Latest / Beyond Labels Premium / BONUS: Building a Homestead with Joel: What to Look for In Land

Transcript

BONUS: Building a Homestead with Joel: What to Look for In Land · Beyond Labels Premium

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: Hi, everybody.
• 0:01
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Dr.
• 0:01
  SPEAKER_01: Cena McKella here with our favorite farmer Joel Salatin.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_01: And today we have something that's a little bit unusual.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_01: It's our first time doing this.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_01: This is a bonus episode with both of us.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_01: And we came up with this idea that we are launching today.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_01: And it's it stems from feedback that we've received from all of you.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm going to share that feedback.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_01: One is the topics.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_01: So we asked you guys, what are the three topics you'd like to hear more of from us?
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_01: And in the lead, by far, is uh number one is how to create a medicine cabinet using God's medicine.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_01: So herbalism.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_01: And number two is homesteading.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_01: So how to garden, raise chickens, create composts, and so forth.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_01: So herbalism and homesteading.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_01: And um following closely after that is how to circumvent food regulations and exposing government corruption.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_01: So we're combining that feedback with an email we got from a listener named Jessica Revis.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_01: She says, uh, Dr.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_01: Cena and Joel, I just want to say a big thank you for all the information you provide on the podcast.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_01: I look forward to Thursday mornings when I can tune in with my coffee, complete with raw cream from my jersey.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_01: And hear from two people I admire most in this community.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like blushing already.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_01: I appreciate the bonus contents.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_01: And I hope that at some point you guys will consider two weekly episodes.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_01: A girl can dream.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_01: That was her stand.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_01: That was her comment.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_01: A girl can dream.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_01: So we decided why don't we combine these things?
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_01: People want homesteading and herbalism episodes.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_01: And some people want us twice a week.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_01: So sometimes our bonus content will be Joel and I talking on video about herbalism and homesteading.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_01: So how does that sound, Joel?
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: That sounds fine.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I can do homesteading.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: You'll have to do herbalism.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, I'm all over it.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_01: I love it.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_01: So today is our first topic.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_01: And I I have been, it's been really difficult for me not to share this with Joel.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_01: Joel does not know what the topic is.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_01: I've almost emailed you several times to share this great news I have.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_01: So here it is.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_01: We bought a homestead.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: Ah boy.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, it's finally happening.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_01: Like I've been talking about this for years with Joel that, like, this is my dream, and my husband's not there yet.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: I gotta wait for him to come along, and we did it.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: So you you actually you close close and it's done?
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_01: So we close on the 20th, which is why we're having this episode today.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_01: Because the topic is when you're looking for a homestead, like looking to build a homestead, what are you looking for in the land?
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_01: So see, I wanted to have the topic before we close, just in case I made a mistake.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you can you can correct my course.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_01: So I thought what I would do is tell you what my criteria was.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um, because you know, we're in that, we're in that kind of transitional space, right?
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_01: Where we we also have other things we're looking for in land, um, and we have young children.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_01: So I was gonna go through my list, and then I'd love to hear, and I'm sure the listeners would love to hear from Joel, what are your top requirements for homes, uh homestead land?
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_01: Like, what do you have to have, like must-haves, and then what are the nice to haves?
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_01: All right, so you ready for my list?
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_01: So, first on my list when we were finding the location was local community.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_01: And as you know, we already um nailed that down, and that's why we moved to this area in northern Georgia.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_01: So we have the community aspect.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_01: Then there were certain things on the land itself that I needed or I wanted.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_01: One was I didn't want to be on a main road, you know, partly because of the pollution that comes by with all the cars driving by, but also because I do have young kids, including a two-year-old who, you know, can run out to the street.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_01: And I have my five dogs.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_01: So I wanted to be off from a main road.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_01: So step back, like like in a cul-de-sac kind of style.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't want to have any cell towers at least a mile from the property.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_01: I also didn't want to have any high-tension power lines within a mile.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_01: The utilities that would run to the property, I wanted those to be underground.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_01: I also, a must for me is not to be on public water.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_01: I wanted my own well.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_01: We needed to have um access to high-speed internet because we both work from home.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_01: It also, one of my absolute requirements is to have a spring-fed creek that originated on the property.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_01: We didn't want to be too remote.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_01: Well, see, I wanted to actually be in the mountains, like totally remote in the mountains, nobody near me.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_01: But as I said, you know, this is a compromise between myself and my husband.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_01: He still wants to be like within 15, 20 minutes to, you know, like a target, let's say.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_01: So not too remote, but you would get on our property and you would feel like you are remote, right?
