Homestead mailing list

[Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>]

On Jan 7, 2009, at 9:57 AM, EarthNSky wrote:

> I have full rainwater tanks, . . . .

Sounds like you have things well in hand. I had flipped back to your  
well issues and then your recent drought. Might have known you were on  
top of the situation.

> The monster beds themselves
> contain no soil, just organic matter and compost.  A 3 foot tall  
> mass of
> waste hay, grass, leaves, sticks and manure holds a lot of water.

Almost ready for filling at Heartwood is a new ferrocement raised bed  
four feet wide and fifteen feet long. Vase shaped. Waist high for  
Chris on the uphill side and for me on the downhill side. My plan  
calls for, from the bottom: rocks, small rocks/gravel, good-sized  
rotten oak branches, small rotten oak branches, mower catches of grass  
and leaves for a filter, then growing soil on top.

. . .  Just above the little spring I
> photographed is a dug out area that I call the woodland pond.   
> Elevation
> is about 100 above the garden and about 200 feet away from it.  It  
> fills
> up with spring water that runs off the ridge.  The guy who originally
> dug it told me he dug it deeper than his tractor and that he almost  
> did
> not get his tractor out, but over time, it has filled in and even when
> full now the water is only about 4 feet deep.  The pond area doesn't
> hold water any longer.  This is one of those things, Gene, I would  
> do if
> I had Magnolia.  I would redig that pond, line it, and wait for it to
> fill.  I could raise catfish up there. It is t-bone shaped and about
> fifty feet long by an average of 30 feet wide.  It could be a bit  
> bigger
> and definitely deeper.

Sounds perfect for gravity irrigation. Digging it out by hand would  
get you in primo shape. There are organic sealing methods. I have read  
of a Russian process for creating a waterproof pond bottom; I think  
they call the stuff glee. It's layers of organic matter that rot but  
short of dissipation due to lack of oxygen. Old timers did much the  
same thing by putting hay or straw in the pond bottom, then feeding  
pigs there. The little hooves pack the fibers and poop into a water  
resistant bottom.
> In the deep area near the culvert, water will remain for almost a week
> after the creek stops running.  I think the underground stream is very
> close to the surface there.  It was in that area that I found a huge
> crayfish once.  It is odd to find such a thing in a creek that has  
> been
> dry for over a year, UNLESS it came up from underground.  Rock Creek,
> AKA Hidden Creek is 1000 feet distant on the other side of the  
> road.  My
> creek runs into it, but at the time I found the crawdad, even Rock  
> Creek
> had been dry for a year...so where the heck did that little fellow  
> come
> from if not an underground stream?

Sounds like you have what in the Ozarks is called a losing stream.  
There is flow but in dry times only at the area just above bedrock, in  
heavy rain times the water level rises to and above ground surface.