There is nothing more satisfying than watching a madman trying to build a forest on a desert. I wish there were more people like you. Keep up the good work, and the best lucks for you out there!
Should we make some foundation to collect money and buy land to do this? Or a website to collect list of organizations that do this? Dustup ranch is too far for me to come to volunteer and help out.
@@dustupstexas I really don't know how to say this without being disrespectful because I really like what you are doing and hope for you total success, but god you're an idiot. Sorry, you are. But we can all learn, and I think you will slowly, very slowly learn and be successful in your goals it will just take you a lot longer than normal, and with a lot more confusion and pain. Good luck to you. Sorry for the blunt truth.
One suggestion what i did recently at a river: Bio-degradable sandbags! Those are great. You can fill them up at the scene, make much bigger dams and you can improve afterwards with stones and ropes. Also they tend to quickly get stuff grown on them.
Thinking about the idea of using hemp or burlap bags not in the gullies, but along contour of the higher areas as a sort of instant no-dig swale. Line the upper side with dead branches and similar material to provide shelter/cover for anything that starts growing there, and throw whatever local grasses seeds you can get hold of. Would be a worthwhile experiment in one part of the property.
@@clearingland In Germany, sandbags are not only made of plastic but also of jute. Untreated jute rots in a few years with sufficient moisture. In very dry conditions it can take longer.
@@clearingland you can plant native grass around it that have deep roots to make the structure strongger and last longer, its common methods in asia to make retaining wall strongger with natural material.
Hi Shawn. You are not a bonehead.. You have the right amount of persistence combined with the ability to step back and re-evaluate.I love how well your bathtubs worked. I have some suggestions: 1. always mention the date of filming cause it takes a while to edit and post. 2. Mention at beginning of every video that 300 years of cattle and sheep destroyed this property and killed all the trees. Your goal is to restore it to its high level of biodiversity. 3. If you have kids, have them make small seed bombs containing tx wildflower seed mix w/ extra blubonnets and some clover (N). don't follow the recipe on internet. use 75% clay or they will fall apart and seeds will get eaten. Throw a few hundred around on every visit to the land. Don't worry that they will die. The sprouts will add tiny roots to the soil/rocks. many will flower quickly and seed. Shawn, I want to promise you something..In ten years you will have at least one permanent spring on your property. !! Keep going...
Seed bomb making is excellent activity for students in elementary and high school. I'll bet Shaun reached out to teachers he could inspire the next generation of regenerative land stewards and get tons of seed bombs made. Sometimes town festivals are good locations for this kind of community building activity.
Cattle do not kill trees or turf. Maybe sheep do, but I don’t have experience with them. Grazing cattle rejuvenate the topsoil and aerate the turf to help incorporation of nutrients.
I am completely loving your work at restoration after so many decades of desertification caused by mismanagement of the land. Keep up the good work. You are a pioneer, setting an example for others to follow.
You are correct this is a desert with less than 10 inches of annual rainfall, but it wasn't always so. It once was grassland for cattle barrens in the 1800's until they overgrazed it. The aquifer is everything for this land. That is what this TH-camr is trying to demonstrate. @@thomasriddle9570
@@GotoHere I am uncertain the value of your name calling. You are right that there is only about 10 inches of rainfall annually which definately classifies this as a dessert. Does it foster good communication and understanding? Are you aware that this area was part of the great cattle grazing land int he 1800's? Have you read Alan Savory's work and the desertification process of Africa and how he is reversing it? There is really great hope for our desserts if we learn to get the limited rainfall back into the aquifer. Following this the grasslands regrow, and the dessert can even bloom like a rose. These became barren when we overgrazed then in the 1800's and it is only possible to restore them with heroic effort. This restoration effort is far too costly for value returned in one man's lifetime. It is my understanding that this TH-cam producer is spending his own money and will probably never see personal gain, but he is doing this experiment to show it can be done.
@@brandonjuber1586 He has spotted at least 3 illegals and 4 or 5 cartel smugglers on trail cam alone. One incident where the poor kid was traveling with another and the other guy died of dehydration. Luckily the kid found the camp and took some water. Being a veteran myself, the most complacency you can have is when you "think" you're alone. Usually when it's too quiet it means they don't want to be heard.
Shaun, your exhilaration is a joy to witness. My father worked in the oilfields in the Chihuahuan desert around Carlsbad so I spent a lot of time exploring. The smell of that desert after a rain is indescribable. Seeing the water capture with your low-tech bathtubs and check dams is so exciting! This is a long journey and we are so happy you are sharing it with us, friend.
@ Shaun, A good 'rule of thumb' is that if you make a dam is should be 3-5 times as wide as it is high. So a 2 ft high dam should be 6-10 feet wide. And wider is better. You currently don't do that. Your dams are about as wide as high so they will not last.
Best part of a project like yours is being there first hand to watch a year's worth of water come down in 15 minutes. You really should construct ground level rain roofs like Handee Man.
Can feel your excitement Shaun.. Good for you. If you keep your ball cap on under the rain gear it will help keep your glasses dry. I love being in the rain and glasses kept dry is great. Looks like you'll be fishing soon!
I feel incredibly blessed to live in the temperate climate, where we have plenty of water and rain. I can't imagine living in a place where I need to make such monumental efforts to capture such a small amount of water. Thanks for this video, this has really opened my eyes and I feel much more grateful now! Wishing you good yield and luck with the project :)
DUSTUPS is One of Our FAVORITE Channels on TH-cam! Shaun, You are doing AMAZING Work while providing Education & Inspiration to countless LAND DREAMERS around the World. Keep it up Brother, We're Praying for You! Godspeed, Team LANDIO 🚀🤠
I worked at a wastewater treatment facility and we had to keep very accurate weather records for our plant. We had a very nice automated rainfall gauge that we used for our measurements. Just about 500 yards away from our weather station was the weather station for our neighbors- the local airport. I can tell you that often we had varying totals of rainfall between the two units. A few hundred yards can make a huge difference in the amounts of rainfall that hit the ground. You can also talk with farmers that will tell you about how varied their rainfall totals can be from one part of their farm to another. Keep up the great work with your project. I’m looking forward to seeing more progress from you.
