inveniam viam

I won't be able to buy property until I'm out of school, but I should graduate in December of this year. There's several pieces of property I'm looking at, and the one on the top of my list is hilly.

I like hilly for dealing with extreme rains. A flat field will be flooded; a terraced field will drain. If it's dry, you have to water both.

So this morning I was thinking about terracing. One that's appealing for both it's low cost and low tech is cribbing.

This is actually one of the best pics I could find:


Except I'd probably use untreated cedar logs. The "boxs" are filled with dirt until only the front is visible -- finished, it looks like this:


Edit: I've been looking for products that will last a long time buried. Cedar logs should last about 29-30 years. But. PVC will last 100 years. So, pvc pipe filled with sand and with holes drilled every so often for drainage. That should do.

Edit #2: Since Mike really doesn't like the idea of using wood and maybe redoing the terraces every 20 yrs, another option, perhaps a better option, would be poured concrete treated with a non-toxic concrete sealer like Green Building Supply, Penetrating Concrete Sealer. For this project, we'd probably go with a cement/sand/stone volume mix of 1:1½:3. As long as the cement "logs" aren't damaged, they should last a pre' long time. We'd use concrete forms that would look something like Lincoln Logs, and we'd need a small concrete mixer. I can see how we'd do it -- working on site, pour four forms on day one, next day, strip the forms, set the new "logs" on some 2X4s to cure, pour four more. Next day is a repeat of day two, but we'd also be painting the top of the first set will the sealer. Next day, same as previous day, but flip the first set over and paint the bottom of those with the sealer. So each "log" would take 4 days to complete. I figure we'd make them 10'X½'X½.

I just had a thought: would we work from the bottom of the hill up, or from the top, down? Huh.

Here's a map of the land I'm looking at. This is an 80 acre parcel. It consists of two hills with a saddle of swampy ground in between. The northwest corner is at about 46.565295, -87.8385602 and the southeast corner is at around 46.558049, -87.8349354


I'm thinking we'd grow on the south side of the north hill, and on the flat area on the south hilltop. Or something like that.

I have to have something to think about, to plan with, or I'll go a bit crazy. As soon as my tuition is paid (soon!) I'll start saving a hefty amount every month for the down payment. So we'll see if this one is still available in eight months...