Johnnie Diddles

oh yeah..donating that fireplace to sister and prolly building a sweet fire pit like this:

http://cloud.playerattack.com/media/title/7257/2011-11-10/Tavern.jpg


LOL

ok, i made a layout..dug out approx. 1/3 of the pond(s)...as of right now I'm trying to figure out how to best incorporate the chicken manure into the system as well as a passive irrigation to water the beds. thoughts? thinking of housing pumps and filters in greenhouse/shed that will be built in the future as well as under the waterfall if I build it up. Prolly will put the beehive in the back corner on top of the raised area for waterfall....

It's actually an...outdoor fireplace. Got it for free from the neighbor...who moved out rather quickly. Will definitely line all the walls with some sort of edible vine. Anyone have a nice link toward aquaculture and/or pond creation?

I think I'm planning on using the dirt I excavate from the ponds and mixing it with some nice manure and compost and raising the perimeter significantly. Considering using the reclaimed pavers for raised bed borders....

Larger pictures:

original

crappy paint sketch

Ok guys; try and not laugh at my photo editing skills.






My backyard is kind of contour; higher in the back I recently acquired two chickens that I want to house outside; there's a 7by20 foot run on the right side of my house that I can fence in as shown. I'm trying to do this sort of setup...I've had success with a small herb and vegetable garden at this property, but want to blow it up into a permaculture paradise. Thinking of housing a pump and filter in that shed and having the water recirculate through the beds, or having some kind of hydraulic pump that waters the whole garden and it drains back into the rentention ponds. Throw some bees in there with the chickens...add some fruit trees and I think it will be great! Live in sub tropics..have a lot of options...can anyone give some input on design? Please excuse my 2 minute mspaint job.

Back yard dimensions are maybe 40x60 and the sun rises from the bottom right corner to the top left corner of the picture.

So...being a complete newb and this being my first post on the topic(hi); I'm wondering if a closed loop system is possible with a hydraulic ram http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_ram coupled to your micro hydro system. From what I understand " it functions as a hydraulic transformer that takes in water at one "hydraulic head" (pressure) and flow rate, and outputs water at a higher hydraulic head and lower flow rate. " In the scenario, you would have the hydraulic pump filling the higher reservoir at slower rate than the lower rate was filling...so you would have on/off periods where the microhydro turbine was shut off until the upper reservoir was filled.

Thoughts?

Comments?

I am not trying to confuse this with a typical closed loop theory. I understand thermodynamics. I'm curious if anyone feels that this is within the realm of possibility. If the ram is not efficient, then perhaps another source to pump...something cheap and effective...The hydraulic pump just happens to fit the bill.