Looking for others in Northern Catskills of NY

I am in the process of starting an homestead in upstate NY. I bought 14 acres of wooded property on seasonal road in Richmondville NY. I am hoping to set up a small hydro generator as well as solar system, build a cabin. looking for others in the area for community and ideas

We're not exactly neighbors buy I actually knew your area well.  Good friends lived nearby you (Middleburg mailing address) until recently.  The husband passed away a few years ago and the wife, now in her 80s moved near their children.

Currently developing an off-grid homestead on a seasonal road, on 10 acres about 100 miles southwest of you, half-way between Binghamton and  Ithaca.  Since we bought the land in late 2018, we've installed the driveway. DIY'd our own legal septic system with the permits and engineering done by the NYS Dept. of Health.  Had a well drilled. Put in a frost proof slab foundation.  Originally wanted to stick build but somehow the world got weird in 2020 and we ended up getting a shell from one of the Amish barn/shed/garage places.  They framed with window openings we specified that fit our Freecycled and ReStore windows.  It's all correctly permitted as a residence.  Stroke of luck, the Construction Officer who since left was a woman who owner-built the tiny house she, her partner and their young kids live in.  So instead of the usual "Department of Making You Sad" she was super-helpful in finding ways to meet code but still do what we want.

There's a lot more to the story.  We're now at the point of sheetrock/flooring/finish.  If you want to connect feel free let me know.  I'd share my  phone number in a purple moosage.

Thanks Dianne for taking the time to reach out. I’m currently in the mountains of NC finishing up work. I plan on being back to NY in March 2022 . I know we recently got a new building inspector I’m hoping that he proves to be as helpful as your was.

Just joined the forum. I’m in the Adirondacks, high peaks region. I have permaculture/gardening experience ranging from subtropical environment (Hawaii) to more mild temperate regions. I am working on a medium size project (about 2 acres for now) on a ~200 acre school/camp/working farm/garden campus. So it’s as much an educational project as it is a functioning food production system.

We started a forest garden around 5 years ago in pasturelands on the fringes of a wooded area, south facing slope. We’re putting in more swales and hugelkultur, fruit and nut trees, berries, native shrubs, habitat ponds, etc. Weve got apricots, pears, plums, apples, cherries, shipova, oaks, hazelnut, blueberries, raspberries, currants, haskap, serviceberry, elderberry, seaberry, lingonberry, hops, strawberry, mints/other herbs, sunchoke, and many others I’m probably forgetting. We had hardy kiwi but I don’t think they were taken care of so idk if it survived. I’m hoping to try blight resistant chestnuts, pawpaw, and more. Right now the plan is to extend the swales around the whole south facing bowl, and to install rainwater collection tanks to collect roof water which could then be released into the swales during dry periods. And also to increase the diversity and density of plants.

For inspiration and info that is somewhat related to this climate, I’ve been watching videos on YouTube made by a couple in the finger lakes region, the channel and their nursery is called Edible Acres. I’m hoping to find other resources that might help to provide a framework for this kind of work specific to this environment, but for now we’re just going for it and seeing what works, following basic principles that should apply anywhere. But it seems like such a unique and harsh environment, very different than Hawaii, so I’m still figuring it out haha.

I’ve created an Instagram for the project called @geoscience_ecology_adk where I post stuff, might rename it idk. I know there must be others out there working on projects in this region so I’m reaching out to hopefully be able to connect and learn from each other.

[quote=Jay Smart
For inspiration and info that is somewhat related to this climate, I’ve been watching videos on YouTube made by a couple in the finger lakes region, the channel and their nursery is called Edible Acres. I’m hoping to find other resources that might help to provide a framework for this kind of work specific to this environment, but for now we’re just going for it and seeing what works, following basic principles that should apply anywhere.

We saw the first site he worked on (in-law's house I think) when we did a site visit through "Finger Lakes Permaculture."  There's a pretty active permaculture community around Ithaca and the Southern Tier.  You may want to check them out.

http://fingerlakespermaculture.org/

But more importantly, where is your mud???  Those photos make it look like you're not in a swamp.  Although we're on hillside well above the nearest likely floodplain, the last year especially has been brutally wet. High clay content in soil turns everything into mudpies. So I chuckled at your water harvesting plans.  I know it's important because there will definitely be drought years, but at the moment our biggest problem is drying things out!

Dianne Justeen wrote:
But more importantly, where is your mud???  Those photos make it look like you're not in a swamp.  Although we're on hillside well above the nearest likely floodplain, the last year especially has been brutally wet. High clay content in soil turns everything into mudpies. So I chuckled at your water harvesting plans.  I know it's important because there will definitely be drought years, but at the moment our biggest problem is drying things out!

This is definitely something I've been contemplating. It seems like the particular area we're working in does not get very waterlogged and generally has good drainage. There are clay-rich soil horizons (which we've actually extracted/processed and made some nice clay pottery!), but there are also very sandy horizons with rounded pebbles, all sort of mixed in together in small pockets. My geology background tells me this was at one point a fluvial depositional environment (post-glaciation), with some sort of running water that deposited a variety of sediments. Coarser sand with rounded pebbles tends to indicate higher energy / faster flowing water, while the clays and silts would have been more of a low energy, slow or deeper water. You can get both in small streams as they meander through space and time.

I haven't lived here long enough to know every weather condition / what to expect, but I have seen heavy periods of rain during the summer. I don't think we've ever had too much waterlogging issues in this particular area (other areas of the campus definitely do get swampy though). The forest garden sits on a gentle slope that descends down and levels off in a big soccer field, which I think can get kinda muddy after heavy rains but it doesn't stay that way for long, as far as I remember. Must be pretty decent drainage in this area.

I have seen long dry periods that required us to irrigate with hoses/sprinklers (I think summer 2018 was kinda hot and dry for a while?), so I'm hoping the swales and rainwater harvesting will sorta dampen the hydrology and give us the option to irrigate if needed. But I am considering that there could be issues with overabundance of water at times.. so we'll have to see. What sort of solutions are there for drying out overly muddy areas? Maybe like diverting water or amending the soil with sand or something?

Jay Smart wrote:[What sort of solutions are there for drying out overly muddy areas? Maybe like diverting water or amending the soil with sand or something?

We bought a tractor last year with a backhoe attachment and want to put that to good use this coming summer.  That's if it dries out enough to do earthworks, which wasn't the case for very long this past summer.  Our plan is to dig ponds that can be used for irrigation when necessary and to collect water during times of surplus.  On a good note, our soil is very rich.  I suspect the scenario you gave of slow moving water depositing clay and silt.  Lots of earthworms and other critters.  Our land is half wooded and half pasture.  It was horse pasture for a very long time and cow pasture before that.  So lots of goodness for the growies.  When we dug for the septic system we found a subsoil layer of clay that would indeed make great pots.

Hey Bob - I just wanted to get a project on your radar in Livingston Manor, NY. It's an old family farm that's in process of converting to a rotational grazing/regenerative beef operation. http://www.century-manor-farm.com/