D Nikolls

No trench needed; as long as you have plenty of manure and/or other suitable stuff to cover the wood, it will work just fine as an entirely raised hugel. I've used less-rotten wood to build a frame for a raised bed around such hugels and been entirely happy with the results.

Probably you are already aware, but best to be very sure there are no persistent broad-leaf herbicides in that horse manure, they can pass right through the horse and fuck your plants up if the hay was sprayed!

Ned Harr wrote:I enjoyed this video (https://youtu.be/nV7G9_6hwF8?si=f5ChxPDTg4aFza4I) but it included a claim I fear is too good to be true, that raw land is frequently overpriced by 25%, 50%, even 70%.

Was that your experience? Did you ultimately pay less than the asking price for your land, and if so how much less?

For those who have watched the video, what else did you find resonated with you as true or as especially untrue?

I shopped for years, and found that in my region there was very little price movement on the part of sellers, and if something was overpriced relative to demand, most sellers were content to let it sit. Sometimes a property would be listed on and off for several years and then be pulled with no sale occurring. One property near me is listed nearly every spring for the last decade or so, hasn't sold yet..

The property I bought was one of a size and price matched set, all owned by one extremely wealthy man. They all sat on the market for years. He dropped the price by around 10%, and every one of these properties sold within a few months, I think all within 5% of the new asking price. This was the biggest drop I can recall seeing for empty acreages in all my search..

Most other properties I looked at moved quickly, near asking price. I was outbid on some; once I had a signed agreement but walked during the conditions stage.. seller had a backup offer in place already.

This assertion may be true other places, particularly more remote places, but it does not appear to be true here.

What type of metal roof is it? If it is a standing seam of any sort there may well be clamps that can fasten things to the ribs without more holes..

If not, you could possibly use a system of rails attached to the existing brackets, and then mount new panels on the rails.. assuming the brackets can handle the weight. It's not going to be easy to diy this without roof access, or cheap to have someone do it for you, though.

If it is through-fastened roofing, that won't work.. but there would be a lot of existing holes for screws that are generally supposed to be checked and tightened at regular intervals, as they will tend to loosen and leak over time; I wouldn't fret about a few more holes with this sort of roof!


I doubt there is a ready-built adapter meant to solve this issue, as panels have never standardized enough in size to make this look like a really compelling business opportunity, especially with all variety in installations..

Alder Burns wrote:The other critical thing to remember about this is that rural sites dependent on wells for water....the well pump won't run without power!  In California at least, the power company would preemptively shut the power off in any high wind event, since the likelihood of a fire start due to the power lines etc. and wind is a proven deadly likelihood....this was responsible for the disastrous Camp Fire which ate the town of Paradise.  So a generator or other backup system capable of running the well pump is practically essential in many such situations, especially if that water is being relied on for fire suppression practices.

Yep. And while having a generator able to run the well pump for a little while is no big deal, a generator or alternative pump that will run for days straight is a trickier problem.

Typical gas powered pumps only run a rather few hours on their integrated gas tank. A bigger tank, like for an outboard motor, is an option.. but we're still talking relatively modest runtime, plus that gas only keeps so long..

Propane is a nice option for generators, much harder to find for pumps.. but if you've got a powerful enough electric pump for sprinklers, this might be just the ticket. Simpler to get fired up than needing to prime a dedicated pump in a hurry.. A large propane tank or bank of tanks can be plumbed to a manifold to provide enough fuel to keep a generator running for days.. no fuel spoilage issues.. oil change interval is 100 hours on many small generators, so they won't be happy running indefinitely, but still much more straightforward to get extended runtime plus no issues with old fuel..


If any other folks have a wildfire suppression system, what's your pump of choice?

Excellent point.

Electrical infrastructure is generally pretty vulnerable especially in Canada, goven the scale involved. It can be hit by wildfires, it can light wildfires, transmission corridors can get severed, parts can end up shut down to reduce fire risks in extreme conditions..

To make matters worse, in the heavier smoke we had a few years ago, my solar was *heavily* impacted by said smoke. I was watching my battery level as if it was November... in the middle of summer, when I generally have zero need to warch consumption and when I use a lot more power for garden/animal related water pumping. If I ever need to run sprinklers for wildfire protection, I am clearly not going to be able to count on either solar *or* grid power.

