Bryan VandenBirge

Hello,
I live in the high plains of NE Colorado with clay soil and an average of 18" of rain a year. I have a gentle sloping hill that's ~20 acres in size; it drops about a 100' over 1000' distance. I rarely get much standing water. Is keyline plowing going to do anything? All the examples I've seen have much more precipitation or naturally flowing water.

My instincts tell me the keyline system won't see enough moisture to matter. Does anyone have experience with this kind of environment?

Josh Garbo wrote:I have family around Platteville that are doing something similar with 20 acres.  They are trying to get trees established on old grazing land, which does not seem to be easy in their climate.

Oh cool! We're planting trees next week.

Hi, my wife grew up in Denver. We're planning on a slowly growing permaculture garden and food forest with hugelkulture beds. We'll have lots of wild flowers and berry bushes for the wildlife. And eventually pastures for some larger animals like donkeys and goats.

I was think of making the support structure out of post and beam and the walls with straw bales.

I don't think moisture is a problem where I'm at.

Does anyone have experience with an small barn or animal shelter built with natural materials? I'm in the prairie so I'm thinking straw bale construction. I'm also on sandy soil so I was thinking of earth bag. Something under 200 sq feet . Looking for input. Thanks

Hello,

My wife and I along with another family are starting our off-grid homestead on 80 acres in the plains of Northeast Colorado. Anyone in the area?

Paul,

I'm extremely eager to do both of these classes for homesteading. How often do you offer it? I'm not sure I can do it this spring.

Thanks, Bryan