Loved your excitement as it rained. Think of your dams as "leaky weirs". You only want to slow the water. Your dams will hold more water as sediment accumulates in front of them, so you don't need to make them water proof. Nature and rain will do it for you. You will see more apparent improvement if you complete multiple dams on a single water flow, rather than one dam here and there.
Amazing to see all your projects working! KEEP IT UP! I suggest you heep damming the "rivers" as much as possible ever few feets or so and keep the wholes as they are clearly working. Maybe plant some drought resistant bushes on the slopes of the wholes so they are more resistant to erosion and provide shade.
With the site being so remote I know it’s hard to be there for rainstorms but watching the rainwater harvesting structures actively working is very entertaining, especially since they have little organic matter right now. It’ll be exciting to see the increasing in time and amount of water they can hold.
Living the dream! I so want to do this... looking for land now. You definitely should looks at building a shed with a metal roof for shade, and pipe the roof gutter in to a series of buried tanks to store rainwater.
Northern Arizona is still quite affordable, between Kingman and Flagstaff. It snows in winter mild summer. Unlike Phoenix or Tucson, Wilcox Arizona is nice and quiet, mild temperatures too. I’m a long haul trucker. If it’s up to me I would choose these areas. My wife would never leave San Diego California even if her life depends on it. She’s from Chicago so she said she would never ever want to see or experience snow or blizzard again.
As a near 40-year desert dweller, many sandy washes actually run water but it is underground. Up in AZ, the Hassayampa river runs all the time but rarely with water above the sand level. Be careful around rocky washes as you can experience rapid walls of water during initial water surge, even outside of the storm area.
In Idaho some of our our rivers just disappear, near craters of the moon. The water then travels hundreds of miles and comes out at 1000 springs. Pretty amazing actually.
I've been thinking your place needs a solidly anchored shade/rain structure and today's episode showed why. It doesn't need to be much, but anchored deeply and/or in concrete. I figure you need #1 reuseable anchors for tents. ie: concrete plug with metal loop, recessed so vehicles can drive over without damage. #2 solid metal skeleton(say 10'x20') for shade/rain. Use the silver tarps and size the framework to the size of the tarps. Weld loop anchor bolts to the skeleton for easier tarp attachment and removal.
When you mentioned 40 mph winds, the first thing I thought was "there goes those tents". I'm sorry you had a mess to clean up, but I'm also glad that you were safe and didn't have to have a serious confrontation.
This is the video ive waited many years to see. So many people show the after effects of rain but my favorite part is watching it fill. Thankyou for your excitement!!
I believe, after your second or third rain event (after the silt has built up some), you will see longer staying effect in the small, spot check dams. Gabion dams in heavy flow areas really do need supportive lateral cutouts.. and overbuild in general if you don't have the hydrology data to go by; in your case, just add large chunks, observe and iterate - sometimes its cheaper than over-planning, even if you're right in the planning. Interesting to watch the system evolve in real time. You're doing fine, you held water in the landscape and that is the ultimate goal. Things will evolve. Thanks!
I feel your excitement as I see the dirt bathtubs full of water! I had goosebumps! I know how it is to feel parched and too dry to spit, and how grateful when the rain comes and soaks the earth. It feels like magic!
Have you considered putting shredded paper in the bottom of a dirt tub? With a little cardboard over it. With a handful of beans for seed In top with a few shovel loads of dirt. You probably know that beans build soil.
Hello from El Paso! I’m so glad you chose this beautiful area for your project, and I’m glad to see that your hard work is proving effective. I’m really looking forward to seeing you progress. I’d love to see more sites get this kind of treatment. I know a lot of people in the El Paso County government, and it would be great to see the county and the city implement this sort of thing on public lands. Keep it up so we can convince them!!
You are doing a great job. Before long your learning experiences will out-weigh the challenges. Every post is showing incremental improvement. Thanks for sharing your journey.
That's one of the reasons the leaky weirs start at the highest elevations 😊 You would be well advised to have a decent quality weather station mounted permanently on the property. First, it will tell you what is happening on your site and second, it will record time, date, rainfall and wind gusts (if you buy that level or recorder) My suggestion is it would be useful to have that historical data so you can plan accordingly. Now that you have experienced an actual rain event I hope you have some appreciation for why it is a good idea to place your stones that make up a leaky weir in a craftsman like interlocking pattern. 😊
Love this video! Love the longer format and walk about… have you thought about building rock rings around trees/large cacti about 1m wide and filling with dead wood and grasses - help support the species already on site, trim underbrush to make wood chips…. So many useful resource already on the land, can’t wait to see the progress and thank you for regular videos!
There was another channel here on TH-cam that put down a tarp up high and had it draining into a tote which then was useable by wildlife. The good thing about this tarp was that it was on the ground, so there was no structure required that would catch the wind, and just tubing going into a tote bin.
Rain gear: $1.69 from TEMU - Watching Shaun struggle with cheap plastic zipper: priceless 😂 Keep it up Shaun, you’re doing what the rest of the world needs to do!! Great work, can’t wait to see the results!
I loved watching the rain puddle! I cant wait till the next storm! Thank You for revitalizing the earth and taking us on the journey. I hope to follow in your footsteps
Having been on grazing land before, I can tell that this area was overgrazed. Along with your other problems, grazing animals ate all the prairie grasses, down to the dirt and rocks, allowing endless erosion. The deer and rabbits finished the job. All they left is the scrub trees and inedible plants. Once you get that runoff slowed, some grasses and trees growing up high and work your way down, you will have a good start. There are lots of areas in the desert southwest that could use this kind of re-greening.
It is great to see you getting so excited about the rain! Your comment about balancing persistence against blind stubbornness is a good life lesson. Best wishes and better luck ! Thanks for the video Shaun !
