PALEOTECHNICS

• Workshops are held at a variety of locations and organized by the site host, so please use the contact information listed after each class description to get more logistical information or register.

• If you wish to speak directly with the instructor about workshop content or other topic related questions, please email Tamara at ts@paleotechnics.com

BRAINTANNING
RABBIT FURS

March 6-7, 2010
9am - 5 or 6pm Sat & Sun
at Ghost Town Farm
Oakland, CA

MAKING & USING RAWHIDE

April 10, 2010
9am-4pm
at the Mendocino Art Center,
Mendocino, CA

Welcome to the first year of Buckeye!
Choose from a wide range of workshops every day, share food, and enjoy the fire together at night. What we offer has not always been known as ‘Ancestral Arts’, ‘Primitive Technology’, ‘Wilderness Survival’ or ‘Earth Living Skills’. At one time it was just simply, LIFE.
So here is your chance to learn from teachers who keep these ways alive, to find doorways to deepening your connections to nature, to meet new pals, and see where inspiration takes you!

cordage
cob oven
potter
basketry
wild edibles
hide tanning
flintknapping
blacksmithing
primitive shelter
plant fiber arts
nature awareness
acorn processing
friction fire making

Tamara & Steven plan to teach
a Parfleche Painted Rawhide Workshop

All ages event, includes 5 full days of instruction.
Breakfast and dinner provided,
(with an emphasis on local organic and wild food.)
Week-long kids' camp for children ages 5 and older.
Camping space provided.

$320 advanced registration
$350 at the gate

see website for native, youth and senior rates

info:

• website: www.buckeyegathering.net
• email: califorigin@gmail.com
• 1-800-789-8230

click here to download flyer

Many people who eat meat feel that they are out of touch with the sources and processes behind the food that ends up on their plate. The knowledge required to efficiently and humanely process an animal into food is an essential tool for self sufficiency. Beyond being a source of food, animals also provide many other materials that we as humans find useful.

This 3 weekend series will cover the entire process of slaughtering animals, processing them to preserve parts for food and other raw materials, and then using those materials to make a variety of products and creations. Participants may attend one, two or all three weekends. Each weekend stands on its own, however each experience will be enhanced by participation in the other weekends.

• Processing Animals for Food (May 15-16)
• Utilitarian Uses of Animal Parts (June 19-20)
• Braintanning Buckskin/Goatskin (July 17-18)
  

contact: Medea Aranda sproutreach@gmail.com 510-710-1054 (mobile) PO Box 351 Bolinas, Ca 94924

SERIES RATES:

PROCESSING ANIMALS FOR FOOD

in Bolinas, CA

May 15-16
10am-5pm Sat & Sun
with dinner, campfire and overnight camping

As a group we will slaughter, skin, gut and butcher 2 chickens, 2 rabbits and 2 goats (or 1 goat and 1 lamb depending on available animals). This selection of animals is representational of fowl, small animals and large animals and the skills learned can be applied to other similar animals, both wild and domestic.
There will be plenty of chances for hands-on experience.
Other topics to be covered are: innards processing & cooking, fat rendering, broth making, sausage making, jerky, pemmican, and hide storage.

Animal Processing weekend only $175-$150 sliding scale

Part of 3 weekend Using Animals Workshop Series
(click here for series rates)

contact: Medea Aranda sproutreach@gmail.com
510-710-1054 (mobile) PO Box 351 Bolinas, Ca 94924

UTILITARIAN USES OF ANIMAL PARTS

in Bolinas, CA

June 19-20
10am-5pm Sat & Sun
with dinner, campfire and overnight camping

Animals that are depended upon for food
also offer a virtual hardware store of other essential materials.

Each participant will take apart the lowest leg portion of a large
animal to remove the skin, sinew, hooves and bones and then preserve the skin by drying, work the sinew into string and
the bone into a useful tool.

Topics that will be covered as a group are hide storage, making and using rawhide, making hide glue, rendering fat for utilitarian uses, and using vitreous humour as pigment binder.

Utilitarian Uses weekend only $165-$140 sliding scale

Part of 3 weekend Using Animals Workshop Series
(click here for series rates)

contact: Medea Aranda sproutreach@gmail.com
510-710-1054 (mobile) PO Box 351 Bolinas, Ca 94924

BRAINTANNING DEERSKINS & GOATSKINS

in Bolinas, CA

July 17-18
9am-6pm Sat & Sun
with dinner, campfire and overnight camping

Brain tanned buckskin is an incredible, soft, durable
and washable leather which is made using all natural,
non-toxic, and biodegradable methods.

This weekend will focus on fleshing, scraping, braining, softening and smoking deer & goat skins and/or rabbit furs. Deer & Goat hides will be done in groups with one hide for every four people and, if all goes well, each person should take home about a quarter of a finished buckskin.

Rabbit skins can be done individually ($5 apiece)
as an additional project as desired.

