Amber Hill

Cam Mitchell wrote:

I'm sorry to say this, but I don't think you can grow peaches or sweet cherries (prove me wrong, please!). I can't, and I'm about the same elevation and climate. I'd suggest sour cherries, pawpaw, persimmons, plum, pear, apples, maybe some native fruit bushes. Of course, you need a lot of water for these, except some natives. Gotta get that figured out. You wouldn't want to buy trees to see them die from dehydration.

Oh nooooo I had really been hoping to grow peaches. I was told by neighbors that they don't do well, but had hoped that permie magic would make it work. They are the fruit I wanted most. Let's just try anyway, see what happens. C:

Miles: Thanks for explaining the flags, and for helping with another! I like to think the represent how EXCITED I am for this whole mess.

Johnny:
There are a lot of great programs and grants for folks to aid with cleanup and rebuilding. Sadly, we do not qualify for any of them because we didn't own the place before the flood. That's ok, it will all go to help those
in need. In the meantime, we've found a great excavator guy with more than reasonable rates and high recommendations from folks in town. We DO qualify for roadside debriw pick up, which runs through spring, and the conty want's people to get as much debris out of the way of spring thaw as much as possible! I will, however, double check on debris removal regulations and if wood chips will be a problem.

As for seeding, I've been looking at http://www.westernnativeseed.com, specifically the Montane Mix http://www.westernnativeseed.com/Mmixes.html We are at around 6500 feet. I was told by the folks that used to live in the canyon that the growing season is two weeks shorter than down the road. Good news is that for a canyon, it gets a lot of sun! And we have experience some of that wind. Until we live there, we won't have a good idea of exactly the wind is gonna do.

I moved to the area a couple years ago to be with my fiance, who has been here for 12 years. In the winter, it was so windy! I remarked on it and he said "Yeah, it's pretty windy in the winter." In the spring, there was some wind. I said so. "Yeah Colorado gets some wind in the spring!" By fall, I'd realised that it's just plain windy when it wants to be, and I beat up my fiance.

Mike: I love those boulders! They are beautiful and I want them all inside my house. : D I hope I can use them smartly.

I don't mind scattered gardens, the whole place is rather scattered just because of the layout of the land. A county road runs through the middle of it so we have to cross the street every time just to get to the creek side. I think it might be helpful for the continuation of this thread to show the survey. It's a large file, even re-sized: http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1629405/landsurvey.jpg



So, everything in bold is ours, even that little mining strip to the south east. That little parcel in the north corner? There is an old, updated cabin leftover from the townsite. We've been talking with the folks who own it, such wonderful folks! and we are in the process of purchasing it so we can actually live on our land. Flood plain and elevations are nicely indicated, too. Also of note, we are surrounded, for the most part, by National Forest.

The spring house, Building 19.6 x 14.8 is right by where we'd like to rebuild, so I am not sure about trying to do much gardening there aside from keeping wood chips and growing plants moist. I understand, and could be wrong, that the spring is our domestic well, thus the water source we can use for out door animals. We are still trying to puzzle through our water rights. Even the help of a water lawyer didn't clear that one up!

Thank you, Mike, for your encouragement! I have a short term plan with nebulous long term ideas. Something will emerge from this inchoate mess.

Cam: Your plant list is wonderful! You know, just last night I randomly chose mountain mahogany from the Western Native Seed site to read about. What a coincidence you mention it! And your links are amazingly useful. Good to know. I just took a read about Black Locust and see why you put some pants on. ;3 Is the forum divided on that subject? Regardless, thank you for your advice and resources. I will add them to my research.

I think I have a pretty solid game plan to get started.

• Demo the house in about three weeks, maybe more.
• Salvage materials.
•Move the debris piles to the road wood chipping/firewooding as much as possible.
•Spread Wood Chips, especially near springs
•Inoculate everything in the world
•Scatter seed(balls?) for fast growing nitrogen fixers
•Build hugels, at least by the house
•Begin a simple kitchen garden for this year

Please feel free to critique or suggest otherwise! Thanks again ya'll.

Your situation is similar to mine, so I'm very interested in what you end up doing! The few photos you have posted are already inspiring.

Thank you Miles!

There isn't much above the flood zone, just vertical rock. We still aren't even sure we can build a house, even with our proposed smarter site and building up on piers. I'd like to work with what I've got and hope that we go a long time before another 1000 year flood hits. If it gets washed away, what can you do?

