New Agrarian School

### Context Profile for New Agrarian School

1. **Organization Mission & Cause**:
   - **Mission**: The New Agrarian School is dedicated to providing hands-on, experiential education in traditional crafts and sustainable practices. Their mission is to empower individuals through skill-building workshops that foster a connection to the land and promote self-sufficiency.
   - **Cause**: They aim to preserve and revitalize traditional crafts, ensuring that these skills are passed down through generations while also addressing the financial challenges of maintaining affordable education.

2. **Type of Activities**:
   - **Workshops**: The school offers a variety of workshops focusing on different crafts, including but not limited to woodworking, textiles, and food preservation.
   - **Guest Instructors**: They invite exceptional guest instructors to enhance the learning experience and provide diverse perspectives.
   - **Community Engagement**: The school emphasizes community involvement and aims to expand its programming to reach more individuals interested in learning these crafts.
   - **Fundraising Campaigns**: Regular fundraising efforts are conducted to support their programs and expand their offerings.

3. **Tone of Voice**:
   - The tone of the New Agrarian School is **friendly, encouraging, and supportive**. Their language is accessible and aims to inspire potential students and donors by emphasizing the importance of community and skill-sharing.
   - The use of **inclusive language** fosters a sense of belonging and encourages participation.

4. **Emoji Usage**:
   - The analysis of the website and communications indicates that the New Agrarian School does **not use emojis** in their content. Their communication style remains professional and straightforward, focusing on clarity and sincerity.

5. **Key Facts**:
   - **Founding Info**: Specific founding details were not explicitly mentioned on the website, but the organization appears to have been established to address the need for craft education.
   - **Scale**: The school operates with limited resources, relying heavily on community support and donations to fund its programs.
   - **Impact Metrics**: While specific metrics were not detailed, the emphasis on community engagement and student participation suggests a focus on qualitative impact rather than quantitative.
   - **Volunteer Info**: Information regarding volunteer opportunities is not explicitly stated, but the community-oriented nature of the school implies that volunteers may play a role in supporting workshops and events.

6. **Writing Guidelines**:
   - **Style**: Use a conversational and warm tone that reflects the school’s mission of community and craft education.
   - **Clarity**: Ensure that communications are clear and straightforward, avoiding jargon to make the content accessible to all audiences.
   - **Call to Action**: Incorporate strong calls to action in fundraising and engagement communications, encouraging donations and sharing.
   - **Gratitude**: Express appreciation for support and involvement, reinforcing the value of contributions to the school’s mission.

This context profile provides a comprehensive understanding of the New Agrarian School, enabling AI assistants to generate tailored and effective content that aligns with the organization's mission and values.

Two-Week Course

Check made out to New Agrarian School
Address to send check: 990 McCaffery Road, Bigfork, MT 59911

In this two week course, we will go deep into our past to explore a foundational relationship between humans and the earth. 3,000 years ago, at the end of the Bronze Age, the discovery of a new metal swept across the world. Iron changed everything. We will follow the footsteps of our ancestors and make iron from earth.Transformation will be our focus: wood into charcoal, clay into cob, rocks into metal. We will collect ore from the mountains (prepare for a night of camping in the remote forest and a difficult hike), build our furnace from scratch, and smelt our ore into bloom iron- a unique material which we will learn to work with and forge into objects of meaning.Along the way, we will discuss the history and science of these techniques, convert our iron into steel, and experience first hand the human labor and teamwork required to bring a simple piece of metal into being. We will reflect on questions that have no answers, and grapple with the double-edged role that iron has played in our own path over the millennia. In the end, we may find ourselves transformed, for our story is not separate from that of iron. This workshop will involve complete immersion in the exploration of design, construction, and operation of the traditional shaft type Bloomery Furnace. Workshop participants will produce all of the charcoal onsite needed to fire the furnace. We will have a two-day field trip to collect the ore from an abandoned 19th century iron mine high on the side of Elkhorn mountain, just east of the continental divide. Using this and other ores we will smelt our iron, delve into refining our bloom using 18th century hearth techniques, and we will practice forging this unique material. This class will also explore the history of pre-industrial iron production, and involve conversations on the role of iron in civilization, aiming at cultivating a deeply respectful relationship for this essential material that we too often take for granted. Previous experience is not necessary, but please be aware that this is a very labor-intensive process. &nbsp;As well, the hike to the ore location near Elkhorn is a fairly strenuous three-mile hike with a 1500 foot elevation gain. &nbsp;Folks who don&rsquo;t feel up to the actual ore gathering hike will be able to join us for the field trip and simply stay at our base camp. &nbsp;The field trip will also involve stops at other locations connected to mining and smelting in Montana.Skill level: Basic to Advanced

Hi&nbsp;<span contenteditable="false" data-custom-variable="{{firstname}}" fr-original-class="fr-deletable styled-tag-chip" fr-original-style="" style="background-color: rgb(248, 248, 255); border: 1px solid rgb(191, 191, 255); border-radius: 4px; color: rgb(42, 42, 196); padding: 1px 8px; font-size: 11px; display: inline-block; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: anywhere; user-select: none; box-sizing: inherit;">First name, You are registered for the course. It&#39;s going to be a hoot! Please feel free to reach out to our Program Director, Jeffrey Funk <a fr-original-style="" href="mailto:jfunk@newagrarianschool.org" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-color: initial; user-select: auto; box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">jfunk@newagrarianschool.org</a>, if you have any questions. Thank you,The New Agrarian School

In this two week course, we will go deep into our past to explore a foundational relationship between humans and the earth. 3,000 years ago, at the end of the Bronze Age, the discovery of a new metal swept across the world. Iron changed everything. We will follow the footsteps of our ancestors and make iron from earth.Transformation will be our focus: wood into charcoal, clay into cob, rocks into metal. We will collect ore from the mountains (prepare for a night of camping in the remote forest and a difficult hike), build our furnace from scratch, and smelt our ore into bloom iron- a unique material which we will learn to work with and forge into objects of meaning.Along the way, we will discuss the history and science of these techniques, convert our iron into steel, and experience first hand the human labor and teamwork required to bring a simple piece of metal into being. We will reflect on questions that have no answers, and grapple with the double-edged role that iron has played in our own path over the millennia. In the end, we may find ourselves transformed, for our story is not separate from that of iron. This workshop will involve complete immersion in the exploration of design, construction, and operation of the traditional shaft type Bloomery Furnace. Workshop participants will produce all of the charcoal onsite needed to fire the furnace. We will have a two-day field trip to collect the ore from an abandoned 19th century iron mine high on the side of Elkhorn mountain, just east of the continental divide. Using this and other ores we will smelt our iron, delve into refining our bloom using 18th century hearth techniques, and we will practice forging this unique material. This class will also explore the history of pre-industrial iron production, and involve conversations on the role of iron in civilization, aiming at cultivating a deeply respectful relationship for this essential material that we too often take for granted. Previous experience is not necessary, but please be aware that this is a very labor-intensive process.  As well, the hike to the ore location near Elkhorn is a fairly strenuous three-mile hike with a 1500 foot elevation gain.  Folks who don’t feel up to the actual ore gathering hike will be able to join us for the field trip and simply stay at our base camp.  The field trip will also involve stops at other locations connected to mining and smelting in Montana.Skill level: Basic to Advanced

New Agrarian School

Wild Iron: The Alchemy and Art of Bloomery Smelting with Eric Dennis

990 McCaffery Rd

Two-Week Course

$1,950

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