Congratulations on what you are doing ! It takes me back to my childhood years in a much wetter climate, building dams in streams to create a summer 'swimming hole' ... General principles: sides of dam/gabion should curve/angle upstream along the bank a little, to direct the flow towards the centre of the flowpath ... if the dam isn't doing to hold the water (and you don't want it to, you just want to slow the water significantly and often), better that the middle breach, so that you can strengthen the edges, then redo the middle ... Upstream face/side, ideally, is bigger rocks (harder for the water to lift, less likely to easily wash away or erode) ... downstream face large but thin 'plates, hard to erode, heavy enough to hold the smaller stones and rocks between the two faces in place ... when you get a good flow of water, if it can run over the top of the dam/gabion without eroding it, that minimises the need to maintenance/repair ... This recent rain should allow you to get an idea of which branch of the watershed you can use for experiment, to refine your techniques for slowing the water ... At a guess, perhaps take a 500yd section, and clear the rocks from the bottom between the backs every 20-50feet, putting whatever you find in a small rockpile dam/weir ... with small flow, it'll slow the flow ... with medium flow, some of those rockpile dams/weirs will be washed downstream until the flow can no longer move them ... with strong flow, bigger rocks will be rolled/carried downstream until they find a place where the flow is no longer strong enough to take them farther ... those points then become where you actively build a longer-term structure, with gabion/cages to hold the code in place, and facings of larger rocks on the upstream side, and slabs of larger rocks on the downstream/overflow side (especially in the middle of the structure as a spill-way) ... were I not living 2K+ miles away, I might well be volunteering to see how implementing the above could work out in reality ... Each frequent small dam/weir becomes a 'nucleus' on the upstream side of which the fertile silt can gather and accumulate - and, as that silt gradually accumulates and more and more drops out of the flow, it is making each section of the slope less steep with slower water flow, giving yet more chance for it to seep into your local water-table, exactly where you want it to be ... As you say, it's a learning experience, and you are learning from experience !
Your excitement over the water and run off is contagious. Not sure I know what I’m saying but I think the water sinks under ground in a lot of your areas. Then pops out in some of the gullies. You’ve got good stuff going on. Sorry about the mess in the tent.
I am rooting for ya bud. If I were closer I'd be happy to volunteer to lug stone and dig tubs. This is a project that is happening with greater frequency around the world, and will become increasingly important as climate change causes greater weather extremes and we need to actively rehabilitate our ecosystem instead of just extract, take, and develop.
I think with work and hobbies and such- it’s important to enjoy them and to enjoy seeing the results of your time, work, investment, etc. It’s really lovely to see someone so pleased/happy with the results they are getting. Nice video, I enjoyed it, thanks for posting.
I’m U.K. and this is really interesting, there is so much potential to be had, I’m not sure if you could grow clover there but they help soil immensely
I am living for this right now. How excited you got about the rain, I am the same! Or will be the same, we are in there process of looking for some desertified land in Spain to restore, so I am avidly watching all your videos, taking notes, and completely feel like we are going through this with you 100% 😂😂
I could relate your excitement especially that grin 😁. Its a rare event. First rains (here in monsoon region of India) are so special that it has shaped culture rituals and religion here. We have our school start exact same weeks so i distinctly have memories of getting wet going to school & having same grin. Today I interact with farmers & see same grin when it rains after sowing. Rains & Water is life its good thing to be closer to it, experience it.
I have been really enjoying the videos. It's exciting to finally see the tubs fill up. I don't how long after filming you post the video, but it would be great if you have the date of filming posted somewhere so we can feel for what is happening on the ranch during which months. I always end up wondering if these happened a few days or a few months ago.
And there it is. A 1 inch rain evet and yoi got to seehow the land drains and flows. Every observation you made was insightful and seemed spot on to me.
Seeing your excitement is infectious 😊. Many thanks for sharing this footage as we have all wanted to see it for some time. Sometimes it can take so much longer than expected for a flow to get to you than you'd think.
Your gabion has NOT failed, the lush green shows, it is the right position. Rewatch taht video and observe the vegetation around. All the time you walk torwards it, you are walking on trapped sediment. That one big rain event soakled everithing with water. I believe you have to build it even broader, with enought depth. Have one dedicatet overflow area, where you seccure the wash-out with rocks and pebbles. Also I believe a structre of about 2 foot height behind the gabion would secure it even more. congratulations to the great success with the dirt bathtubs! Keep up the good work! Soon there will be lush lands.
It's awesome to see the check dams and bathtubs in action! That water is going to soak in a lot more than before and allow everything around it to send out more green. I wonder what those white flowers at 18:41 are. My wild guess was an evening primrose (such as Oenothera caespitosa), but it's hard to see in the video. Someone from the area will have a better idea. Seems like a good candidate for something to collect seed from later in the year and spread around (if it isn't something invasive).
Great video again, thank you for the walking tour. Rain cells like that can have very distinct cutoff between rain and no rain. Those bathtubs look great full of water. Bummer about the tent, another tough lesson. Keep showing us the rain.
Shaun, best episode ever in so many ways! Props to you and your editor. One: Your excitement just jumps off the screen, and it's a joy to watch! Two: Great to see the first rain and how it panned out, love seeing the results. Three: Your little face on the map bottom right cracks me up. Four: Ending the episode with a drawn gun just reminds one about the potential danger of being there and is such a contrast to the joy of 'full bathtubs' and the good that you're trying to do. This is such a great project,, can't wait to see what's next.
Very cool! Hard to appreciate in person when the goal is to slow the water flow as much as possible while also pushing as much of the flow underground as possible but over time it will show up as the water that used to quickly evaporate from surface water gets transpired and recycled between plants.
Awesome job, and thanks! I was really wanting to see the water, and you did a great job on the walk through. Appreciate the map view in the corner too. So nice to see the positive energy. I'd hope and guess that nature feels it too.
