How We Handle Flooding on Our Off-Grid Homestead

[00:00:01]Um, this is [music] working out really well.

[00:00:06]There's a small just point of the property [music] where all the grass and land and filters, [music] [music] you know, take [music] out packaging.

[00:00:27]It's actually really nice. [music] Hey, go down [music] go.

[00:00:41][music] [music] [music] So, I wanted to show It didn't even seem like we got that much rain, but the pond is full and so it's going to start overflowing soon.

[00:01:06]Um, so we'll have to use it. It's a lot of silts in it right now cuz it's it's uh muddy and it's still filling up the trench.

[00:01:16]And so I'll shape up these trenches some more.

[00:01:22]Um, but we got a lot of water. It was getting low. We've been using it and uh it'll evaporate.

[00:01:29]It's getting hot in a lot of areas. So, we can get fast bursts of rain and um if you collect the rain, you could retain the water in between the crop rows. So, it's nice to see how it functions with the rain. It's functioning how it should. Water flows, a lot of water flows through here coming off the driveway. The driveway drains pretty well except for the areas I got to fix some of these dips uh that it runs through the corn.

[00:02:01]And so you see it all coming down. It comes through any overflow from the corn will flow out into this overflow trench.

[00:02:10]And from the trench, it'll flow down around the cedar tree and into this fall into this irrigation pond.

[00:02:21]we'll use to irrigate our crops. So, the watermelon is starting to get established. They were kind of struggling, so they're small right now, but they're trying to do pretty good.

[00:02:32]Um, but over here, there's no drainage um from these trenches, so it floods, but it goes into this trench cuz a good amount of water meets at this point.

[00:02:45]And so, exactly what I'm going to plant right here, I'm not haven't decided yet.

[00:02:48]It might be watermelon, but I got the trench will connect on this side.

[00:02:55]So, we use the trenches to hold water and I'm going to further develop it over there.

[00:03:03]It's going to be even bigger, larger drainage system, and it's going to be really cool. I didn't think the pond, this pond would fill up so quick. It didn't seem like it rained that much, but um I guess it did. It was raining kind of hard.

[00:03:29]So, you can see how the water flows throughout the land because it's not completely flat.

[00:03:35]There's a lot of slopes. There's a lot of areas. It's like bowls and it holds water. Um, and so yeah, but we also have water that flows down here.

[00:03:50]And so if you know, water always will flow to the lowest point. You can collect a lot more water in the creek than I ever could from a rain collection system.

[00:04:04]I'm going to keep furthering developing it, but um it's filling up. The pond takes a little while too after the rain.

[00:04:14]It takes some hours after the rain for all the water to make it cuz you see all the water is still making its way down into the creek. So, it's going to fill up a good amount um or at least more than this.

[00:04:30]Eventually, we're going to open this area up.

[00:04:38]But, um, been trying to do it carefully without allowing too much sunlight through.

[00:04:45]So, I don't want the water to evaporate.

[00:04:47]But, so all this water is going to make its way into the creek.

[00:04:52]And as it flows through the grass and through the land, it filters the plants filter it. So we can take a look at the crop field. This is another side of the the other side of the property. It's coming down. You see it's a slope. You can kind of see we're going up slope now leaving the creek. And so we got these crop rows on a hill slope. We got these sunflowers planted on these rows. And then we got a lot of sorghum planted over here.

[00:05:24]So these sorghum sorghum is already coming up.

[00:05:31]So some areas is more clay.

[00:05:36]Before this field, it used to flood. Um so not much grass grew here because the water would just flow through and then it would sit in the flatter areas and so there was no drainage.

[00:05:49]With these crop rows, it's a drainage system grows and it spreads throughout the land and it also is a drainage so that the water can flow [music] out and it's not sitting all in one area. It's only sitting in the trench. The frogs, they can live in the trenches. They add organic matter, fertilizer, they eat pest [music] insects. Um, and so it just creates a natural system where everything works together.

[00:06:23]And so you'll see that over time.

[00:06:25]Hopefully we'll be able to show it um through what we're developing here.

[00:06:31]Um, we can use it without having to pump water over here.

[00:06:37]So, I still got to do this middle row.

[00:06:39]Do this middle patch right here. And >> [music] >> um everything else pretty much planted. I got to finish this last row. Healing good. They got rain.

[00:06:50]It's looking pretty good. I'm glad to see the rows are functioning.

[00:06:54]Over time, I may add something, either mulch or berms or something that will hold the water, uh more water in the rose before it flows out. This is the sorghum. This is what it looks like once it sprouts. [music] We got to thin these out cuz they all had pretty successful germination.

[00:07:12]Um, and so we weren't sure how viable the seeds were because we grew these seeds last year and so we really weren't sure um just what germination we would get. But they did really good.

