John Wolfram

Annie Collins wrote:Hi John - I'm wondering if the trench is lined with anything? I like this simple set-up and it would be inexpensive to do, but I am wondering how the water is staying put? Do you have heavy clay soil? Also, what about mosquitoes? Do you use those dunks? Dealing with a drought at the moment in an area that normally gets decent rainfall, like so many others, really has me thinking about setting up alternative systems.

The soil in that area is a heavy clay soil with a CEC of about 30. This is my first summer using the setup, but I have not had an issue with it drying out.  Admittedly, June in my area has been crazy wet with 12 inches / 30 cm of rain, so the real test has not yet begun. So far, mosquitos have not been an issue. My hope is that the depth and volume of the trenches will be sufficient to support a population of wildlife that eat mosquitoes. So  far, lots of frogs have shown up along with a few muskrats and the ducks seen in the picture. If it becomes an issue mosquito dunks / BTi is something I would definately consider for mosquito control.

Looks like I registered Sep 05, 2014 (goodness that’s a long time ago). At that time, I would have been driving 600 miles a week for work, and desperate for something to listen to in the car. So, I probably started listening to the Permies podcast and then signed up for the website.

An unsupported metal roof is going to be noisy. My shipping container gets quite loud when it rains, and a shed having minimal supports for the metal roof is going to be noisy.

In contrast, a metal roof firmly anchored to wood decking is going to rather quiet. At my old house, I installed a metal roof on wood decking  and it was just as quiet as the old asphalt shingles.

I’m in the process of building out my irrigation system. For collection, I’m digging out trenches in a low section of my property that are two feet wide and 2-3 feet deep. Then using a trash pump to send out water via agricultural sprinklers at a rate of 100-150 gallons a minute.

I had thought about doing a micro sprinkler set up, which would be far more efficient in terms of water usage. However, doing that would be significantly increase the complexity/cost of the system and would require filtering of the water. Since I can add 5,000 gallons of additional storage with a couple hours of backhoe time, it’s easier to just increase capacity than increase water efficiency.

Thanks for all the advice and suggestions. I finally started working on the ramp today. My backhoe was only able to reach about halfway down the hill, so I was only able to work on the top half, and will need to attack the bottom half of the ramp from the bottom. After digging with the backhoe, I used the bucket to smooth things out a bit, and the results (so far) seem pretty good.

Rabbit meat is quite lean, but it's reputation is a bit exagerated due to the unusual cases of "Rabbit Starvation." https://hekint.org/2022/01/26/rabbit-starvation-protein-poisoning/  Basically,  if you're crossing the rocky mountains in the 1850s, run out of food, and try to live only on the rabbits you catch, you're going to starve because they don't have enough fat. However, in the other 99.999% of situations, rabbit meat is a wonderful part of a complete diet.

Last time fly commercial was a family trip 2024. Last time flying private was 2004 or 2005 in a Piper Cherokee.

Phil Stevens wrote:Does your tractor do better reversing up slopes? I was moving a full IBC tote recently with a forklift and needed to go down an incline. It was just steep enough that I was worried about the tonne of water pulling the forks down and lifting the back end up, so I went down backwards instead.

That's a good idea for most tractors. With my tractor, reversing up a hill is about the same as just going forward as the backhoe adds something like 3,000 pounds in the back and the weight distribution fore and aft of the rear axle is relatively even.

Joseph Lofthouse wrote:Wow. It looks soggy. Does stone or gravel exist in the area? Perhaps you could line the top of the current grade with stone, which would add traction...

Adding gravel is a good idea. My wife suggested doing that as well, and it wouldn't be too difficult to get a truckload delivered.

The bottom of the area is soggy. By adding the swales I was hoping to create strips that are drier and strips that are wet. That would be more useful to me that having everything just soggy.

This past weekend I was digging swales with my tractor mounted backhoe in a bowl shaped depression that's on a few acres of my property. To get into this area, I need to drive down a slope that is about six feet high with about a 35 feet of run (basically, a 5:1 slope). While the tractor had no issues going down, the tires spun out when I tried to go back up. Admittedly, the ground was a bit soft and eventually I was able to get out by driving up a 45 degree angle to the slope, but I would prefer not to do that again. While I was contemplating ways to winch the backhoe out of the depression I came to the profound realization that “I have a backhoe” and in a few hours could just dig a ramp with a shallower slope (I know, quite profound).

Anyways, does anyone have any tips or tricks for turning a steep slope into a shallower ramp? Currently, the slope rises about 6 feet in a 35 foot run, but I am thinking I could dig out a ramp that has the same rise spread out over 70+ feet for about a 10:1 slope. Tractor is a 40 hp 1967 Massey Ferguson with a backhoe having a 24” wide bucket and a front end loader. My current plans are to aim for an 8 foot wide 70 foot long slope with a few feet of steeper slope/sidewall on either side of the ramp. I would probably to start off using the backhoe to make a rough version of the ramp followed by the loader bucket to smooth things out.

Has anyone done something similar? Thanks for any suggestions!