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  • From: <eureka AT hctc.net>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Got a plan?
  • Date: Thu, 10 Jul 2008 12:08:03 -0500

Yeah, that would bother me too...especially if I was paying the water bill!

We planted natives in the ravine butterfly garden...have to water frequently now to establish, but won't need much in the future. The Widflower Center just waters every 15 days from their rainwater collection system, so that's a good example to aspire to out here. If we didn't have the drip on the veggies they'd be toasted in a couple hours.

I've heard of people using old box cars, etc for structure as you suggest...my question is if I could locate such steel how would I get it back there? How heavy would something like this be and what kind of vehicle and tools would be needed to get it into place? Crane? Bulldozer? Vehicular mule? Logs and a winch?

The rock bottom tractor crossing is about 50 feet wide and five feet deep, with one side being about 3-4 feet higher. A geologist friend said he thought it was a fault line which might explain that nice river running through the pioneer well. This crossing is at the extreme end of the propery, and uphill from the house. Closer to the house the ravine is 75-100 feet wide and about 15 feet deep. We have a tractor crossing here, too, that follows an old ranch road that's grown over, but the path is in the actual creekbed for a couple hundred feet so no bridge is planned here.

An unfortunate placement of the newer septic system by the previous owners precludes being able to go through the back where one would have to drive over it with any substantial load. Approach from the old ranch road might be doable if the steepness of the ravine could be navigated and some wilderness was sacrificed and cleared. The easiest and least damaging would probably be through our neighbor's (who no longer have vegetation to crush) but would require taking part of a welded pole fence down. This is likely the best access choice.

--Sage


On Thu, 10 Jul 2008 11:19:14 -0500
Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com> wrote:

On Jul 10, 2008, at 10:17 AM, <eureka AT hctc.net> <eureka AT hctc.net> wrote:

Ah...very beautiful indeed! If only we had a smidgen of
their rainfall.

I was most surprised and chagrined to learn from the docent that they pump most of their water and have a several-thousand-dollar-per-month water bill. I found and find it most unsettling.

The wet part of the big island is on the other side, the Hilo side. The Kona side is much drier.

The greatest permaculture challenge of the ravine is just
getting from one side of the property to the other.

How wide across at the best place for a bridge?

It would be pretty cool to build a
bridge across that was also a garden...if I could figure
out how to design a bridge.

A steel frame from a mobile home or long-bed truck might provide the main support--check at wrecking yards. Extra mid-span support could be steel pipes sitting on concrete footings.

I've not seen a book on homemade bridges. I made my bridge from white oak logs about twenty-five feet long. Concrete supports on either end. Two-by-ten oak planks go crosswise, with space between so they dry fast after a rain.
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