Bill Kearns

Ok, that was awesome!  Great storyline and pacing, engrossing content, and best of all:  I didn't have to touch the volume control even once during the movie!
= )
Seriously, the most professional Wheaton Labs video I've seen so far ... nice work everyone!

Hi Stephen,
Looks like you made it back to the labs in fine shape!  Hope your drive up the Columbia River was enlightening as you passed through a number of different biomes.
Looking forward to you "throwing" some pottery (and firing it with the rocket kiln).

Hi All,
Thought I'd review our visit to the Labs during the schmoozaroo this past week.  All I can say is WOW, the labs far exceeded my expectations in both environment and progress.  

We chose to stay in the Tipi ... in hindsight the perfect choice for us.  Surrounded on three sides by a hugel sun scoop, it is in a private setting overlooking a series of meadows punctuated by young stands of trees.



The Labs are under stewardship.  Previously logged (likely more than once), what was thicket is being selectively thinned and alleyways cleared to increase edge, create meadows between the young trees, and thin the overly dense stands of evergreens




The diversity of plant and animal life in the Labs is impressive.  I'll only show a few illustrative photos, but on both the macro and micro scales we reveled in the wide array of species









Morels!  Thanks for the morel hunting expedition Cara!!


From the starting point of raw land 5 years ago, the quantity of systems already installed is incredible.  Almost every structure we saw was made from logs and lumber milled from the Lab property.  Here's just a few and don't even include the wofatis (wofatii?)






Ant Village is a wonderment and has arrays of smaller earthworks designed to slow and infiltrate water on it's way downslope






We had a wonderful time and were able to actually relax (putting down the responsibilities of our dryland "labs" is a rare occurrence!)
Thank you Paul and Jocelyn!  More thanks to Fred (the backbone of the labs), CE Rice (a fountain of knowledge and wonderful host), Erica and Ernie (who were in the middle of conducting a PDC), Cara for teaching us about morel hunting, and everyone else who helped make our visit a highlight of the year!

Okie dokie, we're planning to arrive June 13th afternoon and depart June 16th ... been looking forward to this for a long time!  In addition to schmoozing with awesome folks, renewing old friendships and forging new, I will also be gathering information/material for an article on the Labs for the PRI news site.  Sheila will bring a slide show on what we've been up to here (semi-arid shrub-steppe) if there's any interest/time, and we're both excited to talk all things Permaculture!  

Thanks for the apple (and bringing this ancient post to my attention again)!

Thought I'd post some update pics to the original rock wall:


and what it looks like today from the same angle:


And the opposite side:


Not only did the little wild cherry plums (from Utah, thanks Kyle!) sprout and grow, but this year they've put out some fruits!!!


Over the past six years we've mulched our entire zone 2 (and topped off the mulch yearly), but we've also constructed four more of the talus garland type rock walls:




I can say that we owe this abundance of biomass to mulches and selective chop-n-drop to protect the soil from direct sunlight and wind.

Very nice Paul! Is JForums the result of some enterprising folks from your JavaRanch site?

Everything I tried out while logged out worked fine. I like the new look, even the "plank" siding!

Bill Kearns
Ritzville

I ordered one.

Did you order with the thermal battery???
(Inquiring minds want to know ...)
= )

As the Boise area is dry/cold/windy (and hot too!), this book might be the ticket:

Growing Food in a Hotter, Drier Land

How to harvest water and nutrients, select drought-tolerant plants, and create natural diversity

Because climatic uncertainty has now become "the new normal," many farmers, gardeners and orchard-keepers in North America are desperately seeking ways to adapt their food production to become more resilient in the face of such "global weirding." This book draws upon the wisdom and technical knowledge from desert farming traditions all around the world to offer time-tried strategies for:

Building greater moisture-holding capacity and nutrients in soils
Protecting fields from damaging winds, drought, and floods
Harvesting water from uplands to use in rain gardens and terraces filled with perennial crops
Delecting fruits, nuts, succulents, and herbaceous perennials that are best suited to warmer, drier climates

Gary Paul Nabhan is one of the world's experts on the agricultural traditions of arid lands. For this book he has visited indigenous and traditional farmers in the Gobi Desert, the Arabian Peninsula, the Sahara Desert, and Andalusia, as well as the Sonoran, Chihuahuan, and Painted deserts of North America, to learn firsthand their techniques and designs aimed at reducing heat and drought stress on orchards, fields, and dooryard gardens. This practical book also includes colorful "parables from the field" that exemplify how desert farmers think about increasing the carrying capacity and resilience of the lands and waters they steward. It is replete with detailed descriptions and diagrams of how to implement these desert-adapted practices in your own backyard, orchard, or farm.

This unique book is useful not only for farmers and permaculturists in the arid reaches of the Southwest or other desert regions. Its techniques and prophetic vision for achieving food security in the face of climate change may well need to be implemented across most of North America over the next half-century, and are already applicable in most of the semiarid West, Great Plains, and the U.S. Southwest and adjacent regions of Mexico.