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and ideally, I wanted to have some kind of a nice view, right?
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_01: Sitting out on my property, the back porch with my kids.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_01: I wanted to be able to have view something other than someone's house.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I did not want to be downhill from other people because I didn't like if they spray, for instance, you know, you can't control what your neighbors do.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_01: So if my neighbors sprayed, I didn't want to be downhill because of the potential runoff of toxins from their land.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_01: Likewise, I wanted a buffer on all sides of wherever we put the house on the property.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_01: I want a buffer, a land buffer on all sides in case they spray, and also in case the neighbors um, like for instance, if they leave their Wi-Fi router on all night long, right?
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_01: Or we have a neighbor now that has a booster on their Wi-Fi, which gets picked up in my house.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_01: So we wanted a buffer from all of those, um, all of those man-made toxins.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: And or if they or or if they became nudists or something.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_01: We'd be having a plant like evergreens at the wall.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, talk about a homeschool anatomy lesson, right?
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, that's right.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and my last main one was we were hoping to get neighbors that we liked, preferably neighbors that have children, right?
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_01: Since you're doing when you're doing life alongside your neighbors.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_01: So we thought, wouldn't that be great if we happened to find some like-minded individuals, you know, some freedom lovers um who didn't spray and um and that they had kids.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm my list, if if you put that list together, that's kind of a tall order in many areas of the country, and including the area where we are.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_01: But I'm telling you, Joel, the property we found checks all of these boxes.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_01: I'll tell you my quick story, real quick, about how we found this property.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_01: And um, and then I'd love to hear your take on it.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_01: So we found a builder um that we liked.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, okay, I don't want to have a basement.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_01: Like that was another one of my requirements for the house itself, is that I do not want a basement.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_01: I don't want to deal with potential mold and also radon.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so it has to be flat enough that we can build a slab house.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_01: And the builders worked in this area for like well over a decade.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_01: And he was like, Well, kind of good luck finding that, you know?
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, Well, if it's meant to be, then, you know, God will show us the property.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_01: And I kid you not, I had this um desire to go see this current farm.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, you know, it's it's not perfect, but something's telling me to go drive there and see it.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_01: So we like literally 10 minutes later, we get in the car to go drive to see this farm.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_01: The farm was awful.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, I would never live here, you know.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_01: But driving out to come back home, I look over and see a for sale sign, and it happened to be the piece of land that we're buying.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_01: Like that's how we actually found it.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um, nobody, you know, our real estate agent didn't show it to us.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_01: She didn't, you know, tell us it was on the market.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_01: It literally happened because I got that feeling to go see that farm, which was a dud.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, that's weird.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_01: Why did I get that feeling?
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_01: And as we're driving out, I saw the for sale sign and I said, we need to call that guy now.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_01: And the market, the property had just been placed on the market, and there were two other people interested in the property as well.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_01: But they were both like builders, you know, they wanted to develop, they wanted to put like nine houses on this land.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and the seller liked us so much that he actually helped us get the property.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_01: Like it was quite remarkable how this happened.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, and I should add the property is almost 10 acres.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_01: So isn't that kind of like wow?
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_01: And it literally happened, Joel, like in two days.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_01: It just appeared.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, um, you know, that that's uh that's a lot of times what happens, you you sleuth and sleuth and sleuth and sleuth, and then when it when it when it all comes together, it um the the deal the deal happens really, really fast.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: You know, when when the when the timing and everything is right, it just um I've always you know if if you feel like you've got to force something, uh it probably isn't the right thing.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: Just let let the pieces you know, let the pieces come together, and um and and that'll that'll be really good.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: Well, um great.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: Uh uh uh how so how much is open and how much is wooded?
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, so most of it is wooded.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_01: There's an area in the front, it must be maybe like an acre and a half, that is pretty open.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_01: And the rest, um, the rest is wooded.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_01: Like you actually, it's gonna have a long driveway, so you're gonna go back and up on top of this hill, which is what I wanted to be back away from the land.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_01: It's like my little oasis back there, and the house will be up on the hill.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_01: So we'll be we have the view, we won't have runoff.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, it's flat enough.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_01: I don't have to have a basement.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_01: And then from going from that flat, I'm sorry, going from that open area in the beginning, and then you know, the driveway would take you up to the hill.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_01: In between that is the creek.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_01: So my thought was it's open enough in the front, um, where I can have like an orchard, you know, plant different trees and maybe different fruit bushes and whatnot.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_01: You know, what was that term you used, Joel?
