Sustainable Community Living

Today we are rationing water more so than normal. Our Landlord called stating our pump in the creek is no longer producing enough to sustain the houses on the property. This is something we have known since moving here and evaluating the water situation. We tried to to encourage the our land lord to seek out a spring on the property above us and we would help her develop it, but she put in a swimming pool instead. As this would bring her more money per night on her vacation rental. She rationed with that she could develop large water catchments and new springs next year. This however doesn’t help us now and this is not our land so there is little we can do outside our normal conservation like heavy mulching and other conservation practices. It is a bit frustrating because there is so much a land owner can do.

Water is essential to all life and its extremely critical here where we get all of our water in about a 4-5 month season. Being originally from sub-tropical Texas where it rains frequently throughout the year, this really unnerved me. How was I going to have enough water to irrigate crops spring, summer and winter? The answer was not a simple one as there are many ways to collect and store rain water. Ironically, here in Cazadero we get almost double the amount of rain Houston does at 93″ a year, but we get it all at one time. So how does one store water? Well the first thing that comes to mind a permaculture technique that stores water in the ground using swales/berms. Some of you are familiar with this I’m sure, but simply stated you are using the natural lay of the land to gather water. For instance, putting a berm a below a naturally occurring “V” on a slope will catch water. This is easier to explain in a drawing, but if you learn to read the land you can see where water is naturally draining and on a hill side/slope it normally comes to a “V”. By putting a double berm across the bottom of the “v” you slow down the water giving it a chance to percolate down in that area. Now if you go a step further and plant fruit trees on that berm they will also not only benefit, but store water themselves. If you go further and plant trees on both sides of your berm you will create a shady area in between thus reducing evaporation. The trees will drop their leaves and add mulch thus reducing evaporation even further. Now you have created a simple water storing device on your land and given yourself another food source. See it wasn’t that hard!

Some other obvious solutions are building ponds where water naturally occurs or near homes so they may be used to reflect light to solar arrays. Placing ponds above crops is crucial to irrigation. We believe anytime you can set up a passive system you are way ahead of the game. Meaning you are not using a pump and energy to pump up your water to use gravity to bring it down. If you catch your water above you simply need a system of irrigation gates that can irrigate crops and be used for fire protection. The higher, the better the pressure will be and this can be very important in fire fighting. Some of the best laid out farms I’ve seen here lay this system out so that they can tap into that water anywhere below the source with lots of underground pipes. Expensive yes, but save just one house/barn from a farm and it’s paid for itself. Now add to this the potential for hydro energy, aquaculture and duck production. You can see that one or many lakes would pay for themselves in more than one way. Put a dam across a seasonal creek and in the winter you have hydro power. Add the proper fish to the lake and you have a high protein food source. Mix in ducks to that mix and you have meat/eggs. Plus you could grow aquatic plants that serve as fodder for the animals and fertilizer for the gardens. The potentials are endless!

Building storage tanks are essential for drinking water. Many of our friends gather their water from springs and store it in tanks. The more the better I’m convinced. These storage tanks can be built into homes and greenhouses creating excellent heat sinks when needed or the verse in summer. The important thing is this water store stay clean and free of debris, animals and bugs. People have built cisterns from rock long before there was fiberglass, but in our earthquake prone area I prefer to have something that can withstand our regular mini shakes without cracking. I’m sure there is a way to build one, but alas I’m not an engineer. I would hope will have a few on the community though.

Finding the springs to fill these cisterns can be a whole other matter unto itself. Many times we notice the flow of springs as we hike, but marking these area and watching them during the dry season is critical. Often times springs that look good during early summer dry up and no longer produce a flow. Other times it is about looking at the land and knowing what plants like to grow where water lies. Still yet, it is always wise to start your search on a North slopes as this is where many springs are found due to the fact that the sun hasn’t dried out the land as it does on a Southern exposure. I could go on here, but any of these books listed here will do a much better job than myself!