Hello Everyone! Here is the information for the 2016 Self-Reliance Fair!
I am working on getting everything updated, thank you for your patience :)
Classes
(I add class descriptions as I get them)
Living A Simple Life - Taught by Pres. Jim kearns
Simple Hoop House Construction - Taught by Ive Schwebach "A hoop house or high tunnel is a great, cost effective way to extend your growing season, providing pest and weather protection for your crops. Learn simple construction and crop maintenance methods."
Health Crisis in America; How Not To Become A Casualty - "Health care expenses are the number one cause of personal bankruptcy, and even having health insurance doesn't buffer consumers against financial hardship. The most common causes of death in America, including heart disease, diabetes, lung disease and stroke continue to grow even though we spend more money per person on health care than any other nation in the world. The current health care model isn’t working to prevent these illnesses. The good news is that in most cases, these diseases are preventable – but you have to take a different path if you want to avoid these health problems.In this presentation, Dr. Vernon Redd will share information and strategies to put the odds in your favor that will help you avoid the major (and minor) illnesses that can cripple you and lead to both a premature death and financial hardship."
Introduction to Wilderness Survival Skills 101 - Taught by Sandia Mountain Survival School "Surviving in the wilderness does not require that you be an expert outdoor survivalist. Surviving in the wilderness only requires that you have a positive attitude, a few skills, and some tools at your disposal. Nothing can be more helpful in avoiding or surviving a dire situation than just plain being prepared. The more prepared you are, the less likely you are to have a true survival situation to overcome. It will be more like an unplanned camping trip."
Honey Bee Life Cycles - Queen, Worker, Drone - Taught by Randy Schwartz "The bee life cycle from egg to emerging adult varies with queens, workers, and drones. They all have unique and varied duties that together are essential to the survival of the have. We will take a close look at the fascinating life cycle and adult responsibilities of the different casts of bees in the hive."
Seasonal Hive Management Skills - Taught by Randy Schwartz "The beekeeper's year begins with a late winter/early spring hive inspection and ends in the autumn with tasks to prepare the hive for the cold winter. We will review the many of the seasonal hive management tasks needed to for strong, productive hives."
Challenges of East Mountain Vegetable Gardening - Taught by Bill Barrett “East Mountain Gardeners face many challenges. Our latitude, elevation, in-land location, and topography give us cool nights, hot summer days, cold spring winds, and a short growing season. Our soil is either clay or rock. There are animal pests from squash bugs to rabbits, squirrels, gophers, and browsing deer. I will explore these topics and offer suggestions to mitigate these challenges. Topics covered include: raised beds, drip irrigation, intensive planting (square foot gardening), companion planting, crop rotation, vegetable variety selection, etc.”
Thrive Food Storage - Taught by Cassie Stuart "Come learn the advantages of storing and using freeze-dried foods. Become more self reliant as you prepare your home for the future. Having a home store of basics can save you: time, money and in emergencies! In this class, you will learn easy techniques to hydrate and cook with freeze-dried foods, tips for rotating your food storage, and how to build your supply without breaking the bank. Hands-on cooking demos to will be sure to satisfy your taste buds too!"
Introduction to Canning - "Understanding how to preserve food is an important skill for self-reliance. This introductory class will teach important principles of food safety and preservation, introduce the resources, tools and equipment for home canning, and discuss methods for preserving (including pre-canning planning and post-canning storage). Also includes a handout with basic recipes. --Kathleen Mower."
Raising Chicken's - Taught by Janice Spiros "So, you’d like to get started raising chickens? In this class we’ll discuss your purpose for raising chickens. Which breed will work best for you, how to care for them and a bit about coops. We’ll start from “scratch”.
Meet the Meat - Taught by Roger Payne - "I love meat, all kinds, lets talk wild game, lets talk butchering, lets talk jerky, let's talk sausage, lets talk canning, and let's talk smoking meats.There are lots of ways you can prepare and preserve meat and some of these might help you if you are in situation without refrigeration.
