Monsoon! Did Our Berms, Swales and AB Mix Keep Out The Water?
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- Опубліковано 15 лип 2021
- This was the first big test of our #earthworks. Our phones were blowing up with weather warnings about flash floods.
Once the rain slowed down I grabbed my camera and went out to investigate. This video shows the results of our work in building #berms, digging #swales and raising our driveway using AB Mix.
Here are links to previous videos showing the construction of our#Earthworks
• Clay Slip For Our Off-...
• #FloodPrevention We're...
• #floodprevention #Ber...
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You now have some great places to build swales and control the flow of water. You can probably rehydrate much of the ground around you.
So good to see how well your hard work and the cost of building up your driveway paid off.
Thanks! We were out this morning reassessing the water flow and made the appropriate adjustments. When Derek was helping us with his Tractor, and I made the comment how a tractor was the #1 tool/machine I wish we had, I was questioned by several viewers as to why in earth we would ever need a tractor. I officially invite those people over to help with building berms by hand in the 90 degree weather. 😂 What took us 2-1/2 hours would have taken 30 minutes with a tractor without even breaking a sweat. Sorry for the rant. I just needed to vent a little. Thanks for your support! 🙏
What a blessing you gat rain
You're so right. A little more evenly distributed would be nice, but we're not going to complain.
Wow, isn't it a great feeling when all your hard work pays off? Nice work!
A bit of tweaking and we'll be good to go. How boring it would be if everything worked perfectly the first time around. LOL 😉
Nice to see your hard work pay off!
Thank you!
Looking good! Nice to see you're a lot more protected.
Thanks Jim. This was the first real Test and once we saw the results.... Even with the area that needs work, we felt much better. That driveway is going to get another 12 inches added to the "hump". Your Cobb looks like it's holding up well to the weather! 👍
Nice!!! Glad to see your efforts paying off. Even with a few fails, you took a disaster (last year) and learned from it. We appreciate you guy's being willing to share your experiences so we all can learn... Keep doing what your doing, Stay safe!
Thanks! Overall we're pleased, and today's rainfall was motivation to get out there and fix the weak spots. Just goes to show there's always something to do around a homestead.
Nice to see it working! I'm watching this as it's currently raining in Utah. 🙌
So glad it all worked!
Thanks Cheryl! A little fine tuning is needed, but overall, 👍🏻
a lot better than last time...thx god for the monsoons.
True!
This kind of rain rarely happens in Southern Arizona. We've been in AZ for over 25 years and in Cochise County for 2 1/2 and this is a first for us as well. You're doing great.
Wow. Love it.
Glad you both are OK.
Thank you!
Wow! 😮 We had a massive flash flood here in Flagstaff on Wed. The water flowed off of Mt Elden through the burn area of the Museum Fire that burned just North of Flag in 2019, tore through town and nothing in place even slowed it down.. . The power of Mother Nature is frightening. So glad to see your preventative measure held up for the most part. You know what and where you need to focus your energy to reinforce the weak links. I’d take that as a blessing. Be safe.
Thanks so much. Yes, the power of Mother Nature is amazing. Look at what has transpired in Germany over the past few days. Catastrophic Flooding! Images like I've never seen. Whole towns destroyed. Rainfall like never seen since weather records have been kept. We can only do it best but in a true battle against Mother Nature, we know who's going to win that battle evertime.
Whoo hoo!!! I was wondering how you all were doing. Glad all that work paid off!
Thanks for thinking about us. 🙏
Mother nature is a force for sure.
Greetings from the LooseNatural farm in Andalusia Spain where we currently live through a drought and we enjoy seeing your video
Thanks for watching!
Fantastic success!
Thanks Michael!
Dang! We missed being stuck in that down pour by a day. We'd driven back to look at 40 acres we'd put an offer in (and lost) just down the road. What a wonderful feeling to see all the rain during our stay in AZ.. What a blessing for your community. I know it comes with it's downfalls, especially during construction, but you guys truly are doing a phenomenal job on your home. Cheers to learning as you go and embracing the growth 🤘 Be well..
Thanks so much Lisa for the kind words. Yvonne and I were discussing the rains just yesterday ( a daily topic during Monsoon Season) and you just have to be prepared as best as possible for when they hit. Protecting what needs protection and harvesting as much as possible or needed. We figure the bulk of the rain for the year will be over in about 6 more weeks, (which will be here before we know it) so we might as well make the most of it.