[00:07:27]I may even try to dig some of them up and move them if I can. it.

[00:07:33]So, I'm going to finish this last row and um um and then this middle patch will be the last one that I plant in between. Thankfully, we've had rain in between. So, I've been able to do it this way. We're not trying to harvest everything all at the same time.

[00:07:53]Even though it's a succession, we're still planting them pretty close, pretty close windows.

[00:07:59]And so, it won't stop here. is going to continue and eventually all of these drainage systems I showed it'll all be connected. [music] It's all one system.

[00:08:07]This property is one one ecosystem. So, we're managing it as [music] a one ecology. Um not just one field, but multiple fields. All these fields are together. Until we show it, people aren't going to understand cuz we're not doing things traditionally. We're doing things how things should be done. able to collect all the water that hits our property.

[00:08:33]It's going to come down the hill. We'll be able to collect all of it. We're going to be utilizing all of it.

[00:08:39]Utilizing all of it. So, I'm thinking about putting a uh trench or something over here. I'm not sure yet.

[00:08:49]Um but yeah.

[00:08:59]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> It stopped raining. Had to take a break cuz it was raining so hard. But now I'm about to get back to planting.

[00:11:06]Zay was still out here during the rain.

[00:11:08]He I think started more mounds.

[00:11:13]So I just plant into those. Go from there. [music] [music] [music] [music] >> [music] >> Heat. Heat.

[00:11:57][music] Heat. Heat.

[00:12:05][music] Heat. Heat. [music] [music] [music] >> [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Knocked out over there.

[00:13:49]>> Hey, it's hot.

[00:13:52]>> You blend in over there.

[00:13:58]Yeah, my elbow a bit.

[00:14:01]>> Yeah, >> my wrist is >> still got to get stuff planted.

[00:14:09]>> My hand is messed up cuz everything Yeah, we finished.

[00:14:19]>> We got all the tomatoes planted. [music] We're sweaty hot mess now.

[00:14:25]>> So tired.

[00:14:26]Yeah, we don't have a pool. But yeah, we got the rose done. Got it all planted.

[00:14:32]We still have tomatoes left. We have a lot of tomatoes.

[00:14:37]So, we're going have to plant those somewhere else.

[00:14:42]Yeah, we got a lot of the [music] homestead tomatoes.

[00:14:50]>> Dang. I don't even know.

[00:14:53]I don't know. Let me see.

[00:14:57]We planted [music] the Roma tomatoes in the middle and then the Homestead ones on the sides.

[00:15:06]So, these are the boots I currently use.

[00:15:09]You see they're pretty busted up. I've been using them. They get filled up with water. They're really busted. They got holes in the back, holes in the front.

[00:15:21]Um, [music] and the inside is just completely torn apart.

[00:15:26]And um, they were nice boots, but they're just worn out.

[00:15:32]And, um, it's time to replace them.

[00:15:37]So, we got these cowcow boots.

[00:15:42]And so, we'll see.

[00:15:51]And so these are short. They're not long like these ones.

[00:15:56]But um it'll be nice in the summer with it getting hot. I'll be able to wear these. They got really good soles on them, good grips, and so we'll see how they work in the garden. It's nice because the top is short, but it's still kind of um flexible, so it can kind of fit around your ankle.

[00:16:22]Take out the packaging.

[00:16:24]It comes with these soles.

[00:16:28]So, we'll put those in there.

[00:16:38]So, this is the brand CowCow. You can see where to contact them.

[00:16:48]So, I was going to put these soles in the boots, but I realized it already comes with a pair. And so, it should be good. It's nice it comes with an extra pair of soles because the soles are the first things I usually mess up in the boots.

[00:17:07][music] >> [music] [music] >> They feel pretty good actually.

[00:17:36]So, it'll be nice to plant in planting the rest of the tomatoes. So, see how the grips work in the mud. It's actually really [music] nice. My other boots were slipping in the mud.

[00:17:57]So, I don't know if you can see it because the uh sun, but the shadow.

[00:18:14]It's got a really good grip, though.

[00:18:17]It's not slipping [music] at all.

[00:18:21]So, you see the mud is all in the grips.

[00:18:24]That's why it's such good Good grip on it.

[00:18:40]Hello everyone. This is Z and A and welcome to our channel. So right now I'm about to plant some more watermelon.

[00:18:48]They tilled up some more rows behind the high tunnel and I'm [music] about to plant some watermelons.

[00:18:57]Um I don't know if I'm going to plant anything [music] else.

[00:19:01]We got a live going on.

[00:19:05]So he's doing the live.

[00:19:10]Okay, so right now [music] it's like the peak of heat and um I was about to plant but I'm going to eat something first. I just checked in the high tunnel some of the seedlings are kind of dry. So before I eat something, I'm going to water them real fast and then plant later when >> [music] >> um it's not so hot.

