;

0. Concrete stucco on straw bale walls.

Course to be led by Jack Perrin, who has been teaching straw bale construction for eight years.

Jack has been enjoying the fruits of a simple yet full livelihood for over 15 years. Originally called to be a high school physics teacher, he found greater pleasure working part-time for alternative schools and guiding in Turkey in the summers. A 1,500-mile bike trip with Dev cemented their friendship and later led them to own a piece of land together and live off the grid. Since that time he has built or helped to build 8 straw bale houses, installed solar water and electrical systems in the U.S. and Mexico. His teaching experiences include co-directing a summer camp, multi-week backpacking and river trips, and a year of traveling from B.C. to Mexico with six home schoolers from Paonia. One of his greatest joys is helping people boost their self-confidence by learning new practical skills. He says, "It's not how a house gets built, but what happens to people in the process of building that house, that really intrigues me!"