Hi Daniel, I guess I just made the assumption that wind would be an issue up there, as there are almost no trees on the mesa and yet there are trees all around it, but it looks like you're right
http://www.windpoweringamerica.gov/wind_resource_maps.asp?stateab=or fairly low wind energy potential in the area. Perhaps it has more to do with the shallow soil on top of the bedrock. Hmm, interesting. I'm new to the area, just got here in August, so I'm still getting to know the particulars of the locale. I (we, my wife and I) are working on goals. She has a job in town, so we made the decision that a long commute wouldn't be worth it in our case for the short/medium term, so we are looking to buy something in or close to town. There are people who live in Sprague River, Beatty, even Bly and commute into Klamath Falls, but yeah, we just can't see doing that from an environmental/cost/safety/time management perspective. Eventually we'd like to get some larger acreage out in the boonies, but that will probably have to wait for a few years at least. So right now I'm more looking at suburban scale permaculture, learning as much as I can, making mistakes, then eventually scaling up. I'm also very interested in helping others. I've done some design/work for a couple people in town and am hoping to find more people interested in permaculture, and spread the word to others. The region is ripe for alternative energy development (290 days of sunshine a year and great geothermal resources), and the population density is low enough that food security is a real possibility.
I have had some discussions with county planning. It is my understanding that what is currently on the books states that you must have an approved type of septic system installed on any new residential (assuming you aren't close to public sewer, of course). However, I was talking to Planning for another reason, so I didn't follow up on this particular line of questioning, but the lady in the septic department did say something about composting toilets, which leads me to believe that they may be a possibility. They are willing to approve alternative building techniques so long as you get an engineers approval on your plans, so maybe they would be open to a waste management system that has been approved by an appropriate official. I don't know, but it may be the case. I do know that Oregon has now approved 3 categories of grey water treatment, so if you were to install one of those, that would take care of your grey water, then with a composting toilet all your "water" wastes would be taken care of, without a septic system. I have to talk with planning within a couple weeks for another reason, so while I'm in there I'll see what I can find out for you (and for me, down the road).
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