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#Understand -> #Compaction You need Water & Compaction.... one of your Contractors you had out there did mention it would require WATER.... Spray - Compact....Spray - Compact..... Spray - Compact..... But you have done well for what you had for resources.
Are you able to reach out to any landscaping companies for garden mulch or lawn clippings? Although I could imagine that stuff would be rare as hens teeth in your sort of climate
I think after all this centropic agriculture or whatever new age thing , you will eventually come back to commercial farming which is proven and scientific. Build a pond or get a water well and do commercial farming of crops that can survive in this terrain this will build soil structure and give you ample organic matter.
Shaun it looks like you need some larger rocks on your dam, on both sides. The upstream side, that loose sandy shale is going to get eaten away by the water in no time at all. Gabions might be best, you have the stone, you just need to apply it to take the energy out of the water.
I think both sides of the dam could use a wider base. And it would be smart to have some breakers upstream, so water flow gets disturbed and does not hit the dam head on. Once the pond fills up some, the water will also break the flow. So some upstream breakers (Chicane, Big rocks and/or smaller dams) to catch the force of a flood in phases would be smart.
Bro, I didn’t say anything when you built your damn cause I didn’t want to sound mean. But you seriously need to contact Dirt Perfect and talk to him about your project. You are fighting a loosing battle right now. You got everything going against you. From soil type to drainage issues to your spill pipe with no concrete header to compaction issues to the shape and size. Talk to him. He is an expert. Don’t let your hard work get washed out the first time you get real rain. I want you to make this happen. I want to see what you can do with your project. I would love to see an amazing transformation of your property.
I agree I love the entire project and everything about it, but the effort to be far to independent is severely hampering the project along with safety. Even getting in contact with mossy would be a great idea as well
The dam looks fragile as. It's just dirt piled and packed down with some small rocks mixed in. One heavy rainfall and that thing is gone. I think this dude really underestimates just how much power rapidly flowing water has and monsoon events in the desert can be breathtakingly violent. He's way out of his element.
Having lived in that area for 20 years, I can virtually guarantee, when the ‘real rain’ finally comes, that large dam is going to fail. Because when it cuts loose, it rains 3 inches in 45 minutes. I admire your tenacity and intent, hopefully you can make it work.
One of the great things you're doing when you transplant that grass is you're also importing its mycorrhizae along with it, which will help establish a population in your soil and help your seedlings get established.
@@stefan514 Nah. It's a perennial grass that has evolved to survive extreme drought. Did you see how hefty those roots were? They're that way to sustain the plant when drought prevents growth. Even if the top dries out, the roots are usually alive and ready to start sending out top growth whenever moisture arrives. It might have looked dead, but I don't think he left it in the bucket for even a day. It should spring back to life when it gets water.
Consider crowning the road on top of the dam eliminating the significant ridge alone the edges of the road , this way the water will trickle off the road all along the edge instead of collecting into a significant flow that erodes the slope at the middle of the dam.
I would think that allowing a sheet-type drainage across the road that follows the natural contour of the adjacent terrain versus having a crown that divides the flow and channelizes water to the sides of the road. As far as the dam is concerned, using a wide spectrum of grain sizes helps it pack together and hold in place.
When you are doing your fence leave the bottom wire 16-18 inches above the ground that will allow fawns to crawl under to stay with does that jump the fence with ease. No higher than 42 inches to keep deer from injury.
Great advice. As much as I like Shaun's perseverance, I dislike some of his choices. He should focus on just two things at this stage: 1. water capture 2. water retention After that fence some chosen areas.
I'm combining a few ideas I read and some of my civil engineering knowledge from the lowlands. Diverting water off your roads down to the dam is smart. Little diagonal ridges that flow into a side tub are used frequently on paths in hilly areas over here, so the paths don't become little rivers. space them out somewhat close together, so that you only need small ridges, that don't interfere with drivability too much. It's pretty much just a few swoops with the dozer to the lower side of your road, creating a shallow ditch and/or ridge and a bathtub to catch the water. Then look where the water might go if the bathtub overflows, but if they are big enough, the water will infiltrate nicely. Looking at the dam and the hard erosion from a little run-off: I expect your dam is vulnerable to a flash flood/ rising water in the pond in its current state. Biggest risk of failure are: 1. getting flushed away completely in one go (force of a flash flood), or 2: after catching a sizeable pond, that water then trickles through your dam and erodes it from within. This process can 'run away': if the stream accelerates too much, it creates holes though erosion, flushing away your dam. 3. Water flows over the top of the dam and erodes the back side of the dam, and collapse it that way (same as 2, but even quicker erosion). I think you said your dam (height) could hold a 100-year rain event, so don't worry about that one for now. Depending on how big your water cachement area is, that flash flood risk may also be smaller or bigger. 1. Break the (force of the) flow of water from a potential flash flood in your big rain events when they hit the gully that leads to your dam. -Just big rocks at the lowest part of the stream will help already. - A series of smaller check dams, rock chicanes, bumps and gullies, anything to slow down a flash flood will help fill the 'pond'. When the pond fills up, that standing water will slow down the force of flood by itself, the impact then is absorbed upstream in your pond. The lower gradient of a wide dam also helps. After surviving that first hit, the water level can build up, and the integrity of the dam itself will be tested: 2. Your dam likely needs reinforcement for that big rain event you are trying to catch. Prevent trickling --> flowing water from eroding your dam away. Tip: Google some civil engineering pictures of an [Embankment dam profile], and try to replicate some features as cheap and practical as you can: - Make the slopes shallower to prevent most erosion, so add a lot more material to both sides with a low gradient. The purpose is infiltrating water in the pond anyway, not make a deep lake. This will make the path through the dam longer for trickling water. also more soil means more weight, the water pressure will rise a lot with higher water levels, water pressure at the base is the highest, so there it should be very any way. - Rooting grasses and plants can hold the soil/rock together, if you can establish those plants. I think desert grass should be perfect as it roots deep to find water. this will reduces the erosion effect of the trickling water. - A (semi) solid core, e.g. steal sheet pile retaining wall in the middle can stop the water from eroding the dam, by greatly reducing the speed of the trickle and diverting the water under the core/wall. The longer path through the base of the dam slows down the water, and prevents the narrow top part to give way first. Drilling in steel sheets would be overkill (expensive and impractical to get there). But maybe get some pond liner, or some of those huge advertising banners you had over the cactus trailer, stitched together. Use those on the pondside slope all the way to the top, Then cover with some more rock. So, I would start with wider dam and covered with rooting grasses, moving on to bigger plants and tree roots. This would be a great use of the first soils an mulches you can produce, establishing soil and plant roots on your water retention dams. The downstream side should also have these plants. Grass / plants would also help with water flowing over the top (failure risk 3). If you can, get that pond liner in as an impermeable layer to divert water down through the lower, wider part of the dam for slower trickle. (it will always keep flowing under the dam) I hope this gives you some ideas, because when that rain hits, we would all like to see some serious water caught! (And sorry if I repeating some lines, I tried to re-arrange some of my brain dumps into smaller paragraphs, but it's really time for bed here in Europe and I wanted to finish the post) I wish you good wisdom and creativity. (Over-engineering is easy on paper. Doing just a little more than enough will be your challenge out there in the desert). If any civil engineers want to chime in please do. Good luck man!
My friend, you have nailed it, seems you have had a few blisters and well earned beers wrestling with road, dams and water. Have to fully concur with your assessment.
I like the pond liner to fight the seepage, but it would prevent plants from growing on the dam walls. Something to think about. I'm at the top of the watershed. There's no flash flood there
I don't know anything about hydrology but my instinct from the very beginning was that the dam in its current state won't last long. Cool to hear about some ways this can be fixed!
@@dustupstexasmy idea for the pond liner would be to bury it in a layer of rock/soil (slowly accumulating more soil) on which grass would grow. The more soil and roots you can grow, the more it takes over from the liner for protection. At some point tree roots may pierce the old liner but then it should be stable anyway.
Angle of Repose when wet does not equal same when dry. The angle of repose, or critical angle of repose, of a granular material is the steepest angle of descent or dip relative to the horizontal plane on which the material can be piled without slumping. At this angle, the material on the slope face is on the verge of sliding. The angle of repose can range from 0° to 90°.
