And we return to the PDC material with Water, including how to harvest, store, treat, use, and conserve it.  As this is a topic includes numerous techniques, to help round that out are links to many of the points covered in the show for additional reading and follow up. Early on, I mentioned some percentages that add up to more than 100%.  I blame that fully on my brain and a rounding error when putting the show together. Also, the word research comes up again and again and again in this episode.  Given the breadth of Permaculture, the bioregions we work in, and the variety of techniques we can use, the amount of information is encyclopedic.  Use the information contained within as a place to jump off from to find ideas that go with your observations and are applicable to that situation. Swales: www.doeni.gov.uk/niea/swaleguid.pdf Spreader Banks: https://www.southwestnrm.org.au/sites/default/files/uploads/ihub/study-tour-pondingwater spreading1994.pdf Tied Ridging: https://www.farmingsolutions.org/successtories/stories.asp?id=107 https://www.africanexecutive.com/modules/magazine/articles.php?article=4105 Micro-Catchment https://www.sci.sdsu.edu/SERG/techniques/microcatch.pdf https://www.ecocomposite.org/restoration/microcatch.htm FlowForms https://www.nationalwatercenter.org/flowforms.htm Constructed Wetlands: www.epa.gov/owow/wetlands/pdf/hand.pdf www.deq.state.ok.us/factsheets/local/wetlands.pdf Sand Filter: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BioSand_Filter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_sand_filter Joe Jenkins: The Humanure Handbook

And so begins the information that one could learn in a PDC.  This is a little late in the series of information, as it deals with animals, but I'll work my way back around to the beginning with the next show.  I wanted to wrap up Tony's question about animals and it was as good a place as any to start the discussion of a PDC. When looking at animals, there are 6 areas I look for how and what is necessary to include them.  They are:

• Need and Requirements
• Yields
• Placment in a System
• Forage and Grazing Systems
• Forage Species
• Fencing Requirements.

The first three are ones that you should be able to find plenty of information on your own about through a variety of sources.  It is the last three that are more tricky if you have not handled animals and livestock before.  Here are some resources to look to for more information, this is by no means an exhaustive list, but something to get you started.

Forage and Grazing Systems:

Grazing System Planning Guid

Multi-Species Grazing

Forage Species: Forage Information System (Oregon State)

Forage Species Identification

Fencing Requirements: Estimated Cost for Livestock Fencing (PDF)

Fencing for Exclusion

Fencing Materials for Livestock Systems

And I mentioned Doug Fine's Farewell, My Subaru, which I highly recommend as an entertaining read about one person's quest to live a more self-sufficient sustainable life