Braintanning Buckskin weekend only $165-$140 sliding scale

Part of 3 weekend Using Animals Workshop Series
(click here for series rates)

contact: Medea Aranda sproutreach@gmail.com
510-710-1054 (mobile) PO Box 351 Bolinas, Ca 94924

NCWHS - Northern CA Women's Herbal Symposium

at Black Oak Ranch in Laytonville, CA

Over 50 classes are offered by a variety of instructors throughout each session, including six four-hour intensives, covering many different aspects of Herbalism and sustainable lifestyles. Topics include: Aromatherapy, Ayurveda, Chinese Medicine, Flower Essences, Herb Walks, Herbal Crafts, Herbal Cultivation & Propagation, Magical Herbs, Herbal Treatments for Specific Disorders, Women's Health, and much more. Session 3 also offers Sustainable Living classes, including: Alternative Vehicle Fuels, Natural Building Techniques, Permaculture, Solar Energy, and much more.

general info and registration at website
womensherbalsymposium.org

Contact info:
PO Box 599 Sebastopol, CA 95473, tel. 707-824-1429
email NCWHS@monitor.net

Registration fee is $250-$350 sliding scale.
This fee includes all classes, meals, camping, and events.
There are a limited number of spaces for young women, ages 13-20,and Elders, ages 60 and over, at a special rate of $100 if needed. Children 12 and under are free.

PRIMITIVE TECHNOLOGIES WORKSHOPS
May 28-31
NCWHS Northern CA Women's Herbal Symposium
near Laytonville, CA

Firemaking

Wild Foods Intensive
Plant Fiber Discussion

PRIMITIVE TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW WEEKEND

July 18-19, 2009
10am-5pm
at Polcum Springs,
near Laytonville, CA

BRAINTANNING BUCKSKIN
June 12-13
near Willits, CA

Braintanned buckskin is a beautiful, soft, durable, and washable leather which is made using the same natural, non-toxic, and biodegradable methods employed by most Native American groups.

In this two day class, participants will partake in the whole process—from scraping the hide to smoking the softened buckskin. The group will tan one deer hide for every four people and, if all goes well, each person should take home about quarter of a finished buckskin.

COST:
$140
(includes seminar, Saturday dinner,
materials and overnight camping)

THIRD ROCK RANCH class
(see info above)

NOT-SO-SIMPLE LIVING FAIR:
Practical Skills for Tough Times

July 31 & August 1, 2010

at Mendocino County Fairgrounds in Boonville, CA

A two day event to develop and share skills, knowledge, and experience for rural living.

Schedule to be announced

TANNING PRESENTATION
July 31 & August 1
Not-So-Simple Living Fair

in Boonville, CA

707-744-2017
Solar Living Institute website

To register for a workshop by mail, print and fill out the registration form and
send it with payment (workshop fee plus $10 registration fee) to:

Solar Living Institute
13771 S. Hwy. 101
P. O. Box 836
Hopland, CA 95449

Solar Living Institute
in Hopland, CA

more info at Solar Living Institute website

Join us as we explore universal hunter gatherer skills used by humans all around the world. You will learn basic and essential living skills through the following hands-on activities:

• Make fire with handdrill and bowdrill fire kits
• Process dogbane fiber and make string
• Practice with hunting tools, including throwing rabbitsticks & spearthrowers, shooting bow & arrow, and playing hoop & pole game
• Learn basic stone and woodworking techniques through beadmaking, shaping and polishing stone, and grinding pine nuts.

You will also have a chance to see examples of a wide variety of other primitive technologies. Move a step closer to self-sufficiency and to an understanding of how humans have survived for thousands of years with primitive technology.

SOLAR LIVING INSTITUTE class
(see info above)

click here for photos of fall 2009 workshop

BRAINTANNING BUCKSKIN $110
MAPOM workshop schedule suspended until Fall 2010
(Pt. Reyes National Seashore, CA)

Braintanned buckskin is a beautiful, soft, durable, and washable leather which is made using the same natural, non-toxic, and biodegradable methods employed by most Native American groups.

In this two day class, participants will partake in the whole process—from scraping the hide to smoking the softened buckskin. The group will tan one deer hide for every four people and, if all goes well, each person should take home about quarter of a finished buckskin.

MAPOM class (see info above)

STRINGMAKING & NETMAKING
$75

MAPOM workshop schedule suspended until Fall 2010
(Pt. Reyes National Seashore, CA)

MAPOM class (see info above)

FIREMAKING $75  
MAPOM workshop schedule suspended until Fall 2010
(Pt. Reyes National Seashore, CA)

Make fire by friction with your own hand drill firemaking kit made from local native materials. Both hand drill and bow drill techniques will be explored and you will have ample opportunity to practice making fire.

Time permitting, we will try other firemaking techniques and discuss fire building and uses of fire.

MAPOM class (see info above)

• drill holes in soapstone with sticks spun between the hands
• grind pine nuts into beads
• make string from natural fibers

• making fire by friction (weather conditions permitting)
• throwing and shooting a variety of hunting weapons like spearthrowers (atlatls), bow & arrows and rabbitsticks
• playing hoop & pole and black walnut dice games

NOTICE:
Spring MAPOM workshops will not be happening this year.
One of these topics will be scheduled for Fall 2010

NOTICE:
Spring MAPOM workshops will not be happening this year.
One of these topics will be scheduled for Fall 2010

EARTH PIGMENTS & NATURAL BINDERS
MAPOM workshop schedule suspended until Fall 2010
$75 (+$30 materials fee) = $105

Explore the preparation and use of mineral pigments like yellow & red ochre, some non-mineral paints, and natural binding materials like hide glue & egg yolk. We will make and decorate objects made of wood, bone and hide, and you should take home some sort of simple paint container.

MAPOM class
(see info above)