Those tires come in handy. 👍
I wonder what other things could be built using tires.....hmmm😉
I want rain ! Literally rained in every direction but the sun was shining on my place . I’m glad your flood control is working .
That's usually what we say too. We can look all around and see the rainfall white a blue shy directly overhead.
Nice! Must really be a relief to know that what you did finish was effective.
I have to admit, I'm really envious of the rain your area gets. Winterhaven CA is in a black hole, when it comes to rain. Whatever hit last weekend, all we got was the huge bursts of wind, and just a few drops of rain...may be waiting until winter for any measurable rain.
Anyway...ready glad that it's all working out for you.
❤️🌵☀️⛈️🌈☮️🐎🐐🐕🦍🐿️🐝
Thank you Laurie. Our area gets an average of 12-13 inches of rain a year. Unfortunately it usually comes in 3-4 storms. Have a great weekend!
Glad the main idea worked. Once you get that section patched, the water might dig its own channel and put less stress on the berms over the years.
We were out this morning assessing the flow pattern and re arranging tires. I'm hoping we figured a way to redirect the water back into the main wash. Might get another storm this evening. Anxious to see if our sweaty "Arbeit" pays off or not.
We dig catchment ponds in Africa to collect the extra run off water from heavy rains like this .We then use it for irrigation , watering livestock, it increases ground water and increases surrounding vegetation
We just went outside this morning 5:30 am and that pool I showed that I guessed was 3 ft deep is still full. The water has settled and is really clear. The bottom appears to be lined with a layer of clay, so this could be the start of a nice seasonal pond!
This was an extraordinary rain storm. If this happened today we got quite a bit of rain. Glad you are safe for now.
This was today. It was by far this biggest storm since last September.
@@theupsideofdownsizing it doesn’t look over either. Good luck
Bill based on watching your videos since almost the beginning I would challenge any self-description as lazy. You folks have been off grid longer than I have but if I may I believe the more realistic picture is that when developing land its a matter of drowning in projects and one's time is limited. I noted the plants on the crest of the berm in a variety of places. Smart move to keep your soil in place. Looks like your oleander is growing like crazy. I got rain today also but pretty tame compared to what you have there. I am in a valley between mountains so the rain seems to pour around me not on me. We shall see though. Thanks for sharing and you and Yvonne stay safe please.
Thanks for your continued support Don. One tends to get sidetracked at times, leapfrogging from project to project. We like to work a project through to completion before proceeding on to the next, but that's not always possible. Since today's water flow showed the weaknesses in our armor, and that weakness puts Yvonne's plants in danger, you can be sure that bright and early tomorrow morning we will be working on closing up those small gaps in the berm. Have a great weekend Don!
Glad to here your doing 90% ok!! Thank you for sharing that you made it through the storm safely!
Thanks! Although somewhat embarrassed by my lack of follow through as far as covering tires is concerned, we are nevertheless very happy with the overall effectiveness of the system. Now the tweaking begins.....well, as soon as the rain stops that is. 😉
Glad it's working, I just text ed you a video of our place yesterday
It's great to see how your efforts have paid off!
Congrats on disaster part 2 averted! Lessons learned and solved!
Thank you for the results video. You gotta protect ur foundations, so good work getting this done. You wouldn't have known where the water would find its way till it happens. The tires definitely slowed the water though, possibly averting further damage. That pool at 3:18 probably dropped a lot of sediment so might not be as deep as you think.
We just got whacked again by a big storm. And that pool that you're talking about, has filled probably 30% with sediment and sand and clay. We're going to have to re-dig that out deeper for sure.
So now you know...
Once completed, with regular inspection & maintenance you should be good for life!
We're thinking the same thing. And future mods could help us further develop Yvonne's gardens too. 👍🏻
Excellent Job ❤️ you BOTH 🇺🇸✔️🦅
Thank you!🙏
Hi Bill & Yvonne. Really enjoy watching your video's. I admire all the effort, hard work and artistry you put into each new project, you always seem to rise above any setbacks - such a positive attitude you both have. Interesting to see how your berms are directing water away from your property and helping to protect your site. If I may be so bold as to offer up a few suggestions to help further stabilize the berms. I notice your property has a lot of trees growing on it. Have you considered taking cuttings/seeds from those trees and planting them in the berms? The roots of those tree cuttings would help to retain the soil and strengthen the berm. Anchoring the tires at the weakest points of the structure with short lengths of rebar would allow time for the planting to establish a good root system. I realise your out in the desert and along ways from any forests but if you could get access to some tree bark mulch that would help to retain moisture in the berm and help to keep tires from being exposed to the sunlight. I think the dark mulch would also be more pleasing on the eye contrasting against the light sandy soil. Mixing in some leaf and twig litter from beneath your trees in with the berm soil would add a little organic matter. See Hügelkultur
You have mention many times in your videos that your soil has a lot of clay in it. The cannels here in the UK were all lined with clay by the labour and toil of Irish Navvies back in the 1800s. most have stood the test of time and are still functional today. Lining and compacting the clay in and around the swales would give you some measure of controlling the direction of water flow. As an added bonus sinking a few deep containers beneath the ground level to create a small pond oasis or extra water storage for watering the plants in the dry season.
