Kragonfire Hatfield

Paul try this site. go about 3/4 way down.
http://www.de12ambachten.nl/enggreentech.html#anker72066

hardpan was there before any farmers started in that valley. That CA Central Valley in reality is desert before it was leveled and canals put in. Used to be a lake out in Corcoran before they put in a series of dikes and canals. Still places in the valley that you can see how it was before all that farming started just shrubs, tumbleweeds and alkali. If water was taken to Mojave Desert it would bloom also. But water is a valuable commodity there now what with the drought.

Forestiere Underground Gardens and not build using bricks and mortar.
build using hardpan and mortar. if you read more on it. hardpan is harder than brick but softer than rock. It's compacted red clay what I would call it.

Baldassare Forestiere  "Instead, he spent the next 40 years of his life carving out the "useless farmland".
only to tragically discover that the California land he
purchased for growing citrus trees would be useless for such." 
Ok reason being is because of hardpan. Wiki defines it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardpan
what you think is brick is hardpan. all the building material except mortar comes from that same area he picked out and dug out.
In central Valley, CA there is a strip that runs thru it under the soil. it useless for growing only certain crops and that is to go in the fields and rip it with CATS and ripper shacks twice and then go in and pick up the biggest chucks of hardpan. This is where citrus and grapes vines are grown at the cost of $200 an HR. that was 8 years ago when I done that.
In his time it wasn't  possible.

well I worked with a man who took that idea but a twist to it no pipe. he had a problem with those french drains with his 2 car garage backed into a hill.  The material was a roll of 4' thermoplastic roofing membranes ends he picked up from a company for nothing. just glue them together. Dug the dirt out 12' on the back side of the garage a layer of sand and gravel on top of the  thermoplastic roofing membranes then fibermat on the gravel put the soil back. Same way to the side of the garage as it slope down to ground level.  Installed and allowed it to drain towards the  4" Channel Drain and Grates continuing along the drive way. That stopped the water problem into the garage. Now thermoplastic roofing membranes would work for sod roofs.

those Japanese beattle are a good source if you have traps for them you can give them to the chickens

paul wheaton
Have you decided on what mil and color of Polyethylene Sheeting?
check this unless you found another site that's cheaper
http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/product.asp?catalog_name=USPlastic&category_name=66&product_id=1413

"wood duff won't remain wood duff for very long"
I would to have to say that it would turn into compost. It will still be there. 
I like the idea but pond liner and tar paper just don't fit = $$$$$.  Salvage (PC word for recycle) is a better idea, use what you can get from town and also on the land. The straw between the 2 layers would be a NO NO. It become compost.
I like that hobbit house roof style and looking up at the ceiling.
I like the drawing from Mike Oehler's book, page 46 designs for the green house but would add another green house on the front but with your plan's drawing it would not fit.
Yes you need to draw the rain water away it means giving up that rain water that you can store for watering the place when needed. It's like you're da*n if you do and da*n if you don't.
But still the bottom of the posts has to be treated. And still put a layer of gravel in the bottom of the hole for the post to sit on.
When saying facing uphill I would have a assume that the mountain is facing north?

yeah what I've been looking for. most of my posts in Craig's list gets flagged so I don't get any answers. I'm looking for internship with someone. With room and board. Was interested in building alternate houses (straw bale, slip form, and under ground homes). What I've seen are costly classes. Just no way I can pay those prices. so if someone has something that they could use the labor for the learning I could go that route. Could be short or long term as long as something could be lined up after the short period. I'm looking to do 2 years of this. Thanks.