[00:19:38][music] So around this time towards the end of March, we had started a lot of plants and were transplanting a lot of our seedlings.

[00:19:55]So yes, like always, we were [music] very busy dealing with the plants, dealing with the animals, also making products around this time.

[00:20:07]And the main thing was adjusting to the summer. We're heading towards the end of spring, moving into summer weather.

[00:20:19]>> Yeah, I know what this is.

[00:20:24]>> Now, [music] plant these. Yeah, they are yellow.

[00:20:29]>> Well, you just said they weren't yellow.

[00:20:33]>> Oh, my bad name. No, I thought that was I thought you got the other one.

[00:20:39]>> But in saying that, it was cooler around that time than it is now in the middle of July. I do miss the cooler nights and the cooler mornings. It's still cool in the mornings now and at night, but it's just a shorter period. It's just more of constant heat [music] which is very draining when it comes to dealing with plants [music] and planting.

[00:21:11]So around this time we were planting a lot of watermelon.

[00:21:16]We're growing yellow watermelon, yellow crimson. [music] and Zay just put rows on the other side of the property [music] and that's where I'm planting these watermelons in this video.

[00:21:34]We love yellow watermelon.

[00:21:37]We feel that they taste [music] sweeter than Jubilee red watermelon, but we still love red watermelon. But ever since we've been growing yellow watermelon, we grow it.

[00:21:50]We try to grow it every year.

[00:21:52]Unfortunately, we weren't able to grow it last year because of our water situation, but this year we are able to grow them.

[00:22:01]So, we're very excited.

[00:22:07]We are growing a lot of watermelon just to make up for any losses.

[00:22:13]And just stay tuned and see. We should be harvesting them in August, in the middle of August. I think we kind of planted them a little late, but the summer here in Oklahoma is pretty long. It doesn't start cooling off till October. So, we shall see how many we reap.

[00:22:47]>> [music] [music] >> Down every day. [music] >> [music] >> Going to have to go check on the sheep.

[00:23:27]I hear them. I don't know what's going on over there. One of the lambs might have got out or they might just be crying cuz they won't feed. Heat. Heat.

[00:23:42][music] [music] Oh my goodness. Sorry guys. I thought I saw a snake.

[00:24:26]I don't like coming through here.

[00:24:30]on my own.

[00:25:01]Yeah, look at Abram.

[00:25:03]He's ready to ram me.

[00:25:06]It looks like everyone's here. Ebony got her lambs. That's Eden's.

[00:25:14]I see Violet's Jade's.

[00:25:19]No, they're all here. I don't see no no one missing.

[00:25:24]>> I don't know what we're hearing.

[00:25:27]I don't know. They might just want feed.

[00:25:29]They probably just want feed cuz I gave them feed earlier and they like that.

[00:25:37]get them some water. Um, if I can >> They have water, but they don't have enough. They might be able to make it tonight, but definitely um first thing tomorrow morning going to have to get them water.

[00:26:05]I'm just I am so exhausted, guys. Like, I do not have energy to get them water right now. But we don't have any.

[00:26:18]I'm just glad that they're all okay.

[00:26:24]Get back.

[00:26:42]>> [music] >> Ah!

[00:26:47][music] [music] Oh my goodness.

[00:26:57]Every time I get to the creek, that's what happens.

[00:27:02]This is so hard.

[00:27:05][music] [music] [music] >> [music] >> Hey Blueey laying by the corn. Why?

[00:27:46]Huh? Oh, I don't get it. Hey, why does he do that? So annoying.

[00:28:00]Yeah, nothing's wrong with the sheep.

[00:28:02]They just want feed probably.

[00:28:05]And I can still hear the neighbors kids.

[00:28:09]It's like they're combining with the noise.

[00:28:16]I think that water alarm.

[00:28:21]They do need water. [music] Um, they might be able to make it tonight, but we just got to get them water first thing tomorrow morning.

[00:28:31]I forgot I need to take the trash.

[00:28:36]I get my glove first.

[00:28:45]It sound like something moves.

[00:28:48]Oh my goodness.

[00:28:50][music] I hope nothing's in there.

[00:28:58]Okay.

[00:29:15]This is a workout.

[00:30:13]Heat. Heat.

[00:30:40]>> [music] >> Heat.

[00:30:56]Heat.

[00:31:08]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> I can hear [music] it.

[00:32:20][music] Heat. Heat. N.

[00:32:27][music] >> [music] [music] >> Yeah.

[00:32:53][music] Yeah.

[00:32:58]Heat. Heat. N.

[00:33:00][music] [music] Heat. Heat. N.

[00:33:21][music] [music] >> [music] [music] >> Hey, [music] [music] hey, hey.

[00:34:04]Heat. Heat. N.

[00:34:12][music] Honey, [music] [music] [music] I feel you.