Jonathan Rogers

William; those are all fun ideas. I think rental cabins might be the most fun; then it could be more of an experience for people wanting to see composting toilets, high efficiency building and natural building materials (say if I did a series of straw houses or something)

I like the idea of seed balls too.

Part of what changed it is that we really enjoy the place we ended up getting. It's not nearly as much land, but we will have a lot of fun throwing mulch down and encouraging native plants as we live here. So we aren't as motivated as we once were to build a house/homestead there. And the last thing that the area seems to need is another $1.5M house or two for someone's vacation home. It would be much more fun to do something that is more sharable or community based.

Hey Permies,

Title summarizes my position here. We bought about 20 acres near Grand Junction, CO from out of state with the intent of moving and building a house. Didn't make sense financially once the build costs went up by 1.5X, but our main goal was Grand Junction so we bought a house about 3 miles away.

And now we're not moving for the foreseeable future (15+ years).  Curious if anyone has any ideas of what to do with the land in the mean time? I could see living there once the kids are in college, but we don't intend on doing the house planning process again.

It's proximity to outdoor activities makes the location great. Even has access to city electric and water with some development. The big hurdle, besides the wildly expansive soil, is the zoning. In summary, if I want to build more than 4 dwelling units, then current code requires us to hook to city sewer, which is a million+ dollar avenue.  It feels a bit wasteful to use all of this acreage so close to town just for a house or two. I dunno, maybe lavender farm. I woudl love to make ecological use of space (say an 8 unit condo with some intentionally planned water maximization and permiculture landscape, etc) but I don't think I'll get that by the gov't.

We get 9 inches of rain annually here. I don't have much time to do hands on for a few years, but might just start cultivating something eventually. Dunno. Any fun thoughts?

This process is intriguing to me as for small-medium acreage (Hypothetically 20ish acres near Grand Junction, CO) it could be a good and inexpensive project that may be able to have good long term returns for developing a micro-climate, or at least adding some wind break and shade.

Most of the references in the thread seem to be in warmer climate zones. I am interested in what would be possible for zone 5b for desert species. There are lots of pinyon pines and brush nearby, but other than that I am unfamiliar with trees that would natively grow (although grand junction is known for peaches and wine).

I don't know the first thing about permaculture, but am interested in getting started on projects that take a long time to establish, so that in 20+ years I will be able to see some effect. It would be great to be able to get a few trees going in the background while I experiment more with establishing a more intentional area of solid and food production.

Are there any companion plants that would help this process along?

Gregory Campbell wrote:Before investing in large tanks to collect water or divert water from the wash both would probably get you in trouble in Colorado so do your homework on those first.

Yes I may be getting ahead of what is possible. We do have a well permit for 1 acre of garden/lawn, which by extension allows us to collect unlimited rainwater from the roof of our dwelling unit (more than the 110 gal allotment for those on municipal water). And it appears that greywater is fine to use for irrigation purposes.

What I am suspecting is that water diversion won't be allowed. This will take a bit more to dig into. Luckily, it's county land so we're not restricted to city regulations.

I honestly don't even know how to reply to all of this! Such a big welcome and so much time dedicated to pointing me where to start.

I've ordered the Greywater Oasis book and marked RedHawk's series for reading.

Skyler- I will have to read through this a few times. Not even sure what Nitrogen Fixers are yet... but don't tell me, I can figure it out ;). The Colorado forestry seeing program looks great.

Kimi- Great ideas here! Many of these are on the long term list for us- we are building a traditional house, and aren't really on the homestead radar. But cheers to a fellow Midwesterner giving it a go in the desert! Ok, that's a bit of a lie- I actually come from the SW but currently am living in Illinois.

Again, this is all greatly appreciated. I won't have much to contribute/add until we get on site and start observing rainfalls, etc. But it gives me a lot to learn in the meantime.

Hello-

Just checking in to see where to start here. New to growing... everything. I have about three tomato plants under my belt!

Building a house on some acreage near Grand Junction/Colorado National Monument. 10in of yearly rainfall and will be on a well. I realize it will take years of learning to really know what I'm doing here, but I am interested in seeing if there is anything we should be focused on as we are planning the build site/house. Greywater harvesting, rainwater harvesting, establishing trees, etc. Not even sure what our goals are yet because I don't know enough to really be able to set any. This will not be a full time homestead project- we have day jobs. Just want to help contribute to "greening the desert".

Nothing big there now. Lots of Cryptobiotic soil and shrubs. A big wash at the back. I'm not exactly sure what the water rights for the region are yet.

This site seems very active but is a bit hard to sift through. I just ordered Brad Lancaster's books.