Dillon Langer

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since Mar 30, 2019
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What do you mean I’m a hippie?
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somewhere in California
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Recent posts by Dillon Langer

Judson Carroll wrote:May I respectfully urge you, at the age of 18, not to think of yourself as a teenager.  When I was 18, I was laying in a bed, paralyzed in both legs. I was injured at work... a full time job paying my way through college and with a fiancée.   My friends, soon,  were going to war.  We were full grown adult men.  Most came back.  Yeah, you will technically be a teenager for another year.   But, even with the suck factor.... it is better to be a man.  And yes, it does really suck....  that girl left me...  I went to funerals... saw young widows and crying children...  but then, childhood is brief.  Who we become is forever..  A few years ago, I met an old man who said I looked like his best friend.... when he was 18 he was storming the beaches of Normandy.... his friend was cut in half by machine gun fire. Great men walked before us. Be one, now.




I was more so referencing the number of years I’ve been alive and seeing about others who’ve been alive for a similar number of years.  I wasn’t specifying whether I consider myself a man or a child, but thank you for the insight.
4 years ago
Also: winter came and went and I did NOT erode the slope!  Success in my book
4 years ago
I kind of forgot to update about this.  I am no longer at this property but I will try to find the pictures from some of the completed project.  The spring did not provide enough flow to do what I was thinking.  I ended up just digging out garden beds on contour with the slope and putting a trench in the middle as a walkway and as an irrigation furrow.  These small furrows worked much better than trying to fill a whole swale with water and I had two hoses that were gravity fed by the spring which I simply let run into the furrows and they would fill easily that way unless there was a gopher hole.  The water seeped laterally from the furrows under the beds and made for good primitive irrigation.  I grew potatoes, beans, some herbs and two beds were full with wheat.  Also tried dry staking some fig and apple tree cuttings, but those might be dead now because I no longer irrigate that property.  This worked pretty good for developing raw land into a garden by hand which is exactly what I did by myself.  Found some of the pictures included below
4 years ago
I’ve been living in many places across California learning to grow food and raise animals sustainably (and also learning from my many crazy and usually unsuccessful experiments which I always neglect to update when I post about them on these forums haha), and I wouldn’t trade my lifestyle for anything else... but I never find anyone my own age doing these things and it gets really lonely.  I’m posting here to see if there’s anyone else who’s gone out on their own at my age to live the cliché off grid hippie life that I like so much.  WHERE ARE YOU?  DO YOU EVEN EXIST?  I’m about to move yet again hopefully to a dream spot I’ve always wanted to go to in Humboldt county and hopefully by some miracle someone here is from there?  I don’t know man happy new years

(not really trying to date anyone I just thought this forum category was most appropriate)
4 years ago

J Davis wrote:If you are tight on timing, maybe do one small one so you can validate your method and results before putting an entire slope at risk of erosion.

Many of the factors will be local. Soil, rain, cover crops, etc. So even researching and prepping will only mitigate some risk. Much risk will remain until you have tested your method onsite.

Permie methodology is observe, act small, observe, expand scale.

Especially important when dealing with potential erosion on sigilnificant slope.

That said, sound idea. A bit jealous on your water supply :)



I’m not that concerned about erosion at this point.  There are already some bare spots behind me in the picture, and the area I’d be digging is less than 3/4 of an acre to begin with.  But I will do my best to retain what soil there is to begin with.  Thanks again!
5 years ago

Tyler Ludens wrote: If you want the swales to act as swales and not ditches, and have more control over the water, you might consider digging them on contour and installing swivel pipes so that when you want to move the water downhill instead of holding it, you can swivel the pipes.  At minute 4:00 in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcgHvYWLs-Q&t=80s



I was planning to dig them so that they are level yes, and that’s clever with the pipe there in the video.  Control in rainy months would be helpful and that would be easy to install if I did it before the whole thing was made.  Thank you!
5 years ago

J Davis wrote:Sounds perfect.

Only advice would be have your mulch, straw, seeds on hand and ready to go and choose your timing as best you can to ensure heavy rains dont arrive while distrubed soil is bare.