Not the same as erosion, as this case. Erosion is a function of the water's velocity and the soil's erodibility. Can be mitigated by reducing velocity (flatter slopes or wider channels), or reinforcing the soil with rip-rap, planting, geofabrics, etc.
a good rule of thumb for planting in the Summer is to only plant potted items, their roots are not tore up and damaged so they are more likely to get on with living vs. digging up plants that will struggle and then die from all the trauma.
Why using county land instead of his own land? His current bottlenecks are labor and water (which is partly fixed due to the well). Space is not the problem, since he's using only a fraction of his 300 acres so far.
@@fangdenhahn It has been heavily raining on all of the properties around his. So if he grows biomass where the rain is more abundant it reduces the amount of labor and water he'll need to use to grow biomass on his own property.
It may be the distortion of the camera, but those banks look very steep. If erosion stays a problem you may want to strengthen the dam with a layer of bigger rocks, like the size of those on your check dams. It will slow water down and hold more smaller rocks from rolling down.
If I may make a well meant suggestion. Every time you go to town get a load of wood chips, even if it's just a bucket full. Make a pile where it won't get washed away and just keep adding to it. Props to whoever suggested the BDA program, it's a great one. Even if you don't readily use the wood chips they'll be there breaking down gradually until you're ready for them.
You need to have more material on the downstream slopes of your retention dams. This does two things. 1) It reinforces the dam. 2) With more material on the downstream sides, it lowers the angle of the slope and in doing so, reduces the speed that the water runs off of the dam. With reduced water speed, the less material the water can move during the erosion process. Ideally, that slope should be planted with something that will help hold the soil in place. Even covering it with rocks the size of your fist or larger ( preferably larger rocks should be towards the bottom of the dam ), will prevent the rain from impacting directly on the soil, and slow the runoff.
Absolutely. Also, make sure that your spillway is essentially composed of large gravel and/or rocks so that it does not erode if the flow is too high. What I would recommend as well, is to not use sand to fill in those erosion gullies but gravel-sized rocks if you can find a way to gather them easily. I know it would be a pain to setup but you may find some benefits to setting up a small rock separating sieve for when you need very specific granularity of filling material for your earthworks.
If you look at the Casey Jones - Professional Engineer channel, he has some interesting videos of fill and embankment failures, and dam failures. The type of material used in a dam, the slope on the upstream/downstream sides of the dam, and the saturation of the materials all contribute to the longevity or lack thereof of the dam. Prifessionally, he analyzes soil conditions for the ability of keeping a bridge abutment in place, and the sufficiency of pilings. I doubt he would give free advice that would expose him to professional liability, but he could talk about how dams fail in a generic sense. I also think you need a spillway to prevent the dam from failing if it's overtopped. The spillway needs to be non-erodeable material sufficient to deal with the largest flow. You saw what happened to the country road, don't let your dam succumb to the same fate.
Shaun, having seen the hydrological formations you've built and the flow erosion you're experiencing, I highly recommend the following works that will greatly improve your designs and reduce flow erosion: Let the Water Do the Work, by Bill Zeedyk and Van Clothier Erosion Control Field Guide, by Quivira Coalition's Craig Sponholtz and Avery C. Anderson The Plug and Spread Treatment, by Zeekyk Water for Any Farm, by Mark Shepard
Check out the "Rolling dip" as a solution for the runoff on the road. Building like a 5' bump in the road that has an angle to it, diverting the water to one of the sides.
Tricks for pots: (1) spray-point them white! the soil they hold will stay cooler; to be cooler yet, (2) wrap the pots in absorbent cloth and keep the cloth damp; evaporation will cool the pots.
I still think that dam will fail with any big rain, but I'm glad you noticed the issue and tried to address it. I think repairing and trying to mitigate damage will put you on the path of how to do it right. Good luck
Ask Joey Santoro from "crime pays but botany doesn't" to come by. He could tell u all the botanical names of everything on your property. He seems to spend a lot of time in your general area of the country, too.
He's commented on some of these videos and wasn't happy with the removal of native species and planting of invasives, so I think if they were to work together, it would take a big change in philosophy and approach on Shaun's part.
@@b4k4survivor Yeah agreed I think Joey would absolutely hate the idea of the elephant grass/bamboo planting. I was thinking of him the whole time I watched that lol
I enjoyed the update on the two larger dams/ roadways. Hopefully the diversions you are planning with the tractor work to prevent any bad washouts. Seeing the silt in the washes adds to the knowledge of what is working.
Create an enclosure on your base camp where you can provide shade for your seedlings. Make a raised bed with lots of mulch and your seedlings will thrive and be warmer at night.
@@johnmcorigin2389 I think he needs to dig into the downstream grade just enough to set flat rocks down in the ground with their upstream ends pointing up. The reason the upstream side should point up is the flowing water pushes on that upstream end and this keeps those rocks seated in the ground. Then you pack them into the ground with dirt and then the other upstream rocks are positioned against these foundation rocks, locking the whole structure in place and reducing the chance and severity of washouts. I've linked him a "how to" video a few times. Even if these check dams aren't built the best and will likely wash out, I'm glad to see more of them and they will still do some good for smaller rain events.
I don't know anything about dam or road building so I'm not exactly trying to criticize but more to understand about how you're doing the building. The dirt looks loose & rocky so it looks like it doesn't compact well to hold structure. How are you packing it will enough to keep from washing away with the rain? Why aren't you mixing in large/r rocks to help to help stabilize them dam? Looks like it would be a good idea to place rocks on the side banks of the dam & road to prevent erosion like they place riprap on banks & in gutters to prevent erosion on road construction. Looks like it would be a good idea to make the road on the dam top wider for safety reasons like you said. So glad to see the check dams working to hold back the silt.. Maybe it would be a good idea to continue with enhanching them & maybe plant a few trees in or near them like the desert willow or another type of tree or shrubs ( native). Wouldn't that help with your reforesting project with little time & effort? Would be a good experiment to try different plants & sizes of plants to see how they do.
A potting table with shade cloth roof may help your potting / seed starting operations from getting dried out by the sun. If you're having trouble with seed germination in the ground, a controlled place to germinate in flats / pots would improve your success rate, before hardening them off into the ground and direct sunlight. Very glad to see you're prioritizing the fence. Cows destroy everything in their path.
I'm wondering if it's not a losing battle to try to start plants in any type of container, considering how fast containers must dry out in his climate. I think he might have better success with an in-ground seed starting bed where he's worked compost into the soil and then added added mulch to the surface to help retain moisture. The ground will hold the more consistent moisture level needed for seedlings better than a pot. Even a large pot with the surface mulched would dry out pretty quickly at the surface (where the seedlings need the moisture) in that heat.
You have what looks like really crappy dirt (looks like sugar) for dam building. A spillway might help a little but if you get a gulley washer…it will wash. Covering with some tarp or concrete might help, depending how much you want to spend.
Good Choice for a flashlight with the Olight Arkfeld. Moving rain into the ground is a slow and steady process. Looking forward to many more process/update videos.
You're a really special guy, this brings so much knowledge to people over a broad range of topics and you're patient enough to listen to everyone. I know you have a team but we wouldn't get that as a viewer if it wasn't for people like you so thankyou very much
My friend, awesome video! Love watching your stuff and the real time Progression ! About pruning: cutting off the top green growth was good! The grass will loose less water this way. But don’t prune the roots friend! You’re lessening the chance of survival, as there is water stored in the roots. Also plants don’t like to have their roots messed up. Besides, they need as much root surface area they can get in the desert for when it DOES rain Hope you take this advice, I am rooting for your success out there!
Hey Shaun. A few tips from Brisbane. - suss out ex government auctions. You could get some good stuff from them. Well maintained second hand and cheap. I’m thinking of a tree fellers sized mulcher. One that can handle whatever you put in it with an input sized hole at least 500mm (19.7inches) with a diesel motor powering it. - purchase a garden fork. These are shaped a bit like a shovel except have four strong tynes. A fork is way easier to dig out grasses etc. - for your dams, the swales you are building are a great idea. Maybe also couple them with rocks for protection on the edge of the dam. With your bulldozer. If you can, remove the entire cylinder and take to be repaired. Or even repair yourself as it is not to hard to do. Love watching you r progress. Your heart and mind and actions are coming from a really good place. Well done.
