https://permies.com/t/5982/desert/desert-permaculture-design
Here is a link to a similar post a couple of years ago. I have amended my thoughts to even smaller scale seeing the dry time of year. The pitch oth the hills is not shown real well meaning it is pretty steep and water runs quickly. The pictures look like some flat spots but they are cut deeply with dry washes. the soil is very rocky and shallow in most places and is essentially degraded volcanic stone. In other places it is bedrock still growing grasses and other plants.
What I was thinking is some trees. They are growing on solid rock just a few miles away maybe a slight more rain but still dry and rocky so I should be able to get them but can I with minimal work.
The humidity is nill. It is dry and sucks the water out of everything. shady spots in the morning may have a slight more but i dont think much more. There are deep canyons with a couple trees not the ones i'm wanting/...mesquite little sumac a acacia or two very zeric and dry species.
I'm not going to move mountains for this one, I have a twenty acre plot a few miles away real rocky but has about ten acres of flat to work with. But this one I would like tpo see some trees is all. Probably will build a house or cabin up here on this lot in the mountains maybe for hunting or a retreat but it isn't suitable to farm
I am familiar with their works. Lawton was working with soil on bottom land. terracing would work but that is moving mountains. Daming the creeks would still but the water quite a distance from where I would want the progress and cut down on the game trails which are the creek beds they are quite steep also which puts the 40 or so feet below me dunno if the water would help perculate up rock tahat far