Thank you, I hope it’ll work out but it seems noothing ever does as I think it will.  Just gotta get digging before the heavy November rains hit.
5 years ago
I want to set up a gravity fed passive irrigation system on my newly rented grow space by flooding swale ditches so that the berm veggies will always have water.  I would divert water from a perennial spring uphill of the site, which is in an old hayfield with a decent slope to it, to the first swale, which would fill, then the spillway flow would be directed into the second swale, so that I almost create a small stream that doesn’t flow very fast, going downhill from swale to swale and filling them all.  I would use rocks where the spillways flow into the next swale; the only spots where water should be actually flowing and the only spots with erosion potential.  I might try to terminate the waterflow in a pond at the bottom of the hayfield.  I am asking those with more experience than I: is this feasible or am I overlooking something stupid?

I’ll be installing swales regardless as the unusually heavy rains of last winter have done some damage on the slope.

Is there a better way to irrigate without having to set up drip lines or soaker hoses or install tanks to hold water?
5 years ago
Unfortunatley due to personal events I had to leave the site where the growing was taking place, but I recently went back to discover that some of the now completely neglected plants, with a total lack of water during the worst months of the year for a mediterranian climate, survived.

Plants that I have seen survive Fukuoka style planting then neglect concerning any pest control or watering(although it was a very wet May) include:
-Apline Strawberries
-Green Zebra tomato
-Unidentified red cherry tomato(seed saving this!!)
-New england pie pumpkins(not yet fruiting, I believe they will still die before then)
-Blacktail mountain watermelon(not fruiting)
-A stalk of Painted Mountain corn seems to be alive
-Sunset goldilocks, Hopi Red Dye, and Red Garnet amarnaths all survived and set seed, although did not grow so tall.
-Vermont cranberry bean did the best.  Bush varieties that were quicker to mature survived.


Ultimately, due to the conditions that were created by my absence I would not consider this a completed experiment.  I’m sorry I couldn’t contribute more knowledge to these forums.  Maybe if I find a more permanent situation I’ll try again more formally.
5 years ago

eric fisher wrote:

Good to know about the ash, it’s just usually a resource I have a lot of in winter because stove fires.  Weeds usually include, at least in the batch of tea I’m referring to, chickweed, miner’s lettuce, foxtails, etc.

 -- You have some potent stuff in this list.

You gave me a lot to think about here Dillon so I slept on it, and then there is the time zone differential. Anyone reading this and posting on here, be rest assured I will get to you.

You have already told me that you feel your mix does feed your plants and you notice a positive response so I expect the feeding aspect is positive. If you want to enhance things further consider the nutrient balance and what essential and beneficial elements are available to your plants.  For the sake of brevity I won’t go into  the ‘law of the minimum’  and essentiality here which you may already be well aware of.

Don’t think you have to worry  much regarding phytotoxins since you leave it in the 3-4 months and these are usually prevalent in fresher organic matter.

I am rather nervous regarding your use of the ash (Potassium Hydroxide), it has a very high pH of up to 14 ! ; which is very extreme. On a plus side it is likely to nuke any pathogens around because most of them are neutrophils.  On the minus side it’s going to nuke almost every other living organism too.  When you put your solution/mulch on the land the earthworms may want to avoid it, which is not something you want.  I gather you have laid down a lot of ash. I would be inclined to do a soil pH test and test your solution as a matter of urgency.

I would also be inclined to use the ash as a separate amendment and add seaweed instead in your bucket which is high is potassium, traces, growth hormones and is more gentle.

Chickweed (Stellaria media) is  high in calcium, magnesium, manganese, zinc and iron.

Miner’s Lettuce (Claytonia perfoliate) is an interesting one. It is high iron and high in oxalates  which have pesticidal properties like rhubarb leaves.

Regarding foxtails present in varied grasses be careful with this stuff. It is toxic to dogs, horses and an irritant to humans. The inflorescences and spikelets can enter the body via the nose and ears and is high in oxalates like miner’s lettuce.

Hope that helps. Just for the sake interest I have included a spikelet pic below.




Well crap, I haven’t killed anything yet.  I don’t use all the ash I’ve created from fires too or I surely would have nuked everything by now.  You’re damn right foxtails are an irritant when the seed matures and gets stuck in all your socks.  And that’s good to know about miner’s lettuce.  I usually accredit my lack of serious pest issues to neglecting to weed or separate plants into neat rows so that it all becomes just patches of veggies amongst grasses.  (I like to tell myself I’m breeding for neglect surviving plants with my passive, borderline lazy ways.  Hence my highly unscientific teas.)

Anyways, thanks for the help Eric.  Much appreciated.
5 years ago