12 minutes 35 secs dig up a little bit of that beautiful grass and roots, take it back to dustups ranch plant it outside the camp and piisss on it to keep it going. it may grow and seed, then you chuck the seeds about. Happy days. Bobs your uncle. Good channel i love it well done boy
Potting up the grass was a good idea. Missing element for your climate was shade cloth. 😉. That allows establishment then a matter of acclimatizing before you plant out.
I went through a spate of equipment repairs recently. Very frustrating. Got them all fixed and now racking up the days of no repairs and fully functional equipment. As satisfying as the breakdowns were frustrating. Good luck to you. Love your dozer btw.
A dam has to have a non-erodable overflow capable of the largest flow you'd expect. The typical method is either a cement spillway, or for small dams like this, a plastic pipe overflow buried in the top of the dam with the outlet well away from the base of the dam, and with the dam face well-sealed so water can't trace along the outside of the pipe(s)
I love the whole process and the project. Good, bad, whatever. If you are ever discouraged of doing anything bc you will look bad doing it you will never get to do anything new. It’s fun to see what works and doesn’t.
I had a deer lease outside of rock springs, and the cows ate the insulation off of our extension cords. than a year later, the county power coop was stringing transmission lines across the property, and the bull tried to eat the insulation off of if, he was found well fried, with two unfortunate accomplices, and the county got to buy 3 fried cows from the land owner.
I'd imagine you could pave the dams 'road surface' with rocks and intentionally give a lean/spillway on the lower side of the grade. Also, maybe some beaver dam analogs on the way to the damn so the rainflow doesn't hit the dam at too high of a speed. Still, it's good that you're addressing the problems now rather than waiting for it to implode to do it.
For the dam, I would pass a pipe with a flap under the road. A buoy (or football) is attached to the flap with a rope or chain. The length should be so long that when the water is about to overflow the road, the ball swimms up and the flap opens. so that the amount of water drains away and does not damage the dam. Overengineering - Translated by Pons. best regards from Germany
The idea is great, bypass before overflowing. You can just make an L shaped pipe, with the top of the L below the top of the dam. No risk of flap blockage, no need to check under water, no moving parts. Make the vertical pipe swivel and you can adjust the level even more. Or let out some water on demand for a lower terrace / pond. Jeff Lawton has a great video about it on his channel.
Hey Sean Greetings from Germany! ❤ love the project and your videos !!!! Keep up the good work! I don’t know if you’re ever gonna read this but here is some love from a hobby gardener. I think Grass is going to be, not only your biggest Biomass producer, but also your „Soilbreaker“ in the sense that every single bush is gonna root through the rough terrain (even tho slowly) wich intern is gonna enhance the capability of water intake in the soil. I think the idea of taking some grass and multiplying it on scene is great!!!! Every year whenever you see the grass is going to produce seeds I wouldn’t even collect them but just take two fingers put them together of the bottom of the plant and raise them until every seed is off and just throw them back into nature( best into one of the bathtubs) it doesn’t sound much, but given every stem of grass is going to produce 20-30 seedlings, you can just take them and throw them out again. Even with, let’s say, 5% propergation rate, it’s still slowly gonna multiply and compound considering your 30 year plus time horinzon. Sorry for back seating just want to get the idea out. So don’t cut them but every time u pass grass with seeds in the head( end of the life cycle)just take them and throw them out into the next bathtub. Sean I loooove this project and your videos ❤ Sorry for the bad English. It’s my second tongue. Till next week! ✌️🫡 *Edit Grammar/Orthography
As an engineer and hydrologist, I suggest a spillway and valve for some drainage, also you need a different material for your dam system like concrete .
I think it would be beneficial to make the upstream side of the damn long and gradual incline so that there is a gradual increase in water behind the damn. That way if your damn overflows it will have less volume pressing against the upper part of the damn.
You're fighting a loosing battle Shaun. EP electric has many roads like yours and their constantly having to rebuild those dam areas. It takes one big flash flood lasting a mere 15 mins to create enough flow to knock out a dam 10 times larger than anything you've got out there. It's coming...
@@OublietteTight Concrete retention walls back filled with dirt and concrete faced spill ways. May not be in the budget. Using the biggest rocks he can find to cover the spillways and sides of the damn would help, but would probably still fail in the event of a serious downpour.
Love whenever the dozer gets used :) The sides of the dam/crossing are too steep. You probably already know though. In engineering this is called ‘Angle of repose’
Not sure how well it would work in that soil regime, but a trick in mildly sandy soil would be to get runoff from the road flowing down to the downstream side of the dam: what happens is that builds deltas that actually help build up the lower side of the dam. Those deltas make great places to plant native groundcover (or something non-invasive) since they catch fine particles and thus hold water well. Over time good groundcover will build up sod as silt and sand bury it and it comes back up; if you shape the channels into a shallow swale you can turn it into overflow channels that can handle any thing that may come. The same can be done on the upstream side by putting a ditch along the road where the ground slopes down to the road; those will add fine silt and sand behind the dam's base, sealing it better. Do it well and you'll end up with a terrace as the dam fills with sediment; then you make a new dam just above the terrace and repeat.
In 2012 I almost purchased 100 acres in Sierra Blanca, but my sons were against it, since I’m already an older woman, I didn’t think it would be wise to embark on such adventure, but I admire you for doing it. 👏👏👏
تحية لك اخي شون من السعودية انا انصحك بتكثير السدود الترابية السدود الصخرية لانها اسهل في الانشاء وارخص بكثير من عمل مدرجات زراعية كما انصحك بعمل مزرعة خضار وورقيات لاستهلاك البيت وتطون مروية بشكل جيد وباستعمال الجرة terracota
You could try including water retention gel crystals into any potting mix for seed sowing and grass plug establishment. Just add water at the initial stage and this should help with the overall water reduction requirements. Here in the UK it can be bought from any garden centre or DIY outlet. Alternatively, it can be bought online, either from individual suppliers or Amazon, in either small quantities or in commercial sized containers; just depends on one's needs. Water retention gel crystals are nontoxic. They could also be used for direct seed sowing into the soil to increase strike rates.
Ditchline, silt fencing with straw bales, water bars, and driveable cross ditches are all erosion control methods used in the rainy PNW. Your dam should have had relief culvert at the bottom since the material it’s made of can’t tolerate saturation.
Have you heard of a plant called Chaya? It's a desert plant that's native to Mexico. Its fast growing and produces a lot of biomass. I think that would be a great compliment to the cactus planting project because it propagates so easily.
@@dustupstexas If you lookup the "Köppen-Geiger climate classification" it's more accurate than the growing zone classification for judging which plants will grow in certain areas because things like humidity and elevation are adjusted for. I think chaya would die back in the winter but it would come back in the spring. I'm impressed you have time to respond to comments.
Someone may have already suggested this but my suggestion for plants would be Okra and Kale. Those are some of the most hardy plants i have in my garden. The hotter it is the better the Okra grows.
Shaun, is there a benefit to growing your seedlings and/or cuttings in a tunnel house, especially one using shade cloth rather than clear film? To me it would give wind protection (drying out) plus moisture retention and of course cutting down on the sun exposure without shielding them from whatever rain you do get. Even a cheap small trial one from Walmart/Lowes might give an idea of effectiveness. The other idea is to cover some of your "crops" with sheet plastic (clear or black) to capture and retain any moisture that is being driven off by the elements, as per known survival techniques. In fact it is something you could try over one of your weekend stopovers to assess how effective it might be.
I would say the dam's need to be higher, so the top is levelled out with it being a lot wider so when you cross in your trucks they are not near the edges. Also gabions on both side to try and stop the sides moving. With gravel on top of them to help widen the bases and break up the speed of the water when it comes. Plus as you have already mention runoff, but make sure they don't undermine the side of the dam. Also a little maintenance on the smaller check dams to get maximum result when the rain does come along. Great that you have found local grass that's doing well. But you need to sort out a property nursery with shade and fans to keep them cool so you can kick start planting grass bushes and trees.