Thanks for the suggestions! You might have me confused with another UA-cam channel because our soil is extremely sandy, not clay rich. In fact, the most clay rich options of our property are only about 15% clay. We've started adding plants to the top of the berms, especially prickly pear cactus because of their "net like" root systems. This is the time of the year when we get a lot of new mesquite seedlings poping up so transplanting them to the been area is an interesting thought.
We've tried using organics material to control the flow, but the force is just too great. Check out some of the After the Flood videos we made last year and you'll see everything from tree branches to tree trunks, heck, even sand bags get easily swept away by the waters force. Once the tires are properly placed and filled, we'll cover them with rock and should be in good shape. But this will be an on going process so stay tuned for updates. Thanks for watching!
@@theupsideofdownsizing Hi Bill & Yvonne. I saw you pick up a load of clay after the last big flood went through. I just assumed there was more clay on your property. We are currently self isolating due to Covid so I have spent the last few months binging on your vids. Prior to watching your videos I didn't know that cacti had such an extensive root system, I always thought they absorbed mist/fog moisture through the needle spine pores
Here in Europe, clay soil is pretty much in abundance and can be a bind as well as a bonus. Clay retains a lot of nutrients which can be good for plants but because of the heavy soil structure it does not drain so easily the nutrients become locked in and require lime or gypsum to break up the soil structure and let the roots become established. In hot dry weather clay turns rock solid which I am sure you are very familiar with.
I hear what you saying about the power of heavy rain and flooding we see a lot more of that liquid sky than we do of sunshine. News over here is Germany & Belgium have been hit pretty bad with serious flooding this past week. Mother nature has her own way of biting back. Good luck and stay safe.
sandbags...sandbags....sandbags....you 2 are doing great though!
That's what we thought too, until we watched over 50, full sand bags flow away with the flood waters last year. Bags were later found 500+ feet away. Bags are great when supported by a structure to hold them in place, but on their own not so much. That's been our experience at least.
Perfect engineering, just a little tweaking ... otherwise great job!!! 👍😊
Thanks. Tweaking begins tomorrow. We're pleased overall with the results.
Looking at the radar and I’m guessing your phone alerts are going off yet again. Stay safe 😊
I had a total of 16 weather alerts on my phone for our town and Benson. But if you want to see a true disaster, check out the flooding in Germany and Belgium. A mind blowing example of the power of water.
Looked like the berms worked very good. The one thing I noticed was the water going past your driveway down the road might become a issue down the line for you. If it starts digging down the road.
And this is probably just me. But I would like to see what happens if you dig out that place where the water was already pooling. At least the pool/pond should help the plants on the berm and the trees/bushes. And more vegetation should allow future water to penetrate the earth better. I think it could be a interesting ongoing experiment. Allowing you to compare the part of the berm with the pool/pond vs any other part. But as I said might just be me that is nerding down a rabbit hole =)
And by the way, the video looked really good. So the "rush job" worked like a charm as they say =)
Bill I would go the extra mile and cover the all the tires. That might give you some extra protection for the house, please cut your selves some slack you have been working hard and one cannot cover everything.
Oh you're right dan. All the tires will be covered. And Yvonne has developed a system using Rock to support and beautify the berms as well. We're going to get started with all that tomorrow morning first thing. Not sure it's going to be video worthy, but it's definitely going to be worth the effort. Otherwise the system worked out great we're very happy with it. Have a great weekend!
👍
Just needs tweeking. Good job.
Tweaking begins tomorrow am. 👍🏻 Thanks for watching!
This looks similar to my neck of the, Desert?... im near tucson and have to deal with similar issues as a new homeowner. Before now I'd never imagine I could despise something like clay soil 🤣... dealing with it is such a pain, But very necessary .