You are probably already aware of Bill Zeedyk and his work in water harvest in the SW, but it looks like that central wash would really benefit from his techniques for adding meander to water flows.
The moment we've all been waiting for! Shaun, this was great to see a test of all the hard work put into this project. I'm curious to see what the results will be from water retention. You really had me on edge there at the end with your gun drawn, glad to see it was just mother nature tearing shit up 😅
This has been my favorite video yet!! I love that it was longer and we got to see so many new things! The planets, the first flow, all the greenery. Normally the videos are so short and kinda mono color because the sun is so bright. However the cloud cover really did the camera a favor and we could see so many new colors. Those tall stick plants are so kool looking and the silver ones are so beautiful.
Nice work - A consideration. CHECK DAMS - if you dig 2-4ft trenches between each dam so to form steps, you will collect, slow & of course hold much more water. Strengthen each step with gravel n stones as you dig the trenches out so they can hold the water in place Advantages - raising water table, cotton wood would survive better & you will collect more life giving sediment. Disadvantages - a day spent with a spade
@@middle-agedmacdonald2965 Then I imagine cowboys get hit by lightning quite frequently. Also the cowboys of old didn't carry a lot of electrical eqipment. EM fields could make it easier for lightnign to path through that area.
Cowboys carry guns and shoot bad guys, they run through cactus fields when it rains, and they climb in desert washes when floods are coming. While safety is important, almost everything he was doing was death defying. Strange you'd just comment about the lightening rod.@@DaDunge
Of all the things to worry about on the border of Mexico lightening seems unimportant, particularly since there is no permanent structure, and lightening storms seem infrequent there. According to the internet, "According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), an average of 26 people are killed by lightning in the United States each year. This number has been relatively consistent in recent years, ranging from 23 to 33 deaths per year." It's so statistically insignificant I just can't figure out why you're focused on it? Not saying you're wrong, but walking around with a football helmet on is also safer than not wearing a helmet. It just seems like your prioritization of safety hazards is a little out of tune with reality. Brother, it's all in fun that I'm writing this. I mean no ill will, and I'm not trolling you. I'm just realistic, in my personal perception. To each their own, and you're 100% right that he'd be safer with lightening protection than without.
I'm happy I live in the southwest of Norway and don't have to carry a gun to feel safe. Your southern border is damn unsafe, so I do understand why you carry. Looking forward to see how this project develops. It is all very interesting. Wish for it to be as successful as those in India were they have turned dessert into green havens.
Those flower at 18:50 are cool. We called them moon flowers growing up. Not sure what they actually are but they like to vine and grow about this time of year. Early fall late summer.
There is nothing more satisfying than watching a madman trying to build a forest on a desert. I wish there were more people like you. Keep up the good work, and the best lucks for you out there!
Should we make some foundation to collect money and buy land to do this? Or a website to collect list of organizations that do this? Dustup ranch is too far for me to come to volunteer and help out.
@@tgsoon2002 Maybe one day. I'd like some success under my belt, first.
I don't think he's mad, inspired certainly.
Best wishes from Wales.
@@dustupstexas I really don't know how to say this without being disrespectful because I really like what you are doing and hope for you total success, but god you're an idiot. Sorry, you are. But we can all learn, and I think you will slowly, very slowly learn and be successful in your goals it will just take you a lot longer than normal, and with a lot more confusion and pain. Good luck to you. Sorry for the blunt truth.
@@pauldurkee4764 Wales where there is never a shortage of rain 😊
Hydrology lesson, Botany lesson, Self-Defense lesson, Psychology lesson.
What an episode.
One suggestion what i did recently at a river: Bio-degradable sandbags! Those are great. You can fill them up at the scene, make much bigger dams and you can improve afterwards with stones and ropes. Also they tend to quickly get stuff grown on them.
Great idea 👍🏻😃
Thinking about the idea of using hemp or burlap bags not in the gullies, but along contour of the higher areas as a sort of instant no-dig swale. Line the upper side with dead branches and similar material to provide shelter/cover for anything that starts growing there, and throw whatever local grasses seeds you can get hold of. Would be a worthwhile experiment in one part of the property.
And if you add some coffee, eggshells and wood chips to the sand they fertilize your ground.
@@clearingland In Germany, sandbags are not only made of plastic but also of jute. Untreated jute rots in a few years with sufficient moisture. In very dry conditions it can take longer.
@@clearingland you can plant native grass around it that have deep roots to make the structure strongger and last longer, its common methods in asia to make retaining wall strongger with natural material.
Hi Shawn. You are not a bonehead.. You have the right amount of persistence combined with the ability to step back and re-evaluate.I love how well your bathtubs worked. I have some suggestions: 1. always mention the date of filming cause it takes a while to edit and post. 2. Mention at beginning of every video that 300 years of cattle and sheep destroyed this property and killed all the trees. Your goal is to restore it to its high level of biodiversity. 3. If you have kids, have them make small seed bombs containing tx wildflower seed mix w/ extra blubonnets and some clover (N). don't follow the recipe on internet. use 75% clay or they will fall apart and seeds will get eaten. Throw a few hundred around on every visit to the land. Don't worry that they will die. The sprouts will add tiny roots to the soil/rocks. many will flower quickly and seed. Shawn, I want to promise you something..In ten years you will have at least one permanent spring on your property. !! Keep going...
Sometimes trees are the problem, as in Selah Ranch. Sometimes native grasses are better
Seed bomb making is excellent activity for students in elementary and high school. I'll bet Shaun reached out to teachers he could inspire the next generation of regenerative land stewards and get tons of seed bombs made. Sometimes town festivals are good locations for this kind of community building activity.
Cattle do not kill trees or turf. Maybe sheep do, but I don’t have experience with them. Grazing cattle rejuvenate the topsoil and aerate the turf to help incorporation of nutrients.
@@Emslander Yep. Cattle are good for the land; sheep can be, if they're well-maintained. Otherwise sheep tear things up.
