Aida Alene

Roberto pokachinni wrote:  It sounds like you have minimal water needs in comparison to some of your neighbors, but what are your needs/volumes exactly?  I'm not asking for my interest, but for yours.  You need to figure out what your water needs are, and figure out whether you can supply that from your rain... from your roof catchments.    

Yes, our well is the deepest, and unfortunately this neighborhood is almost entirely made up of contractors, developers and other high society types that have a lot of money and don't think the environment is a concern. I'm almost looking forward to the day the wells start running dry.......

I share the property with several others and we don't always see eye to eye on best practices, I'm not sure a huge water catchment system would go over well, the others tend to see the well as sustainable . Only so many battles I can win! I thought I'd try to do what I could with the greenhouse roof

Roberto pokachinni wrote:
When I lived on Haida Gwaii, in my small off-grid cabin, I lived completely off my food-grade rain barrel that took water off less than half of the roof, a surface well at the garden (used rarely and only for gardening), and saltwater for washing.  On that island, there was pretty much year-round rain, in total abundance.  
   

Yes, I'm on a part of the island that experiences that summer drought that has become ever more common. I foresee a huge fire year this coming summer.

I am eager to learn techniques that help the soil retain moisture around where I plant trees and such. We are at 800ft elevation on rocky bluffs, the soil is fill or just mountainous so I've brought it a lot of nearby manure and debris for compost over the years. Being up here has huge advantages (very little garden pests and diseases, very good sun exposure, new clean ground that hasnt had diseased or sick livestock on it, no crops being sprayed nearby)

Skandi Rogers wrote:
Not necessarily. what is probably happening is that the amount of water being removed is lessening in the rainy season so the draw down cones are filling in, which would also explain why it never recovers to the same level as before ... What might be an idea especialy if you think the well will run dry is to start thinking about saving for a large buried water tank taken from all your roofs that can supply a much larger proportion of your water needs.

Thanks for the clarification, I had not considered your explanation.

Our well will likely be the last to run dry, we have by far the deepest, not sure why, the original builder was also the owner so he may have invested in the Xtra depth thinking he was building his permanent home. A neighbour walked by a few summers ago who had recently moved to town and said her well runs dry all the time in summer if she's not super careful. And yet many of the neighbours still water their lawns all summer while the municipality is on water restrictions (we are outside city limits and thus have much lower regulations). It is definately frustrating knowing that if I go out of my way to spare the aquafer, the rest of the houses will not and eventually it is likely to run out. This is not a neighborhood of environmentally concerned citizens, quite the opposite.

I'm using mobile so it's difficult to use the HTML to quote whoever I'm replying to. Thankyou all for your thoughtful advice.

In reference to the aquafer. Every rainy season its levels rise drastically, just never to where it was at before all these wells were tapped into it. So the rain must be getting down to the aquafer in short order no?

I had thought of the IBC tote, and I know a good place to get them, they are just very space consuming and my greenhouse is smack in the middle of my garden. I do have water very close by so that's not an issue

I had not considered the mineralization of the water, it is definately hard water. Very delicious, not sulphuric like so many of the dug and shallow wells in my region.

We do have the two 800 gallon tanks for back up already that pull from the well. All the water that runs off the greenhouse would trickle through the garden, but in the rainy season that's a lot of water. I might start with a few 55gallon barrels and see how that goes for us.

Tyler Ludens wrote:https://www.harvestingrainwater.com/

If every land owner (or even a significant number) implemented these techniques we could solve all our water problems very quickly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iQ-FBAmvBw&t=347s

Thankyou, I will have to check these out!

Ok maybe this is a dumb question but I'm trying to understand if there would be any real benefit to installing a rain barrel catchment system off my greenhouse roof since the excess water from rain would just end up back in the ground where my well pulls it from anyways?

Our entire neighborhood is outside of town so not municipal water, all the wells in the area take from the same deep underground aquafer. Our well is the deepest at 800ft but we have two 900gal water tanks that automatically fill from the well when the buoy is triggered (we installed these to save the tiny pump at the bottom of the 800 ft from dying, it would cycle every time someone so much as turned a tap on.)

There is a baseline well at the bottom of the entire development that measures the water level month by month for every year since these properties started being build maybe 12 years ago, and each year more development goes in, a couple more wells drilling down to the aquafer. The baseline well shows that the aquafer is slowly dropping, even though it replenishes during the rainy season, it never gets back up to the original depth it was at when the well was installed 12 years ago.

