it's amazing amazing like i never expected that the excavator would do so much work in one day
foreign
oh
so it was a bit of drama this morning because when they when the guys are here and they're telling
us what they're going to do we're doubling the pond that's what we're doing we need more water
and so we're doubling the pond that means cutting trees
really really really really cares about the forest and the habitats that are around it so
it's kind of a shocker for her to come here this morning and realize that we're going to
be cutting all those trees and we're going to be spreading a lot of soil into parts of the forest
yeah so you can't make an omelette without breaking any eggs and to
haul all the all the earth out of sight in trucks it's just too expensive and it's just it doesn't
make any sense it's like it doesn't make even any ecological sense so we'll see what it does they've
told us to come back at the end of the day at the end of tomorrow to perhaps look at the designs but
what we had which was really beautiful we'll have more water but it's going to be really ugly for
the next year or two or three and it's going to be up to us to restore the habit that's afterwards
wow the four arrows the true wow look at this it's amazing amazing like i never expected that
the excavator would do so much work in one day like i left this morning after cutting down some
of the trees and then i'm coming back now and it's just we've easily doubled the size of the pond and
it's amazing it's amazing
so i'm really relieved because kind of jokingly my marriage is saved but this morning
well they really wasn't happy because when we came here and then you know the guys were there
to make the hole and to cut the trees down you know we hadn't really finalized the plan and
she were she was expecting that we would cast all of the soil out of the farm so that we wouldn't
need to cut more trees and expand the bank and the excavator came and came and said that just
it's not possible it's going to be first way too expensive and b you know it's much more easier
if we just dig that way and then cast some of the soil out there but for for modeling
to cut trees is like it's a huge no-no we're trying to save the bit of forest that we have
so she really really wasn't into it and now she came just a bit earlier she saw it she's like okay
feels good looks good there's still plenty of forest we're good to go and i was happy because
yeah this morning i wasn't sure it would turn out to be
what it is now i'm really relieved i have to say
yeah and and when when the excavator was telling me you know just cast more soil down there for me
it made a lot of sense because i know that there's a lot of spaces down there where the forest is not
so nice it's kind of swampy and it's critical we needed to get this done you know we need water to
for the farm so yes we need to cultivate ecology for the forest and we like
having a forest to be in but without water our project just doesn't stand
and so i think this is the first step to many steps and it's the third time that we dig it
and so we just dig it a little bit so this time we're doubling the size hope it's enough but
obviously we'll need to do more to save water and to just be more efficient with our watering but
you know we feed a lot of people with this farm having a nice supply is is vital to what we do
so i'm feeling kind of relieved in the end it looks good feels good feels natural the bank is
nice and i think the trick was the fact that he had a really big arm like this is a big machine
some of the people that i consulted about digging ponds they told me
like get the biggest excavator possible and that really saves a lot of cost
gets fit this gets fit
so rose is saving all the little frogs
so we're we're facing this problem now you know our little farm in the northeast
is going through a rough drought and you know we're doing all this work to make sure that we
have enough water to feed to you know to to water the crops but you know for me when i
think about this we're definitely not the only one and we're not definitely not the
first one to be going through such a drought and it just makes me realize to which point you know
having water to grow crops is a fundamental without it it's just there's nothing happening
i have i have in my mind you know all these farms that i've visited
in california and elsewhere where they're just using so much water in a very very dry climate and
i'm feeling like uh this is this is this is this is part of something that it's gonna be
really major moving forward just for just for the farming our farming community like managing water
making sure that we have banks to capture it making sure that we're using it wisely
but it's never about not using it because we want to grow healthy crops if you want
to feed people with local small organic farms ecological farms you know we need water and
you know in my book we need water more than you know people that are washing their cars or their
driveways or whatever it's just like small-scale farming is such a big part of the future
it's making me really understand the value and the imports because to be frank it's really
the last three years that we've had shortages of water but before that we've always been good
we even had excess water to deal with needing to install drainage tiles to make sure that when
there's flash floods we're not you know submerged by water so it's something that's really changing
in my mind but i think it's something that's really changing globally but we're feeling it here
i'm going to show you some of the stuff that we do to consult conserve the water
there's so much more that we could be doing but
you know there's a start for everything so the first thing that we do is use a lot of these drip