@@michaelsorensen7567 Trees the problem? I'll believe it when I see it.
My Great grandfather would be very proud of you. Ran cattle and worked the railroad really close to you in the 1880s.
I am completely loving your work at restoration after so many decades of desertification caused by mismanagement of the land. Keep up the good work. You are a pioneer, setting an example for others to follow.
He’s inspiring af
…it’s not mismanagement. It’s a desert because it averages only a few inches of water a year. It’s not like it’s an overgrazed farm
It hasn’t been mismanaged. It’s a desert are you really this clueless…
You are correct this is a desert with less than 10 inches of annual rainfall, but it wasn't always so. It once was grassland for cattle barrens in the 1800's until they overgrazed it. The aquifer is everything for this land. That is what this TH-camr is trying to demonstrate. @@thomasriddle9570
@@GotoHere I am uncertain the value of your name calling. You are right that there is only about 10 inches of rainfall annually which definately classifies this as a dessert. Does it foster good communication and understanding? Are you aware that this area was part of the great cattle grazing land int he 1800's? Have you read Alan Savory's work and the desertification process of Africa and how he is reversing it?
There is really great hope for our desserts if we learn to get the limited rainfall back into the aquifer. Following this the grasslands regrow, and the dessert can even bloom like a rose. These became barren when we overgrazed then in the 1800's and it is only possible to restore them with heroic effort. This restoration effort is far too costly for value returned in one man's lifetime. It is my understanding that this TH-cam producer is spending his own money and will probably never see personal gain, but he is doing this experiment to show it can be done.
Never thought a simple walkthrough after a rain would get this suspenseful! I could feel your excitement...
19:49 First Person Shooter mode activated!
Ambidextrous FPS Mode
lol my guy is 2 hours down a dirt road and thought someone stopped by to trash his tent...
@@brandonjuber1586 To be fair, dude has had illegals pop out from nowhere multiple times.
@@brandonjuber1586 He has spotted at least 3 illegals and 4 or 5 cartel smugglers on trail cam alone. One incident where the poor kid was traveling with another and the other guy died of dehydration. Luckily the kid found the camp and took some water. Being a veteran myself, the most complacency you can have is when you "think" you're alone. Usually when it's too quiet it means they don't want to be heard.
LMAO! I was thinking the same thing! I'm glad to know he's armed and no one was in the tent.
Shaun, your exhilaration is a joy to witness. My father worked in the oilfields in the Chihuahuan desert around Carlsbad so I spent a lot of time exploring. The smell of that desert after a rain is indescribable. Seeing the water capture with your low-tech bathtubs and check dams is so exciting! This is a long journey and we are so happy you are sharing it with us, friend.
@ Shaun,
A good 'rule of thumb' is that if you make a dam is should be 3-5 times as wide as it is high. So a 2 ft high dam should be 6-10 feet wide. And wider is better.
You currently don't do that. Your dams are about as wide as high so they will not last.
It's a learning process
Constructive input
Make the dam curved so it has more strength.
@Blabla0124 He mainly seems to build the dams between natural borders though. So are you suggesting that he builds lower dams?
for me,no need that high,1 feet is ok,but more wider
Best part of a project like yours is being there first hand to watch a year's worth of water come down in 15 minutes. You really should construct ground level rain roofs like Handee Man.
I told him the same BUT if you not permentally on you ground some could damage that too.
Can feel your excitement Shaun.. Good for you. If you keep your ball cap on under the rain gear it will help keep your glasses dry. I love being in the rain and glasses kept dry is great. Looks like you'll be fishing soon!
My thought as well. lol
I feel incredibly blessed to live in the temperate climate, where we have plenty of water and rain. I can't imagine living in a place where I need to make such monumental efforts to capture such a small amount of water. Thanks for this video, this has really opened my eyes and I feel much more grateful now! Wishing you good yield and luck with the project :)
DUSTUPS is One of Our FAVORITE Channels on TH-cam!
Shaun, You are doing AMAZING Work while providing Education & Inspiration to countless LAND DREAMERS around the World.
Keep it up Brother, We're Praying for You!
Godspeed,
Team LANDIO
🚀🤠
I worked at a wastewater treatment facility and we had to keep very accurate weather records for our plant. We had a very nice automated rainfall gauge that we used for our measurements. Just about 500 yards away from our weather station was the weather station for our neighbors- the local airport. I can tell you that often we had varying totals of rainfall between the two units. A few hundred yards can make a huge difference in the amounts of rainfall that hit the ground. You can also talk with farmers that will tell you about how varied their rainfall totals can be from one part of their farm to another.
Keep up the great work with your project. I’m looking forward to seeing more progress from you.
Loved your excitement as it rained. Think of your dams as "leaky weirs". You only want to slow the water. Your dams will hold more water as sediment accumulates in front of them, so you don't need to make them water proof. Nature and rain will do it for you. You will see more apparent improvement if you complete multiple dams on a single water flow, rather than one dam here and there.
Amazing to see all your projects working! KEEP IT UP! I suggest you heep damming the "rivers" as much as possible ever few feets or so and keep the wholes as they are clearly working. Maybe plant some drought resistant bushes on the slopes of the wholes so they are more resistant to erosion and provide shade.
With the site being so remote I know it’s hard to be there for rainstorms but watching the rainwater harvesting structures actively working is very entertaining, especially since they have little organic matter right now. It’ll be exciting to see the increasing in time and amount of water they can hold.
Living the dream! I so want to do this... looking for land now. You definitely should looks at building a shed with a metal roof for shade, and pipe the roof gutter in to a series of buried tanks to store rainwater.
The drash tent is working for now
Northern Arizona is still quite affordable, between Kingman and Flagstaff. It snows in winter mild summer. Unlike Phoenix or Tucson, Wilcox Arizona is nice and quiet, mild temperatures too. I’m a long haul trucker. If it’s up to me I would choose these areas. My wife would never leave San Diego California even if her life depends on it. She’s from Chicago so she said she would never ever want to see or experience snow or blizzard again.