I'm super concerned by this, mostly my neighbours are snooty developers and contractors with 4000-7000 sqr ft homes, these properties waste a lot of water. What can I do to avoid being a part of this problem? Is there a point to catching the rain water off my greenhouse?

I have a reparian area downhill from my orchard and garden and small livestock that is considered repairian status because it was classed as a salmon something or other, in reality it is a trickling swamp stream, and gets dryer every year as homes upstream break the rules and fill in their repairian areas or develop over them. I have a big weeping willow down there and lots of cedar and fir as well.

Any tips of how to think about water in this neighborhood?

Travis Johnson wrote:

Aida Alene wrote:I can't seem to find any good resources or books on specifically restoring forests to their natural state after they have been planted with monoculture tree crops. My woodlot is made up of almost entirely Douglas fir (probably some genetically modified version that grows super fast) they are all about 80 years old. I want to do some research into the best way to rectify the situation for the life of the forest and better biodiversity. location: Coastal British Columbia
elevation: 800ft

I am not sure there is any information available unfortunately.

I am on the whole other side of the country so things are far different here, but we have never had good luck with monoculture forests either. Our white pine plantation got White Pine Blister Rust, our Hackmatack got a Bark Beetle infestation, our Spruce got nailed with Spruce Budworm...it is enough to make a landowner cry.

I wish I had more information for you.

I have had great success with circle cutting. That has created a lot of diversity in the stand, as well as allow wildlife to thrive. Now that I really think about it, that has been our best luck so far getting the most diversity back in the stand. Our wild rabbit, deer and moose are really rebounding despite a lot of coyote's here killing them all off. Here is a picture of those circle cutting efforts..

yes I think many of our Douglas fir are rotten, maybe at their expected lifespan since I'm suspicious they are genetically altered for the timber industry. I'll look into circle cutting, thanks!!

james freyr wrote: I did an internet search and found some books on restoring forests. While some may not appear to be focused on Canadian forests in your area Aida, there may be some useful information within them to help guide you.

thats weird! when I looked, nothing came up, but maybe at the time I was really searching for PNW forest info. Thanks for finding those for me, looks like some interesting reading

I can't seem to find any good resources or books on specifically restoring forests to their natural state after they have been planted with monoculture tree crops. My woodlot is made up of almost entirely Douglas fir (probably some genetically modified version that grows super fast) they are all about 80 years old. I want to do some research into the best way to rectify the situation for the life of the forest and better biodiversity. location: Coastal British Columbia
elevation: 800ft

Nissa Gadbois wrote:We have had both Icelandic and Shetland sheep.

For ease of handling, Shetland are generally friendlier.  They are also quiet substantially smaller than Icelandics, therefore have less meat.  Both breeds are primitive and prefer a diet that more closely resembles that of goats (which we also have).  Both breeds are good mothers in my experience.  Rams are always pretty horrible in tup.  Icelandics are also good for milk production, so there is an additional service for you, if you are interested.  Both produce valuable wool, though very different.  Icelandics produce a double coat - each can be used/sold individually, or blended together.  Shetlands produce a very fine wool suitable for things like blankets and outerwear, that sort.  Of course, if you don't care to sell the wool it can be used (cleaned) as insulation or as a mulch.

thank you, after much consideration I decided to go with a breed that matches my goats in size and no horns so I went with Gotlands. Another motivation for this was that they are considerably more rare than the Icelandics and shetlands in my region so I feel I might have better luck selling ewe lambs and fleeces :)

Awe darn, the combs already sold! Good to know you can use local hay. I talked to Tideview Icelandics and they do feed the imported stuff, so I guess its a bit of preference.

Yes I would like to avoid the need for docking so I like that they don't have long tails.

I wish my goats saw me as a God, lol. They see me as mummy, and they are quite demanding about get scratches all the time, I need more hands quite clearly. Strangely my two alpha type does are pretty aggressive with everyone who isn't me, even little kids. Anyone they don't know is fair game to be grunted at and threatened and nipped, even some mild head shoving. Its very strange as they were both bottle babies, one started it and now the other learned from her because they are two years apart in age. ugh!

I only plan to get 2 so I don't think it will matter much if they flock haha.