Backhoe

I finally got to talk to Rudy Poe our Permaculture designer, here are my notes.

Ground Cover and Sourcing Seed

He got his seeds for the Tiny Shiny Home Project from Jim Koweek . This is great because Jim's a local guy (Elgin Arizona) and wrote a book on the subject Grassland Plant ID For Everyone.... I asked Rudy about watering the seeds and he said definitely use the water from the pond. He also advised to rake in the seeds a little bit.

Mound Shaping

he suggested using a Gannon (rear mounted box blade) to level off the mounds, which is an attachment we don't have. in lieu of that I'm thinking if I can manually take down the high spots and fill in the low spots so that I can than safely drive our tractor up on the mound and drag the bucket across it.

Building a Level Sill Spillway

Rudy advised to build a 20' wide spillway acknowledging he has not done a design for that relative to our specific context. I'm thinking this should be bigger and / or in multiple places one right in the wash and maybe one at the southwest end of the swale. Michael is supposed to be here today (Friday 2022-09-09) and rather than just seeing how far he can extend the swale, I want him to also build the beginnings of a spillway for us.

Seeking a more formal water runoff and flood assessment is something we also need to plan for.

Tree Selections

Rudy's tree selections besides the mesquite are...

1. Desert Willows
2. Arizona Cypress . Optimally this tree does better at slightly higher elevation.

This recommend selection of trees is if you do not have drip irrigation. This seems rational. Starting off and developing the foundation for a micro-climate support system that enables growing food producing trees, shrubs and plants. Developing a strategy after the support system is in place would definitely be prudent. Rudy suggested we may have to contract out to a nursery to get our order filled. In the future, sourcing our trees should definitely be an endeavor we should take on. Building high quality compost and tea extracts is very much a worthy thing that should enable us to grow out trees that we want.

Backhoe Operator Instructions

1. Use the arm and scoop out the dirt to create a berm which will be on the down hill side of the ditch
2. After dumping out the dirt, smooth out the berm and try to make the whole thing look consistent, especially the height
3. When completed make a pass with the front loader and make the bottom flat
4. Make a final third pass to shape the back cut such that it's smooth and has a 3:1 slope.

Swale Cross Section

Swale Location

To Do: Add content for sourcing and buying ground cover to protect the swales

Acquiring Trees

I talked to Sharon from Parkland Tree Farm & Nursery (a tree farm / nursery located northwest of Douglas) and she gave me a list of trees that are available and fit our context.

Context: What is our context...well that's a good question. When I initially asked Sharon for trees I asked her if she had any Mesquite trees but she did not. I asked for Mesquite per the recommendation of permaculture designer Rudy Poe.

See their pricing spreadsheet to see all items available to purchase

Other To Do Items

1. Determine what type of protection is needed
2. Find other sources for trees
3. ...

The swales and the trees need to be projected from, among other things, the open range cattle. Where that is exactly going to be located, who is going to do it, how the funds will be raised to do it, what type of fencing material(s) will be used is at this time undetermined.