Wise Water Food Gardening - Taught by Amanda Bramble of Ampersand Sustainable Living Center - "Want to grow food successfully in our harsh climate? Help your seedlings survive the spring winds, summer pests, and blazing sun.Rainwater harvesting and greywater use can be the foundation of desert gardens and Amanda Bramble will present photos that explain how it is done at Ampersand Sustainable Learning Center in Cerrillos. Learn how to get the most out of small growing areas through staged plantings, inter-cropping, and perennial plants. Find out how proper soil preparation, shading and wind protection make a big difference in the health of your plants. "
Booths
(outdoor)
Vermiculture - Hosted by Miles & Lori Littlefield "Thousands of pounds of food and yard waste are put in our landfills every year. What a waste of a valuable resource! Come learn how a couple of pounds of red worms, dirt, the food scraps from your table, and a container can be turned into nutrient rich compost that will feed your garden and landscape. No more expensive compost to buy!"
Portable Home Solar Power - Hosted by Miles & Lori Littlefield"No electricity? No problem! Come learn a way to harvest the sun's energy to use in your home or on the road. We will show you a portable solution of capturing New Mexico's plentiful sunshine to use in time of need.No electricity? No problem! We'll show you how to set up a simple solar power system and how to use your car to supply just enough power to your house to get by while the utility grid is offline. Even though you won't have enough power for the A/C and the 72 inch TV, you can make some ice and watch a portable DVD player during a blackout with these simple and relatively low-cost solutions."
Chickens - "Melody Cain from MelodyVon Farms is happy to talk chicken (and duck, and goose, and turkey) with you. Did you know baby turkey poults love to be held and want to cuddle with you? What do you want to know about raising, keeping, and breeding poultry? Melody will be here to answer your chicken, duck, turkey, and goose questions. Learn from her knowledge, experience, and love of all things poultry. "
Sheep & Shearing Demos. - "Come see live sheep and find information about breeds of sheep and the uses of wool in a self-reliant home. Three scheduled afternoon demonstrations of shearing sheep, plus carding and combing washed wool and spinning the wool on both a wheel and spindle."
-- Kerry & Kathleen Mower
Fodder Systems - - "I will talk about building systems for growing barley fodder to feed horses, cows, goats, sheep, chickens, and rabbits. I will describe the nutrition benefits of barley fodder for these animals. I will describe how to build systems for growing the barley, describe the daily costs of buying feed and the labor of preparation and potential cost savings. I will pass out written information and links to on-line information. I am planning to bring a system to demonstrate the operation as well as samples of barley." - Tom Mead
(Indoor)
Herbs for Mental Health- Hosted by Angie True of Calyx Pearl "The Calyx Pearl Center provides earth-based therapies and herbal medicine for individuals, as well as ecotherapy, dreamwork and botanical workshops. We operate on a sliding scale. We specialize in increasing self-reliance through dietary, herbal and therapeutic support – especially for those coming off of psychiatric medications. For true health, join us in the wild!
Thrive Freeze Dried Food Storage -
"Food Storage your family will WANT to eat! Sample freeze-dried foods, learn about food rotation systems and how to collect and store a year supply of food. Also, get recipes and great ideas about cooking with your food storage so your family won't even be able to tell when you're using it!
Cassie Stuart, Independent Consultant" http://cassie.thrivelife.com/
Cassie Stuart, Independent Consultant" http://cassie.thrivelife.com/
Bee Keeping - Hosted by Randy Swartz "Come see a fully enclosed demonstration hive with live bees. There will also be displays of two commonly used hives in New Mexico, Langstroth and Top Bar. You will be able to see see the essential tools every beekeeper should have. There will be honey tasting and bees wax/candles to view. Stop by to see the bees and ask your beekeeping questions." - Randy Swartz
Solar Ovens - Hosted by Richard & Diane Sego "Oven designs, Sizes, Styles, Benefits, Costs. Live demonstrations, sample foods, ask questions, experience first hand being self reliant. Use the sun to cook your food."
Home Maintenance, Repair & Beautification- With our large families and stagnated incomes, how do we ever afford the handyman to keep our homes beautiful and in good repair? Welcome to Do It Yourself! This booth will teach you how to repair holes in sheet rock walls, how to apply caulking in baseboards and door casing and how to replace electrical outlets and switches. We’ll also discuss basic woodworking projects to enhance your home.This booth will familiarize you with the basic tools every home must have and the different types of woodworking tools from hand tools to power tools. What are the benefits of having a miter saw? What can you do with a router? What types of projects can be done with a jigsaw? What are good resources for simple woodworking plans? How do you refinish a piece of furniture that you've bought at a thrift store? How can some basic woodworking skills help you with home improvements and DIY projects? Come hear the answers to these questions and more at the home repairs and woodworking booth at the self-reliance fair!
