Yestermorrow Design/Build School in Waitsfield, Vermont offers over 80 hands-on courses per year in design, construction, woodworking, and architectural craft and offers a variety of courses concentrating in sustainable design. Now in its 35th year, Yestermorrow is one of the only design/build schools in the country, teaching both design and construction skills. Our hands-on 1-day to 3-week workshops, certificate programs and semester programs are taught by top architects, builders, and craftspeople from across the country. For people of all ages and experience levels, from novice to professional.

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Permaculture Takes a Yoga Break


Our two-week Permaculture Design Certification class took a break this morning for some yoga out on the front lawn...

Tile Your World Takes Over the Arches


Last weekend's Tile Your World class took over the Yestermorrow arches with their mosaics- what an improvement of the view out the office window!

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Yestermorrow Projects are Supporting Players in Walk Against Global Warming

With his frustration at government inaction bubbling over, noted writer, environmentalist, and activist Bill McKibben, took to the streets in an effort to make the voice of the people heard. He organized a five-day March Against Global Warming over Labor Day weekend, beginning at the old summer cabin of Robert Frost in Ripton, Vermont, and winding it's way to Burlington for a culminating rally. Village green meetings were held each evening at stops along the way. Several Yestermorrow staffers participated in sections of the walk.

Yestermorrow was also thrilled to provide technical and structural support to event. Our Mobile Solar Power Generating Unit, built in our 2005 Installing an Independent Solar Power System workshop, travelled the entire route, collecting energy by day, and providing it each evening as the power source for the PA system that allowed the voice of the people to be heard as they exhorted our leaders to take action.


A recent class project, the Mobile Writer's Cabin, designed and constructed by our 2006 Community Design/Build class housed McKibben on the fourth night of the walk, during his stop at Shelburne Farms. McKibben is quoted as saying,
The mobile writing cabin--henceforth to be known as either the WordShip or the Sentence Structure--is a thing of great beauty and utility, and I slept like a baby within its comforting confines. I'm thinking of ordering one for myself and giving up my home.
Yestermorrow is pleased to have participated in this important event.

Ex-Wolfman takes over Yestermorrow



Bob Ferris—a member of the team that went north to capture the last set of wolves reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park—joined Yestermorrow as executive director in September. Ferris, who has worked in the wildlife conservation, environmental protection, and sustainability arenas for a quarter of a century, looks forward to a long and productive stint at Yestermorrow. “Our lifestyles have put an already ailing planet at additional risk. We must change the way we build our homes, design our communities and live our lives. The courses at Yestermorrow help us do just that and do so in a way that makes sustainability and living small on the planet not only a practical necessity but a pleasing and desirable option,” said Ferris. Bob can be reached at bob@yestermorrow.org