I've watched that video before, it's super cool. There is an
art to figuring out the balance between designing for 100 year events and designing in a way that will tolerate (and lessen) 100 year events. That's the challenge I think. We are currently having a 100 year
rain event in absolute rainfall (we've gotten 62 inches in the last year, and two hurricanes). My existing fields can be driven on with a
tractor with minimal disturbance. I saw a tractor stuck up to the axle driving around today. And the area I am installing is a mess. But with that mess it is allowing me to drive in immense amounts of
carbon (I think upwards of 200 yards at this point) which I would not have been able to do without the moisture. I am remineralizing the soil incredibly quickly and getting soil life down deep with a one-time disturbance.
The
project is looking totally different than I thought it would, but better than I would have imagined a year ago. I'm going to bank that moisture for years. Instead of installing surface
earthworks, I'm getting subsurface. We can do the surface ones in another year, and that choice was made for me. Lemonade? Heck yeah!
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