JULY

HI EVERYONE
I hope your gardens are growing well this 2016 summer season and that you are off enjoying whatever adventures the chickens allow! I myself am gearing up for travels and adventures. BTW I am looking for a summer subletter/caretaker(dates and $ are negotiable) if you know someone who is looking for a short term stay starting mid-july. And I hope you will come on by weekend after this for my “on-the-fly” open house. Look for Fall classes and events to be posted Mid August. Otherwise, I am going to keep things short this month as my “To-Do” list is longer than ever!

A RARE SUMMER OPEN HOUSE
Open house, Trunk Sale, Garage Sale, Garden Viewing, Social
Saturday July 9 10am-2pm
839 60th Street Oakland 94608

This will be a casual event, a toned down version of our Winter Open House, but nevertheless SUPER FUN!
I could use a volunteer or two to manage the scene. Volunteers will get a bag of goodies. Just hit reply if it sounds like fun.
Here’s whats happening:
We’ll have a garage sale out front, with freebies, houseplants, homesteading supplies, art supplies, books, bottles, and the usual miscellany that you see at a garage sale. Everything Cheap Cheap Cheap—make an offer, we’d love you to have it.
Inside I’ll be doing a trunk sale of my homemade goodes 20%-50% off honey, tincture, handcrafted soap,cordials, art cards, sand blasted bottles, mead (honey wine) and more. Tiles, books, DAHLIA BOUQUETS and FRESH PESTO will also be available.
See the chaos of our summer garden, roses, corn, beets, tomatoes, vertical winter squash, sunflowers, rabbits, chicken, pigeons, doves bees, dogs and more.Plus FREE WINE—giving away my overstock while it lasts 1 per household.
Hope to see you!

BERKELEY FARM TOUR WRAP UP
The farm tour was a blast! Check out the photos here:
https://www.facebook.com/urbanfarmtours/photos/?tab=album&album_id=476725755849330

DAHLIAS
The Jreed Bee & Blume Dahlia Collection is going off! Here’s just a few of the beauties.

AUGUST 1

Hello Friends and Subscribers
Hopefully you are deep into summer adventures, homesteading and otherwise. I missed my August 1 newsletter, but catching up now with the news that fit to print….

REPORT FROM THE GARDEN
Just back from a two week road trip all the way up to the Canadian border and back, we spent two days clearing and sprucing up the garden, filling our green bin three or 4 times over. I am curious to know what is growing well for you this summer? Tomatoes have come on strong here, cucumbers are still producing and our basil crop keeps flushing for continued harvest. Our dahlias got a massive case of powdery mildew while we were gone, as did our summer squash, but the winter squash is going gangbusters. Asian pears are coming on as well as early apples (we have Ginger Golds). The grapes and hot peppers are still a few weeks off, though some of our sweet peppers andmild hot peppers have had moderate harvest. All in all seems like summer crops are a success

FALL GARDEN
While it may seem a bit early, in most of the bay area August 1 is the time to start thinking about the fall garden. This is especially true if you are starting from seed, but even starts can go into the ground now. The success of the Fall garden depends on watering your seeds and starts in the driest part of the year and it can be challenging to keep enough moisture in the soil for roots to spread out for successful plant growth. Crops you can plant this month include all the cool season crops: kale, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, lettuce and other greens, peas. Root crops can also be started now for harvest through the winter, carrots, beets, turnips, potatoes.

FALL CLASSES
I am still working out what classes will be offered this fall. There have been a ton of requests for Soap Making, so this will definitely happen. For sure there will also be a session of Canning Extravaganza, Natural Beekeeping and a Community Meat Buy & Butchery Class. Is there anything else you out there are hoping to learn? Please let me know your desires! I will have the schedule posted and open for registration on August 15 as promised.

HOUSE GOING ON THE MARKET
The biggest news of the day is that my house (and garden) will be on the market soon. A few people have asked me to give them a heads up when this was to happen. I will send a listing link when I announce classes mid month, but let me know via response to this email if you want me to let you know as soon as it is listed and I will shoot the info to you personally. North Oakland 1920s craftsman bungalow, hardwood & tile floors, 2/1 upstairs, large eat-in kitchen, 1/1 downstairs in-law unit, garage, studio, lot 4800 sf, approx 2000 sf garden with well amended soil, mature fruit trees, berries, herbs and a 9 x 20 enclosure built to house rabbits or chickens.

AUGUST 15

STATE OF AFFAIRS
Hi Folks. Well things are moving quickly in my world. I am currently in escrow on 22 acres in Southern Oregon and my house is on the market. Please don’t offer congratulations yet—that could jinx it! Rural real estate is complex and many thing can still go wrong. But I am cautiously hopeful…looking ahead to the daunting task of moving home, shop, critters and garden and will certainly shout it out to all of you when the deal is done. In the meantime, wrangling a move and still offering a season of classes will be tricky, but I have a few of our most popular classes on the calendar and a few more will fill in October (these will be added by September 1 at the latest) I am currently exploring ways the work of IUH can continue here and of course eventually there will be a rural curriculum for hobby farmers and homesteaders in the new digs.

HOUSE ON THE MARKET
Ever dream of owning your own well planned out homestead in the city? I have done the planning and amending for you and am offering my amazing home and garden out to the world. Open House TODAY 2-4:30 as well as next Sunday 8/21 http://maxebrdi.paragonrels.com/publink/default.aspx?GUID=40146b49-ed34-40c3-b176-f10d4fc20417&Report=Yes

BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY
I am exploring ways to continue the work of IUH and still have my fingers in the pot. This could include partnering with someone who has a wide skill set (homesteading, teaching and admin skills required) or selling the business outright. The Institute has a 5000 name mailing list and a strong reputation in our field as one of the first of our kind. While there is not a ton of money in administering the school, I have made a decent living teaching my classes, so a person considering this should have skills and interest in sustainability education. I would want to continue on the faculty for at least the first couple years so this would be built into any transfer agreement. If this interests you please respond via email with your phone number and a little bit about yourself. And if you don’t hear back from me right away just be patient—wrangling a lot right now and this is a longer term proposition.

FALL CLASSES
As promised a selection of our favorite popular classes! Please register early! So many classes were cancelled last season because people didn’t try to register until the day before the class. We cannot ask a teacher to do the work of preparing a class id we don’t already have the minimum number of students to run. Please note these classes are on the live calendar at IUH and open for registration but not yet listed on the class description pages. I have been meaning to update the website and registration system, but for now we are stuck with what we have: http://iuhoakland.com/register.html