waterlecture2

Water HarvestingWater Harvesting

QuickTime™ and a decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

1. Check In

2. Best of Last Week: water

3. Story Telling: Collecting water in the old days

4. Water Score

5. Contour/Swales

6. Building A-Frames & Bunyips

7. Ponds

8. Harvesting Water in the Cities

*****BREAK*****

The First Half of Our Agenda

How are you feeling today?

Did you sleep well?

Did you have a great breakfast?

Are you ready to learn?

If you are ready, say OUTLOUD:

“I’M IN!”

as a small commitment to being intentionally here today.

Let’s check in!

My favorite part of the day!

Let’s share what we thought was the “best” of last week’s readings and

viewings and other comments.

Click HERE to go to the Google Doc!

Best Of Last WeekBest Of Last Week

It’s what most of, if not all of, our ancestors did.

In the comment box below, I would like to hear how you got your water when you were a kid. (For me I had Fairbanks water, but when we left town, that’s when finding water was

important and fun.)

You can also tell how your grandparents got water if you want.

Story-telling is another great way to rememberStory-telling is another great way to remember

Now I want you to imagine.

Imagine that it’s 2050 and there is no more gas/oil/power to send water to our faucets. What would you do to get water to the house you are in

now?

Type your responses in the comment box.

What is your water score?Click HERE to find out.

What is your water score?Click HERE to find out.

True story: I’m working with a client right now who can’t afford her $85 a month water bill here

in Eagle River anymore.

She needs a different system. She’s around 70 years old, so she can’t do it herself and she can’t pay to have it done. I’m not sure what will happen. Can you just turn off your water to your house without the city coming to see what’s going on?

So how can you get water for free?

So how can you get water for free?

First, you have to capture it before it gets away.

First, you have to capture it before it gets away.

There are several ways to do that, but the Permaculture rule of thumb is:

Slow it, spread it,

sink it!

Slow it, spread it,

sink it!

Marking Contour

Lines

Marking Contour

Lines

Source



With the A Frame you can mark off contour lines on your field. Use stakes to mark these contour lines and remove them as the ditch is dug.

The spacing between contours depends on the steepness of the ground, the drainage qualities of the soil and the amount of rainfall in the area.

Click here to learn how to build an A Frame.

Formula to figure out how to space your

swales

Formula to figure out how to space your

swalesDistance between swales based on steepness of slope.

Grade Distance

2% 1:50 30m 98ft 35% 1:3 8m 26'

5% 1:20 28m 92' 40% 1:2 5m 20'

8% 1:12 24m 78' 45% 1:2 4m 13'

10% 1:10 20m 65'

14% 1:7 18m 59'

16% 1:6 16m 52'

20% 1:5 14m 45'

25% 1:4 12m 40'

30% 1:3 10m 33'

You can also use a BUNYIP

to measure contour.

You can also use a BUNYIP

to measure contour.

Click here to learn how to

make a bunyip.

Now watch guru Brad Lancaster show how to use it. CLICK HERE

Digging Contour Ditches

Digging Contour Ditches



The ditches are 12” wide and 8-12” deep. The steeper the land, the closer togetherthe ditches should be.

On steep land the ditches may be just a few feet apart. On nearly flat land, they may be 65 feet apart.

Source

Grass or other close-growing plants should be planted on the uphill side of the ditch. This protects the ditch from filling up with soil

and prevents the soil from being carried down the hill by rainwater.

In fact, this pattern (holon) may actually build soil.

Planting Grass Barrierson a steep slope




Source

Here’s a side

view of a

swale

Here’s a side

view of a

swale



Holding water in a swaleHolding water in a swale



And catch

eroded soil.

Check damns slow itCheck damns slow it

Source

WATTLES (NET PATTERN)

WATTLES (NET PATTERN)

You can also use willow branches (8”-12” in diameter) called wattles for your check damn. They need to be 1/2 buried in a trench so they stay put. The net captures debris coming down the hill. (A beaver damn model) You can also stake them.

Source

SourceThese are also called fish scale swales

SlowingSpreadingSinking

Could you use contour ditches to drain water off?

What would that do to the tundra? I’ve seen what air boats do in the Tanana River flats, what four wheelers

do, even what snow machines do:

Permanent swampy tracks.

So how would this workin the tundra?

So how would this workin the tundra?

InterventionIntervention

• So I asked my mentor, Rick Valley, about the “burden of the intervener” -- once you intervene, you are responsible for that system.