Water Catchment & Purification - Hosted by Tim Cushman " Rainwater harvesting is the accumulation and deposition of rainwater for re-use on site, rather then allowing it to run off. Rainwater can be collected from rivers or roofs, and in many places the water collected is redirected to a deep pit(well,shaft, or borehole), a reservoir with percolation, or collected from dew or fog with nets or other tools. It's uses include water for gardens, livestock, irrigation, domestic use with proper treatment, and indoor heating for houses etc. The harvested water can also be used as drinking water, longer-term storage and for other purposes such as ground water re-charge."
Schwebach Farm's - "Gardening in the East Mountain, high dessert climate can have it's challenges, but it can be done and has great rewards. Tips on garden preparation and planning, seed selection, weed, disease and pest identification/management and irrigation will be offered."
Seed Savers - Hosted by karen Cox "East Mountain Seed and Garden Co-op
A division of East Mountain Christian Community Helps. We will be starting a seed library where gardeners use our seeds to plant their crops and then save a small part of the seeds grown in their vegetables and return them for the co-ops use the next year.Our web site is: http://eastmountainseed.org and our email is: info@eastmountainseed.org"
Food is Free - Hosted by Erin Garrison & Trista Teeter "Food Is Free is a movement that is bringing people together to learn about sustainable gardening and sharing the bounty of our endeavors with our friends and strangers. Locally, this is done by connecting with those who have excess bounty and distributing it those who need it, be it the homeless, our neighbors, or strangers who become friends and advocates. We encourage others to reach out as well by planting a little extra in their garden, or knocking on a neighbors door to ask if they need help picking a loaded apple tree. Another part of our mission is teaching our community members HOW to grow food and plants that do well in our climate." Food is Free
Bread Making - Hosted by Pat & Karisa Mullen "It is a solid, meaningful skill to be able to produce good nutritious food. BREAD, in its various forms, is perhaps the most basic of all foods, with a history almost as ancient as mankind itself. A loaf of homemade, whole wheat bread is a warm and wonderful staple of life and will be featured at our basic bread-making booth, along with fermented sourdough breads. All of these breads are more digestible and much healthier than store-bought mass produced breads. Would you like to get in the routine of making your own bread? Like families across the globe who make their daily bread, you can too! Come check out our helpful booth on simple, basic bread-making, where you can get tips, recipes, see demonstrations, and ask questions"
Sandia Mountain Survival School - "Sandia Mountain Survival School, LLC is dedicated to teaching proven wilderness survival skills to the general public in an effort to raise conservation awareness and help decrease the chances of lost or missing outdoor enthusiasts in New Mexico. We teach both beginning and advanced students. Topics covered are: Shelter, Water, Fire, Food, Signaling, Navigation, Wild Edible Plants, and Primitive living skills! We offer membership and annual treasure hunts, for real treasure! Guided hikes and Expeditions are another service we offer!" - Check out their meet up group too!
Emergency & Wilderness Medicine - Hosted by Chuck Hudson of The Medic Shack. "The Medic Shack is THE place to learn alternative emergency medicine. What you do when to do it and how to do it. If you don't do anything someone may die. The Medic Shack is where herbal medicine, traditional trauma medicine and old combat medic medicine merge into one discipline. How to use your environment to your advantage and to be able to matain the health of your and your family no matter what."
ChucFree CPR & AED Training by Lovelace - "The Lovelace Resuscitation Rangers is a volunteer program offered by Lovelace Health System which includes Heart Hospital of New Mexico @ Lovelace Medical Center, the only hospital in the state dedicated entirely to cardiovascular care. our Mission is to improve outcomes for heart attack and cardiac arrest victims by helping to educate the community on recognizing the signs and symptoms of a heart attack or cardiac arrest, teaching the hands on CPR method and using an automated external defibrillator."
Essential Oils - "Hosted by Kathy Kuehn and family, Wellness Advocates of doTerra
Come and learn how essential oils are another powerful tool for the Self-Reliant Lifestyle. 1. Easy to store. 2. Super concentrated. 3. Long shelf life. 4. Powerful properties for wellness and health. 4. Can be used in cooking, cleaning and hygiene. 5. We host classes and provide abundant resources to help you learn how to use essential oils: as well as equipping you to keep your family healthy and ready for what the future holds!"