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_01: You were teaching me on a previous podcast.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: It was like um is it forest forest farming or the forest food, you know, silviculture or permaculture?
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_01: Well, it's the one you talked about where you have like the different layers, like you have trees, and you have right.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: That's stacking that that's permaculture stacking.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's right.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_01: And that's what I kind of envisioned at the front because that's where we have most of the sunlight, you know.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_01: In the back, it's more I don't I don't want to take out any trees that I don't have to take out, you know.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_01: I feel bad about killing the trees.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, we were walking the property with Builder, and the builder's like, Oh, yeah, lots of these trees have to go, and I'm hugging the tree, and I'm like, I'm so sorry.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_01: Like I'm like, we will plant another one in your honor.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: Uh no, um, so so is the house.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um uh let me ask about the the the uh the situation of the house uh where you've picked, does that site have a protected um is it is it on top of a hill or part of a hill?
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: How how protected is it from westerlies?
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: The the winds the winds come from the westerlies.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: So normally you want to tuck a house below the below the ridge line.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_01: No, so this is like so if you go, it's like on top of the mountain, but there's a house to the left, and uh it's far enough away the I mean I can see the house, but so it's probably like um maybe like half a football length away, that next house, and then but it's still gonna be surrounded by trees everywhere, like you know, trees that are hundreds of years tight.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, all right.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I I'm just thinking about the the um the positioning of the house.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: Uh you know, in in the old days, uh people didn't build on top of a hill.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: They never built on top of a hill, they always built down off the off the crest on the leeward side of the westerlies.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: So so that so that went so that wind wouldn't pummel them all the time.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: And and then and then and then you definitely want a southern, some sort of a nice southern exposure so you can get solar gain.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I know that you're I know you're not in Virginia now, so you know, uh, but but where you are now, chances are if you have a very nice uh uh you know glassy southern southern um exposure, you almost can heat the house with passive solar just coming in in the windows.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: So that means you want the roof line, the roof line to extend out far enough, and you can track this.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: Uh that'd be it'd be a great, great science project for your kids to to track the azimuth of the of the sun and see um the exact the best position for the tracking of the sun and how far your roof overhang has to be, so that in the summer no direct sunlight comes in, but in the winter you get full sunlight on the southern uh on the southern glass exposure.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_01: Wow, I would never have thought about that.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so yeah, uh those are the those are those are critical elements to reduce any uh heat bills.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: So you so you get heat in the winter and your shade in the summer.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: That's what you're after.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: And you do it, you do it with position and with roof overhang.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: And so that would make a great science project for the kids to to get on there and look at the sun track and see what the angle is.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: See the sun, the sun rises and falls based on the earth's uh tilt.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I'm I'm talking obviously here in the in the northern hemisphere.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: Uh in the summer, the sun is real, real high in the sky.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_00: And in the winter, the sun sits real low on the horizon.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so that's why your roof overhang, your roof overhang on that glass southern side can either give you um can give you shade in the summer and yet let all the sunlight come in in the winter.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, okay, so that's fascinating to me.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_01: This is something I've never actually considered or let alone done before.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_01: So how would I go about actually implementing this tracking of the sun?
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_01: Like uh like because I'm thinking, do I have to live on the property for a year?
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: No, no, no, no, no, no.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: You you look at no no you you look at you you look at your you you get your um longitude and latitude, all right.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_00: And then you you get the um the the the track.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_00: Uh this is there there are tables for this, okay.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: You you just gotta you just gotta find the tables for it and um and and you'll get the angle.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: What you're looking for is the angle uh the angle of the sun uh at different times of the year.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: So you want it on uh on the um on the June June 21st, uh which is the longest day, uh you want it to where the the sunlight just comes to the bottom of your wall, of your southern wall.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: And then in December 21st, you want it uh as far as much as possible, you want full light uh coming in.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_01: Full light coming to the bottom of the wall.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_00: Full light coming to the top of the wall.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_01: The top of the wall.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, because in the winter you want sunlight, in the summer you don't want direct sunlight because it'll heat up your house.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_01: I'm so glad I asked this question because I honestly I've never even heard of it.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_01: It makes total sense what you're saying.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_01: I've never heard of this and never actually considered it, right?