I love your grit in all this. you keep trying. I'm always drawn to your videos and look forward to the results of your hard work. thanks for the entertainment.
Gabions up and downstream with earth fill between? Use a pond liner for overflow channel? You also might need to set up a plant nursery with a 50% or greater shade cloth to help your starts. You could do that with Tposts - just buy some shade cloth.
Should look into the orgone amplifiers, using the same basic tech that wilhelm Reich used to create his “cloud buster” rain generator, but the guy making these orgone amplifiers has test videos of creating rain. Maybe should invite him out there for some testing
Add water bars to the dams it will slow the water flow down and keep it from washing the road out. We use them on pipeline right off ways to stop water erosion washing the grass seed out that we spread out on the right of way.
The one thing I have noticed is that, in general, after a long drought there is a hightened chance of extreme floods. I don't know if this is true for the area you are in, but it seems to me that preparing for big floods wouldn't hurt
Regarding your need for green waste to get the soil regenerated. You might get regular organic matter if you offered it as a free service that solved their problem of disposing of green waste. E.g. you deliver a trailer and would collect what they then cut up and stacked themselves? There was a business here in Australia a few years back. They advertised as a removal of garden, tree, & farm waste that if you filled up the whole trailer it was free. (Eg 25% of the trailer got you a 25% discount, and so on. I think they made money off the compost they would sell to people in the city for a markup.
Hi Shaun, I’m impressed with your desert Farm, very ambitious project to create a forest in the desert, very commendable, I would like to contribute Moringa Oleifera seeds to effort. I’ll mail the seeds to your ranch. “Moringa is an important food source in some parts of the world. It can be grown cheaply and easily, and retains much of its nutritional value when dried. As an antioxidant, it seems to help protect cells from damage. Moringa might also help decrease inflammation and reduce pain.”
Have you considered french drains along one or both sides of the road. A trench with large rocks at the bottom then smaller and smaller as it comes to the surface. The rocks should slow the speed of the water which should reduce the erosion, the pitch of the road needs to make the water flow to the drain which hopefully should reduce the volume of water at any one spot. (It worked for me in spain but no g'tee.)
When transplanting any future vegetation - consider harvesting old (oxidized white) or semi-new manure to pulverize it to create additional surface area to plant with your transplants (just a handful per transplant). You'll want to cover it with gravel so it isn't fried any more than it needs to by the sun and is right by the roots which will stimulate the rhizosphere and holder water near your roots. The cattle are eating the local vegetation and their manure is cycling it much faster with their rumen than hand harvesting and laying it as a mulch (which is still great! You want to cover the soil as much as possible!). The cow's output is broken down material and biologicals that you can utilize. Even the horse manure would be good to add as they provide different levels of broken down herbaceous material. Cows have their rumen, and horses have a cecum that add various biology to their manures. If you do harvest fresh manure - burry it just below the surface in areas near your plants - there is moisture in that material and would be a great addition to your soil organic matter goals. Manure will be the fastest way for you to create soil organic matter and eventually mineral associated organic carbon. 3" of rain is a highly brittle environment where your herbaceous cover is oxidizing first before soil organisms or grazing animals can break it down. All this is coming from a Soil Conservationist and native plant germination tradesperson. Love your videos and please reach out if you have any questions!
Can't speak from experience on this but I have heard that having a higher quantity of smaller volume diversions is preferred over the opposite. Either way you're trapping water and the bottom isn't showing undercutting, which is said to be a much more sever issue to solve (again, just from readings). Good luck with your dam - it seems you're on the right path with this project. The plant the horses were eating *might* have been related to a desert willow - hard to tell on the film.
I am happy about your videos and am excited about everything you do and how it will look in a few years. What surprises me, however, is that other projects have an area covered with nets that provide some protection from the sun. Underneath these are bags with seedlings of trees and bushes for cultivation, some of which are automatically watered. Unfortunately, my English is not good enough yet, I understand everything 100%I understand, but are you planning something like that in the future? I would be delighted if you could see Mogrina, Neem, paulovnija and the rest. How they grow and become big trees in 2-3 years. And what are your plans for the future? What about watering? Can you become a sponsor of trees? Best wishes from Germany.
Yeah I can see your frustration, all that work and rain doesn't come and you can't tell if your making a difference yet. I'll say it again I love what your trying to do, putting things back to the natural state, maybe if your successful ,future generations will get the opportunity to enjoy and admire your work.
Big Blue Stem (not Little Blue Stem as far as I know) is native to my area in the Midwest. It takes a year just to sink roots up to six ft down before there is vegetative growth. I'm not sure what you will see from your plugs right away.
About the dozer: do you have a sieve shovel? You could harvest all that mulch before digging them swales. Also, have you considered creating some standing bodies of water ?
The dam needs to be thicker. That is a dirt dam, not a reinforced concrete, so it is vulnerable to flowing water. Also, to help cut down risk of failure, build a series of dams upstream, so all dams split water volume between them instead of all the water rushing against that dam.
You can strengthen your earthworks by spreading concrete powder with a seed spreader and then misting water onto it. Doing it in thin layers allowing to dry and harden each time. Just dont do it on a windy day. Just a few bags of concrete powder can add a lot of strength.
You should absolutely plant prickly pear all along that dam, manure and mulch and big rootsy plants. Maybe some time soon a first tree. Ill link you a vid with a japanese stategy for quick forest, maybe. EDIT: google miyawaki forest.
Shaun, you really should consider going for a Permaculture design Certificate from Geoff Lawton or other course that maybe close to your location. Its exactly what you are doing anyway. Get a Certification
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so cool man thanks for the video
#Understand -> #Compaction
You need Water & Compaction.... one of your Contractors you had out there did mention it would require WATER....
Spray - Compact....Spray - Compact..... Spray - Compact.....
But you have done well for what you had for resources.
Are you able to reach out to any landscaping companies for garden mulch or lawn clippings? Although I could imagine that stuff would be rare as hens teeth in your sort of climate
@@DKSorg
No.
I think after all this centropic agriculture or whatever new age thing , you will eventually come back to commercial farming which is proven and scientific. Build a pond or get a water well and do commercial farming of crops that can survive in this terrain this will build soil structure and give you ample organic matter.
Saturday is no longer a Saturday without a Dustup update!😊 Thank you for adding measurements in mm and Km!
Yeah. This is one of the more interesting projects i am following. Even the big failures are lessons learned on the way to success.
That helps me in Australia too as we have had the metric system since 1974.
Condolences.
Shaun it looks like you need some larger rocks on your dam, on both sides. The upstream side, that loose sandy shale is going to get eaten away by the water in no time at all. Gabions might be best, you have the stone, you just need to apply it to take the energy out of the water.
I think both sides of the dam could use a wider base.
And it would be smart to have some breakers upstream, so water flow gets disturbed and does not hit the dam head on. Once the pond fills up some, the water will also break the flow. So some upstream breakers (Chicane, Big rocks and/or smaller dams) to catch the force of a flood in phases would be smart.
👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼
, 16:51 alongside the swale, called a berm. Plants can be grown on top of the wet berm.
Bro, I didn’t say anything when you built your damn cause I didn’t want to sound mean. But you seriously need to contact Dirt Perfect and talk to him about your project. You are fighting a loosing battle right now. You got everything going against you. From soil type to drainage issues to your spill pipe with no concrete header to compaction issues to the shape and size. Talk to him. He is an expert. Don’t let your hard work get washed out the first time you get real rain. I want you to make this happen. I want to see what you can do with your project. I would love to see an amazing transformation of your property.
I agree I love the entire project and everything about it, but the effort to be far to independent is severely hampering the project along with safety. Even getting in contact with mossy would be a great idea as well
He’s not going to give this guy the time of day. He has absolutely no idea what he’s doing.
He needs gabion crates. IBC tote crates lined with chicken wire, and filled with stone.
The dam looks fragile as. It's just dirt piled and packed down with some small rocks mixed in. One heavy rainfall and that thing is gone. I think this dude really underestimates just how much power rapidly flowing water has and monsoon events in the desert can be breathtakingly violent. He's way out of his element.
