Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

so true, I made it a point for my son not to follow in the footsteps of any of my trades, " Don't be a mechanic son, girls don't like dirty fingernails, and for sure don't go into computers, it too frustrating and a real never ending story of updates and battles with thousands of extremely talented black hat hackers." He did get his A+ certificate as well as an AS degree in computer science, but he is a professional snow board training manager at nearby Taos Ski Valley

I can attest to the value of hard work having been a carpenter and worked on building sites with hard men for 15 years. Injuries put me in the office eventually and i am in a corporate environment these days however my brain always jumps to the just get your hands dirty and get it done approach.... not always the popular way forward when surrounded by Corp types with multiple degrees.
I agree that this forum is a testament to practical honest work and taking things from concept to completion.

Dogdoor, Must be very hard. I can't be inside for more then a few days at a time, and don't "mesh well" with most corporate types. Hopefully, I'll stay healthy and keep working until I die.

I had to develop a external response to fit the audience and an internal dialogue for my own sanity. Needless to say a swear in my head an awful lot!

I'll bet. It's difficult to keep from swearing when almost every person on the job-site is swearing. It's something I give up for Lent each year...usually without much success. But, it's harder then giving up sweets or alcohol...those are easy. lol

Good Morning

Yesterday was full of outdoors and a gargantuan dose of hard work. I helped the guy we hired to clean the acequia on our property finish the project. I can’t think of anything more strenuous. I’m hurting about it too. It’s done and that is a good thing. Saturday, as a family as we will work with twenty other families to clean the irrigation ditch where it crosses over non-water-rights holders’ properties. I don’t really know how far that is, even though I personally worked that stretch with the group dozens of times. Like our ditch it feels as though it is a gazillion shovels full long.

Endless shoveling gives one time to think. My thoughts were filled with my brother Jackson, father Henry and mom Clara, all recently passed on. I think of my father and brother as I work doing the acequia simply because they were older and advised me, the youngest, about the proper way of doing things here on the ranch. I was a handful when I was young and that is putting it mildly. Nevertheless I was here with them and we were family. I heard what they said. Dad was especially patient as he would repeat as often as needed exactly the proper way of doing things. Naturally, some sank in. I’m the eldest here now, and while I may imagine it’s my time to advise of the proper way things are to be done. The truth is that there are fewer young Rodgers around to pass along the the Rodgers’ ways.

After her class, my daughter came down to the acequia to help and that made the work go much better. Earlier, while working on one of our makeshift head gates, something profoundly beautiful occurred to me. The afterlife isn’t another realm as portrayed in movies and books. The afterlife exists in the living loved-one’s minds and hearts. We are where spirits go when they ascend.

Amazing post Brian.

Dan

Hi Brian
Probably the best excuse I have ever heard for not building an aquaponics project!
There are people across the whole world waiting to see your pond filled with water and fish!

May the sun shine on you and the road rise up to meet you.
God Bless!

I had to look up what an acequia is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acequia.

Was this the "limpieza y saca de acequia" per:
Acequia water law also requires that all persons with irrigation rights participate in the annual maintenance of the community ditch including the annual spring time ditch cleanup known as the limpieza y saca de acequia."?


Not something that you come across in Australia, some are 400 years old apparently.Fascinating

I also very much dig the sentiment of your last post. Very touching.

Me too...I had never heard the term before. Here, we just dig a well. Your a good dude Rodgers. Good luck in the home stretch.

Aw, thank you all very much. Here in the northern part of the Southwest United States Acequias are what made life possible for dirt farmers. Yes, Acequia are so completely amazing, I often wonder how they were constructed. Some of these ditches are hundreds of years old and considered the first signs of civilization in the arid southwest. They didn't satellite maps, or anything that I'd imagine would be needed to get the water around hills and dales, but they did it.

Update: Thank you for all the comments here, at Facebook and on Backyardaquaponics

Sapello-river-sat-map


The map scale isn’t shown, I’ll give an educated guess based on the fact that it is 2.5 miles from Sapello to Las Tusas, the village in the valley to our north. The acequia, I believe is five miles from the top down to the pond at the bottom. That pond rarely gits filled, being at the mercy of water user’s above. Some have leaky and makeshift head-gates such as ours and some forget to open and close their head-gates, which we’ve done plenty of times too. The sufferers are those of us near the bottom of the acequia. I try not to worry about it; the drought for the last four years was worse than anything. Result was zero water. Now that hurt.