I'd love to use the wood piles as hugels, but unsure what sort of house debris is inside of them. My hope it to pull them apart and separate trash from organic debris. Then have a field day making raised beds! My concern is the lack of soil, only sand, silt, and rocks.

Half the house is still there! Demo will be in about 3 to 4 weeks and we will salvage as much as we can, especially that metal roof and old timber beams, not that we are short on giant logs.

There are many springs on the property, non hot, only slightly bubbly, one of which I believe we have the rights to use. That's the odd squat building with the rounded roof. That is where I'd like to lay down wood chips and inoculate with mycelium. Someone on this forum recommended http://www.bio-organics.com in a thread. I contacted them about my situation and they were very helpful, so they have my business and I will order soon.

We cannot change the course of the stream as it effects everyone below us. There are plans in action by the town and county to perhaps alter the course of the stream.

Also, I'm wondering why this post is flagged? I hope I didn't do something wrong!

Howdy ya'll! I'm a long time lurker, but now I feel is time to post. I will try to make a long story short without too much ramble:

Last August (2013) my fiancé and I discovered a house on a 21 acre parcel of land in a canyon near Boulder, CO. A large part of the land is steep, rocky canyon side, with a good sized chunk of flat land near a small mountain stream. There was an alpine meadow, lush mosses, great tall trees.



Some landscaping was established and quite self sufficient as no one lived at the house. A few mysterious outbuildings were scattered down the property. It was magnificent. It was more than ideal. It was heaven.



We went under contract and were well on our way to completing the purchase. Our inspections went well, despite the house being build in the 40's with an addition from the 70's. We learned the rich history of the area, from mining town to health resort to atomic park based on the radium springs, one of which still flows inside a 60 year old spring house.



Two weeks before we closed, it began to rain. Maybe some folks remember that Colorado got a lot of rain in September. The canyon flooded worse than anything on record and the raging waters took half the house down stream and what's left is demolished.





We were crushed. We'd fallen in love with the place and now it was all destroyed. But we'd seen the land in its full glory, and we know that it will be beautiful again someday. We were under no obligation to buy the place, of course, but still…what would happen if we were to renegotiate the contract for a lower purchase price?

I will save you the details of our long, drawn out battle for the land. There were so many ups and downs and countless moments of "we are going to lose this place", but finally, thankfully, we signed January 9th. We got the land for less than 20% our original offer, really, for a song!

Even before the flood hit and before we were looking to move, I was fascinated by this permaculture thing I'd been hearing about. When we went under contract the first time, I immediately dove into the library for books. The Boulder Library has some amazingly useful books on permaculture! Shocking, I'm sure.

I am trying to formulate a plan based on what i have read from books (halfway through Sepp Holzer's Permactulture book right now! It's a huge inspiration), seen on videos, and read on the forums about. I've got a huge project on my hands. Not only is it a large property, it's covered in enormous debris piles of tangled wood matted with pieces of houses and people's belongings. The soil has been scoured away and I have silt and boulders left over. The creek…no one even knows where the creek will ultimately end up. It's not where it used to be. I've affectionately named one of our largest debris piles The Tanglewood.





Anyway. The ultimate goal is to have a food forest and chickens,ducks, and way down the road, pigs. I would love any and all help for getting started!

I'd like to pull apart the debris piles as much as possible and run wood through the chipper (and chop up large logs for infinite firewood) . Spread out the wood chips to begin soil remediation where the springs still flow and it's moist. Inoculate these areas with mycelium and let them go. But what will so much pine do to the soil?

I predict that the nitrogen fixing "weeds" will move in on their own starting this spring. We are surrounded by national forest so i am hoping native plants will do what they do best without much help from me. I was thinking of planting additional green manures suitable for the alpine climate. Lupines? Clovers? Cereals?

There were a few fruit trees on the land before the flood and I'd like to get more going as soon as I can. Wild blueberries are abundant, perhaps some domesticated varieties will do well?

I'd like to build some raised beds using fallen and scrounged timber, even the big hairy rootballs that came floating down stream.

Terracing might be out because of the nature of the sheer mountain granite most everywhere. It will take further exploration to scout out possible sites.

After that I'm at a bit of a loss. I understand it take time to learn the land to find all the microclimates and wind patterns and so on. What can I do over the course of this spring and summer to construct the baby food forest when the land is so damaged? Will I have to just wait until nature brings the soil back over the next few years, or can I speed it along with wise planting choices?

The downside to all this is no matter what happens, all my hard work will be washed away someday, as it will flood again. Maybe next year, maybe 5 years from now, maybe 50. Who knows! But I'm not gonna let that stop me.