2021 Permaculture Technology Jamboree

Chris McClellan

Instructor

Uncle Mud (aka Chris McClellan) raises free-range, organic children in the wilds of northeast Ohio. Between building things out of mud and junk he writes for Mother Earth News Magazine and teaches simple DIY skills at workshops and fairs.

Thomas Elpel

Instructor

Thomas is an author, natural builder, educator, and conservationist. He has authored multiple books: Foraging the Mountain West, Botany in a Day, Shanleya's Quest and numerous others about plant identification, wilderness survival, and sustainable living. He has multiple videos: Building a Slipform Stone House from the Bottom Up, How to Make a Grass Rope, Build Your own Masonry Fireplace - Masonry Heater - Masonry Stove, and many more. Thomas regularly teaches classes on plant identification, primitive skills and natural building. He is founder/director of Green University, LLC in Pony, Montana.

Reisha Beck

Instructor

Reisha Beck is a mother, medicinal herb farmer and wildcrafter. She runs Wayside Botanicals, a small-scale permaculture based medicinal herb farm in Ferndale, WA. She has a background in organic farming, permaculture design, Pacific Northwest ethnobotany and western herbalism. She teaches at Wildroot Botanicals herb school in Alger, WA and First Light Farm and Learning Center in Carnation, WA.

Paul Wheaton

Host/Instructor

Paul Wheaton, The Duke of Permaculture, is an author, producer, and certified advanced master gardener. He has created hundreds of youtube videos, hundreds of podcasts, multiple DVDs, and written dozens of articles and a book. As the lead mad scientist at Wheaton Labs, he's conducted experiments resulting in rocket stoves and ovens, massive earthworks, solar dehydrators and much more. 

Lara Bigotti

Event Coordinator

Lara became interested in Permaculture while living and teaching English in Japan. She worked on an organic vegetable farm in her hometown for two years after returning to the U.S., and then fulfilled her longtime dream of hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. After participating in Wheaton Labs Bootcamp in September 2020, she returned to Missoula in February 2021 to take on the role of Event Coordinator and Rental Manager for Wheaton Labs. She is excited to learn more about gardening, natural medicine, photography & videography, and building.

James S Juczac

Instructor

James is an author and lecturer on topics such as self-reliance, true sustainability, building off-grid energy systems and mortgage-free housing. He has been dubbed "The King of Scrounge." Jim lives with his wife, Krista, in their round, cordwood and papercrete home on the property where they have established an off-grid intentional community. He is an EMT and an adjunct professor at SUNY Jefferson where he teaches the NABCEP Solar Installers course.

Mike Haasl

Instructor

Mike Haasl is a mechanical engineer, woodworker, blacksmith, and permaculture homesteader in northern Wisconsin.  He constructed a sweet greenhouse, builds with pallets and upcycled material, and experiments with compost heat.  He is developing a demonstration site for permaculture homesteading, and collaborating to create the SKIP program.

Erik Pehoviack

Instructor

Erik is the co-owner of PermaRecycling, specializing in repurposing vintage cars and home rehabilitation in western Nebraska. He is a handyman, auto recycler, mechanic, welder, mason, carpenter, and teacher of all things hands-on. Major hobbies geared toward partial independence are renewable energy and food-based perennial horticulture systems.

Opalyn Brenger

Instructor

Opalyn Brenger has been exploring a truly raw-material life while stewarding land and community in south-central Washington. Opalyn tends the sheep and the forest, transforming a fleece or a tree into not only yarn and lumber but clothing and snowmen too.  She brings her love of that transformation to the classroom sharing her skills while helping you develop yours.

Fred Tyler

Instructor

Fred has led the Bootcamp at Wheaton Labs for five years now. He's directed and taught skills ranging from organic gardening to woodworking to natural building. He is the coordinator of timber-frame projects and food-growing systems.

Dre Oeschger

Instructor

Dre runs a healthy side hustle aptly named Strong Wife Sourdough.  She also loves to crochet and occasionally sells custom crochet items via another side hustle, Dre's Crochet.  She is a mother of three and loves unschooling her boys.  She has also lent her experience and knowledge in the implementation of Acton of the Rubies, an alternative learning studio in Elko, Nevada that applies many of the unschooling and Montessori principles.

Josiah Kobernik

Instructor

Josiah cobbled together a diverse background in commercial agriculture, horticulture, market gardening, raising livestock, homesteading, and other general build/fix skills before landing at Wheaton Labs in 2019. Since moving to the labs, he has taken to working with roundwood timber framing, earthen plasters, videography, rocket contraptions, and any other inventions he can get his hands on.

Jennifer Richardson

Instructor

Jennifer Richardson is a former cattle rancher and current resident of Wheaton Labs. She is participating in the boot camp and living in Allerton Abbey, the first wofati, in order to test the thermal inertia of the structure.

Rodney Morgan

Instructor

Rodney Morgan has a Masters in Sustainability and has been working with energy building energy efficiency and alternate designs for over 15 years. He is a Small Wind installer, CPHC (PHIUS, Passive House), Landfill Manager, Hazcom 40, and Mud Buddie. In short, an overeducated mechanic that enjoys playing in the mud and preserving the planet. 

Abe Coley

Instructor

Abe Coley is an 1,123rd generation fence builder living in Missoula, MT. His daddy had him peeling logs when he was three years old, and he's built just about every kind of fence ever since - from cast iron and wire to dry stacked stone to wattles, hurdles, and stick fences. If the saying is true that good fences make good neighbors, then that pretty much makes Abe Coley, Mr. Rogers.

Austin Durant

Instructor

Austin Durant has been playing with his food his whole life, and fermenting it for over ten years. In 2011, he created Fermenters Club with a mission: To improve people’s lives by teaching them why and how to make and enjoy fermented foods; and to create communities that are connected through their guts. He teaches classes (online courses and hands-on workshops) on many fermented food traditions such as sauerkraut, pickles, kimchi, kombucha, miso, as well as seasonal specialties. He writes and shares recipes, videos and other fermentation adventures on his blog, fermentersclub.com. An otherwise permie newbie, Austin tends to his small garden in zone 10a, urban/coastal San Diego, California and is greatly looking forward to attending his first PDC and instructing at the PTJ at the Lab this year!

Melody Rothwell

Chef

Melody Rothwell is an avid and creative cook, a world traveler, a free spirit, and a connector of people. She is an apprentice herbalist and yoga teacher, a life coach, & an Enneagram and Human Design practitioner. When she's not experimenting in the kitchen you can find her nerding out reading books on fermentation, learning to forage, and spending time outside. She's excited for the opportunity to bring her love of food and community to Wheaton Labs this summer..