Great idea!!!!
As a near 40-year desert dweller, many sandy washes actually run water but it is underground. Up in AZ, the Hassayampa river runs all the time but rarely with water above the sand level. Be careful around rocky washes as you can experience rapid walls of water during initial water surge, even outside of the storm area.
This is totally true. Even miles away from the storm. I grew up in the Mojave desert. Huge flash floods can happen. This is real.
In Idaho some of our our rivers just disappear, near craters of the moon. The water then travels hundreds of miles and comes out at 1000 springs. Pretty amazing actually.
I've been thinking your place needs a solidly anchored shade/rain structure and today's episode showed why. It doesn't need to be much, but anchored deeply and/or in concrete. I figure you need #1 reuseable anchors for tents. ie: concrete plug with metal loop, recessed so vehicles can drive over without damage. #2 solid metal skeleton(say 10'x20') for shade/rain. Use the silver tarps and size the framework to the size of the tarps. Weld loop anchor bolts to the skeleton for easier tarp attachment and removal.
some sort of tin roof structure would be great, even just a slant roof and 2-3 walls.
When you mentioned 40 mph winds, the first thing I thought was "there goes those tents". I'm sorry you had a mess to clean up, but I'm also glad that you were safe and didn't have to have a serious confrontation.
Yep. Tents are like kites.The wind could totally have unzipped both sides.
Fabulous, I know how you feel.
We farm in Cuba, and rain is a wonderful thing!
Keep up the good work.
What a beautiful day! rain in the desert is one of the best smelling things.
excited to see all those ocotillo in bloom
This is the video ive waited many years to see. So many people show the after effects of rain but my favorite part is watching it fill. Thankyou for your excitement!!
Such a great opportunity to get real time feedback on all your hard work. I’m so glad you were there to witness it!
I believe, after your second or third rain event (after the silt has built up some), you will see longer staying effect in the small, spot check dams. Gabion dams in heavy flow areas really do need supportive lateral cutouts.. and overbuild in general if you don't have the hydrology data to go by; in your case, just add large chunks, observe and iterate - sometimes its cheaper than over-planning, even if you're right in the planning. Interesting to watch the system evolve in real time. You're doing fine, you held water in the landscape and that is the ultimate goal. Things will evolve. Thanks!
I feel your excitement as I see the dirt bathtubs full of water! I had goosebumps! I know how it is to feel parched and too dry to spit, and how grateful when the rain comes and soaks the earth. It feels like magic!
Have you considered putting shredded paper in the bottom of a dirt tub? With a little cardboard over it. With a handful of beans for seed In top with a few shovel loads of dirt. You probably know that beans build soil.
So does red and white clover as long as it can get some rain ..the three of them combined should probably work great.👍
Shredded paper degrades fast. A good thing.
19:48 This moment was intense 😬
most American thing I have ever seen... >_>
Most Texan thing. *@@Att441_
Crazy...with right right music, it could have been "die-hard" like....
No, it was embarrassing.
Looked like a first person shooter game.
Those dirt bathtubs are doing a great job! More of those would be awesome
Wow, this land has a lot of potential for improvement - water catchment, plants, etc. Great work - there is more to be done too. Exciting.
So special and beautiful to see a rainstorm in the desert. Thanks for sharing! Always great videos.
Hello from El Paso! I’m so glad you chose this beautiful area for your project, and I’m glad to see that your hard work is proving effective. I’m really looking forward to seeing you progress. I’d love to see more sites get this kind of treatment. I know a lot of people in the El Paso County government, and it would be great to see the county and the city implement this sort of thing on public lands. Keep it up so we can convince them!!
You are doing a great job. Before long your learning experiences will out-weigh the challenges. Every post is showing incremental improvement. Thanks for sharing your journey.
All those ocotillo will be gorgeous in spring with blooms
That's one of the reasons the leaky weirs start at the highest elevations 😊 You would be well advised to have a decent quality weather station mounted permanently on the property. First, it will tell you what is happening on your site and second, it will record time, date, rainfall and wind gusts (if you buy that level or recorder) My suggestion is it would be useful to have that historical data so you can plan accordingly. Now that you have experienced an actual rain event I hope you have some appreciation for why it is a good idea to place your stones that make up a leaky weir in a craftsman like interlocking pattern. 😊
Good suggestions. This rain was big drops, heavy but short lived. Hope you have a slow, all day drizzle to compare.
I imagine beavers watching this with delight! 💕💕
This actually gave a great impression on what the property looks like compared the usually still shots before with no feeling of distance!
Your enthusiasm for this project and for rewilding is honestly amazing to see. Every video you upload puts a smile on my face, thank you Shaun.
6:16 Imagine this place with a stream of water flowing year round. Ah, what a beautiful place this would be! Looking forward to your success Shaun!
Love this video! Love the longer format and walk about… have you thought about building rock rings around trees/large cacti about 1m wide and filling with dead wood and grasses - help support the species already on site, trim underbrush to make wood chips…. So many useful resource already on the land, can’t wait to see the progress and thank you for regular videos!
As a person that lives in the area I'm always eager to see your next videos and progress
There was another channel here on TH-cam that put down a tarp up high and had it draining into a tote which then was useable by wildlife. The good thing about this tarp was that it was on the ground, so there was no structure required that would catch the wind, and just tubing going into a tote bin.
Rain gear: $1.69 from TEMU - Watching Shaun struggle with cheap plastic zipper: priceless 😂
Keep it up Shaun, you’re doing what the rest of the world needs to do!! Great work, can’t wait to see the results!
That was funny 😂 we need to take him to Bass Pro or REi and help him find some light weight rain gear!!!
Nothing better than a good rain in the desert, and then the sweet smell of the creosote afterwards! I am convinced that your project will succeed!
