permaculture

[FranksFarm@aol.com]

Good day,

So nice to hear from Darren , John and others.

Darren as usual was right on the money:) I have already built a number of 
lowland ponds...that was easy. Ponds higher up in the hills would be better 
though.

I have lots of drains coming down from the hills around my place. Some are 
fairly wide, and some almost 10 feet deep. Water volumes vary greatly 
depending on volume of water, ground moisture levels, etc. With heavy rains 
over a few days volumes are impressive, and fairly swift. Some drains end 
near low land, and create boggy areas.

My thoughts were to possibly dig extension drains to connect to other 
drainages rather than juts spill over. In the past much of this was pasture 
which has now quite a few weedy trees like box elder, black willows, and lots 
of multiflora roses.

I'm planning to bull doze much of this area...yet keep enough trees to make 
it more like park land, and then plant grasses and clovers for grazing.

One of the main problems correcting?:) some of these situation is the sheer 
size of the project since they affect quite a number of acres. Even moving 
dirt from a pond to fill in requires a dump truck, and many, many trips.

Regarding key lines...

I've read some of the literature...but am still a bit confused.
For example would drainage ways that lead down and converge from the hills on 
either side of the hills to the hollows be keylines?

Look forward to your comments. Frank