Need a pond to hold more water
wow it nearly worked hey maybe dig a trench around the out side so it sends it down the back more
As soon as those tires are covered we should be in good shape. I'm sure additional tweaking will take place as we get more rain. Thanks for watching!
Using the tires to berm is brilliant! How high up did you go with those berms?
About 4 feet, depending on the location.
Last night it poured over here ; hope your swales held up and you didn't flood out. Let me know if you need help.
Thanks Nick. Swales held but the repairs / improvements we made unfortunately could not hold back the waters. Flooding wasn't too bad. We have some work to do though.
Nothing a little patching up and you will be good to go. Covering those tires will also help keep the skeeters from having a bedding area. Berms working very well! Stay safe and Git-R-Done!!
Bright and early tomorrow morning. That sand and dirt will be nice and heavy. But when plants are in danger, the whip gets cracked for sure. Have a great weekend CB!
Great work! Are your tires staked and/or bolted?
No, once filled and covered there not moving. Didn't move at all yesterday, except the ones I neglected to fill and cover of course.
This is our actual first experience with massive flooding, so right now the two farms that are higher up the road from us, now live on our property... can you say cow shiiiit!! And all the other animals that live up there... it’s reassuring to see what you’ve been able to engineer has worked... so I guess next week we’ll be looking for tires ... oh the joys of living here!!! 😏
Del's Tires in Benson. He's happy to deliver as many as you need for free. Or at least he was last year. Give him a call.
Thankyou so much, hopefully we will be able to start with some diversion ASAP !! 👍😀
I remember last year, it’s so much better. Is there anyway you can capture the wash water to use for watering the garden?
Our 400 gallons of rain barrels are now officially full👍🏻 and once the house is complete, we will turn out attention to more rainwater harvesting projects. Thanks for watching!
You're getting there team, Rome wasn't built in a day......
We're off to a good start and today's downpour gave us a lot of good information about what needs works.
This is my first time visiting your channel. Are you doing rainwater harvesting in your property? It looks like you have a great opportunity to collect thousands of gallons of rainfall. Anyway, the berms look great and I will be checking your channel in the future!
Thanks! Once the #strawbalehouse is done we will be putting more effort into rainwater harvesting. We currently have a small capability with about a 400 gallon capacity. Thanks for checking us out.
@@theupsideofdownsizing you can harvest water and store it in the ground for your garden. Look at permaculture and swales. Geoff Lawton is a good one and polyculture dryland farm or farms in Australia "just" begun with his YT channel. And west Texas gardening is also a good YT channel.
I can understand you want to keep your home safe from flooding, but at the spot where the water is already spilling you could make a swivel pipe before you close it up. Good luck with your endeavours. Greetings from Europe.
Well, AZ needs the water atleast.
No doubt. Wouldn't it be nice if it could be a little more spread out though. 😉
Are the tires on your neighbors property?
That is actually community property and if course we sought out permission before beginning.
@@theupsideofdownsizing What kind of community property? Looks like you're out on the frontier wouldn't expect to usually have that type of thing there.
COMPARED TO BEFORE ITS A HELLUVA DIFFERANCE. wtg be perfect with some minor tweeking, as will always happen with diverting water. i would suggest when u get money to put stone where it turns 90 degrees to help w erosion later
The first question is this: is the cost to armor your property against flooding more, or less, than the extra cost to buy a lot on higher ground?
That's assuming that higher land at the same price, or lower price, wasn't available.
And that doesn't factor the cost of flood insurance, if you can buy it.
The second question is whether the armor will hold with a real storm. You haven't seen one of those yet. Southern Arizona, in fact, the Southwestern U.S., has been in a drought for 30 years.
Prior to that, we'd have real monsoon season rains every year, with higher than average events about every 15 years. Look at the land on the west side of the Nogales Highway, north of Pima Mine Road, between Tucson and Green Valley. That erosion occurred in one night in 1970. Then you can look up the floods that happened in 1983.
They don't happen from a single rain. We get a few hours of rain every day for days until the ground is saturated. The next day you get the rain that knocks all the dominos over.
We saw a real storm last year which is what prompted us to berm the property. Longtime neighbors said that they hadn't seen a storm like that in over 30 years. Will there be worse storms in the future? No doubt. Wanna see REAL Catastrophic Flooding? Look at Germany, Belgium and parts of Holland from the past 3 days. When that kind of thing hits, no amount of planning or prevention will be able to save you from the waters.