drip tapes so you know drip tapes the beauty of them is that you can water your crops with just
like just a little bit of water that goes directly on in the root zone so you're not
kind of spraying every everywhere and just you know watering stuff that doesn't really
need to be watered so it's dropping the water directly at the roots where the plants need them
so we use a lot of these drips more and more every year we're putting blocks under drip you know we
also have low impact sprinklers that we use on the farm so that they have low gpm so they don't
need as much pressure so another important part of our water on the farm is this frost free hydrant
this is a huge lifesaver for us it's actually the well so this is the well
we get the water that we drink in the house and also for washing the veggies from a well
and i don't know how deep it is but it's been a good well except for the last three
years in august we've ran it dry and at first we used to water all our greenhouses
from the well and and obviously wash the veggies from it and then you know
there's also the house and then washing machines and all of that but this year
because of last year one of the moves that we've made is to not water the greenhouses from the well
so that you know we'll have water for ourselves and also to wash the veggies and so we've put up
this big huge tank that we fill from the pond and i'll show you that in a minute but that was one of
our major moves that we made this year to conserve more water and we still got the well to run dry
and that was actually when we were on a week vacation my wife and i and then leaving the
farm everything's good three days later the cruise the crew calls no more water in the well
so this is this is this is an important piece um then it connects to to you know
the nursery where we use the water heads but from there it's really the house and
the washing station and then there's also on the on the on the barn on the house all of the
roof is connected to gutters and the cutters the gutters they they they drain into the first pond
which is the swimming pond it's also safety for water that we have
so that's a lot of square footage you know this building is 40 by 100 so that's a lot of water cap
catchment capacity um but you know we need to do more then one thing that i've been thinking about
and then i need to get perhaps a design to make sure that it's good it's like the way the land is
sloped for the longest of of times here in the northeast we would want to have all the excess
water you know channeled away from the growing area especially when we have flash floods but now
with the water scarcity what i'm thinking is that i just need to capture it
so i need to channel it perhaps away from some of the growing area but to channel it in places where
i can pump from it and then use it back when i need it so i might need to reconfigure some of
our landscape perhaps dig you know drainage uh wells that would connect to the pond and that's
some of the work that i might want to do you know this fall or next spring not totally sure
so you see there's a big pipe that pipe is connects to the washing station
and so all of the water from the washing station is you know channeled and it goes into a ditch
where we've really put a lot of shrubs can filter the water and then it goes back
into the first pond again this this needs to be retweeted and this year the other thing
that we did was to connect the big greenhouse there's a lot of tomatoes you know it's amazing
the amount of water that it takes to water one greenhouse like that it's about one tank a day
okay so that's just a lot of water and the plan is to connect it to the gutter
somehow that's going to probably go into the ground and then we're going to connect it to the
gutter so that even when it rains then that's like a free bonus otherwise we're pumping from the pond
all the way up here and filling that with that and then it goes on the system for the drip inside the
greenhouse so obviously you know there's so much more that we could be doing is it having
swales is it landscaping you know the farm in certain parts to really capture more rain water
and and keep it is it to have more reservoirs like those that are perhaps buried or stacked
and then when it rains we can fill them and have you know like batteries just like backup of water
i don't really know what the end situation is and i'm you know researching and talking to other
farmers and really thinking about how they're dealing with with this and again sometimes i feel
a bit foolish because for the longest of time a lot of growers in california were elsewhere
in the states you know they were facing with this like 15 20 years ago
but now it's not it's at my doorstep i need to deal with that and you know i'd be very curious
to know how other growers or you listening to this how are you dealing with shortage of water and
what's your strategy to to bank water or to store it or to make sure that when there's a drought
you know you're not left out with any water so i'd be very curious to hear that if you guys want
to leave comments i'd like to read them but at la greninet it's a small farm we do our best i think
we do a great job at growing those veggies but man the water shortage has been a big struggle for us
if you want to learn more about the farming techniques that we use here at the farm check
out the market gardeners master class and join a community of experts worldwide that are talking
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out the work that we do at growers and co i hope you're well this is it for this week leave us a
comment don't forget to subscribe like the channel i like doing this and we're going to do some more
uh i hope you're well j j.m out farm on hope it rains where you are
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