Ian Camacho

Paul, As you were saying in earlier messages that you were going to be low on cash. will you have enough money to buy livestock and dogs, because i would want that if i come out to help?

ps i have listened to most of your podcasts.

If you have a health soil microbiology the addition salt will not be a problem, also if you don't concentrate all the urine in one spot. I suggest pouring in a rotation, or just inject into irrigation in a good dilution ratio. the microbes will help bind up the salts.

Wonder if owen knows what they are doing with there feces and urine now?

like Gerald said making the human manure safe to use is a must, but one can reduce the probability of pathogens and disease by not using human manure on food crops but crops for biomass.
the biomass crops could then be used to mulch food crops.

Also i bet a lot of people in the sahara have never composted, so education in proper handling and composting should be a high priority.

From greening the sahara podcast, Owen talks about the salination of the well water and the people using it to water their gardens. Owen mentioned the surplus of water bottles from the foreign aid.

You can turn two problems into one solution by making kind of makeshift water desalination that runs on solar radiation.

Paul and Owen also talk about trying to bring in foreign solutions and technology into different cultures and failing, because others didn't take into account others cultural perpective and cultural needs.

if the idea of desalination well water using plastic bottles was presented, but let the people in need design and create these very simple system. the aid could just help guide and give examples of some other ways people have done it. the people there can make a system that works for THEM.

i would also think that the water bottle desolation would be more culturally appropriate and more accepted because their own people have made the desalination system with their needs in mind.

In san diego drought proofing and wildfire protection seem to be working the best here because wildfire is a big scare here. Wildfires have destroy many acres and homes in the san diego region.

Also talking about the reasons P.A. devolped the key line system. Brother in laws death to brush fire, drought protection etc..

The problem i am having is trying to explain keyline design to people who have only a slight clue about permaculture and the holistic approach to farm management .

what could be some good buzz words/ definition to get someones attention about the subject. i have found that showing a picture of before and afters gets people attention and or various videos, but i am not always near a computer to show people.

i would like a better way to commuicate what key line design is all about.

neil bertrando wrote:

If you replaced your proposed swale with a ridgepoint dam, you could add some spreader drains for gravity irrigation. the drawing you present is exactly what Yeomans' Keyline Design system suggests for filling dams. If you wanted to fill a series of dams, you might have one diversion drain falling to the next valley over to fill a keypoint dam....

cheers,
Neil

I basically took that from the diversion swales that are used to fill dams at the key point, to see the if that was a viable option instead of plowing, also the picture is from water for every farm.

Regarding the cost comparison. I doubt that you would know, but are they including general upkeep and maintenance to a system, or just he initial up front cost of implicating a certain system.

a Swale system is more of a upfront cost but the maintain of the system would be cheap.

key-line plowing would be a cheaper upfront cost, but cost more to maintain if addition key line plowing was needed, depending on the owners wants for the land.

a good example to talk about for me to understand better would be about Owen's case study at whirlwind farm, was that just one pass, or multiple passes at increasing depth per pass?

what were the owners wants and what did you suggest to get them there? addition plowing, holistic management approach, water features Etc...

Also in water for every farm, P.A talks about starting at a shallow depth of 2" or 4" and increasing the depth with each run, i was talking to someone that said the newer plows enable you to drive deeper the first initial run, is this true?

Is there an updated scheudle of paul's tour, i am specificity asking if anything is planned for northern California.

Could this be an alternative to keyline without a tractor and keyline plow? Dig diversion swales off contour with the highest point in the primary valley and with the lowest point on the primary ridge. On the primary ridge create swales that are on contour to re-hydrate the primary ridge. Multiple diversion swale and swale systems would be put above and below the key-point to simulate the keyline cultivation. this is all speculation but i suspect that this alternative wouldn't work as well in a pasture as keyline cultivation but but would be implemented in more of a woodland system, where a tractor and plow would be harder to maneuver in between established trees

There is an attached file with a picture to help with my explanation.

Sweet thanks it looks like two of them are going to work out perfectly