Jay Angler wrote:D Nikolls list of options is excellent, but I'll add one I'd like to try:
We grow really big rocks, really easily. I'd move them and level them, then using a rock bit, drill a hole in them to secure either a homemade or commercial post holder - the type with the rod at the bottom with just the small amount of cement required. So long as they're dropped into a hole and tamp the dirt down thoroughly around the rock, and use enough of them, I can't imagine them being any worse than Sono-tube and concrete!

Thanks, that's a much better description of what I meant by using a rock.. they could be better than concrete in the right place with the right rock.. cheap, local, low carbon, and potentially more durable.

Gotchas that I can see are:
A) Not as resistant to frost heave vs a concrete pillar with a mushroomed base below the frost depth..
B) Only as durable as the rock you pick; some are excellent and some suck..

If you are drilling a hole in said rock for the post anchor, you might use that same hole for a lifting eye.. a lever and come-along attached to a vehicle can lift a surprisingly big rock..

I would strive to use concrete or stone footings if possible, redoing footings kind of sucks.

Cost saving thoughts:
Find some beefy scrap steel to cut into fittings instead of the overpriced Simpson stuff. Scrap bits of anything 3/8 thick and up will make nice solid mounts; I like to use vertical bar set into the cement with the post notched around it, bolts or big nails through post and bar.. or if going for fancier, I'll cut a piece of I-beam into an upside down T, using cast in place bolts or a anchors to secure the bottom to the cement, and then the post is notched and secured to the vertical leg with through-bolts.

Smallish pieces of heavy steel can sometimes be had for scrap value from welding shops, or craigslist/marketplace. I've even used scrap I found buried in the ground for anchoring posts. Cut to suit, and ideally derust/paint..

Mixing concrete from sand, sharp gravel, and Portland cement is cheaper than readymix bags..

Junky plywood/lumber makes perfectly fine forms, just takes some time.

If I wanted to save beyond what the above would do, I would do nice footings for the corner posts and half the poles; the alternating poles I would use a nice rock on a hole filled with compacted gravel. Ideally I would set these alternating posts onto a stake made from pipe or rebar to prevent lateral movement.

Jay Angler wrote:

D Nikolls wrote:I grabbed some free truck canopies and chucked these on top of my more valuable implements.

I've seen truck canopies put on top of pallet walls as shelters for animals, but they weren't particularly pretty! (But they could be prettified in a variety of ways, if you have creative people around you.)

I very reliable friend of hubby strongly suggests that moisture coming up from the ground does as much, if not more damage than rain from above. We have used heavy gauge rubber pond liner or roofing rubber as a base over top of gravel, and then a pallet on top of that to stop the ground moisture, and a variety of car shelter type structures over top.

I am *really*, *really*, *really*, sick of tarps (want to add 10  more *really* to that?). I would do anything to replace every tarp on the property with metal roofing. I would spend the money up front if you can. Second hand if you have to. Somehow the time to fix things permanently never seems to happen.

Wheaton Labs has done "The Berm Shed", but that would take a crew to build and strong backs.

I very much agree with the long term ground moisture issue.. the exception is hydraulic cylinders and lines, those tend to go faster than heavy steel, and protection from weather and sun seems more important to me on them. These are usually the more expensive implements, that get priority on shelter.


Tarps suck. Metal roofing for the win. I prefer to put loose metal roofing weighted with pallets on top of something than to use a tarp. Of course some things are not shaped well for this, but it works great for firewood, lumber, plywood..

Tarps trap the rising moisture, grow holes, and generally just suck..

I grabbed some free truck canopies and chucked these on top of my more valuable implements. Not as nice as a shed, but quick and simple. Couple pallets underneath to keep em off the ground.

Glamorous action shot added.. there's a 6 foot 4-in-1 bucket hiding under there. Scrap yellow cedar blocks and scrap piece of stainless structural screwed to top makes it easy to grab and move with the tractor.

I checked the label, mine is a 444C.

Other than much better packaging, I might put a fan on it if I did a semi-permanent install; it definitely heats up when working hard.