Here is an interesting story about the difficulties growing food where the high plains meet the high country http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-04/asfh-psi040615.php

IMAGE: STRAWBERRIES WERE GROWN IN NEW MEXICO IN EXPERIMENTS THAT DETERMINED 16 VARIETIES OF STRAWBERRIES' SUITABILITY AS POTENTIAL ALTERNATIVE CROPS FOR HIGH ELEVATION, HIGH PH SOIL CONDITIONS

ALCALDE, NM - Fruit and vegetable production in high-elevation areas can be a difficult enterprise. Variable weather and soil conditions typical of these regions, such as the southwestern United States, present multiple challenges for growers. "High frequency and intensity of late spring frosts in semiarid climates have made fruit production challenging," explained Shengrui Yao, corresponding author of a study in the February 2015 issue of HortScience. "Growers may only harvest five to six apple crops during a 10-year period, and, as a result, many are forced to abandon their orchards." To lessen the negative impacts of unreliable weather and soil conditions, growers in the region are looking to alternative crops to help them stay in business. Yao and researchers Steve Guldan, Robert Flynn, and Carlos Ochoa studied multiple strawberry varieties, and found some promising options for growers in the U.S. Southwest.

Looking to strawberries as potential alternative crops for high elevation, high pH soil conditions, the experiments involved studied 16 strawberry cultivars planted with two planting systems. "Strawberry is a possible alternative crop because it matures early and is relatively easy to produce, but late spring frosts still have the potential to delay or reduce harvest," the scientists explained. "Our objectives in this study were to evaluate strawberry cultivars' tolerance to high-pH soil, determine yield potential in high-pH soil, and compare two perennial planting systems for high-elevation areas in the Southwest."

The experiments took place from 2011-2014 with strawberries planted in a black-plastic-covered perennial system (BP) and a matted-row system (MR). The experiments evaluated fruit yield, soil pH tolerance, and winter survival rates, among other traits. "We used two to three applications of 0.67 g·m-1 per linear row of 6% chelated iron each year through fertigation to effectively treat leaf chlorosis resulting from high soil pH," Yao noted.

Results showed "great variation" among cultivars in yield and tolerance to high-pH soil. 'Allstar', 'Chandler', and 'Darselect' were found to be the three most sensitive strawberry cultivars to high soil pH, while 'Wendy', 'Brunswick', 'Honeoye', and 'Clancy' were determined to be the four most tolerant cultivars. "Strawberry adaptation is localized, and each region has its own best-performing cultivars," Yao explained. "For example, 'Allstar' and 'Chandler' were top performers in Maryland, California, and North Carolina, but they were the most sensitive cultivars to high pH/high lime soil among the cultivars tested in this study, which impaired their growth and yield potential."

Early cultivars 'Earliglow' and 'Annapolis', and late cultivars 'L'Amour' and 'Ovation' all had low yields in both years. 'Wendy', 'Chandler', 'Clancy', and 'Jewel' were found to be the most cold-tender cultivars, while 'Mesabi', 'Kent', 'Cavendish', and 'Honeoye' were the hardiest among the strawberries evaluated. "Despite repeated late frosts from mid-April to early May of 2013, and a delayed harvest season, most cultivars produced greater yield than in 2012, with 'Mesabi' and 'Kent' being the greatest," the authors said.

Analyses indicated no significant differences in yields between black-plastic-covered perennial system (BP) and matted row (MR) treatments in 2012 and 2013, but the researchers found that yield in BP was significantly lower than in MR in 2014. "Based on the three harvest years, we would recommend two harvest seasons for the BP system, because plants declined for all cultivars in the third year. Plants in the MR system, however, were good for at least three harvest seasons," they said.

The scientists concluded that winter damage and late frosts can be managed through cultivar selection and overhead sprinkler installation, respectively. "Some cultivars are winter-hardy and tolerant to high soil pH. Growers can grow strawberries successfully with proper cultivar selection, soil fertility, and frost management in high-pH soil at high elevation in the southwest United States or similar areas," they said.

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The complete study and abstract are available on the ASHS HortScience electronic journal web site: http://hortsci.ashspublications.org/content/50/2/254.abstract

Founded in 1903, the American Society for Horticultural Science (ASHS) is the largest organization dedicated to advancing all facets of horticultural research, education, and application. More information at ashs.org

I am still struggling with what type of grow beds I'll build
Shelly's blue barrels look enticing after watching Colum's vids on his fiberglass reinforced growbeds. Perhaps we're still in shock, after going through nine months of hard labor to build the pond/FT. Sure we want classy grow-beds to go with our fancy fish pond, but holy moley, I also want to get moving with my system. Not to mention I've got a home to finish building and not certain how much more of my single-mindedness the good wife can stand.

dont stop....looks awsome cant wait to see more!!!

no worries, there is no stopping me now