I'm hoping that at least one (hopefully more) of the cedars on your property are the Eastern Red variety... if I was in your situation (and had the skill to do it) I'd be lining closets and dresser drawers with all that aromatic wood. And making a few hiking staffs out of some of the straight branches of any tree that has to make way for your overall design. :)
YES!!!! This video really didn't come off as visually stunning...or even able to communicate the lines as I had hoped. Pete did such a great job in finding the lines with out having to cut down anything really. So we will have to wait on the digging to see it all.
Better Together Life only so interesting you can make marking contour lines and dropping flags. Ha! That said, I thought it was super interesting, but I'm a novice permie so I'm all about it! 👍
I'm questioning how accurate you have to be to dig a swale. When you are dealing with the forces of nature and water, 1/10ths of inches and a laser level might be overkill, especially when you are dealing with earth moving.... You can create your own contours when you start digging....
+Kathy Mayeda hey Kathy...I'll let Pete chime in on this one. But here is what I know...Water will ALWAYS run downhill. And there is no such thing as "kind of on contour". It either is on contour or its not and the water is going to run downhill. And yea, you could create your own contour. But that earth will resettle. And also yikes!!! That would be super expensive.
Okay, as a person who has a geology background, worked as a field geologist for geotechnical firm, with an ex as a grading contractor and finally got my PDC this year, I think I might have a clue about how water goes downhill. Water always runs downhill, but WHERE is something that engineers always try to control but never are 100% successful. Water is turbulent, unpredictable, and morphology is never consistent over area or time due to nature or manmade forces. Contours aren't etched in stone, and stone isn't permanent either! I don't know a whole lot about key lines, but I believe they don't follow contours exactly and it serves the purpose of slowing down the water to let it sink which is the reason for berms and swales. It won't be "expensive fix" if you don't follow the contour. Total BS, dude. Everytime someone builds a house or puts in a road, the contours change and it does not necessarily means the world is going to fall apart. Besides if you build berms and swales over a landslide or ground fault even on contour it won't be on contour for long!!!!! Laser level is good for engineering fixed structures on compacted fill, but the swales and berms are going to fill up and settle on their own accord over time as it should in nature. Even fixed structures don't stay laser level forever. We did a little swale and berm in my PDC using a simple A-frame level and I bet it works just as well for the purpose as an expensive laser level.
I like the video, but please balance out your audio. Wearing headphones I was either getting blasted by music or not able to hear vocals. keep up the great work!
If you plant apple trees, make sure you choose varieties resistant to cedar apple rust with all those cedars. Do you watch Life Inside a Box? They are in the Arizona Desert and currently setting up there water catchment system. He also just did fencing. They have 40 acres so they just did a section around their house initially. They are going to do a food forest possibly with swales. Just don't watch it around children since they cuss sometimes and reference adult topics. He does some interesting projects though.
Sharon B Good point about rust resistant but the "life in a box" channel are not a good example of Permacultue or the tiny house movement. There in it for the money and they talk like there still in high school. Its staged..
Sharon B Good point about rust resistant but the "life in a box" channel are not a good example of Permacultue or the tiny house movement. There in it for the money and they talk like there still in high school. Its staged..8
I didn't suggest he watch for permaculture. I listed the reasons due to what Beau mentioned in past videos. They are vegan so they aren't going to be a good source for animals or animal biproducts but they have a huge following, are sponsored, and have various income resources (also something Beau wants to learn about) so their projects go fast. Derick is pretty skilled. I can't really speak for them but from what I gathered, their original plans were to go to Hawaii and live in a tiny house but they saw what is possible in AZ and decided to stay. They were inspired by Vegan Athlete's urban garden and that's what they are aiming for so I'm interested to see it develop and what all they do on the property. They mentioned building more tiny houses for others to stay in (I believe Beau and Kelly mentioned that as well). I think adults can filter out cussing and inappropriate discussions to glean resources that benefit them. If a person's beliefs don't allow that, that's fine too. It's not all the time and I just fast forward or skip videos I'm not interested in. If it's a property being developed, I watch it. I find it fascinating. I watch Ana White building her house also.
Joseph Van Dyck but you can plant about anything everywhere... why dont apples do well? ok so how you fix that? ok. plant. booooom 50tons of apples a year.... ^^
Coming from someone who has battled cedars if you are wanting to preserve water you want to get rid of all of them or this project won't be effective. Cedars absorbe gallons and gallons of water a day and if you don't eliminate them you will never be able to keep water on your homestead. Ive seen cedars consume so much water they have made natural springs go dry. just some advice. I worked on a large ranch in Kansas and we cut over 200 cedars down and killed them and we had springs show up that we did not know where there. I cannot stress enough the importance of eliminating cedars if you are wanting to conserve water!