I loved watching the rain puddle! I cant wait till the next storm! Thank You for revitalizing the earth and taking us on the journey. I hope to follow in your footsteps
Having been on grazing land before, I can tell that this area was overgrazed. Along with your other problems, grazing animals ate all the prairie grasses, down to the dirt and rocks, allowing endless erosion. The deer and rabbits finished the job. All they left is the scrub trees and inedible plants. Once you get that runoff slowed, some grasses and trees growing up high and work your way down, you will have a good start. There are lots of areas in the desert southwest that could use this kind of re-greening.
It is great to see you getting so excited about the rain! Your comment about balancing persistence against blind stubbornness is a good life lesson. Best wishes and better luck ! Thanks for the video Shaun !
Full tubs and gun play! God Bless you, Shaun!!!
Congratulations on what you are doing ! It takes me back to my childhood years in a much wetter climate, building dams in streams to create a summer 'swimming hole' ...
General principles: sides of dam/gabion should curve/angle upstream along the bank a little, to direct the flow towards the centre of the flowpath ... if the dam isn't doing to hold the water (and you don't want it to, you just want to slow the water significantly and often), better that the middle breach, so that you can strengthen the edges, then redo the middle ...
Upstream face/side, ideally, is bigger rocks (harder for the water to lift, less likely to easily wash away or erode) ... downstream face large but thin 'plates, hard to erode, heavy enough to hold the smaller stones and rocks between the two faces in place ... when you get a good flow of water, if it can run over the top of the dam/gabion without eroding it, that minimises the need to maintenance/repair ...
This recent rain should allow you to get an idea of which branch of the watershed you can use for experiment, to refine your techniques for slowing the water ...
At a guess, perhaps take a 500yd section, and clear the rocks from the bottom between the backs every 20-50feet, putting whatever you find in a small rockpile dam/weir ... with small flow, it'll slow the flow ... with medium flow, some of those rockpile dams/weirs will be washed downstream until the flow can no longer move them ... with strong flow, bigger rocks will be rolled/carried downstream until they find a place where the flow is no longer strong enough to take them farther ... those points then become where you actively build a longer-term structure, with gabion/cages to hold the code in place, and facings of larger rocks on the upstream side, and slabs of larger rocks on the downstream/overflow side (especially in the middle of the structure as a spill-way) ... were I not living 2K+ miles away, I might well be volunteering to see how implementing the above could work out in reality ...
Each frequent small dam/weir becomes a 'nucleus' on the upstream side of which the fertile silt can gather and accumulate - and, as that silt gradually accumulates and more and more drops out of the flow, it is making each section of the slope less steep with slower water flow, giving yet more chance for it to seep into your local water-table, exactly where you want it to be ...
As you say, it's a learning experience, and you are learning from experience !
RAIN! what gives life to all, including Shaun - so great to see you excited and you have much to be excited about! Keep it up!
Glad you got the much needed rain. I absolutely love seeing flowing water in the middle of the desert.
I love the American confidence and motivation, I am German and although 62 there is so much I still want to do to make a difference, well done!
Your excitement over the water and run off is contagious. Not sure I know what I’m saying but I think the water sinks under ground in a lot of your areas. Then pops out in some of the gullies. You’ve got good stuff going on. Sorry about the mess in the tent.
Watching the water move so slowly was beautiful. Soak baby soak!
I am rooting for ya bud. If I were closer I'd be happy to volunteer to lug stone and dig tubs. This is a project that is happening with greater frequency around the world, and will become increasingly important as climate change causes greater weather extremes and we need to actively rehabilitate our ecosystem instead of just extract, take, and develop.
Thanks, You have plenty of rock for your roads !!
20+ minute video :) happy to get a long video!
I'm trying to make that happen more often
what he says!
@@dustupstexas great video - lucky to have been out there at the right time!
Most exciting episode so far! Full dirt bathtubs, the risk of flash sheet floods, and suspenseful first-person shooter mode!
I love watching your progress and am thankful for the rain!. The Father in heaven is generous.
Good to see that you have defense preparations.
Let's GOOOOOO!!! Love the rain update! And don't feel too bad about the bathtub epiphany, I know I was surprised by the same thing.
I enjoy the rain with you. I hope to see your free valley one day if I'm still alive. Thank you Shaun.
I think with work and hobbies and such- it’s important to enjoy them and to enjoy seeing the results of your time, work, investment, etc. It’s really lovely to see someone so pleased/happy with the results they are getting. Nice video, I enjoyed it, thanks for posting.
Shaun, it is great to see you enthusiasm! And it is great to see things starting to work.
I’m U.K. and this is really interesting, there is so much potential to be had, I’m not sure if you could grow clover there but they help soil immensely
Desert Shaun perks up and blossoms with rain just like the local plants
I am living for this right now. How excited you got about the rain, I am the same! Or will be the same, we are in there process of looking for some desertified land in Spain to restore, so I am avidly watching all your videos, taking notes, and completely feel like we are going through this with you 100% 😂😂
I could relate your excitement especially that grin 😁. Its a rare event. First rains (here in monsoon region of India) are so special that it has shaped culture rituals and religion here. We have our school start exact same weeks so i distinctly have memories of getting wet going to school & having same grin. Today I interact with farmers & see same grin when it rains after sowing. Rains & Water is life its good thing to be closer to it, experience it.
Thank you sharing this beautiful memory and experience of yours!
I have been really enjoying the videos. It's exciting to finally see the tubs fill up. I don't how long after filming you post the video, but it would be great if you have the date of filming posted somewhere so we can feel for what is happening on the ranch during which months. I always end up wondering if these happened a few days or a few months ago.
Or at least just mention it in the video.
And there it is. A 1 inch rain evet and yoi got to seehow the land drains and flows. Every observation you made was insightful and seemed spot on to me.
Seeing your excitement is infectious 😊. Many thanks for sharing this footage as we have all wanted to see it for some time. Sometimes it can take so much longer than expected for a flow to get to you than you'd think.
