jack sharp

oh my god do these things hurt. 5 bites hurt so bad I had to go inside and lay down.

I want the few acres so I can earthwork it and establish some trees to provide shade to the soil, stop the desiccating wind, ect. so I can start my own seeds and save money. I would also rather make all mistakes on a less expensive, smaller scale, and get some real experience. taking a pdc in that region is a given. I forgot to mention that I learned how to maintain/ build from scratch windmills from my uncle who does that for a living. Its a marketable skill here in flat illinois, but I dont know about AZ. I'm not really looking for the land to provide me income, but rather save me money, particularly on housing. I agree even if cant get a 4 year degree, I will spend the 12000 learning something useful and/or put it towards an associates. I will definitely look at plumbing/electrician apprenticeships, useful and profitable sounds good

Li Lee wrote: It is drying up because the ground water has been pumped nearly dry.
Don't think you can just drill a well because in most areas it's a mile to water.
Hauling water is totally impractical if your trying to grow enough to eat and live on.

I'm not trying to feed myself of land for at least a few decades when the land has enough humus, windbreaks, water harvesting ect to do a sort of greening the desert type scenario.

August Hurtel wrote:Think about not going to college. You are not only very likely wasting money in college, but your time as well. You can work more directly towards your goals, stay out of debt. You can work and save in order to get those acres faster.

so what use the 5k to buy an acre or two, and just car camp until i get a job? can i build 10'x10' shack to sleep in between July and winter?

I'm going to be out of the house in a couple of months and am looking for advice on what to do from here.
assets:
$5500 of my own money
HS diploma
$12000 of my parents money for school only
strong back

I live in Illinois, but after spending a lot of time with my grandparents that moved to phoenix, I have fallen in love with the region.
my plan so far is to
-start plants from that region
-college
-work as many hours as possible throughout
-try to walk away with as little debt as possible
-get job and buy a few acres out of the way and work on weekends
-rent absolute hovel of apartment
-try to retire early and live off 3%

Rose Gardener wrote:Hey Neil, any updates? By the way, what is the average annual rainfall there? After watching your video, if you could do it in Saudi, shouldn't the same could be done in say Arizona or Nevada?

+1

trim off low hanging branches. mark shepherd talks about deer keeping his tree free of mold by letting deer munch of his lower branches.

I know these sort of things get kind of glanced over by mainstream science but does anyone have any good data on establish permaculture sites and their ecological foot print. Don't get me wrong I've seen first hand how powerful permaculture is but I feel we need facts to get more people on board.

I'm not sure if this is what your talking about but I fill up panty hos with rice and bury a bunch if them in the woods and dig them up a couple month later and spread that under my mulch. I haven't really noticed a huge difference in yield but in sure its good for my soil web and stabily and such

after reading over some of the articles again, i sounds like the nitrates are being washed into the soil from intensive irrigation.