Ben Brownell

Tank is right about 6' x 2' Jay, it's a standard size stock watering tank, that I happened to find used locally. Surface area to depth ratio probably does matter for heating efficiency, but you might be able to rig a taller one to have one upright side of the tank heated by a wide chimney flue?

Mike, I think this approach helps on a couple levels versus direct fire-under-tank. I think durability of both the metal itself and the seam glue that seals around the base perimeter is a consideration with very high temperature epxosure. And yes, the metal/sand sandwich really helps even out the temperature conduction. I generally have heating dialed in with practice, tapering off fuel feed rate toward the end to be able to get right in at ideal temperature without hot spots on bottom. Some kind of thin wood slat buffer inside could also be used as needed.

Thought I'd share this setup here, as it's served well now for a few years and one of the best overall ultra low tech designs I've seen for this.

Photo should be pretty explanatory, it's just two parallel 'stem' walls made of stone mortared with mud/cob up to about 16" above ground, with an opening in the front to feed the fire and one out the back to mount a 6' smoke stack, all done such that a flat metal panel cap (heavier gauge ribbed roofing in this case) can mount evenly end to end to enclose the fire box below. The addition of an inch or so of loose sand or fine aggregate on top of the metal creates an even base for the tub, and really helps to both distribute and hold heat in between the fire and tub.

Takes an hour plus or minus to heat a half full volume of water, and will hold temp for several hours easily. Quite delightful, and I'm sure with some creativity same principles could be adapted to larger tub sizes, but this is quick and easy enough that it sees regular use!

Probably a good bow or crossbow. Not much of a hunter presently, but it would be critical for longer term sustenance in my climate/landscape through any sort of major system disruptions.

Second, or in addition, a slew of quality metal hand tools for 'rough' woodworking and landscaping. Or perhaps even better, a basic blacksmithing setup to forge them with??

Believe the site in question is without the "s"

https://web.archive.org/web/20260122081901/https://farmhack.org/

Hi Susan, see if you can access the message I just sent you via Permies, which has my email address that you can use for direct communication. If you have trouble accessing that message let me know, but it should show if you click the envelope icon top right corner of the page, next to notification bell icon, when logged in to the forum. Happy to see what I can do to help! Selma is a good area to look in, there's a few more I can suggest with a better sense of your preferences too.

Zach Weiss is doing a lot to educate and mobilize people around local water storage and enhancement projects at https://www.waterstories.com

I haven't taken any of their (somewhat costly) courses, but enjoy the highlight vids and community discussion on mighty networks.

Currently testing out some smaller scale collection ponds I was able to excavate with rented backhoe last spring, as I experiment with optimal configuration in somewhat challenging climate and hydrology. Good amount of surface water available during wet season, but pond basins will dry out usually by mid summer, and then I worry may contribute to greater *loss* of soil moisture during the rest of the year...

I think in semi-arid or Mediterranean climate like this, it's important to emphasize pond depth over surface area, and perhaps line the side walls with stone, clay, or synthetic liner to limit evaporative loss? And ideally, get trees established around the margin to help protect it.

Anyways, fun stuff to tinker with and see what works! Good to have more people aware and working together at watershed scale, ultimately.

I'm pretty familiar with property market and location scouting in those areas with Permaculture parameters in mind, happy to help with your search if you'd consider very modest consulting fee? Feel free to message me contact info if you'd like to chat and see what could work! Should work out to significant net cost savings for you, especially if realtor involvement is minimized.

Believe the website you meant to link is drillawell.com

Looks like that system might work in certain conditions, but you would really need to do some investigations to avoid disappointment. Key things to study: soil composition, local geology and hydrology, source/install/assembly of well pipe, pump, hardware etc.

You probably won't be drilling through bedrock with that equipment, so figure out how much of what kind of soil you're sitting on. Soft loose sandy soil won't hold up well, side walls will collapse as you go. I didn't look at the specifics of how piping is installed as you drill, but that can be tricky and demanding on its own.

As noted by John, you may do much better simply setting up to collect precipitation and work with that. Do the math, many thousand gallons can be gathered in a small area!

Reviving this post as I'm still exploring a range of options for the future of the property, and think it might speak to a few people here leaning towards the 'wild' side of productive land stewardship! Also exploring a low cost stakeholder trial/entry point that would take things more in the direction of cooperative ownership, if a handful of people circled up around that soon.

Thirdly, my apologies to the last two replies above, somehow I missed notification of your inquiries but if still curious feel free to pipe up again here or moosage me directly