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_01: Like we were like, oh, what do we want the inside of the house to look like?
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: So as you know, Cina, I you know, I'm all about trying to to nest into the into the womb uh so that you you leverage all the benefits and you minimize the liabilities.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: And uh and and that includes uh obviously the the single biggest uh element of our ecology is the sun.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's what powers everything.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: And so you start you start there with the sun.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: How can we how can we leverage how can we leverage the sun for you know for for good and for uh for ill?
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um so uh are you going to are are you planning to drill a well or are you gonna use the spring?
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_01: Well, we're planning, we're thinking about drilling a well, but I actually hadn't thought about using the spring.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_01: I kind of was just letting nature be itself.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, did you did you find did you find where the spring comes out?
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, we actually have uh would you call it a spring head where it comes out?
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no spring head.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_01: Actually, two, I mean, look at how all the things Joel's teaching me already.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_01: Like um, there's actually two spring heads that come out and join together to form a creek, and it runs through almost the whole middle of the property, and then there is a a second spring head, two properties over, and that creek goes along the back side back side of our property, and the two creeks join together.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so now so all right, so now the question is do you know what the flow is of that spring?
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_01: No.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: All right, okay, so so that'll be another great, great project for the kids.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_00: So what you do is um is is you want to determine the flow.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_00: Now, um uh just just off the top of your head, do you think the flow would go in a one-inch pipe?
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, so when it comes out of the spring or like it's down, no, right at the spring head, because that that's what you that's what you I mean, I would encourage you to forget the well and and and develop the spring head as your as your water source.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: So you're not so you're not punching another hole in the in the uh in the landscape uh which every time you punch a hole in it makes a place for things to that you don't want to get into the aquifer.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: So um so you know, you can use the spring, but but yeah, uh and and it'll probably developing the spring will cost, you know, the well will cost you twelve thousand, fifteen thousand dollars.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: Uh developing the spring will cost you, you know, two or three.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: So you can save ten thousand dollars by developing the spring.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_00: Oh wow.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: So you but but but you do have to know what the flow is.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_00: I mean the the the flow if the flow is like you know half a gallon a minute, it might not be enough to you know to run your household.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: But uh but if the flow is you know if the flow is a gallon a minute, two gallons a minute, and that that's not much.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um you know, it'll it'll run.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: So so you can you can determine the flow a couple of ways.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: Uh one is that you can uh either uh just take a shovel and make a little dam and stick a pipe in it and just and measure the flow coming out of the pipe.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_00: All right, that's one way if it's really, really small.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: If it's if it's a gusher, well, if it's a gusher, it doesn't matter.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I mean, I mean if it's if it's uh if it's running at whatever five, six gallons a minute, uh don't worry about the flow.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: You got plenty of flow.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm only talking about uh I'm I'm concerned, um, I'm wanting to make sure that it's enough, you know, enough water.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_00: And and you know, if you get a gallon a minute, that's plenty.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: That's plenty for a household, a gallon a minute.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so I'm looking for a gallon minute.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_01: So I would make a dam, stick a pipe in it, and then I'm actually gonna measure how much comes out in a minute.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_00: You just take a take a take a one uh you know, take a one-gallon jug and a and uh and your uh uh smartphone with put your stopwatch on and see how many seconds it takes to fill a one-gallon jug.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_01: It doesn't have to come out of just the one spring, like the two heads are about a foot apart.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, all right.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so I I would I would use the two together.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so then the question is is it a is it a shelf spring or a uh or a sand spring?
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: The the difference is the difference is one.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: One, the water comes up from a up from a basin, and the other one, it like comes out from a rock ledge.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, this one look it seems like it's coming out.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, coming out from a rock ledge.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, all right.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: Well that's that's great.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um uh yeah, I would definitely I would definitely use the two together.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, because what you've got is you've got what you've got is an people have to understand that underneath the ground, there are streams of water just like above the ground.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_00: And they and they run it like through caverns.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um so so what you have are you have you have seams.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so think about seams of water that are running that are connecting the aquifers underground.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: So what a spring is, it's where one of these seams comes to the surface.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_00: So you've you've you've kind of got a a cut of one of these seams, and um and and and um the the water pressure, the static pressure of the water is pushing that water out of a out of a seam.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: And um, you know, it's like like when you drill a well, when you drill a well and you hit one of these seams, the water actually comes up the pipe casing, like our well here at the farm is 80 feet deep, but our static pressure brings it up to within four feet of the ground surface.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_00: So those the static pressure shoves the water up, okay.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, and so that's what's coming out of this spring.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: So um, so yeah, I I I I can't imagine if you've got a a decent spring, I can't imagine why you'd want to dig a well.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: Uh you know, just enjoy the spring.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, well, and then uh so I mean just imagining what this would look like if if there's enough flow coming out of this spring, and then we use that for our water, you wouldn't have the creek anymore, right?