Look into permaculture water harvesting techniques… make swales that feed small water sinks to percolate downslope., and small pond reservoirs
Having lived in that area for 20 years, I can virtually guarantee, when the ‘real rain’ finally comes, that large dam is going to fail. Because when it cuts loose, it rains 3 inches in 45 minutes. I admire your tenacity and intent, hopefully you can make it work.
One of the great things you're doing when you transplant that grass is you're also importing its mycorrhizae along with it, which will help establish a population in your soil and help your seedlings get established.
The grass was super dead and dried out when he pruned it. Must have stayed in the dry bucket for a while.
@@stefan514 Nah. It's a perennial grass that has evolved to survive extreme drought. Did you see how hefty those roots were? They're that way to sustain the plant when drought prevents growth. Even if the top dries out, the roots are usually alive and ready to start sending out top growth whenever moisture arrives. It might have looked dead, but I don't think he left it in the bucket for even a day. It should spring back to life when it gets water.
Consider crowning the road on top of the dam eliminating the significant ridge alone the edges of the road , this way the water will trickle off the road all along the edge instead of collecting into a significant flow that erodes the slope at the middle of the dam.
Excellent comment, I agree with this 100%
I would think that allowing a sheet-type drainage across the road that follows the natural contour of the adjacent terrain versus having a crown that divides the flow and channelizes water to the sides of the road.
As far as the dam is concerned, using a wide spectrum of grain sizes helps it pack together and hold in place.
When you are doing your fence leave the bottom wire 16-18 inches above the ground that will allow fawns to crawl under to stay with does that jump the fence with ease. No higher than 42 inches to keep deer from injury.
Great advice.
As much as I like Shaun's perseverance, I dislike some of his choices. He should focus on just two things at this stage:
1. water capture
2. water retention
After that fence some chosen areas.
Yeah, fencing an more or less undisturbed area with some water retention will propably show a big effect when it's not overgrazed
Three strands of wire accomplish the same thing
Except he also has javelinas to contend with
I'm combining a few ideas I read and some of my civil engineering knowledge from the lowlands.
Diverting water off your roads down to the dam is smart. Little diagonal ridges that flow into a side tub are used frequently on paths in hilly areas over here, so the paths don't become little rivers. space them out somewhat close together, so that you only need small ridges, that don't interfere with drivability too much. It's pretty much just a few swoops with the dozer to the lower side of your road, creating a shallow ditch and/or ridge and a bathtub to catch the water. Then look where the water might go if the bathtub overflows, but if they are big enough, the water will infiltrate nicely.
Looking at the dam and the hard erosion from a little run-off: I expect your dam is vulnerable to a flash flood/ rising water in the pond in its current state.
Biggest risk of failure are:
1. getting flushed away completely in one go (force of a flash flood), or
2: after catching a sizeable pond, that water then trickles through your dam and erodes it from within. This process can 'run away': if the stream accelerates too much, it creates holes though erosion, flushing away your dam.
3. Water flows over the top of the dam and erodes the back side of the dam, and collapse it that way (same as 2, but even quicker erosion). I think you said your dam (height) could hold a 100-year rain event, so don't worry about that one for now.
Depending on how big your water cachement area is, that flash flood risk may also be smaller or bigger.
1. Break the (force of the) flow of water from a potential flash flood in your big rain events when they hit the gully that leads to your dam.
-Just big rocks at the lowest part of the stream will help already.
- A series of smaller check dams, rock chicanes, bumps and gullies, anything to slow down a flash flood will help fill the 'pond'. When the pond fills up, that standing water will slow down the force of flood by itself, the impact then is absorbed upstream in your pond. The lower gradient of a wide dam also helps.
After surviving that first hit, the water level can build up, and the integrity of the dam itself will be tested:
2. Your dam likely needs reinforcement for that big rain event you are trying to catch. Prevent trickling --> flowing water from eroding your dam away.
Tip: Google some civil engineering pictures of an [Embankment dam profile], and try to replicate some features as cheap and practical as you can:
- Make the slopes shallower to prevent most erosion, so add a lot more material to both sides with a low gradient. The purpose is infiltrating water in the pond anyway, not make a deep lake. This will make the path through the dam longer for trickling water. also more soil means more weight, the water pressure will rise a lot with higher water levels, water pressure at the base is the highest, so there it should be very any way.
- Rooting grasses and plants can hold the soil/rock together, if you can establish those plants. I think desert grass should be perfect as it roots deep to find water. this will reduces the erosion effect of the trickling water.
- A (semi) solid core, e.g. steal sheet pile retaining wall in the middle can stop the water from eroding the dam, by greatly reducing the speed of the trickle and diverting the water under the core/wall. The longer path through the base of the dam slows down the water, and prevents the narrow top part to give way first. Drilling in steel sheets would be overkill (expensive and impractical to get there). But maybe get some pond liner, or some of those huge advertising banners you had over the cactus trailer, stitched together. Use those on the pondside slope all the way to the top, Then cover with some more rock.
So, I would start with wider dam and covered with rooting grasses, moving on to bigger plants and tree roots. This would be a great use of the first soils an mulches you can produce, establishing soil and plant roots on your water retention dams. The downstream side should also have these plants. Grass / plants would also help with water flowing over the top (failure risk 3).
If you can, get that pond liner in as an impermeable layer to divert water down through the lower, wider part of the dam for slower trickle. (it will always keep flowing under the dam)
I hope this gives you some ideas, because when that rain hits, we would all like to see some serious water caught!
(And sorry if I repeating some lines, I tried to re-arrange some of my brain dumps into smaller paragraphs, but it's really time for bed here in Europe and I wanted to finish the post)
I wish you good wisdom and creativity. (Over-engineering is easy on paper. Doing just a little more than enough will be your challenge out there in the desert).
If any civil engineers want to chime in please do.
Good luck man!
My friend, you have nailed it, seems you have had a few blisters and well earned beers wrestling with road, dams and water. Have to fully concur with your assessment.
I like the pond liner to fight the seepage, but it would prevent plants from growing on the dam walls. Something to think about. I'm at the top of the watershed. There's no flash flood there
I don't know anything about hydrology but my instinct from the very beginning was that the dam in its current state won't last long. Cool to hear about some ways this can be fixed!
@@dustupstexas alright that's great. This will make it a lot easier to control the dam. I hope you get a good rain event to test the pond.
@@dustupstexasmy idea for the pond liner would be to bury it in a layer of rock/soil (slowly accumulating more soil) on which grass would grow. The more soil and roots you can grow, the more it takes over from the liner for protection.
At some point tree roots may pierce the old liner but then it should be stable anyway.
Angle of Repose when wet does not equal same when dry. The angle of repose, or critical angle of repose, of a granular material is the steepest angle of descent or dip relative to the horizontal plane on which the material can be piled without slumping. At this angle, the material on the slope face is on the verge of sliding. The angle of repose can range from 0° to 90°.
I've been looking for the Angle of Repose my whole life. I'm 82
Not the same as erosion, as this case. Erosion is a function of the water's velocity and the soil's erodibility. Can be mitigated by reducing velocity (flatter slopes or wider channels), or reinforcing the soil with rip-rap, planting, geofabrics, etc.
@@joycenotine283 ----- lol
very very relevant,, even backyard dam building is a science.
a good rule of thumb for planting in the Summer is to only plant potted items, their roots are not tore up and damaged so they are more likely to get on with living vs. digging up plants that will struggle and then die from all the trauma.
Maybe you should ask if you can grow native biomass on county land and harvest it occasionally so you can use it as mulch.
Why using county land instead of his own land? His current bottlenecks are labor and water (which is partly fixed due to the well). Space is not the problem, since he's using only a fraction of his 300 acres so far.
@@fangdenhahn It has been heavily raining on all of the properties around his. So if he grows biomass where the rain is more abundant it reduces the amount of labor and water he'll need to use to grow biomass on his own property.
It may be the distortion of the camera, but those banks look very steep. If erosion stays a problem you may want to strengthen the dam with a layer of bigger rocks, like the size of those on your check dams. It will slow water down and hold more smaller rocks from rolling down.