• I wanted to know how I would know if a system SHOULD BE intervened upon. His answer was, “TAPO” (Thoughtful and Protracted Observation)

• So before you jump into anything big, do some observation, test a small portion. If it likes being disturbed, you should be able to notice.

• I continue to worry about being too Anthropocentric.

Here’s Tim Myer’s Farm in Bethel

Here’s Tim Myer’s Farm in Bethel

He is not farming on contour, but perhaps the fields are positioned toward the sun. They don’t look too wet, do they?

Conserve energy by making ponds at the highest point on your land as possible.

Bringing the water

to where you need it.

Bringing the water

to where you need it.

Use gravity to water your gardens or chicken coops

or dog water bowl.

Find (any time you can take waste out of the system and reuse something, you are using

the 3rd ethic: return the surplus to the system)

1. Food grade barrel

2. plastic kids pool 3. Wool blankets made after 1980 (sheep dip)

4. Old plastic pond liner

Building ponds

1. Line it with old carpet, so rocks don’t poke through,

2. Cover it with an EPDM Pond liner,

3. Cover the liner with gravel.

4. Make sure there’s at least a foot of edge before it goes deep.

Or, just dig it!Or, just dig it!

Get a turkey baster and get bacteria from a working pond.

Then add fish to eat

mosquitoes.

A stagnant pond doesn’t

really help the system.

Inoculate Inoculate

Check out Sepp Holzer’s Farm in Austria

Check out Sepp Holzer’s Farm in Austria

Sepp used contour to build his lakes high in the landscape and uses it to water his farm below. He did use a bulldozer.

What about the cities? What about the cities?

You can still harvest water easily.

Here are some examples:

Underground StorageUnderground Storage



See the rain falling off the corner of the house?This is at O.U.R. Ecovillage near Vancouver BC where I visited last spring.



They have four plastic cisterns under the ground at each corner of the house.

Rain barrel storagefrom your roof.

Rain barrel storagefrom your roof.

Source

If it’s for drinking, this is good for cleaning what’s on your roof before

it goes into the tank..

If it’s for drinking, this is good for cleaning what’s on your roof before

it goes into the tank..

Nancy Lee Evans’ Rain Water Collection System in Homer


It has the flush system you just sawso that it doesn’t take the first bit ofwater off the roof.

The rain water then is gravity fed into the basement.



This system can also be filled by the Homer water supply truck. They have bad water in

Homer.

Water flows out of the bottom of the tank and through filters to the house faucets.

So now that you’ve seen these models and you start

wondering how your piece of land could get free water,

read through these principles slowly.

So now that you’ve seen these models and you start

wondering how your piece of land could get free water,

read through these principles slowly.

1. Begin with long and thoughtful observations.

2. Start at the top (highpoint) of your watershed and work your way down.

3. Start small and simple.

4. Slow, spread, and infiltrate the flow of water.

Water Harvesting PrinciplesWater Harvesting Principles

5. Always plan an overflow route, and manage that overflow as a resource.

6. Maximize living and organic groundcover.

7. Maximize beneficial relationships and efficiency by “stacking functions”.

8. Continually reassess your system: the feedback loop.

Water Harvesting Principles (cont.)

Water Harvesting Principles (cont.)

There was a group of us here in Anchorage trying to turn a church lot into some edible gardens.

We met with the church board and their biggest concern was the cost of water.

What if every church would grow food on their property with “free” water?

Side noteSide note

1.What will the water be used for?

2.How much rain falls in a year?

3.How much water is consumed?

4.The area of roof or other catchment available?

5.What size storage can be built?

6.Where to place the storage relative to the catchment and point of use.

7.Budget/resources available

Next comes planningNext comes planning

And now your thoughts….And now your thoughts….

Place just a couple lines in the comment box, you can elaborate in your blog post this week if you want to.

I’m hoping that you know me well enough to give yourtrue thoughts, not just what you are expected to say.

• Besides the cost of water, we have enough water in Alaska. Why should we have to worry about it?

TIME FOR A BREAK!Go drink a glass of water!

TIME FOR A BREAK!Go drink a glass of water!

• When we come back…….

GREY WATER & BLACK WATERPROCESSING

And we’re going on a FIELD TRIP!

WHOOT! WHOOT!

waterlecture2

Documents

offyour water

water score5

fairbanks water

month water bill

contour ditches

contour contour lines

chicken coopsor dog

steep slope quicktime