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Episode-903- Water in The Landscape

The Survival Podcast Posted on by

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Water is Life!

Water is Life!

Water is so critical to our lives, it is one of the five primary survival needs along with food, shelter, energy and security.  It provides for irrigation, hydration, fire suppression, cooking, sanitation and more.  Yet have you noticed 99% of suburban landscapes are devoid of water other than swimming pools and sprinkler systems.

We have lost on of the key pieces of what water can do for us do to this.  Did you know that water can move nutrients and fertility around your property?  In doing this it can actually catch and rebound energy before it atrophies off your property.   Join me today as we discuss these concepts and more.

On the Show Today We Discuss…

  • The death of water in the land scape
  • Well, rain, tap, the truth vs. the hype
  • The rules of using and moving water
    • Water always moves at right angle to contour
    • Slow water creates life
    • Fast water becomes oxygenated
    • For water to move across land without erosion it must be wide, shallow and slow
    • Water is the greatest creator of biodiversity we know of
  • Methods of controlling, moving, managing water
    • Swales
    • Key line plowing
    • Contour paths
    • Earth berms
    • Hugulkultur
    • Terraces
    • Ponds (large and small)
    • Locks
    • Stream flows
    • Seeping pathways
  • Tools of the trade
    • Handheld Site Level – 15-20 dollars
    • A-frame level – free to about 20 dollars in materials
    • Dumpy level – advanced tool several hundred dollars
    • Laser level – pro tool or improvised sanity check

Resources for Today’s Show

Remember to comment, chime in and tell us your thoughts, this podcast is one man’s opinion, not a lecture or sermon. Also please enter our listener appreciation contest and help spread the word about our show. Also remember you can call in your questions and comments to 866-65-THINK and you might hear yourself on the air.

Comments

Episode-903- Water in The Landscape — 25 Comments

  2. Interesting topic as I just had to replace my pump on my well yesterday. As the well is 220′ it makes me wonder what I’d do if we ever lost electricity for an extended period. Another project to work on!

    • I am in the same boat my friend. The solution I am heavily leaning towards is a PTO generator to hang off of the tractor to run the well pump for maybe an hour a day when the grid is down. Durring this hour we’ll do all the water related tasks and fill water storage containers. We have a 600 gallon diesel tank to keep the tractor going for a while.

      I can’t wait to listen to this episode as I have may water questions…

  3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrYziauGnGw&feature=related

    Wow talk about being on the same page LOL. This is a you tube I found yesterday with Geoff Lawton “Harvesting Water the Permaculture Way” He goes through the entire process from design to building to first planting all on a 6 acre lot. It’s about an hour long.

    Loved this show !!! Perfect timing. With this and the video I think I really get it now!

  4. Rain is better than manually watering,not only because of the better saturation, but because of the energy in the atmosphere. Especially a lightning storm- the plants, and new seeds love all that electricity, ions, whatever it is- gets them excited. -I believe.

  5. Jack,

    very interested to hear about the Geoff Lawton event you want to hold next year. can you provide any additional details about this? is it going to be a PDC, or something like it?

    great, great show today. water is life on the landscape.

  6. Oh yes would love an event. Better start saving now. Experts don’t come cheap! Need as much time to save as possible. Or better yet I could get one of those credit cards so I could get the free miles. Then my plane ticket would be FREE.

    Just kidding wanted to see if any one was paying attention.

  7. Hey Jack,

    Any interest in doing a show about the new property search? I’m just wondering whats driving it. Is Arkansas simply too far away or is the property not what you ultimately want?

    Are there plans for a large permaculture property as a business in the future?

    Thanks!

  8. Just ordered a Johnson Sight Level from Northern – cool tip, thanks!

    I also bought a 3 DVD set of Lawton’s, ordered from the website for the same reason, to support what he’s doing, but it’s in the PAL format and won’t play on either my computer or DVD player. I just assumed they would ship the US orders in a format that could be used here, but not so. With shipping it was over $100 and I can’t use it (whine, grumble, bitch, bitch)!

    • LJH I have had some of the dvds not play on a dvd player but they all work in a pc.

      • You lucked out, they won’t play on my Dell (with brand-new DVD hardware). Oh well, I’ll find someone who can use them & barter for something. Thanks for the reply, Jack!

        • @LJH,

          No I didn’t luck out they absolutely will play with Power DVD or Windows Media Player. Just click on computer and click on the dvd title. If it doesn’t open with Windows Media automatically it is that “software” so right click and select open with windows media player.

        • You can also try:
          http://www.videolan.org/vlc/index.html

          VLC player, it will play pretty much any format you throw at it. Those DVD’s will for sure play on a computer you just have to have the proper software installed. You could install some codec packs also, but the VLC is an easier route.

  9. !!! Well, I’ll be dipped in dogshit, IT WORKS!

    Dunno what I did wrong last try (digital idiot here), but it plays in Windows Media Player and I’m one happy old crone this evening. Jack, you’re worth your former weight in gold, thank you so much.

  10. Idea for Lawton event or related higher end education: how about a suggested minimum reading/viewing so that people come in with at least a familiarity with the concepts and language? Probably not a problem with TSP audience perhaps, just remembering what you said yesterday about some people being at ground level for Holzer.

    Also, if you get a hot arid place, maybe set aside a small area to try some Zai farming techniques??

    • @Vettezuki

      Some prerequisites will be included for sure. As for hot and arid, it may be hot but East Texas doesn’t really qualify as an “arid climate”, though if you ask most folks that live there from Late May – Sept they will likely tell you otherwise.

      I know Geoff will be in California in the spring of 13 as well, so when we talk I will see if that event will be public or not.

      • Oh fantastic. If he’s coming to Cali, could be exactly what I’m looking for with perfect timing. Thanks for the heads up.

  11. I wonder if “what about the mosquitoes?” will become as popular as “but who will build the roads?”.

  13. If you ‘walk’ your A-frame level then it will average any mirror mus-calibrations each time you flip it around.

  14. I was thinking about your laser level idea and if you glue the laser on the side of the level, centered top to bottom then you can calibrate it by setting it on a stable surface not necissarily a level one then shine the laser at wall mark that spot, flip the level over mark the new spot, find the midpoint and adjust the laser to that midpoint. It should be good to go then.

  15. Jack, this is one the very best episodes of TSP ever. Really. I will have to listen to this episode many, many times to accurately “picture” these concepts in my mind; I’m slow, and I haven’t been studying permaculture as long as many TSPers have. It will take a lot of repetition to absorb fully. I hope you do the white-board thing! Thank you, Jack, for this awesome episode.

  16. I use a rotary laser level for a lot of my construction and permaculture projects. You can’t beat it for one person surveys and layouts, especially when you need to do long elevation shots out to 500 feet. A couple other tips, you don’t need a spirit level to calibrate your A-frame. You mark your cross piece of the A-frame where the string crosses then reverse the leg position where they touch the ground, mark again ,and measure to find center of two marks. That’s level. No-tech. I also have a small level with a laser built in that came with a tripod and a mounting base that lets you manually level it then rotate 360 degrees. It’s cheaper than the rotary level and you can still use a laser detector when it’s too bright to see the beam.

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