If I may make a well meant suggestion. Every time you go to town get a load of wood chips, even if it's just a bucket full. Make a pile where it won't get washed away and just keep adding to it. Props to whoever suggested the BDA program, it's a great one. Even if you don't readily use the wood chips they'll be there breaking down gradually until you're ready for them.
they eat nitrogen....
@@lauchlanguddy1004 I said make a pile. They only deplete nitrogen if they're tilled.
You need to have more material on the downstream slopes of your retention dams.
This does two things.
1) It reinforces the dam.
2) With more material on the downstream sides, it lowers the angle of the slope and in doing so, reduces the speed that the water runs off of the dam. With reduced water speed, the less material the water can move during the erosion process. Ideally, that slope should be planted with something that will help hold the soil in place. Even covering it with rocks the size of your fist or larger ( preferably larger rocks should be towards the bottom of the dam ), will prevent the rain from impacting directly on the soil, and slow the runoff.
Absolutely.
Also, make sure that your spillway is essentially composed of large gravel and/or rocks so that it does not erode if the flow is too high.
What I would recommend as well, is to not use sand to fill in those erosion gullies but gravel-sized rocks if you can find a way to gather them easily.
I know it would be a pain to setup but you may find some benefits to setting up a small rock separating sieve for when you need very specific granularity of filling material for your earthworks.
you can also put up shade cloths to help prevent evaperation from your drip lines and hold the moisture longer
Yeah, putting that over the river is good advice to.
If you look at the Casey Jones - Professional Engineer channel, he has some interesting videos of fill and embankment failures, and dam failures. The type of material used in a dam, the slope on the upstream/downstream sides of the dam, and the saturation of the materials all contribute to the longevity or lack thereof of the dam. Prifessionally, he analyzes soil conditions for the ability of keeping a bridge abutment in place, and the sufficiency of pilings. I doubt he would give free advice that would expose him to professional liability, but he could talk about how dams fail in a generic sense.
I also think you need a spillway to prevent the dam from failing if it's overtopped. The spillway needs to be non-erodeable material sufficient to deal with the largest flow. You saw what happened to the country road, don't let your dam succumb to the same fate.
absolutley. People think farming is some hillbilly thing, its generations of hard yards science and engineering
Shaun, having seen the hydrological formations you've built and the flow erosion you're experiencing, I highly recommend the following works that will greatly improve your designs and reduce flow erosion:
Let the Water Do the Work, by Bill Zeedyk and Van Clothier
Erosion Control Field Guide, by Quivira Coalition's Craig Sponholtz and Avery C. Anderson
The Plug and Spread Treatment, by Zeekyk
Water for Any Farm, by Mark Shepard
Check out the "Rolling dip" as a solution for the runoff on the road. Building like a 5' bump in the road that has an angle to it, diverting the water to one of the sides.
Tricks for pots: (1) spray-point them white! the soil they hold will stay cooler; to be cooler yet, (2) wrap the pots in absorbent cloth and keep the cloth damp; evaporation will cool the pots.
I still think that dam will fail with any big rain, but I'm glad you noticed the issue and tried to address it. I think repairing and trying to mitigate damage will put you on the path of how to do it right. Good luck
I love this update showing the progress! I wish you would have shown more of the greener you have created with minimal rain 👊🏻🌻👊🏻
It will be so satisfying when it finally rains!
may also be a long dark night of the soul.... thats farming. One good gullyraker could wash all of this into the Rio Grande as if it never existed
Ask Joey Santoro from "crime pays but botany doesn't" to come by. He could tell u all the botanical names of everything on your property. He seems to spend a lot of time in your general area of the country, too.
He lives in Texas now. You should reach out
He's commented on some of these videos and wasn't happy with the removal of native species and planting of invasives, so I think if they were to work together, it would take a big change in philosophy and approach on Shaun's part.
@@b4k4survivor Yeah agreed I think Joey would absolutely hate the idea of the elephant grass/bamboo planting. I was thinking of him the whole time I watched that lol
I enjoyed the update on the two larger dams/ roadways. Hopefully the diversions you are planning with the tractor work to prevent any bad washouts. Seeing the silt in the washes adds to the knowledge of what is working.
Create an enclosure on your base camp where you can provide shade for your seedlings. Make a raised bed with lots of mulch and your seedlings will thrive and be warmer at night.
Cool Plan. I want to watch it become a success
Bless you, the lack of rain does just seems so disappointing, but good on you for keeping your chin up.
I enjoy your channel more than any Netflix show! Shaun thank you for the weekly updates. I love seeing the progress.
Those little checkdams are looking good. I think they should be improved to be a little bit bigger and stable to catch more sand.
@@johnmcorigin2389 I think he needs to dig into the downstream grade just enough to set flat rocks down in the ground with their upstream ends pointing up. The reason the upstream side should point up is the flowing water pushes on that upstream end and this keeps those rocks seated in the ground. Then you pack them into the ground with dirt and then the other upstream rocks are positioned against these foundation rocks, locking the whole structure in place and reducing the chance and severity of washouts. I've linked him a "how to" video a few times.
Even if these check dams aren't built the best and will likely wash out, I'm glad to see more of them and they will still do some good for smaller rain events.
I don't know anything about dam or road building so I'm not exactly trying to criticize but more to understand about how you're doing the building. The dirt looks loose & rocky so it looks like it doesn't compact well to hold structure. How are you packing it will enough to keep from washing away with the rain? Why aren't you mixing in large/r rocks to help to help stabilize them dam? Looks like it would be a good idea to place rocks on the side banks of the dam & road to prevent erosion like they place riprap on banks & in gutters to prevent erosion on road construction.
Looks like it would be a good idea to make the road on the dam top wider for safety reasons like you said.
So glad to see the check dams working to hold back the silt.. Maybe it would be a good idea to continue with enhanching them & maybe plant a few trees in or near them like the desert willow or another type of tree or shrubs ( native). Wouldn't that help with your reforesting project with little time & effort? Would be a good experiment to try different plants & sizes of plants to see how they do.
A potting table with shade cloth roof may help your potting / seed starting operations from getting dried out by the sun.
If you're having trouble with seed germination in the ground, a controlled place to germinate in flats / pots would improve your success rate, before hardening them off into the ground and direct sunlight.
Very glad to see you're prioritizing the fence.
Cows destroy everything in their path.
I'm wondering if it's not a losing battle to try to start plants in any type of container, considering how fast containers must dry out in his climate. I think he might have better success with an in-ground seed starting bed where he's worked compost into the soil and then added added mulch to the surface to help retain moisture. The ground will hold the more consistent moisture level needed for seedlings better than a pot. Even a large pot with the surface mulched would dry out pretty quickly at the surface (where the seedlings need the moisture) in that heat.
You have what looks like really crappy dirt (looks like sugar) for dam building. A spillway might help a little but if you get a gulley washer…it will wash. Covering with some tarp or concrete might help, depending how much you want to spend.
slow is smooth and smooth is fast.
that is some dam good work solving those dam problems
Good Choice for a flashlight with the Olight Arkfeld. Moving rain into the ground is a slow and steady process. Looking forward to many more process/update videos.
You're a really special guy, this brings so much knowledge to people over a broad range of topics and you're patient enough to listen to everyone. I know you have a team but we wouldn't get that as a viewer if it wasn't for people like you so thankyou very much
My friend, awesome video! Love watching your stuff and the real time Progression !
About pruning: cutting off the top green growth was good! The grass will loose less water this way. But don’t prune the roots friend! You’re lessening the chance of survival, as there is water stored in the roots. Also plants don’t like to have their roots messed up. Besides, they need as much root surface area they can get in the desert for when it DOES rain
Hope you take this advice, I am rooting for your success out there!
Hey Shaun. A few tips from Brisbane.
- suss out ex government auctions. You could get some good stuff from them. Well maintained second hand and cheap. I’m thinking of a tree fellers sized mulcher. One that can handle whatever you put in it with an input sized hole at least 500mm (19.7inches) with a diesel motor powering it.
