The terror of unending wind

Ya'll, I'm becoming afraid. We didn't get our usual amount of snow and the wind has been more than normal, which normally is stupidly strong. It's gotten to the point that the 60+ hour winds are visibly drying everything out and we are having scary conversations like, "What if this doesn't stop?" WHAT IF IT DOESN'T PEOPLE. WHAT AM I GOING TO DO???

I feel like what I have is on a knife blade. We get so little water. We get so much wind. I genuinely don't know what to do to protect my property from this because I can't grow anything with no water and constant wind. Waaaahhhh!

Put up a windmill?

Sorry to hear this Elle. Like Christopher, I haven't got much to help you with this but I saw the title and was wondering if this should have been posted in personal care as a flatulence problem..

James Alun wrote:Sorry to hear this Elle. Like Christopher, I haven't got much to help you with this but I saw the title and was wondering if this should have been posted in personal care as a flatulence problem..

ahahahahahhahahahaha I wish it was farts!

One up on tumbleweeds....

Others have the same issues, and very smart folks have contributed answers, as in this thread:

https://permies.com/t/176375/Wyoming-homestead

I'd agree with windbreaks ... I don't live in an area of high winds, being in S. Colorado with lots of pine trees ... our highest recorded speed to date was about 50mph gusts.

Haven't researched this specific problem of wind, but for every problem there's almost always a solution ... gotta research your way out of this!

The wind has been HORRID hasn't it and all the Red Flag warnings up due to the combination of wind and dry.   It took me a while yesterday to realize oh that is silence I am hearing...  it feels so odd not to have some wind blowing.

We have had a record number of high wind days already according to the weather service so you are not imagining that there has been more wind then normal.  And yes everything is drier then normal and I am a bit worried about possible water rationing with all my plans for new plants this year.   I can only imagine how the farmers are feeling...  

Jt Lamb wrote:Others have the same issues, and very smart folks have contributed answers, as in this thread:

https://permies.com/t/176375/Wyoming-homestead

I'd agree with windbreaks ... I don't live in an area of high winds, being in S. Colorado with lots of pine trees ... our highest recorded speed to date was about 50mph gusts.

Haven't researched this specific problem of wind, but for every problem there's almost always a solution ... gotta research your way out of this!

What would you use to break the wind? We have trees and the wind and dry is killing them.

Dorothy Pohorelow wrote:The wind has been HORRID hasn't it and all the Red Flag warnings up due to the combination of wind and dry.   It took me a while yesterday to realize oh that is silence I am hearing...  it feels so odd not to have some wind blowing.

We have had a record number of high wind days already according to the weather service so you are not imagining that there has been more wind then normal.  And yes everything is drier then normal and I am a bit worried about possible water rationing with all my plans for new plants this year.   I can only imagine how the farmers are feeling...  

Water man. Wyoming has a gazillion water law titles for a reason. WAAAHHH!!!

I'm pretty concerned both about oil company water usage and all the people moving out to acreage.

What part of Wyoming are you in? Use the pic below to answer ... pic is from these fine folks in your neck of the woods:

 https://www.theprairiehomestead.com/2015/12/homesteading-in-wyoming.html

Would history help?

 https://www.wyohistory.org/encyclopedia/dry-farming-wyoming

Would solutions that possibly have worked for others help in your scenario?

"prevailing wind direction + hugelkultur here + windbreak of plantings" ... wind lifts over the things to protect, with less drying action on the lee side; hugel retains what moisture there is, better than plain/poor soil.

Admittedly, it isn't easy to "green the desert" (or whatever your conditions are) ... and the above might not work (right away) on thousands of acres of your wyoming land, but it seems to have been done before.

I haven't found an easy button for anything, come to think of it ...

Jt Lamb wrote:What part of Wyoming are you in? Use the pic below to answer ... pic is from these fine folks in your neck of the woods:

 https://www.theprairiehomestead.com/2015/12/homesteading-in-wyoming.html

Would history help?

 https://www.wyohistory.org/encyclopedia/dry-farming-wyoming

Would solutions that possibly have worked for others help in your scenario?

"prevailing wind direction + hugelkultur here + windbreak of plantings" ... wind lifts over the things to protect, with less drying action on the lee side; hugel retains what moisture there is, better than plain/poor soil.

Admittedly, it isn't easy to "green the desert" (or whatever your conditions are) ... and the above might not work (right away) on thousands of acres of your wyoming land, but it seems to have been done before.

I haven't found an easy button for anything, come to think of it ...

Jill lives fairly close to me. Neighboring county. I was born here, lived here all but 4 years of my life. It's not been this windy before. It's becoming frightening.

Wry grin I am "wide open spaces and no trees"

4 pallets stood up on edge and tied together the corners, a tree planted in the center, plenty of mulch

I found the reducing bean and alliums from my diet really helped.

elle sagenev wrote:What would you use to break the wind? We have trees and the wind and dry is killing them.

I like the idea of using the pallets to break the wind as a temporary solution.

I have never-ending wind.  My wind is usually from the north in winter and from the south in the summer. Though on any given day this wind could be from either direction.

