Rosemary Miller

Anne Miller wrote:

I am not recommending bringing in bulldozers to scrape the dirt into a pile. I only assume that is what you thought I meant.

Yes, I misunderstood.  I see you're on permies.com staff, so that would have been a strange thing to say, wouldn't it?  Anyway, thanks for participating in the project.  I only wish there were some type of website where permaculture women could connect for the purposes of networking about land availability.  There are free apps for building a forum which I could probably do and create a website for it, but I'm working on a nonprofit homesteading assistance program, so that will have to wait.  I created a FB page "Permaculture Women's Exchange" but haven't able to advertise that, so very little traffic at the moment.

UPDATE ON NEW MEXICO FIRES - The Forest Service closed the Santa Fe and Carson forests yesterday. Guess they're planning for these fires to go on for another couple months. Getting out to the burned areas is not going to happen soon, in any case, and everything else in northern New Mexico in the way of potential homesteads is not worth the price.  The Colorado Plateau is an inhospitable place, except for the sheltered nook here and there. If my had my druthers, I would try be near one of the pueblos so I can connect with Native Americans.  They know a little something about land stewardship and surviving in tough straits, and I would like to access that knowledge base and enter into some sort of mutual assistance pact, the way the plants and animals do it in their ecosystems.  I also took photos last summer of an adobe house under construction on Taos Pueblo territory.  It was two stories and long, with lots of lumber framing surrounded by drying adobe bricks stacked in place.  Oh, and there was a concrete foundation.  Still, constructing such a house would be more affordable and easier to accomplish than a conventional house, and could house more than one family.

AS FOR THE AFFORDABILITY CONUNDRUM,  I'm starting to think that the best approach is for lots of people to throw in together and get a professional broker to find a large parcel that can then be subdivided, then buy it and write up the covenants sans all the usual anti-homesteading restrictions being slapped on most other subdivisions.  

Anne Miller wrote: If I inherited some land that had been burned, I would first rent equipment or hire someone to clean up the land and make compost piles of the debris.  Next, I would have lots of wood chips, mulch, or whatever kind of organic matter brought in. Third, I would start growing mushrooms to help cleans the soil and rebuild the soil.

I liked everything you recommended, except I wouldn't hire anyone to clean up the land.  I feel like I would want to spend a little time listening to what whatever life is still there underground wants to see happen.  (Yes, I'm big on some of those permaculture principles).  There are some good reasons to dig and engage in other invasive activities in order to get crops up and growing, as well as carving out rainwater harvesting  earthworks to infiltrate the soil with water, as someone else emphasized. But even before I would buy property that's had such a shock, I would want to do something, maybe a ritual, to recognize so much devastation and loss of life.  Just out of respect.  

What does everyone think about buying land after a big fire has blown across it?  I'm in Santa Fe at the moment watching smoke billowing both in the east (with one fire approaching the Los Alamos Nuclear Labs) and the west (where there's lots of prime areas, either arable land or perfect for agroforestry).  

Last summer I drove through some of those areas now burning, searching for parcels.  From what I've seen, a lot of the western side of the state was first settled by Spanish colonists, and their heirs have stayed on down through the generations.  It's really awesome land, too.  Plenty of precipitation even in drought years and overall just incredibly prisitine. Unfortunately, I see very little actual farming other than an occasional hay field.  Didn't buy anything, though.   Prices are through the roof out here, even in less desirable, high altitude realms, such as the area north of Taos.

Anyway, I imagine a number of these burnt properties will hit the market next fall or spring (assuming the multi-billion-dollar fire-fighting effort eventually gets this situation under control).  Just wondering if anyone has experience or knowledge about how to turn scorched earth back to life, and about how long it would take, either by simply sheet mulching the no-till way, or by way of somewhat more aggressive (but not too overbearing) means to recreate more or less the the same type of ecosystem.

Interesting story.  I spent three years in Sedona, although I didn't look for land there very long.  So, what's your plan for the soil?  Are you planning to grow any perennials or annual vegetables?  If you've got a hill, that means you've got runoff when it rains and could try to slow, spread and sink that water down under. The hardiness zone in Yavapai County is 6A or B, as I recall.  Not sure what part of town you're in, but I always thought it was the perfect place for growing a wide variety of food.  Longer season, too, compared to Taos...

Thanks for your suggestion.  However, a mortgage is becoming harder to come by for those who aren't already comfortably well off.  

Thanks for your message.  It all sounds like a plan, but there are bigger issues to contend with first.  I backed out on this parcel, despite its low cost, because it was just too unsheltered there on the Taos Plateau.  Having the wind and sun beating down on you all day as you do the hard work to transform that depleted soil was just too tall an order for me.  There was no water to drill for underground, either, and the CCR's put in place by the developer were over the top.  Perhaps patience is the first skill a permaculturist must learn, along with perserverance to pursue the primary objective.

I just looked at a 25-acre parcel for sale in Northern New Mexico at 7300 feet.  I'm interested in permaculture farming or gardening, and rainwater harvesting across the the entire property. However, like most open country out here, the land was covered with sagebrush and rocks, and it was treeless besides, except for one very healthy pinyon tree.  The land sloped nicely downward from the back side.  Lots of pinyons growing on a hill to the south a mile or so away, which is public land I think. There are some hills in the east that are a little closer, but the prevailing winds blow straight in from the southwest unchecked.  I saw what I thought was a water channel running from front to back on the land, but then realized it looked more like an old road grown over.  Did not see any other channels or tracks of downslope flow of rainwater. So I really can't tell whether it's possible to work with this situation or not.  It would take a long time, I imagine, to get a decent windbreak, although with the one pinyon tree growing so well, I suppose I could get more of those going in the interim, as well as plant hedge rows or trellises to deal with the wind.  Incidentally, the next door neighbor said there are lots of rocks under the surface that made it impossible to drill a well, so the developer built a communal well about 1/4 mile away.   She did rainwater catchment from her roof that served her needs, but didn't do any gardening.  My initial conclusion was that this would not work for farming, but don't know enough about permaculture ways and means to say definitively.  I'm also not liking the high altitude, but land is so much cheaper and precipitation more reliable.  Don't mind growing under cover to extend the season, but getting good soil in the first place seems like a big project in itself.  Would appreciate any suggestions or advice.