Much to Molly’s chagrin, I operate life through a sequence of experiments. Call it the Scientific Method if you will. I have an idea, then I test it to see if it works. Sometimes this results in huge gains, and other times in colossal failures. But experiments offer valuable lessons that I use to refine my understanding. Like any good scientist, I study what other people do and I adapt their strategies for my own unique needs and circumstances.

While studying permaculture, I was exposed to three concepts that seemed to have perfect harmony with one another: 1) using greywater (household water from sinks and showers) to irrigate plants and trees and 2) building swales (a ditch and berm on contour) to capture runoff, and 3) planting trees on those swales to maximize water uptake. When we built our home in 2016, it seemed natural to combine all three – piping our greywater system to a swale and planting peach trees along the crest. I still believe this is a great idea, but for our circumstances, it required too much maintenance and didn’t integrate well with our animals.

My previous post was about a disappointing hay harvest.  Well, the second cutting exceeded my expectations.  I got 39 bales of hay off of ~15 acres.  This same area only produced 13 bales the first cutting.  What made the difference?  Well, I think the fertilizer had finally kicked in.  We had a good 2″ of

Added more earthworks to the ranch. This time I put a swale in as the first phase of my orchard. A swale is basically a ditch on contour.  The idea being that runoff acclimates in the ditch and slowly infiltrates the soil instead of running off. The added depth of topsoil and moisture retention is

Hurricane Harvey passed through this month and dumped about 12″ on the ranch over a 5 day period.  It was rather insignificant as the water fell at a steady slow rate, and had plenty of time to move through the terrain and make its way off of the property.  Of course it all moved towards

After several months of waiting, Dunn’s Fish Farm showed up at a local feed store.  I bought 200 Channel Catfish, 200 Black Crappie, 100 Copper nose Bluegill, and 10 lbs of Fathead Minnows ($475).  Unfortunately, half of the crappie were dead when I got home.  The bags, which are filled with 1/4 water and 3/4 oxygen,

As everyone is suffering from post-election exhaustion here in the USA, we at Amber Oaks are focused on ways to distance ourselves from those who wish to rule us.  I’m just about finished with our rainwater catchment system. Before we left Santa Fe, I scored three 1500gal direct burial cisterns for $2,400. That’s like waaay