When driving through West Texas, it is not uncommon to see old homesteads with tall trees surrounding the Zone One.  These trees are Lombardy Poplar, which is a tall fast-growing columnar tree.  I have even seen cemeteries with these trees planted along the boundary.

It is not unheard of to normally have 20 to 30 mph winds, with gusts as high as 60 mph.

How fast are your winds normally and how fast are they this year?

Dorothy Pohorelow wrote:Wry grin I am "wide open spaces and no trees"

Alright fellow permie, I think we may need to set up a lunch!

Anne Miller wrote:

elle sagenev wrote:What would you use to break the wind? We have trees and the wind and dry is killing them.

I like the idea of using the pallets to break the wind as a temporary solution.

I have never-ending wind.  My wind is usually from the north in winter and from the south in the summer. Though on any given day this wind could be from either direction.

When driving through West Texas, it is not uncommon to see old homesteads with tall trees surrounding the Zone One.  These trees are Lombardy Poplar, which is a tall fast-growing columnar tree.  I have even seen cemeteries with these trees planted along the boundary.

It is not unheard of to normally have 20 to 30 mph winds, with gusts as high as 60 mph.

How fast are your winds normally and how fast are they this year?

I'd say wind speeds are fairly normal. At the high side of normal all winter, 50-60. The worst part is that it hasn't stopped yet. We normally get at least a few months break from winds but last year we didn't really and this year is looking the same. I can handle a winter of wind but the Earth and I need a break and if we don't get it I might go crazy and the Earth is likely to dry out and burn.

One solution that comes to mind is fruit walls. There's a good description at https://www.resilience.org/stories/2016-01-06/fruit-walls-urban-farming-in-the-1600s/

Mostly they were for retaining heat, but they block wind as well.

My brother lived in your area for several years and the wind was all he talked about. Sounds a bit scary that it's worse now.

[quote=Robin Katz]One solution that comes to mind is fruit walls. There's a good description at https://www.resilience.org/stories/2016-01-06/fruit-walls-urban-farming-in-the-1600s/

Mostly they were for retaining heat, but they block wind as well.

My brother lived in your area for several years and the wind was all he talked about. Sounds a bit scary that it's worse now.[/quote]

I had never heard of that before and it's FASCINATING! Collecting sand stone is something we can do. I have a wire fence up around the orchard maybe I can add some wood on the wind side and see if that helps. The tree line is an issue though. It is pretty established but I still don't want it to die. It's big though.

Not that bad here yet. I just try to keep everything mulched good.

sounds intense, elle.

definitely sounds like a situation where earthworks, walls, etc would really help - but that gets to be a pretty huge undertaking the bigger the area you’re trying to affect.

elle sagenev wrote:

Dorothy Pohorelow wrote:Wry grin I am "wide open spaces and no trees"

Alright fellow permie, I think we may need to set up a lunch!

Sounds like a plan to me I live in downtown Cheyenne which of course has its own unique challenges...  

Dorothy Pohorelow wrote:

elle sagenev wrote:

Dorothy Pohorelow wrote:Wry grin I am "wide open spaces and no trees"

Alright fellow permie, I think we may need to set up a lunch!

Sounds like a plan to me I live in downtown Cheyenne which of course has its own unique challenges...  

Yeah, the hail. I work downtown but live east of town. Watching all the old cottonwood trees die downtown has made me a bit sad.

First you can reduce water loss.  Look up Wilt Pruf.  It has some restrictions on what and when it can be applied to but did help evergreens survive the winter in an even drier part of WY than where you live.  Basically it is a wax solution that still breathes enough to let survive while reducing water loss.

Second build some sort of wind break for each tree.  Snow fence style or rock pile condensate traps or fruit walls would be 3 possible types that might help.

elle sagenev wrote:

Dorothy Pohorelow wrote:

elle sagenev wrote:

Dorothy Pohorelow wrote:Wry grin I am "wide open spaces and no trees"

Alright fellow permie, I think we may need to set up a lunch!

Sounds like a plan to me I live in downtown Cheyenne which of course has its own unique challenges...  

Yeah, the hail. I work downtown but live east of town. Watching all the old cottonwood trees die downtown has made me a bit sad.

Hail yeah in the last 6 years I have lost 2 cars to hail one only a few months old.  I live near the Avenues so yeah we get hail and wind and of course dead cottonwoods (those are dying of old age by the way not disease)  Many of them do need removed for safety reasons but sadly of course no one planted new trees while these were young soo the city landscape is changing as the smaller varieties the city is planting will never give that beautiful canopy and I would say close to half of those small trees are dying within the first year...  

Wry grin and back to wind the Weather service says the peak gust for us yesterday was only 72 mph...  from the sound the wind was making I would say the stead breeze was about 40 but don't have a gauge and they don't mention the steady wind only the gusts.

Amusingly after posting this the wind had a really strong day, then stopped and it's been snowing or raining all week.

Is God up there going, oh you whiner here, have some rain and peace.

If so, hey God I'd also like an end to world hunger and child abuse and women's freedom!