THE LAND
Building Materials and house site in distance
In May, 2008, we bought 60 acres. It was clearcut in Jan-Feb, 2008 and was totally brown - just stumps, leftover "tops" and dirt. In these photos, it is just beginning to green up. The land is a finger ridge, meaning it is a smaller ridge poking out from a main ridge, with streams flowing down two sides (north and south) to a larger creek at the east end. We bought most of both streams and our side of the creek. We subsequently have sold about 30 acres of the western-most land to friends, leaving us with the 30 acres closest to the creek and the end of the "finger".
In the picture to the left, you see our beginning building materials (what would become the posts, vigas, and cedar roof decking of our house) stacked at the upper end of the ridge. In the distance you can see a dirt road curving down to what will become our house site.
Below, Chris and the kids walk out to the house site. The house will be built just beyond where you can see the two kids. You can easily see the stumps, tree waste, and the devastated landscape.
In the picture to the left, you see our beginning building materials (what would become the posts, vigas, and cedar roof decking of our house) stacked at the upper end of the ridge. In the distance you can see a dirt road curving down to what will become our house site.
Below, Chris and the kids walk out to the house site. The house will be built just beyond where you can see the two kids. You can easily see the stumps, tree waste, and the devastated landscape.
Earthworks
In September, 2009, I took a Permaculture Earthworks course at the Ecovillage Training Center. It was taught by our neighbors, Cliff Davis of Spiral Ridge Permaculture and Matthew English, as well as Rick Valley and Greg Landau. Matthew and Cliff designed our first pond and bench swale, and it was installed during the course. With consultation from Cliff and Matthew, we have since continued the design and installed two more ponds and bench swales that wrap around the end of our finger ridge, on contour.
These swales catch rainwater and slow its percolation through the earth, storing excess in the three ponds. They prevent run-off and conserve the water to be used naturally for irrigation of the dozens of fruit and nut trees that we have planted just below the swales. As we further develop this system, we will use this precious resource in new ways. Many frogs and some waterfowl live in and around the ponds. Deer and wild turkey drink from them as well. In a very cold winter, they freeze over and the kids can skate and play on the ice.
We harvest quite a bit of food from our swale system. Trees include apples, pears, apricots, plums, cherries, and mulberries. We also have passion fruits, muscadines, blueberries, blackberries, and black raspberries. We also have some nut trees that may bear in several years: chestnuts (Chinese and hybrid), pecans, and walnuts.
The photo above shows a bench swale after a rain and the first pond in the distance (as well as Chris and Acala, with umbrella).
These swales catch rainwater and slow its percolation through the earth, storing excess in the three ponds. They prevent run-off and conserve the water to be used naturally for irrigation of the dozens of fruit and nut trees that we have planted just below the swales. As we further develop this system, we will use this precious resource in new ways. Many frogs and some waterfowl live in and around the ponds. Deer and wild turkey drink from them as well. In a very cold winter, they freeze over and the kids can skate and play on the ice.
We harvest quite a bit of food from our swale system. Trees include apples, pears, apricots, plums, cherries, and mulberries. We also have passion fruits, muscadines, blueberries, blackberries, and black raspberries. We also have some nut trees that may bear in several years: chestnuts (Chinese and hybrid), pecans, and walnuts.
The photo above shows a bench swale after a rain and the first pond in the distance (as well as Chris and Acala, with umbrella).
Goat Browse Management
Goats are a lot of what we do here at Wish You Well, and we work hard to maintain healthy, productive goats as well as healthy, productive land. Our post-clear-cut ecosystem includes many plants goats love, which is a main reason we began to raise goats. We naturally have black locust, wild berries, sassafras, poplar, sumac, and a variety of other forbs and young trees. We have planted cover crops to add some diversity including clovers, lespedeza, vetch, cowpeas, ryegrass, and buckwheat. Our goats have a home pen that they stay in every night and each day they go out to browse in a movable electric fence. (We are VERY HAPPY with our fence and with the service we received from Premier 1 Supplies.) We move their daytime fence once every 3 weeks or so, and this rotation preserves both the browsing plants and our goats' health by interrupting the parasitic worm cycle. We are currently working on developing certain pasture areas for certain times of year, with plants hardy early in the spring in some areas, and into the fall in others, to minimize time the goats need to eat hay (which we purchase locally).