Thekla McDaniels

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since Aug 23, 2011
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Biography
I ‘ve been studying soil life and the process of soil development since 1965, also, the then new idea that fossil fuels were a limited resource.  I farmed 2 1/2 acres in western Colorado, starting with fine grained ancient blowing desert sand but in 4 years was 6+ inches deep rich black soil! Using nothing but seeds and water, and strategic mowing and grazing.  Magic!
What a lot of fun that was.
Currently renting a small apartment with NO yard or ground.  YIKES!  No south facing windows, just one big beautiful north facing window.

Seeking my next piece of earth to tend.
Can’t wait to see what happens next.
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Western Slope Colorado.
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Recent posts by Thekla McDaniels

Water is highly politicized these days!
I am surprised to hear you have the situation you describe in the Fraser River Valley, but 🤷🏻‍♀️.  You did get that heat dome, and droughts.

I’m in the North Fork Valley.  I am pretty familiar with Rifle, DeBeque region.😊, lived many years in Collbran, get my honey in Parachute.

I oppose the extraction going on over there, but I think it would be a luxury not all can afford, to refuse to work in a particular industry… economic community as coercive as it is!

I use a Berkey.  Prices have gone up it’s true, but the bigger problem here is that the EPA ddclared their filtering system illegal some how.  I can’t remember the details, I think it was the EPA, and someyabout using silver as a biocide or something.  We can’t buy replacement filters from Berkey any more.
3 hours ago
Interesting, Tommy!  Could your hand dug spring fed water source be considered a well?
4 hours ago
Judith, I got curious about the diablo cosmos, searched for images…

It took a while to find what might be a good candidate.  

https://seedcorner.com/cosmos-sulphur-red-cosmos-sulphureus-seeds/.

Here is a link for the same species as bright lights, I think, but this is not a mix of colors, but all produce a deeply pigmented orange-red flower.

It got
Me wondering….. eons ago in my education as a botanist, we learned which pigments were utilized by various plant families.  Cosmos is in the same family as sunflowers, compositeae.  Could petals from red sunflowers also yield a light fast dye?
1 day ago

Amanda Barteck wrote:

Judith Browning wrote:
One of my favorite natural dyes is from Bright Lights cosmos flowers...they dye wool just as nice an orange as the flowers appear.



I'm also particular about yellow woodsorrel for that exact reason! It gives a really nice sunshine yellow when the dye gods are happy! 😂



I’m really curious about this!

What fibers are being dyed, wool, but how about silk?  Are mordants being used, are you dying fabric or yarn or fiber, and how colorfast are the colors?  Do they fade from exposure to sunlight or washing?

Thanks
2 days ago
I like the idea of two cisterns.

Before I filled the tank, it held a half a tank - roughly- of water.  It had sat half full for a very long time.  I think that rules out a leaky drain.

Kevin, I salute you and all the people who are water thrifty, what ever the motivation.  I have lived through major droughts in arid regions.  In fact I have never lived in other than arid conditions. In some situations lasting months, I have hand carried or hauled every drop I have used or my goats have drunk.  I value water.

I want to share the context of this situation where I could live with a “loss” of 50 gallons per day into my soil.

In this arid region, people speak of “filling the sponge.”  Another common expression is “the best place to store water is in the soil”.  Water goes into the soil where it works many miracles, and supports diverse life forms.

It may seem that the idea I could live with a “loss” of 50 gallons a day indicates that I am wasteful with water, and maybe have no regard for the precious nature of water.

Western slope of Colorado is part of the headwaters of the Colorado River.  Water is a sensitive topic here.  Metropolises on the east side of the Rockies divert the would be Pacific bound water to supply new suburbs.  Las Vegas Nevada, Phoenix Arizona and Los Angeles California consider themselves “the lower Colorado basin “. They think it’s “their” water.  An agreement of sorts was reached in 1922, allocating various amounts of water to various stakeholders.  The provisions of that agreement have never been followed.

In Colorado, we are not allowed to catch rainwater!  It is considered to belong to down stream users.  They plan to build new subdivisions and supply them with water from the Colorado.  The Colorado River is already over allocated.  