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_01: Because you're now diverting the water.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um no, you're well uh again, if the flow is if the flow is anything more than a gallon a minute, which is not much, I mean, a gallon a minute is uh is less than less than your your kitchen faucet.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um you know, a gallon a minute would be like your kitchen faucet at you know half half boar.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's not much.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_00: Uh but realize that that one gallon a minute, one gallon a minute gives you about 1400 gallons a day.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_00: And your household isn't going to use 1400 gallons a day.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_00: So um uh so so yeah, I mean we don't we don't have enough time today to talk about developing the spring.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_00: But uh but but but develop developing the spring, um essentially you're trying to create a a cap over that to where you know uh deer deer manure and and and just stuff isn't gonna come down into your you know into your spring water.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: But uh yeah, uh no, you you're you're you're just uh uh 99% of the time you're gonna divert just a smidgen of that water and the rest is gonna go on down the creek.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_00: You're not gonna you're not gonna begin to use that water, uh all that water.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_01: That is so cool.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_00: You're not you're not gonna dry up the creek by uh by diverting a little bit of that water.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: No, you'll be fine.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, cool.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, my boys are so excited about playing in the creek.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_01: So I was like, oh, I don't want to get rid of the creek, but yeah, that is so cool.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_01: And I love that too because I don't like the idea of digging stuff into the ground, right?
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_00: Right, right, right.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_01: I want to leave them alone, but you would still have to dig like for a sewer system, right?
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_01: Like for your septic, you still have to put a septic in there, right?
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, un unless unless you want to uh eliminate the septic and go to a composting toilet or uh or uh uh you know and you could do hybrids.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um yeah, well, we could do we can do uh numerous podcasts just on all of the really untraditional because because if there's one source of of pollution in the groundwater, probably you know, that that would rival uh the pollution of of pesticides and herbicides, it's it's um it's sewage, it's human sewage in in leech fields.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and so especially if you're on a hill like that, um if this if if that happens to get into a seam uh and go somewhere, all right.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_00: So so I don't think for the record, I don't think sewage septic systems are are evil or wrong.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it's just that um you might, you know, there there are some alternatives or some hybrids, so you can still have your fresh toilet, but you're not actually using a you know, using a uh, you know, a a leech, a berry leech field.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, that's probably another topic for another day.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_00: But yes, if you put in a if you put in a a traditional uh leech field for a septic tank, yes, you definitely will have to do there will be a lot of digging around here, a lot of digging.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so that sounds good for a new topic.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_01: So, but this getting back to this topic because we're almost out of time for the land itself.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_01: What do you think about, you know, um I laid out my requirements?
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, do those um check all your boxes, or is there something that I miss for a homesteading land?
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_00: Uh well, the only uh the only thing that I would uh no, your boxes are your boxes are excellent.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um the only thing that I would prefer, I would prefer a little more open land.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_00: Look, I'm a livestock guy, right?
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_00: I like open land because that way I can have you know cow and chickens and things like that.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_00: So you'll be um, you know, you'll be struggling to develop anything for you know for for chickens, or if you ever wanted a milk cow, or if you wanted a couple sheep or something, uh you'll be struggling with that, with this, you know, with this heavily wooded area.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the advantage of heavily wooded area is that the land is a lot cheaper.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, as soon, as soon as it becomes more open, then it, you know, it drops uh or it increases in price.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_00: So uh so the woods, the woods are a pricing advantage to the buyer.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_00: Uh if you're you know, if you're happy with the woods.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um and I could always cut trees down later, and it's it's hardwood, I should say.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_01: So if I wanted to expand and like have chickens or cows, I it I could cut it down later, right?