We'll be removing some cedars for this project, selectively. Cedar trees, along with all other trees and creatures, consume water. However, they also provide many services for our use. They are the best trees for wind breaks, visual barriers, sound buffers, and many wildlife eat their berries. The cedars provide dense shade that helps keep the ground moist. Around here, you will find the best soil underneath juniper trees, and if you remove those trees that soil will quickly wash away. Yes they have grown started growing over the land in an invasive sort of way, but that is just how ecology responds to our current human management. They are a fast growing pioneer species that covers up the soil in places where nothing else will grow. This is the case in many places around Texas. One of my friends, Elizabeth mcgreevey is writing a book on this topic.
Ben I appreciate the discussion and you bring up good points. I guess I just fear with how dry Texas can be at time that it might be hard to maintain. I am used to dry Kansas foot hills and how out of hands cedars have become. The ranch I worked on they became a problem because of how much they depleted out of the soil. It helps having someone look at it differently and I appreciate your response! I'm not arguing I was just sharing my experience with cedar trees. For all I know it could be much different in Texas.
I'm ready for your house to be done so you can start your installation. :) I'm actually trying to schedule Pete to come out to my property soon. Kind of cool to see this video then your more recent videos to see the changes that have taken place.
Oh buddy.... ME TOO!!!! This process has made me realize that I do not like building a home. I just want to farm. Both are hard work, but I much prefer having my hands in the soil and having animals!
@@BetterTogetherLife Oh, I see ! Appreciate your insight. So therefore do swales need to be level so as to to avoid water running off and escaping out of swale itself - and if it does that would be defeat purpose of swale itself, cause it means water is not captured, right?
Pretty much. I would say it this way: “the purpose of a swale is to catch and spread and slow down as much water as possible, spreading across as much of a piece of land as possible, and slowing the infiltration of the water as much as possible. Leading to less erosion.”
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I'm hoping that at least one (hopefully more) of the cedars on your property are the Eastern Red variety... if I was in your situation (and had the skill to do it) I'd be lining closets and dresser drawers with all that aromatic wood. And making a few hiking staffs out of some of the straight branches of any tree that has to make way for your overall design. :)
Besides the radiator hose, looks like it was a fun and productive day! I bet you can really visualize it all a lot better now!
YES!!!! This video really didn't come off as visually stunning...or even able to communicate the lines as I had hoped. Pete did such a great job in finding the lines with out having to cut down anything really. So we will have to wait on the digging to see it all.
Better Together Life only so interesting you can make marking contour lines and dropping flags. Ha! That said, I thought it was super interesting, but I'm a novice permie so I'm all about it! 👍
I'm questioning how accurate you have to be to dig a swale. When you are dealing with the forces of nature and water, 1/10ths of inches and a laser level might be overkill, especially when you are dealing with earth moving.... You can create your own contours when you start digging....
+Kathy Mayeda hey Kathy...I'll let Pete chime in on this one.
But here is what I know...Water will ALWAYS run downhill. And there is no such thing as "kind of on contour". It either is on contour or its not and the water is going to run downhill.
And yea, you could create your own contour. But that earth will resettle. And also yikes!!! That would be super expensive.
Okay, as a person who has a geology background, worked as a field geologist for geotechnical firm, with an ex as a grading contractor and finally got my PDC this year, I think I might have a clue about how water goes downhill. Water always runs downhill, but WHERE is something that engineers always try to control but never are 100% successful. Water is turbulent, unpredictable, and morphology is never consistent over area or time due to nature or manmade forces. Contours aren't etched in stone, and stone isn't permanent either! I don't know a whole lot about key lines, but I believe they don't follow contours exactly and it serves the purpose of slowing down the water to let it sink which is the reason for berms and swales. It won't be "expensive fix" if you don't follow the contour. Total BS, dude. Everytime someone builds a house or puts in a road, the contours change and it does not necessarily means the world is going to fall apart. Besides if you build berms and swales over a landslide or ground fault even on contour it won't be on contour for long!!!!! Laser level is good for engineering fixed structures on compacted fill, but the swales and berms are going to fill up and settle on their own accord over time as it should in nature. Even fixed structures don't stay laser level forever. We did a little swale and berm in my PDC using a simple A-frame level and I bet it works just as well for the purpose as an expensive laser level.
I like the video, but please balance out your audio. Wearing headphones I was either getting blasted by music or not able to hear vocals. keep up the great work!
If you plant apple trees, make sure you choose varieties resistant to cedar apple rust with all those cedars. Do you watch Life Inside a Box? They are in the Arizona Desert and currently setting up there water catchment system. He also just did fencing. They have 40 acres so they just did a section around their house initially. They are going to do a food forest possibly with swales. Just don't watch it around children since they cuss sometimes and reference adult topics. He does some interesting projects though.
Sharon B Good point about rust resistant but the "life in a box" channel are not a good example of Permacultue or the tiny house movement. There in it for the money and they talk like there still in high school. Its staged..
