Without an intern, Mark and I are back on the job of not only fulfilling chicken waterer orders, but also building the kits and premade units ourselves.  We've really streamlined the operation over the last year, so the actual construction only takes us each two or three hours per week.  Still, those hours always call to me to work on my weaknesses since my mind is free and my hands are busy. 

This summer, I've opted to use my construction time to take a refresher course on basic permaculture while also improving my shoddy listening comprehension skills.  North Carolina State University's free online permaculture class seemed like the perfect way to kill both birds with one stone since the course format is videos and the information is pretty local (from about 280 miles southeast of us).  As an added bonus, the required texts for the course are two books I skimmed years ago and have been meaning to reread with a fine-tooth comb --- Gaia's Garden and Introduction to Permaculture. 

I'm not committing to listening to all 38 lectures since I think the summer may be long over before that happens, but I'll post about the tidbits from the lectures I do make it through.  Feel free to listen along and comment with your own thoughts!

(As a side note, Regenerative Leadership Institute also has a free online permaculture course.  I chose NCSU's instead because they're physically closer to me, plus RLI's videos weren't online when I began listening (although a beta version is up now).  I'd be curious to hear from anyone who chooses RLI's course instead, or listens to both and would like to compare and contrast.  Or perhaps you've found yet another free online course you prefer?  Or maybe you paid for an online course and thought it was worth the money?  Please do comment if any of those possibilities sound like you!)

And don't forget to tune back in tomorrow at lunchtime to read my thoughts after listening to lectures 1 and 2....