- purchase a garden fork. These are shaped a bit like a shovel except have four strong tynes. A fork is way easier to dig out grasses etc.
- for your dams, the swales you are building are a great idea. Maybe also couple them with rocks for protection on the edge of the dam.
With your bulldozer. If you can, remove the entire cylinder and take to be repaired. Or even repair yourself as it is not to hard to do.
Love watching you r progress. Your heart and mind and actions are coming from a really good place. Well done.
Nice, praying for rain
12 minutes 35 secs dig up a little bit of that beautiful grass and roots, take it back to dustups ranch plant it outside the camp and piisss on it to keep it going. it may grow and seed, then you chuck the seeds about. Happy days. Bobs your uncle. Good channel i love it well done boy
just watched the rest. you are lol nice one
12:35
I love following this series , seeing where it will end.
Nature doesn’t end 😂
@@akeslx no but he will either succeed or give up. That's what I want to see
Potting up the grass was a good idea. Missing element for your climate was shade cloth. 😉. That allows establishment then a matter of acclimatizing before you plant out.
I went through a spate of equipment repairs recently. Very frustrating. Got them all fixed and now racking up the days of no repairs and fully functional equipment. As satisfying as the breakdowns were frustrating. Good luck to you. Love your dozer btw.
A dam has to have a non-erodable overflow capable of the largest flow you'd expect. The typical method is either a cement spillway, or for small dams like this, a plastic pipe overflow buried in the top of the dam with the outlet well away from the base of the dam, and with the dam face well-sealed so water can't trace along the outside of the pipe(s)
I love the whole process and the project. Good, bad, whatever. If you are ever discouraged of doing anything bc you will look bad doing it you will never get to do anything new. It’s fun to see what works and doesn’t.
I had a deer lease outside of
rock springs, and the cows ate the insulation off of our extension cords. than a year later, the county power coop was stringing transmission lines across the property, and the bull tried to eat the insulation off of if, he was found well fried, with two unfortunate accomplices, and the county got to buy 3 fried cows from the land owner.
What you really need is a droid that understands the language of moisture vaporators.
“But I was going into Tosche Station to pick up some power converters!”
I'd imagine you could pave the dams 'road surface' with rocks and intentionally give a lean/spillway on the lower side of the grade.
Also, maybe some beaver dam analogs on the way to the damn so the rainflow doesn't hit the dam at too high of a speed.
Still, it's good that you're addressing the problems now rather than waiting for it to implode to do it.
For the dam, I would pass a pipe with a flap under the road.
A buoy (or football) is attached to the flap with a rope or chain.
The length should be so long that when the water is about to overflow the road, the ball swimms up and the flap opens. so that the amount of water drains away and does not damage the dam.
Overengineering - Translated by Pons.
best regards from Germany
The idea is great, bypass before overflowing. You can just make an L shaped pipe, with the top of the L below the top of the dam. No risk of flap blockage, no need to check under water, no moving parts. Make the vertical pipe swivel and you can adjust the level even more. Or let out some water on demand for a lower terrace / pond.
Jeff Lawton has a great video about it on his channel.
Hey Sean Greetings from Germany! ❤ love the project and your videos !!!! Keep up the good work!
I don’t know if you’re ever gonna read this but here is some love from a hobby gardener.
I think Grass is going to be, not only your biggest Biomass producer, but also your „Soilbreaker“ in the sense that every single bush is gonna root through the rough terrain (even tho slowly) wich intern is gonna enhance the capability of water intake in the soil.
I think the idea of taking some grass and multiplying it on scene is great!!!! Every year whenever you see the grass is going to produce seeds I wouldn’t even collect them but just take two fingers put them together of the bottom of the plant and raise them until every seed is off and just throw them back into nature( best into one of the bathtubs) it doesn’t sound much, but given every stem of grass is going to produce 20-30 seedlings, you can just take them and throw them out again. Even with, let’s say, 5% propergation rate, it’s still slowly gonna multiply and compound considering your 30 year plus time horinzon.
Sorry for back seating just want to get the idea out. So don’t cut them but every time u pass grass with seeds in the head( end of the life cycle)just take them and throw them out into the next bathtub.
Sean I loooove this project and your videos ❤
Sorry for the bad English. It’s my second tongue.
Till next week! ✌️🫡
*Edit Grammar/Orthography
Shaun, make your spillway transform it self into a very long swale.
It sort of is already.
Cover the black pots with white paper or plastic. Supply some shade as needed. You can harden them off later.
As an engineer and hydrologist, I suggest a spillway and valve for some drainage, also you need a different material for your dam system like concrete .
I think it would be beneficial to make the upstream side of the damn long and gradual incline so that there is a gradual increase in water behind the damn. That way if your damn overflows it will have less volume pressing against the upper part of the damn.
You're fighting a loosing battle Shaun. EP electric has many roads like yours and their constantly having to rebuild those dam areas. It takes one big flash flood lasting a mere 15 mins to create enough flow to knock out a dam 10 times larger than anything you've got out there. It's coming...
Sad but true.
What is a better design?
@@OublietteTight Concrete retention walls back filled with dirt and concrete faced spill ways. May not be in the budget. Using the biggest rocks he can find to cover the spillways and sides of the damn would help, but would probably still fail in the event of a serious downpour.
Step by step, some forward a few back, but always learning and growing and tuning into yourself and your land. Bravo.
Love whenever the dozer gets used :)
The sides of the dam/crossing are too steep. You probably already know though. In engineering this is called ‘Angle of repose’
Not sure how well it would work in that soil regime, but a trick in mildly sandy soil would be to get runoff from the road flowing down to the downstream side of the dam: what happens is that builds deltas that actually help build up the lower side of the dam. Those deltas make great places to plant native groundcover (or something non-invasive) since they catch fine particles and thus hold water well. Over time good groundcover will build up sod as silt and sand bury it and it comes back up; if you shape the channels into a shallow swale you can turn it into overflow channels that can handle any thing that may come.
The same can be done on the upstream side by putting a ditch along the road where the ground slopes down to the road; those will add fine silt and sand behind the dam's base, sealing it better. Do it well and you'll end up with a terrace as the dam fills with sediment; then you make a new dam just above the terrace and repeat.
In 2012 I almost purchased 100 acres in Sierra Blanca, but my sons were against it, since I’m already an older woman, I didn’t think it would be wise to embark on such adventure, but I admire you for doing it.
👏👏👏
1:86 - "I don't know how much that comes out on camera" The aerial shots help a lot. :)
Good idea to fix the dams before the damage gets worse. Can't wait to see the water collect behind them when it rains more (at least for a while)
تحية لك اخي شون من السعودية
انا انصحك بتكثير السدود الترابية السدود الصخرية لانها اسهل في الانشاء وارخص بكثير من عمل مدرجات زراعية
كما انصحك بعمل مزرعة خضار وورقيات لاستهلاك البيت وتطون مروية بشكل جيد وباستعمال الجرة terracota
You could try including water retention gel crystals into any potting mix for seed sowing and grass plug establishment. Just add water at the initial stage and this should help with the overall water reduction requirements. Here in the UK it can be bought from any garden centre or DIY outlet. Alternatively, it can be bought online, either from individual suppliers or Amazon, in either small quantities or in commercial sized containers; just depends on one's needs. Water retention gel crystals are nontoxic. They could also be used for direct seed sowing into the soil to increase strike rates.
Ditchline, silt fencing with straw bales, water bars, and driveable cross ditches are all erosion control methods used in the rainy PNW. Your dam should have had relief culvert at the bottom since the material it’s made of can’t tolerate saturation.
yep and form good soil
Would be good to integrate the road into the water flow plan to capture from a larger area.
Have you heard of a plant called Chaya?
It's a desert plant that's native to Mexico. Its fast growing and produces a lot of biomass. I think that would be a great compliment to the cactus planting project because it propagates so easily.
I hadn't but it's too cold. I'm in Zone 8a
@@dustupstexas If you lookup the "Köppen-Geiger climate classification" it's more accurate than the growing zone classification for judging which plants will grow in certain areas because things like humidity and elevation are adjusted for.
I think chaya would die back in the winter but it would come back in the spring.
I'm impressed you have time to respond to comments.