Sharon B Good point about rust resistant but the "life in a box" channel are not a good example of Permacultue or the tiny house movement. There in it for the money and they talk like there still in high school. Its staged..8
I didn't suggest he watch for permaculture. I listed the reasons due to what Beau mentioned in past videos. They are vegan so they aren't going to be a good source for animals or animal biproducts but they have a huge following, are sponsored, and have various income resources (also something Beau wants to learn about) so their projects go fast. Derick is pretty skilled. I can't really speak for them but from what I gathered, their original plans were to go to Hawaii and live in a tiny house but they saw what is possible in AZ and decided to stay. They were inspired by Vegan Athlete's urban garden and that's what they are aiming for so I'm interested to see it develop and what all they do on the property. They mentioned building more tiny houses for others to stay in (I believe Beau and Kelly mentioned that as well). I think adults can filter out cussing and inappropriate discussions to glean resources that benefit them. If a person's beliefs don't allow that, that's fine too. It's not all the time and I just fast forward or skip videos I'm not interested in. If it's a property being developed, I watch it. I find it fascinating. I watch Ana White building her house also.
Few if any apples will be planted. They don't do well in this climate. Especially cultivar apples, maybe we'll plant some from seed just for fun
Joseph Van Dyck but you can plant about anything everywhere... why dont apples do well? ok so how you fix that? ok. plant. booooom 50tons of apples a year.... ^^
Coming from someone who has battled cedars if you are wanting to preserve water you want to get rid of all of them or this project won't be effective. Cedars absorbe gallons and gallons of water a day and if you don't eliminate them you will never be able to keep water on your homestead. Ive seen cedars consume so much water they have made natural springs go dry. just some advice. I worked on a large ranch in Kansas and we cut over 200 cedars down and killed them and we had springs show up that we did not know where there. I cannot stress enough the importance of eliminating cedars if you are wanting to conserve water!
We'll be removing some cedars for this project, selectively. Cedar trees, along with all other trees and creatures, consume water. However, they also provide many services for our use. They are the best trees for wind breaks, visual barriers, sound buffers, and many wildlife eat their berries. The cedars provide dense shade that helps keep the ground moist. Around here, you will find the best soil underneath juniper trees, and if you remove those trees that soil will quickly wash away. Yes they have grown started growing over the land in an invasive sort of way, but that is just how ecology responds to our current human management. They are a fast growing pioneer species that covers up the soil in places where nothing else will grow. This is the case in many places around Texas. One of my friends, Elizabeth mcgreevey is writing a book on this topic.
Colin Chalk anything in the pine family take up big chuncks of water as well. getting rid of those well also help out
Ben I appreciate the discussion and you bring up good points. I guess I just fear with how dry Texas can be at time that it might be hard to maintain. I am used to dry Kansas foot hills and how out of hands cedars have become. The ranch I worked on they became a problem because of how much they depleted out of the soil. It helps having someone look at it differently and I appreciate your response! I'm not arguing I was just sharing my experience with cedar trees. For all I know it could be much different in Texas.
" APPLE, LEARN PERMACULTURE!"
Priceless, Beau!
225$ for a radiator hose........ omg ....
You should be able to add the word swale to your word processor dictionary
I really enjoyed having Pete come up. I was disappointed yet happy that swales are not a good fit for my property. I can't wait to see his plan
Tracy, I may have actually found a reason to install a few Swales, we might have a nice duck/swale connection. Will send to you soon
DUCKS!!!!!!!!! haha.
I'm ready for your house to be done so you can start your installation. :) I'm actually trying to schedule Pete to come out to my property soon. Kind of cool to see this video then your more recent videos to see the changes that have taken place.
Oh buddy.... ME TOO!!!!
This process has made me realize that I do not like building a home. I just want to farm. Both are hard work, but I much prefer having my hands in the soil and having animals!
@@BetterTogetherLife I agree completely.
I I don't want to sound ignorant but what are you guys doing
We are laying out the locations of his future home, guess house, road, garden, and orchard terraces
yummm Dewberries are the best
I like Pete he has a permagrin 😃
Loved the video but HAD to turn it off because of that beeping
The ultimate fort building - love it!!!
Pete is a PermaNinja!
YEA HE IS!
Am confused; how does the Laser leveler come into equation to dig swale trenches?
It shows you where the contour lines are from the land. Swales are always on contour…. Ie LEVEL
@@BetterTogetherLife Oh, I see ! Appreciate your insight.
So therefore do swales need to be level so as to to avoid water running off and escaping out of swale itself - and if it does that would be defeat purpose of swale itself, cause it means water is not captured, right?
Pretty much.
I would say it this way: “the purpose of a swale is to catch and spread and slow down as much water as possible, spreading across as much of a piece of land as possible, and slowing the infiltration of the water as much as possible. Leading to less erosion.”
Hello