Roo says "Good morning!"
It stormed last night while I was at work. I always miss it! I would have stayed up all night to see a good storm at my home. Way better than staying up all night at work!
After looking around at how green and clean everything is, I wanted to check the swales.
I guess they're working!
The top swale is pretty full, I'd say about 60-75% before overflowing. It's giving me an idea where the overflow channel needs to be, and I'll be working on that soon. Probably a weekend project.
I've been waiting what feels like forever for a decent rain, and this is very encouraging! The top one isn't quite full, and the lower two have a tiny bit in them, but nothing substantial like the top one yet.
The idea, for folks that don't know about swales, is for water to collect in these ditches before running downhill. It'll stop here and collect, overflowing into the lower levels, and it'll soak in slowly. This slows down the flow of the water and gives it time to soak in before it all runs out to the ditch out front. This water is staying IN my soil. Hopefully this water management technique will help keep our little food forest watered through the drought-like Texas summer, as this part of the yard is the part that dries out the worst.
I've run a small trench to help feed the system. Last year, during these rains, our chicken run flooded out, so I ran the trench just uphill of the run and ran it into the top swale. That'll help feed the system while keeping the chickens dry and not washing out their awesome compost. Lots of benefits in these 85 short feet of trench. And none of that is to mention that the water will eventually work back into the water table underground.
A really integrated food, water, medicine, and soil health model here on our little suburban homestead. And we're just getting started.
Be blessed.
Be fruitful.
Stay relevant.
Nate.
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