Harvesting Water DVD - quick review

Discussion in 'Designing, building, making and powering your life' started by gbell, Sep 13, 2008.

  1. gbell

    gbell Junior Member

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    I've just finished viewing Geoff's Harvesting Water the Permaculture Way DVD and its excellent. If you've ever wished you could bottle your favourite PC teachers, this DVD is your dream come true.

    The DVD is not organised in a methodic, instructional way, but is instead a brief documentary following Geoff around as he designs a dam, swale, and spillway for a client in Australia. I've had lots of questions about designing landscape for water. I've done a bit of reading, and have bothered Darren D in person a few times, but watching the process from start to finish really cleared up a lot of the concepts. Geoff's pace is relaxed, and you think he's not explaining things rapidly enough to fit it all, but by the end of the DVD you realise just how much has been explained.

    I really appreciated how Geoff doesn't just show up and pull a "guru" on everything - wisely discerning subtleties of the site and telling everyone what's what. He may be able to with his experience, but instead he thinks, asks lots of questions, looks, asks more questions. He's even wrong once or twice. But he doesn't worry about it and just slowly absorbs the details of the site, leading him to understand it at a level that allows him to execute an excellent design.

    The DVD is professionally produced, and injects useful graphics at appropriate times to explain with pictures some of the things Geoff is explaining verbally.

    Extras on the DVD include Geoff describing some projects as we view photos of them (very informative), a interview with Geoff, and some more of the Greening the Desert story.

    I'm not sure if Geoff would cringe, or if this was intended, but after viewing this DVD a few times, you might feel confident enough to get out and actually design a water harvesting system on your own land.

    My only criticism of the DVD is I still have some questions. What's the name of the tool Geoff sights through to get rough ideas of levels? Since the level spillway length is only a fraction of the feeding swale length, isn't the water speed during spillover a big erosion problem? What do you do if you do end up at shale or sand as you dig your dam?

    All and all, highly recommended.
     
  2. SueinWA

    SueinWA Junior Member

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    Re: Harvesting Water DVD - quick review

    Here, I think it's called a transit, if it's on a tripod. Just guessing...

    Sue
     
  3. Mrs Parker-Bowles

    Mrs Parker-Bowles Junior Member

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    Re: Harvesting Water DVD - quick review

    Hi Gbell,

    The tool is called a Hand Level.

    Hope it helps.
     
  4. milifestyle

    milifestyle New Member

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    Re: Harvesting Water DVD - quick review

    I haven't seen the DVD but it sounds like a "lazer level" or a "dumpy level".

    Search for the terms in google and see if the images are similar.
     
  5. bazman

    bazman Junior Member

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    Re: Harvesting Water DVD - quick review

    The hand held levels are called "farmers levels" and should be available at good produce/hardware stores, these are good to quickly set up and get a good idea of where the contours are, helpful if you are keyline ripping by eye, you can jump off your tractor and quickly check your staying close to contour.
     
  6. Frank

    Frank Junior Member

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    Re: Harvesting Water DVD - quick review

    [​IMG]

    Hi GBell - Thanks for the great review. (We made that DVD and your cheque is in the mail! :lol: ) Geoff Lawton referred to it as a "sight level" and it's small enough to fit in your top shirt pocket. The image above is not quite the same thing but its almost similar square-shaped and acts like a low powered telescope. The "Dumpy Level" is an Australian Term. The same instrument is called a "Transit Level" in the United States. Both the Laser Level and the Dumpy Level are covered in the DVD. Geoff mentioned he wanted the DVD to be used as a study guide for students who had trouble seeing the contours in the landscape and understanding "Harvesting Water" techniques as taught in the PDC. Geoff reckons that a lot of students have trouble seeing the patterns in a landscape with the naked eye when they are immersed in it - but readily identify the forms on a TV set! The same thing happened to me when we were shooting the "Food Forest DVD" We were standing in Bill Mollisons wild Forest and Geoff is picking out all the variety of fruit trees. All I'm seeing is a tangle of dense shrubs, trees etc. Food is hanging in front of me and I couldn't see it until it was pointing out . Just goes to show - we spend too much time looking at a computer screen!

    Look forward to your next DVD review.
    Cheers
    Frank
     
  7. gbell

    gbell Junior Member

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    Re: Harvesting Water DVD - quick review

    "Hand level" - that's it! Note to DIY'ers - if you have a compass with a mirror and an inclinometer, you can use it like a hand level. Basically you sight along the edge of the compass (maybe through a drinking straw to improve accuracy) and you simultaneously view your inclinometer in the mirror, keeping it at '0'.
     
  8. ho-hum

    ho-hum New Member

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    Re: Harvesting Water DVD - quick review

    gbell, you have made a very good belated commercial point. Get the DVD.

    Now, I can capture a jar of water. How do I capture a backhoe, bobcat, excavator, d8, a few trucks a theodolite and a chainman/surveyor??

    What if we can only capture a jar of water??
     
  9. milifestyle

    milifestyle New Member

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    Re: Harvesting Water DVD - quick review

    The worlds most misunderstood word... NETWORK - Its not what you know, its who you know... :wink:
     
  10. DJ-Studd

    DJ-Studd Junior Member

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    Re: Harvesting Water DVD - quick review

    I really must say that both the Harvesting Water and the Food Forest DVDs are amazing. I cannot wait for the next video in the series.

    Cheers
     
  11. Ojo

    Ojo Junior Member

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    Re: Harvesting Water DVD - quick review

    We call them dumpy levels too, I've worked for a number of surveyors and CEs and never heard the term "transit level" used. We either used a transit or a level, but mostly the total station.
    _________________________________________________________________________


    The transit and theodolite are used by the surveyor to measure both horizontal and vertical angles.

    The surveyor uses a level to determine elevations.

    Dumpy levels were developed in England in 1720 by Jonathon Sisson and introduced to America by William Gravatt

    https://www.accidentsurveys.com/Surveyors.html
    https://www.surveyhistory.org/the_survey ... _tools.htm
     

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