Love your videos brother
Could you add a trail cam so we can see how much water fell? How long it lasted? How much was retained? Can they be set to one photo an hour?
Great idea imo. Even so Shaun can review how the water flow effects the damns
Awesome Shaun! Thanks again for sharing with us. Always love every minute of what you are doing. So happy to see the terrace greening up! Great job.
Someone may have already suggested this but my suggestion for plants would be Okra and Kale. Those are some of the most hardy plants i have in my garden. The hotter it is the better the Okra grows.
Both need more water than he gets
Shaun, is there a benefit to growing your seedlings and/or cuttings in a tunnel house, especially one using shade cloth rather than clear film? To me it would give wind protection (drying out) plus moisture retention and of course cutting down on the sun exposure without shielding them from whatever rain you do get. Even a cheap small trial one from Walmart/Lowes might give an idea of effectiveness. The other idea is to cover some of your "crops" with sheet plastic (clear or black) to capture and retain any moisture that is being driven off by the elements, as per known survival techniques. In fact it is something you could try over one of your weekend stopovers to assess how effective it might be.
I would say the dam's need to be higher, so the top is levelled out with it being a lot wider so when you cross in your trucks they are not near the edges. Also gabions on both side to try and stop the sides moving. With gravel on top of them to help widen the bases and break up the speed of the water when it comes. Plus as you have already mention runoff, but make sure they don't undermine the side of the dam. Also a little maintenance on the smaller check dams to get maximum result when the rain does come along. Great that you have found local grass that's doing well. But you need to sort out a property nursery with shade and fans to keep them cool so you can kick start planting grass bushes and trees.
I love your grit in all this. you keep trying. I'm always drawn to your videos and look forward to the results of your hard work. thanks for the entertainment.
I hope you get plenty of rain brother.⛈️⛈️⛈️.Fingers crossed 🤞 🤞🤞
Gabions up and downstream with earth fill between? Use a pond liner for overflow channel? You also might need to set up a plant nursery with a 50% or greater shade cloth to help your starts. You could do that with Tposts - just buy some shade cloth.
Should look into the orgone amplifiers, using the same basic tech that wilhelm Reich used to create his “cloud buster” rain generator, but the guy making these orgone amplifiers has test videos of creating rain. Maybe should invite him out there for some testing
Great episode
Wow you guys did a lot of work ! Great ideas on how to control water movements learning here and nothing is lost.
Add water bars to the dams it will slow the water flow down and keep it from washing the road out. We use them on pipeline right off ways to stop water erosion washing the grass seed out that we spread out on the right of way.
That's what I did with the emergency dozer run
Although thank you for putting a name to the concept!
The one thing I have noticed is that, in general, after a long drought there is a hightened chance of extreme floods. I don't know if this is true for the area you are in, but it seems to me that preparing for big floods wouldn't hurt
We’ve had that very same thing happen here in central California. Extreme drought followed by extreme flooding.
Regarding your need for green waste to get the soil regenerated.
You might get regular organic matter if you offered it as a free service that solved their problem of disposing of green waste. E.g. you deliver a trailer and would collect what they then cut up and stacked themselves?
There was a business here in Australia a few years back. They advertised as a removal of garden, tree, & farm waste that if you filled up the whole trailer it was free. (Eg 25% of the trailer got you a 25% discount, and so on.
I think they made money off the compost they would sell to people in the city for a markup.
Hi Shaun, I’m impressed with your desert Farm, very ambitious project to create a forest in the desert, very commendable, I would like to contribute Moringa Oleifera seeds to effort. I’ll mail the seeds to your ranch.
“Moringa is an important food source in some parts of the world. It can be grown cheaply and easily, and retains much of its nutritional value when dried. As an antioxidant, it seems to help protect cells from damage. Moringa might also help decrease inflammation and reduce pain.”
Do you have a time lapse video on your desert garden, at least during the monsoon? Not sure how that would work, but would be neat.😊
So nice to see the little sprouts of green!!
Have you considered french drains along one or both sides of the road. A trench with large rocks at the bottom then smaller and smaller as it comes to the surface. The rocks should slow the speed of the water which should reduce the erosion, the pitch of the road needs to make the water flow to the drain which hopefully should reduce the volume of water at any one spot. (It worked for me in spain but no g'tee.)
Those are mustangs? That white and black pair were on my land
They were down by the river property last week.
Regarding your road and water flow…Research Coweeta Dips (rolling dips)developed by the USFS
Daming up natural arroyos is the worst thing you can do! There is a reason they are so big! And the damage will be severe downstream!
When transplanting any future vegetation - consider harvesting old (oxidized white) or semi-new manure to pulverize it to create additional surface area to plant with your transplants (just a handful per transplant). You'll want to cover it with gravel so it isn't fried any more than it needs to by the sun and is right by the roots which will stimulate the rhizosphere and holder water near your roots. The cattle are eating the local vegetation and their manure is cycling it much faster with their rumen than hand harvesting and laying it as a mulch (which is still great! You want to cover the soil as much as possible!). The cow's output is broken down material and biologicals that you can utilize. Even the horse manure would be good to add as they provide different levels of broken down herbaceous material. Cows have their rumen, and horses have a cecum that add various biology to their manures.
If you do harvest fresh manure - burry it just below the surface in areas near your plants - there is moisture in that material and would be a great addition to your soil organic matter goals.
Manure will be the fastest way for you to create soil organic matter and eventually mineral associated organic carbon. 3" of rain is a highly brittle environment where your herbaceous cover is oxidizing first before soil organisms or grazing animals can break it down.
All this is coming from a Soil Conservationist and native plant germination tradesperson. Love your videos and please reach out if you have any questions!
Can't speak from experience on this but I have heard that having a higher quantity of smaller volume diversions is preferred over the opposite. Either way you're trapping water and the bottom isn't showing undercutting, which is said to be a much more sever issue to solve (again, just from readings). Good luck with your dam - it seems you're on the right path with this project. The plant the horses were eating *might* have been related to a desert willow - hard to tell on the film.
I am happy about your videos and am excited about everything you do and how it will look in a few years. What surprises me, however, is that other projects have an area covered with nets that provide some protection from the sun. Underneath these are bags with seedlings of trees and bushes for cultivation, some of which are automatically watered. Unfortunately, my English is not good enough yet, I understand everything 100%I understand, but are you planning something like that in the future? I would be delighted if you could see Mogrina, Neem, paulovnija and the rest. How they grow and become big trees in 2-3 years. And what are your plans for the future? What about watering? Can you become a sponsor of trees? Best wishes from Germany.
Yeah I can see your frustration, all that work and rain doesn't come and you can't tell if your making a difference yet. I'll say it again I love what your trying to do, putting things back to the natural state, maybe if your successful ,future generations will get the opportunity to enjoy and admire your work.
Big Blue Stem (not Little Blue Stem as far as I know) is native to my area in the Midwest. It takes a year just to sink roots up to six ft down before there is vegetative growth. I'm not sure what you will see from your plugs right away.
About the dozer: do you have a sieve shovel? You could harvest all that mulch before digging them swales. Also, have you considered creating some standing bodies of water ?
Great video, I bet you’re happy to see some positive results after all the hard work!! Keep on trucking!!
The dam needs to be thicker. That is a dirt dam, not a reinforced concrete, so it is vulnerable to flowing water. Also, to help cut down risk of failure, build a series of dams upstream, so all dams split water volume between them instead of all the water rushing against that dam.
Would be great to see some videos while it's raining. Just hope your truck don't get stuck out there in mud
You can strengthen your earthworks by spreading concrete powder with a seed spreader and then misting water onto it. Doing it in thin layers allowing to dry and harden each time. Just dont do it on a windy day. Just a few bags of concrete powder can add a lot of strength.
You should absolutely plant prickly pear all along that dam, manure and mulch and big rootsy plants. Maybe some time soon a first tree. Ill link you a vid with a japanese stategy for quick forest, maybe.
EDIT: google miyawaki forest.
Shaun, you really should consider going for a Permaculture design Certificate from Geoff Lawton or other course that maybe close to your location. Its exactly what you are doing anyway. Get a Certification