Kinstone — Attraction in Town of Buffalo

If you'd like to take a peaceful walk through a rolling landscape filled with wildflowers, juxtaposed with huge stone monoliths, this is the perfect place!

This place is absolutely gorgeous, and quite a bit larger than what I expected. The effort put into making this place what it is can definitely be seen and felt. This area is multi-tiered, and much more steep than what the pictures show. If you want to see it in its entirety, be prepared to get some exercise.

I spent around an hour, and while I missed a few things (the northwesternmost section), I felt my time here was well-spent, and well worth the $10 admission fee. (Another half hour would have been enough, but I had a looong drive home, and was really hungry after doing a lot of driving and hiking, and it was already past closing time, lol).

I was really quite surprised that there was not a giant stone sundial here. I fully expected there to be one, as it seems something like that would fit in really well. I don't know if they're still adding to this attraction, but if they are, I feel that would be an excellent addition.

If I could make one other suggestion, it would be to add a tiny replica of Stonehenge. I mean really small. Like one that would fit on a birdbath. I think the added humor of a tiny Stonehenge contrasted to the gigantic stones in the area would be hilarious.

There is a small parking area, a gift shop, and a few cats running around.

Well...

Took a PDC in early 2014. Would recommend only if you wish to learn about the very beginning stages of establishing permaculture projects. If you take a course here, that is all you will have access to; it's just where Kinstone is for now. If you are interested in seeing the possibilities of more established sites, learn elsewhere. My experience was colored by the fact that it was a very small course (3.5 students). Small size was helpful in that the experience was quite pleasant from an accommodation standpoint, but not helpful in that the instruction was very informal and scattershot.

As expensive as courses at more established teaching centers; for my money, I would've preferred to do that. As seems to be the custom in the permaculture world, a lot of labor goes into projects. The projects going on at Kinstone are no exception, and that labor will be yours. It just is how it is, and would likely be true of any kind of workshop-style learning.

Kudos to Kristine for customer service. Her and her family were very kind. Just wish the teaching had been a bit more serious and...

Kristine and kinstone family It has been a great joy to keep bee hives at Kinstone again this year. Now that " the girls " are safely tucked in for their winter hibernation I have a chance to ponder what makes their lives thrive and certainly Kinstone is a place at the top of my gratitude list as a beekeeper and nature lover. Witnessing the restoration and revitalization of the land at Kinstone over the last five years since you began seems like a century not five years. Touring the prairie in full bloom a few months ago was spectacular and I saw more honeybees and native bees and butterflies than ever before in one small bit of restored prairie. I have also greatly appreciated many of the classes that I have participated in which are building up my repertoire of knowledge on building with stone, cordwood, ...classes I have never been able to find anywhere else. Everytime I visit I come away feeling like a new person ...grounded again in the beauty of the land and its critters , plants and stones...Life in abundance .

Thank you is not enough but I have to...