Thanks for watching. We will be posting updates on this project along with the Strawbale House build if you're interested. 👍🏻
If your good friend still has time with his tractor
Build the tires all the way to the main wash..
Go bigger than you think
To compensate for erosion
I Hate Auto Correct.
BTW, Darby arrived as well as my new outside corner trowel. Thanks for the advice!
@@theupsideofdownsizing
Sweet. 👍👍👍👍👍
Now I can see how they work with your projects
Will shortening my learning process
😊😊😊👍👍👍👍👍
@@theupsideofdownsizing
After you use them
You can say works good
Or Jim gives bad advise.
🙉🙉🙉🙉
😊😊😊😊😊
I picked up a couple of pool towels as well for the finish coat. Looking forward to breaking those babies in. 👍🏻
I hadn't thought about tire berms
But watching yours work
Has my gears making noises..
Once I get moved (soon)
On the QT I'm going to start stock piling tires
I always have over built things
And I have an idea to try and limit erosion of the berms....
Thank you for kick starting my grey matter
🙉🙉🙉👍👍👍😊😊😊😊😊
Pity you couldn't get a few tonnes of clay to make your own pond / lake never mind there's always next time lol great job on diverting the water
We looked at those pools/swales and they actually now have a layer of clay on the bottom. Yvonne wants to harvest the clay for the build, but I, like you thought we could have a nice seasonal pond for wildlife.
Why not create ways to save that water?
At some point in the future perhaps, but my plate is currently full trying to get our house built and move in ready by the end of the year.
Any chance of building a dugout , having a couple hundred thousand gallons of water on hand might help out with the garden , help get some fruit trees started
I don't know about that, but we are interested to see if our new found "over sized puddles" will attract wildlife. We'll certainly have more earthworks projects in the future when the house is done. Thanks for the ideas and for watching!
@@theupsideofdownsizing was just out watering my garden ( only had one rain this year so far ) and thinking of your situation . If you planted a row of shrubs along the berm would they hold enough soil to make your berm permanent ? I have seen hedgerows in fields that caught enough to make a berm three feet high , also with a big dugout it could be stocked with fish , the water could make a microclimate in your yard , warmer in winter , cooler in Summer
@@outinthesticks1035 He lives on Sand at least 4 feet thick. The water will slow down but not stay.
@@honthirty_ bummer , yea I am on top of sand , anywhere you want to keep water has to be sealed
What's the latest news, as of 7/23/21?
We've been getting rain every day or two for the last couple of weeks.
And we're supposed to get even more tomorrow.
This is traditional, pre-drought, monsoon behavior for So. AZ.
The question is, is the soil up-stream from you already saturated?
Why would anyone build in a floodplain area.
Wasn't a flood plain area according to the Cochise County planning and zoning. We looked at the maps. But the catastrophic break of a culvert last year changed everything. So we can either pick up and go, our figure it out. Thanks for watching!👍
Since you live in a desert..wouldnt it be a good idea to direct it onto your property and hog as much as possible to soak into ground via swales and ponds?
We get quite a bit of water on the property, but the goal here was to prevent damage to and to keep our build site as protected as possible. The damage we occurred last year or it all into very clear perspective for us. Raging watering will be started clear of our developed areas. Water harvesting off our house when complete should provide us with many thousands of gallons of water. But that is a project to tackle after the house is complete.
@@theupsideofdownsizing the trick lies in diverting some and slowing it down enough to get it into the soil while rest flows on and out. Permaculture style. I realize you cannot keep a whole monsoon flood on your land. Used to live out there. The speed with which water leaves is a big part of why the desert is a desert.
Thousands of gallons from roof will suffice for household use, but not for creating lush orchards and gardens...if you want those?
Don't get washed away.
Not this time..... almost happened last year but that was the catalyst for us delving into earthworks. And fortunately it seems to have paid off. Thanks for watching!
I have just found your channel and have been enjoying it very much.
You should build a lake!
Maybe not a lake, but a small pond that could possibly attract some interesting wildlife. Thanks for watching!
Why don't you want to keep the water on your own land? Not to run through your buildings or garden but into dams that allow the water to collect and sink into your ground.
Don't put up with a flooding road in the front... unless it's a county maintained road. ;-) I would run the water across the road and concentrate the berm building efforts on one side of the property. The driveway held up nice!
Thanks Bill. Definably got a good view today of what's working and what can be improved upon. The driveway worked great, but it's going to be raised another 12 inches or so.