We Can Dig It
It’s hard to believe that this is our last episode before the election. It’s been an impending doom ship sailing closer with each passing week and now it’s almost here. We’re going up to the property for a while after Election Day (either to celebrate, to mourn, or to hide?), so we might delay our next episode, but don’t worry about us. Everyone just be safe out there and VOTE VOTE VOTE!
On today’s episode, we chat about our latest trip up to the property, which was all about digging!
We’ve been thinking about renting an excavator for a while because of the volume of dirt we need to move, but we decided that we aren’t quite ready for that before the rainy season begins. So instead we decided to just go buck wild with shovels… and we got so much done!! A little mole family we were.
The dirt in California is a lot harder to dig than that sweet soft Midwest soil. Out here, you need a pickaxe, a round shovel, a flat shovel, a sledgehammer, and about 10 times as much time and effort. But with teamwork and determination, we accomplished a lot in 2 days.
The most important project was our rain catchment basin. We dug a crescent-shaped basin and built a berm around the main drainage culvert in the middle of our property, moving about 2 cubic yards (54 cubic feet) of dirt and rocks. We also dug a trench beneath the berm and buried a 4-inch drain pipe so we can drain the entire basin later if we need to.
Then, when the hot sun started shining directly on the catchment area, we moved our operation to the yurt site and did a bunch more digging there. To our surprise and delight, we discovered that the dirt where we want to build our yurt is softer than anywhere else on the property. So instead of just digging holes for our platform posts, we decided to start grading the whole site. The site is on a hill—probably a 1 in 10 incline—so if we don’t want a ton of steps at the front of the platform, we’ll need to dig out the back. Vince thinks we moved about 1 cubic yard (27 cubic feet) of dirt and rocks at the yurt.
On the final day, we laid a 20’ x 25’ plastic sheet over the whole catchment basin. It’ll need a little more finessing in the future, but even if we only catch the rain that falls on the plastic for now, we’ll be able to store 300 gallons for every inch of rain. To be clear, we don’t plan to drink this water, but we’re hoping our new catchment basin will catch hundreds or even thousands of gallons of non-potable water for plants. It’s important to diversify your water supply.
The air quality was pretty bad when we were there (AQI as high as 190) which is, you know, not ideal for manual labor. But we hunkered down in the skoolie during the worst air times (mid-day) and ran an air purifier on the solar power we have now. We can only hope that they put out the Creek Fire soon and the air quality will be better the next time we’re there.
Finally, in the spirit of spooooooky season, we spotted a couple of California Tarantulas on our property! They’re a little creepy (to me anyway) but they’re truly docile and harmless. Vince even let one walk on his arm. Tarantulas usually live in burrows underground, but in October the males emerge to find a mate. It marks the end of summer and the start of the rainy season (in nearby Coarsegold, they even celebrate with a Tarantula Festival every year). Hopefully this means that rain is on its way.
So the next time we talk to y’all, we should have just spent another week digging and building on the property. Stay safe out there! And vote!!