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_00: You can always, yeah, but you can always cut trees and make a make a half acre spot or an acre spot or something.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_00: Uh in general, in general, I like to see a around a 50-50 mix, half, half open, half woods.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but again, you know, um a lot of times you take what you can get.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_00: Just just realize that if you were coming to this wanting to have to raise your own beef steer, for example, or or something, uh, you've got you're you're you're um you're already behind on the amount of open land.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah so that that's a you know um that's a that's something that's something to consider.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_00: But otherwise, no, your boxes are your boxes are fantastic.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_00: And um, yeah, I I definitely agree about that you can get too far away.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_00: I'm with Donnie on this.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um you you can you can absolutely get get so far away that especially with fuel prices and everything, that ever every trip to town is uh listen, when every trip to town is 45 minutes, um it's it's tough to you know to whatever, whether it's you know, uh uh going to church or uh or a child uh you know a child function, you know, that the homeschoolers are having or whatever, you can absolutely get um get too far away, I think.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so yeah, I I I like I like your list.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_00: And um that's good.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like I passed the exam.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, you did.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, you did.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_00: That's a it's a great, it's a great list.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's a great list.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_00: And and congratulations.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_00: And uh yeah, uh, that's just that's fantastic.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_00: Great, great news.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_00: And um it'll that'll be a fun project to watch develop.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'm excited about it.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_01: Well, and now I know already these couple experiments that we're gonna do, uh, you know, in the interim.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um and yeah, I would love, you know, if the listeners like this, you know, email us, let us know.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_01: And because I would love to do uh like kind of track what what we're doing, like in real time, you know, like we're going to do this experiment now with the spring.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_01: And and then if that if the flow is high enough, how do we actually convert that?
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_01: And the whole I'm really interested in the septic system as well.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um so it would be interesting, I think, to track the yeah, we can we can kind of kind of go through this together and and um you know, if if if any of our listeners have read my book, folks, this ain't normal.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_00: I have a chapter in there on my dream house, you know, which is which is basically an under, it's um it's a built into the hillside house with a with a uh a hoop house roof.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_00: And so you don't even have a roof, you because the roof is half the cost of the house.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_00: So you just use a you use a hoop house for the roof and put your ceiling for your house in, and um, and and now you've got complete passive solar uh to heat the whole thing, and your your your toilet is as a is a um is a bio uh is is a digester.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_00: You sit on a digester and you don't even have a septic field.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_00: You know, there's there's all sorts of really, really radical uh stuff that you can do, but um that that might push Donnie just a little bit too far.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I don't know because what I'm hearing in my mind is you can save money by doing some of these alternative things, like you know, I and obviously I care about saving money, but I'm more about let's save the land, let's preserve it.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_01: So I don't have to, you know, dig all this stuff in there and I can have a digester toilet.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_01: Like that sounds awesome.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_01: And I would so I totally want to do the composting idea with the waste because we have clean diets, right?
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of like what concerns me too about the septic system is all the glyphosate in people, the prescription drugs, you know, who knows.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_01: But we're we're as clean as you know, what it's we're pretty clean.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm concerned about uh our waste becoming compost.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's a fantastic idea.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm totally excited.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_01: I'm more excited now after talking to you because I told my husband, I said, okay, let's not get too excited because we don't really know what we're looking for in homesteading land.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_01: Like we know that we we kind of put a list together, but Joel is gonna be like the golden seal of approval.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_00: Like no, I I I approve 100 100.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_00: I approve.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_00: So uh so let's let's get this, let's get this uh let's get this show on the road and and uh get get your homestead up and running.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_00: That's just uh there there are a few things uh as exciting as feeling like you've come home.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_00: So um that's really that's really a wonderful thing.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_01: And I knew it.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_01: You're gonna make me cry.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, I actually we go visit the property.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_01: Like we we just put a bit on it about uh less than a week ago, and we keep driving over, and I just take my shoes and socks off my ground.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_01: I just sit there on the property, and it like brings me to tears.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, I will just pitch a tent and stay here and take it.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's fair, that's fair enough.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I can't uh I can't wait to see it with you.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_00: I'll uh we'll we'll have to we'll have to have a uh field trip.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, you and Teresa, come on out.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that would that would be exciting.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_00: Great.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, let's sign off.
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you everybody for listening to this little uh extra, and um hope you enjoyed it.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_00: And it certainly is a little different content, but uh hope it was um interesting for everybody.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening.