Tony Hallett

Exactly what I was hoping to hear, thank you Michael!
We don't get a great deal of rain there through the summer, and the valley funnels 90% of the bad weather from the same direction so keeping it dry shouldn't be too difficult as most of I will be shielded by the house.

Thanks for the tip on Ant caps, not something I'd ever heard of in the UK (current home), we don't have a lot of problems with termites here, but definitely something I'll incorporate into our house build in the future!

As for the rats, whatever works!

Tyler, excellent idea! Yes, there's plenty of room for another wall to seperate the pen from the house, it hadn't even crossed my mind.
Gray, we have a cat who would hopefully help control any rats. Not that I've seen any on our visits, plenty of mice though.
Then again, a couple of traps would provide a nice protein boost for the chickens when we get that far!

Termites may well be a problem, where the house has stood empty for so long the sofa legs have gotten a fair bit shorter thanks to the little buggers.

Hi all, I am very excited to announce that my wife and I will be permanently moving to our new "homestead" in a couple of months (9 weeks 4 days, but who's counting...)
I've been planning jobs to get us off to a solid start and
I'm thinking a few critters should be top of the list. The inlaws house (base camp until ours is built) has a concrete drive which is almost impossible to get a car on for various reasons.

In my eyes, it would make a perfect spot to keep a few quail and rabbits. I'm currently 1500 miles away so can't show you any pictures but it is basically a concrete pad next to the house with a short (2, maybe 3 blocks tall) retaining wall on 2 sides. It already has steel t posts on the side opposite the house, with more forming a canopy/roof structure over the top.

My idea is to build a 3rd retaining wall to hold back the wood chip, and cover the existing structure in tin/mesh to keep the predators out.

My only concern is the concrete base, would this cause us problems with moisture not being able to drain away, and soil life not getting in to help break down the bedding? Whilst on the subject of moisture, are we going to end up with damp in the ground floor of the house with all that woodchip on the other side of the wall? I really don't like the idea of having to put a load of damp proofing against the house, if it goes that far it would be easier and cheaper to just build a seperate run.

I like the idea of a concrete base as we could keep the rabbits in a colony (I refuse to cage an animal unless it's for it's own good) without the risk of them digging out, or something else digging in, but if it's going to cause headaches then I'll come up with something else.
Thanks in advance!

I know this thread is somewhat old now but I'd like to leave a comment so I can keep track of any more replies.
My shouldabeenbynow Wife (thanks covid) and I are moving to our piece of land in Coimbra District soon and we would love to get some hives set up as soon as we get there to hopefully catch a swarm at some point.
The hornets do have me a bit worried though, and not just about my anaphylaxis! (seriously allergic to wasps, hornet to me looks like the bigger nastier brother so I don't fancy my chances!)
I'd love to know if you find a solution for catching them. You have a very valid point re selectively breeding a more troublesome pest and I would agree that catching all of them would be beneficial in the long run.
I wonder if there are any plants to help deter them as an extra line of defence. I believe there's a couple that supposedly keep wasps away but at the moment I can't remember what they are!

The tank I will be connecting to is Not on our property,  it is situated at the top of the hill, giving approx 80m of head to where I would place the hydro setup.

I also have the option of placing a holding tank at the highest point of our property, 50m below the spring fed tank, giving me approx 30m of head to the hydro setup IF I chose to run at a lower psi.

The spring fed tank puts out a ridiculous amount of water, it has a 1.5" overflow pipe that isn't capable of getting rid of all the water. Even after a dry summer the water is still spilling over the edge of the tank.
So, if i I were to run a 1" pipe, it's pretty safe to assume that pipe will be supplying it's full capacity 24/7 except in exceptionally dry years.

Clear as mud

Firstly, i must apologise! I have learnt my lesson and shall no longer attempt to read topographical maps after a couple of glasses of vino...

So, my potential head from the tank is around 80m, not 400m. Turns out those little lines represent 20m intervals and not 100m. Feeling slightly stupid now, but also a little glad I don't have to deal with skin stripping water pressure!

Anyways, to answer your questions.
The damn height I'm guessing would be the elevation of the tank? Approx 600m, hydro setup would be situated at around 500-530m depending on where I decide to put it.

Flow of the "stream" would be dictated by the size of pipe, I'll be plumbing into a spring fed concrete tank, the only place it flows to is over the edge because they haven't sizes the overflow correctly (2" inlet, 1.5" overflow. Genius)

So according to some chart I've found, 80m head will give approx 115psi at the bottom. For a gravity feed in a 1" pipe this works out at around 1l/s

So, flow x height x 5 = 1x80x5 = 400
Assuming 50% efficiency for arguments sake, 200w over 24h = 4.8kwh of potential energy

Assuming another 50% efficiency of the hydro setup would bring the power down to approx 2.4kwh which would still be ample.

And no, at no point would any pipework be running up hill, there is a dirt track up to the tank with a pretty consistent gradient, i plan on digging a trench and dropping the pipe along the track. The 30m mentioned is the potential head on our property if i we're to build a holding tank at the highest point of our property and feed down to a battery shed in a sensible location

Hi there permies!
We've come to realise that our feeble 50w solar setup is no longer keeping up with our needs.
We are situated directly down hill from a spring fed water tank, I've been told (but yet to confirm) that we can connect a pipe to the overflow on the tank.

Here's where it gets a little bit crazy....
I've paced it out to approx. 600m of pipe from the tank to the highest point of our property, say another 100m to get from there to a sensible place for a battery shed.

Google maps puts the head height at around, wait for it..... 400m, or 1300ft

If I put a holding tank at the top of our property we'd have about 30m of head, over 100m of pipe which is probably ample but a bit boring.
I have a background in engineering, and a pretty sound understanding of how stuff works, so I kinda want to go full "mad scientist" on this and see if i can harness the power of 400m of head.
But! I need some help getting my head around the maths of it all.
If I were to run a 700m length of 1" pipe, with a head of 400m, what sort of pressure and flow rate would I be looking at? I'm struggling to find any reasonably accurate figures. Most of the reference tables I've found stop at 200psi!

I'd also like to build this setup using an infinitely available resource, the humble car alternator! I know they get a bad rep for low efficiency and short lifespan but I have 4 sat in my workshop already, and they're a damn site cheaper to replace than a "proper" unit. They also have the bonus of a built in voltage regulator and a 12v dc output to keep the wiring simple. I think with the head I have available it should be quite easy to get it spinning fast enough to produce more power than it consumes without having to build up an overly complicated gearing system.

I know it's mad, crazy, unnecessary, insert derogatory term here, but that's just how I work. If anyone equally nuts wants to help me out regardless of how likely this is to blow up then I would very much appreciate your input!

I suppose I should probably update his thread!
We were back on our land in May, for those of you that didn't know, we had some pretty devastating fires in Portugal last year, fortunately our land was burnt. I say fortunately because it only burnt up the unwanted shrubs and trees! Our terraces were untouched, and the shed/tiny house got lucky too.
However, we did lose most of the fruit trees we put in the previous spring.
The survivors were an Apple, pear and a peach, the 3 closest to the spring at the back of the terrace. Turns out the soaker hose was a waste of time, I'm guessing not enough pressure.
It has taught me a thing or 2 about the top terrace though. We know now that the ground water is a lot higher at the back of the terrace, and along one edge. Kind of obvious in hindsight really!
We didn't get a chance to plant anything else in May as we we're too busy rebuilding the bathroom  (old one got burnt) and sorting out the mess that someone made when they decided to build a road through our land (Not happy about that!)

Back out there again next month, we'll have another go at planting then.

Hi guys and girls, I'm in the "planning and preparation" stage for the next build project. I'm trying to get a price for a roll of raschel knit tube but I can only find prices for bags. Does anyone know of a supplier in the uk, or in the eu who'll post to uk?
Also recommendations on bag/tube size for a ~1.5m tall retaining wall/wheelbarrow ramp. I'm hoping to use the same size to build a small shed, I'm guessing if it's good enough for a retaining wall then it'll hold up a tin roof without much fuss!

Thanks in advance!