Richard Johns

Just spotted this thread. The chocolate mint does sound wonderful. My idea would be to plant one in creeping yellow sedum, just for a conversation piece. Or one in white flox for early spring pizazz.

Now Jami, there you go letting the facts get in the way of a good story. Hope you can find the original article. We would prefer to know what we're talking about.

Tyler, thanks for the link. My questions have mostly been related to what the situation is in Western states. I an fascinated to learn that if my land configuration would accommodate it, I could impound 49 acre feet of water to a depth of at least 20' and not need a permit. Mind you, that's assuming the downstream neighbors are safe in the event of dam failure and I had the ten million it would take to build a dam that size.

Thanks for the further info. As water rights issues will begin to creep east the same fights of 150 years ago in the west will creep with them.

My property has no running stream so the idea that what falls on my property is mine to use, or hold, makes sense to me. However, I'm sure this argument is as old as the hills. Do the laws allow for terracing of the land to slow the runoff and increase the absorbed water?

John Polk, at what point does the water cease to be rain water and then become run off to a tributary? When the rain touches the ground does it cease to be rain water? If it's okay to catch rain water in a rain barrel, can I put out ten thousand 55 gallon barrels on my property to catch rain water before it hits the ground? I know water rights are sticky issues in the western part of our country. I'm guessing this issue will move east if the long term predictions about precipitation declines are accurate. How are we going to deal with this issue as a nation may become big business soon.

I wanted to build a western exposure frame this year but didn't have enough time. My plan is for a heavy framework with lath horizontal on the framework. At the base of this I want to plant hops. Some varieties can grow 25 ' in a season. If I want to start my own brewing that's just a bonus.:)

Thanks for the welcome LaLena. I look forward to learning much from the people on this site. Hopefully I can contribute some as well.

This is fascinating for a newcomer. There are terms in these posts that I do not understand, but which I shall soon study. I have a stream running under my property that is just barely too deep to reach with a hand pump. (There is currently an electric well pump but I'd like to get away from the grid dependence.) Will a crank type pump reach deeper than a push/pull pump? I can see I need rain barrels on each side of my barn. Is there a cheaper way of having rain barrels than just buying lots of plastic drums? I'll quit asking all these questions at once.

Hey I'm Richard. Long time interested in simplifying life and this appears a great place to learn more of that. Looking forward to knowing you folks and sharing in the learning.