Homestead mailing list

[Bill Jones <billj AT harborside.com>]

SISU! wrote:

> Bill Jones wrote:
>
>  
>
> > That's not nearly enough to keep grass green.  Maybe it's just that
> > I'm color-blind, or something.>
> >    
>
> Grasses will surely die out in a drought.  There's probably not much you
> can do about that.  That may mean that raising goats would be easier
> than raising sheep, or that you have to buy hay during the dry months,
> but you gotta find a work-around.
>
>  All those resevoirs and rivers
>  
>
> > > are only there because of the snowmelt.  Where in the world did you
> > > get such a ludicrous idea as there is no snowmelt from the Coastal
> > > Range?
> > >
> > >      
>
>  
>
> > It could be that our tallest Mountain in the county is too short to
> > have any serious glacial snowmelt.
> >    
>
> Yeah, but you made a general statement about the whole Coast Range, not
> just your county.
>
>
>  
>
> > This place is heaven, compared to S. California.  I guess theoretical
> > discussions of people cope in dry areas are just beyond you.  I'd
> > never leave the West Coast, and no one wants to freeze either.
> >    
>
> Your place, from previous posts, sounds nice to me, better than some
> places in the country, for sure.
>
>  
>
> > If you look at this map you'll see that every place you go out west,
> > there's less than one inch of rain for all of July.  That's
> > one-quarter the amount it takes to keep gardens and pastures green
> > (generally accepted to be about an inch per week).
> >    
>
> Yeah, but Bill, EVERYONE has a dry season or a wet season.
But when the dry season coincides with the growing season, instead of 
the other way around, how does pasture growth happen (on most randomly 
chosen square feet within the "brown area") except during a short spring 
or fall window?

> Perhaps you can't grow or maintain a forest or orchard without
> irrigation in your location, but with some planning, you might be able
> to mitigate how much you have to supplement water.  Your conifers are
> building soil, it is just that the terrain is so new, geologically
> speaking, that they haven't built much soil, and what is built is washed
> away by the steep terrain during the rainy season.  
Actually I looked into this question years ago.  I wondered if anything 
can be done with conifer waste, other than spreading it in the paths to 
kill weeds.  And other than whittling and a fun homemade soap, I found 
the answer is no.  Even if not for the turpentine and rosin, the lignin 
molecule of conifers cannot be digested by fungi, and doesn't break down 
into healthy soil.  That's why the land under them is barren except for 
a few specialists.  If it were otherwise then anyone could have a grand 
garden just by dumping on fir needles, as I once envisioned.  If you'd 
like references for all the details, check the links to "ramial" AND 
"LaVal".  Some of the papers are probably in French.

> If the Incas can
> grow things on the slopes of Machu Picchu, surely there is a way for you
> to overcome your climate deficiencies, too.  It might come down to
> hauling buckets of collected rainwater to your trees once a week, but
> it's gotta be possible.
>  
My galfriend places no faith in her barren pasture at all, and gives her 
sheep a big bowl of Lamb-Gro twice a day each.  Fortunately I'm in no 
such position.

Bill
S. Oregon coast