Water is seen as a single use item by many.

All the irrigation water that arrives on my property is destined to soak into the soil.  All of the domestic water has the same destination.  Some of it passes through my house on the way to the soil.  I do not use compounds on my property that are not biodegradable, or in any way questionable.  

I consider my role in relation to this property as custodial.  It’s on loan from the future.  How could I, an ephemeral being, own a piece of the planet we hope is eternal?  Silly idea!  My responsibility is to let it pass to others in good condition.  It’s already in a lot better shape than when I bought it less than a year ago.

The soil will benefit by moisture to re-establish a healthy soil food web.  It takes more water to establish the flourishing biocommunity I seek than to maintain it.  The water rights I have purchased are enough to maintain an established community.  It will be a lengthy process to get it all established.  That’s what is left in life of interest to me.

So, the 50 gallons a day, the 1500 gallons a month, it’s going into the soil, supporting organisms.  I think that is as legitimate as washing a car 1000 miles distant, or watering a golf course. 🤷🏻‍♀️. If I established a leak proof cistern, that would not change how much water I used, nor where it ended up.  Right now there is an evergreen tree which is probably alive only because of the cooling effect of the partially filled cistern.  That tree will benefit from the future leakage as will the other plants there.

The vegetation I intend to establish will support the soil community.  It will support the few animals I will have, to help with establishing the bio community.  It will feed me and my friends and neighbors.  It will support insects, reptiles and amphibians, prairie dogs, eagles, meadowlarks, crows & other birds, bobcats and coyotes. It will increase the soil carbon, it will convert CO2 to oxygen.  I consider that use of water legitimate.

Also, vegetation will contribute to the localized small water cycle.  If you could mark a water molecule you might track it from the snow on the mountain above, down the stream to the irrigation system to my place, into the ground, into a plant, into a goat, out as urine, into the soil, into a plant, into the air, into a cloud over the mountains from where it might fall again…. Water evaporating is not water wasted, it is water being recycled.  Water used, unless it is contaminated by  some toxic substance will be used and used again.

I have paid for my 6 acres.  I have paid for the water rights and I pay again for the water delivered.  Furrow irrigation is labor intensive, and does not require the manufacture or distribution of plastics.

So, I have paid and paid and paid again for the privilege of being here and working hard in this beautiful location, marginal housing, and harsh climate in my old age, working hard to do something that is beautiful & meaningful to me,  constructive & responsible as a member of earth’s biosphere.

I fail to see the logic of the expense and labor and resource expenditure of capturing 50 gallons a day, only to have more control over where and when I bring it into contact with the soil.  I fail to see the logic of sending the water downstream to be utilized elsewhere where it potentially may not be used to broadly support life as my use does.
3 days ago
Losing 2 inches per day remains constant.

Now the evening of the 10th I have 12 inches between the water and the top of the tank.

My rough figures tell me that is a loss of 50 gallons per day.

I can live with that!

I assume the water goes into the soil somewhere adjacent to the cistetn… more soil microbiology!  
6 days ago
I don’t think you’re crazy, just in the early phases of trying to figure out if you can achieve a particular goal.

I am not your resource though.  I am in the same situation, early phases of trying to figure something out.

Good luck to both of us😀
1 week ago
Ra,
I think it’s a good idea to get a cistern into the lower floor of your house.  Is it a basement?  Basements are the best!  I’m sorry I don’t have one at this place, but perhaps I will dig a root cellar somewhere, but that’ll be a few years off.

Have you gone far enough to decide what you want to build  your water storage vessel out of, or if you’ll purchase ready made?

If I were starting from scratch, I think I would look into a concrete tank like are commonly used for septic systems, or were a few decades back.  I think they make a lot of septic systems nowadays with plastic tanks.
1 week ago
Oh!  Great idea, a hand pump!  I really don’t like to depend on “conventional” solutions.  It’s like having the means to cook and heat the house if the power goes off, the means to grind grain by hand.  I just hadn’t thought of the hand pump.

Thanks!
1 week ago