Your gabion has NOT failed, the lush green shows, it is the right position. Rewatch taht video and observe the vegetation around. All the time you walk torwards it, you are walking on trapped sediment. That one big rain event soakled everithing with water. I believe you have to build it even broader, with enought depth. Have one dedicatet overflow area, where you seccure the wash-out with rocks and pebbles. Also I believe a structre of about 2 foot height behind the gabion would secure it even more. congratulations to the great success with the dirt bathtubs! Keep up the good work! Soon there will be lush lands.
It's awesome to see the check dams and bathtubs in action! That water is going to soak in a lot more than before and allow everything around it to send out more green.
I wonder what those white flowers at 18:41 are. My wild guess was an evening primrose (such as Oenothera caespitosa), but it's hard to see in the video. Someone from the area will have a better idea. Seems like a good candidate for something to collect seed from later in the year and spread around (if it isn't something invasive).
Great video again, thank you for the walking tour. Rain cells like that can have very distinct cutoff between rain and no rain. Those bathtubs look great full of water. Bummer about the tent, another tough lesson. Keep showing us the rain.
Shaun, best episode ever in so many ways! Props to you and your editor.
One: Your excitement just jumps off the screen, and it's a joy to watch!
Two: Great to see the first rain and how it panned out, love seeing the results.
Three: Your little face on the map bottom right cracks me up.
Four: Ending the episode with a drawn gun just reminds one about the potential danger of being there and is such a contrast to the joy of 'full bathtubs' and the good that you're trying to do.
This is such a great project,, can't wait to see what's next.
The gun at the end LMAO, looks like a videogame
What an incredibly satisfying episode to watch!
Loved seeing the effects of all that hard work and different ideas.
“Cowetta Dips”, water bars and runoff ditches on your roads will help it in helping to maintain them
Very cool! Hard to appreciate in person when the goal is to slow the water flow as much as possible while also pushing as much of the flow underground as possible but over time it will show up as the water that used to quickly evaporate from surface water gets transpired and recycled between plants.
your plans are working !! greetz from the netherlands, europe.
19:48 These Doom mods are getting more and more realistic
Love your enthusiasm
Awesome job, and thanks! I was really wanting to see the water, and you did a great job on the walk through. Appreciate the map view in the corner too.
So nice to see the positive energy. I'd hope and guess that nature feels it too.
Rain is life and makes us happy
Really enjoyed the first person shooter angle at the end.
You are probably already aware of Bill Zeedyk and his work in water harvest in the SW, but it looks like that central wash would really benefit from his techniques for adding meander to water flows.
The moment we've all been waiting for! Shaun, this was great to see a test of all the hard work put into this project. I'm curious to see what the results will be from water retention. You really had me on edge there at the end with your gun drawn, glad to see it was just mother nature tearing shit up 😅
Glad to see the gun come out and you are not ashamed to exercise your 2nd Amendment rights!
Congratulations. The rain is the goal . Your experience is a win.. love walking over the property any day. You should do more.
This has been my favorite video yet!! I love that it was longer and we got to see so many new things! The planets, the first flow, all the greenery. Normally the videos are so short and kinda mono color because the sun is so bright. However the cloud cover really did the camera a favor and we could see so many new colors. Those tall stick plants are so kool looking and the silver ones are so beautiful.
Nice work - A consideration. CHECK DAMS - if you dig 2-4ft trenches between each dam so to form steps, you will collect, slow & of course hold much more water. Strengthen each step with gravel n stones as you dig the trenches out so they can hold the water in place
Advantages - raising water table, cotton wood would survive better & you will collect more life giving sediment.
Disadvantages - a day spent with a spade
geo textile fabric could help catch alot of sediment and slow the water more. rock wall geo textile on top then more rocks on top.
Shaun, watching those check dams work is awesome and makes me feel great.
Is that lightning? You're kind of out in the open and there is no lightning rod.
Cowboys don't carry lightening rods. :)
@@middle-agedmacdonald2965 Then I imagine cowboys get hit by lightning quite frequently.
Also the cowboys of old didn't carry a lot of electrical eqipment. EM fields could make it easier for lightnign to path through that area.
Cowboys carry guns and shoot bad guys, they run through cactus fields when it rains, and they climb in desert washes when floods are coming. While safety is important, almost everything he was doing was death defying. Strange you'd just comment about the lightening rod.@@DaDunge
@@middle-agedmacdonald2965 I don't know anything about desert washes and fields of cacti. I do know about open ground and lightning storms.
Of all the things to worry about on the border of Mexico lightening seems unimportant, particularly since there is no permanent structure, and lightening storms seem infrequent there. According to the internet,
"According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), an average of 26 people are killed by lightning in the United States each year. This number has been relatively consistent in recent years, ranging from 23 to 33 deaths per year."
It's so statistically insignificant I just can't figure out why you're focused on it? Not saying you're wrong, but walking around with a football helmet on is also safer than not wearing a helmet. It just seems like your prioritization of safety hazards is a little out of tune with reality.
Brother, it's all in fun that I'm writing this. I mean no ill will, and I'm not trolling you. I'm just realistic, in my personal perception. To each their own, and you're 100% right that he'd be safer with lightening protection than without.
I haven't been walking in the rain in ages, so it was wonderful to walk in the rain with you! You've just decreased my stress.
It was only recently that i learned that rainforests are rainy because of the symbiotic relationship between trees and fungi.
It's awesome to see yalls hard work paying off!
I'm happy I live in the southwest of Norway and don't have to carry a gun to feel safe. Your southern border is damn unsafe, so I do understand why you carry. Looking forward to see how this project develops. It is all very interesting. Wish for it to be as successful as those in India were they have turned dessert into green havens.
There are rattlesnakes there as well as the possibility of mountain lions. Even if the border wasn't so close.
Those flower at 18:50 are cool. We called them moon flowers growing up. Not sure what they actually are but they like to vine and grow about this time of year. Early fall late summer.