Hi from Oman!

Discussion in 'Introduce Yourself Here' started by Shawichick, Feb 20, 2018.

  1. Shawichick

    Shawichick New Member

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    Hi there!
    We live in Oman on a small 2 acre farm in a small village in the interior of the country. It's super hot and dry here in the summer and pleasantly warm in the winter. Water and soil conservation are an obsession of mine and Ive been doing a lot of reading and research on permaculture. I love the holistic approach the capacity building that goes beyond just simple sustainability and how clean and unadulterated it all is!!

    Growing anything here is a challenge and super hard work but so rewarding when you eventually get it right. Currently we have over 40 date palms, a bit of veg and some fodder going. We also have a bunch of chickens, 4 goats, 2 sheep, innumerable stinky pigeons ( my husbands not mine! ) a gaggle of ducks and a pair of dogs. I pretty much suck at making the most of my livestock as I haven't been able to slaughter any yet. I just can't do it! So for now we have great eggs and milk....maybe one day I'll be strong enough....until then I'll stick to manure and milk!

    Im also really keen on growing natives and using native plants for healing and food. I reckon with climate change and our current climate, natives would be the best to survive our climate.

    Annual rainfall - abt 100mm a year ( if we're really really lucky)
    Avg summer temp: 50 C +++
    Avg winter temp: 18 C ( although the nights can drop to about 10C)
    No frost
     
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  2. 9anda1f

    9anda1f Administrator Staff Member

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    Welcome Shawichick,
    Eggs, milk, and manure are excellent outputs!
    I have wild pigeons here ... what (other than manure) do your pigeons offer to your farm? I've heard of squab for food.
     
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  3. Shawichick

    Shawichick New Member

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    Hi Bill,
    Yes, we do occasionally eat them but mostly we breed and sell them at the local livestock market. Certain breeds of pigeons/ doves are highly sought after here. they're a popular pet especially for young boys. As they are low cost(feed, housing etc), easy to manage and prolific breeders & manure producers, they provide us with a bit of extra cash without too much hassle.

    Ive had a quick look at your website and am intrigued by the types of trees you're growing. I assume your winters are cool ?
     
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  4. 9anda1f

    9anda1f Administrator Staff Member

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    Yes, actually quite cold winters in the past (-20F), although recently much warmer (closer to zero F). The cold winters make tree species selection difficult, and although we've accumulated a few favorites, we're always experimenting with new species to fill-in the gaps and aide in our micro-climate building efforts.
     
  5. Grace Pignatello

    Grace Pignatello Member

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    Welcome Shawichick!
    Thank you for sharing.
    Killing animals is very hard. The eggs and milk are great. I
    wonder if I could kill them at the end of their life.
    Hopefully I can install gutters this year to collect the roof run off. Do you have any tips for a water collecting beginnger
    Thanks!
    Grace
     
  6. songbird

    songbird Senior Member

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    pigeons are also good for collecting things for you and bringing them
    home and giving fertilizer in return. so they are worth it if you can
    keep them. :)

    i think so much is possible to reforest or at least get hardy grasses
    going again in almost any location in the world. it just takes people
    who will do it and then keep livestock from over-grazing after it
    gets going.

    good luck and welcome to the forums. :)
     
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  7. Shawichick

    Shawichick New Member

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    Hi Grace and Songbird,
    Thanks for the warm welcome. Grace, we collect and store water in a couple of ways at the moment. Still learning as we go along. We don't get much rain but when it does rain it buckets down causing flash floods sp we have built a large swale approx 18m long x 3m wide x 3m deep. The reason its so deep is because we are located on the side of the mountain and the ground is pretty rocky. the rain takes a while to sink in and I don't want to lose any of it. We've also dug a couple of smaller "sinkholes" filled with large rocks that will collect the rain and let it sink down faster. Evaporation is my biggest challenge!

    All our buildings have gutters and rainbarrels which also collect water
    Our air conditioner condensor water/ run off is also collected in a rain barrel and used to irrigate in the summer when we need the extra water. it works our really well!
    My trees are irrigated using something similar to ulla pot just larger and supplemented with a dash of drip in the summer. Our drip lines drip into drilled pvc pipes hammered into the ground so there is never water on the actual ground. We try to make sure that every drop get to the roots.
    This winter I experimented with a bit of dew carchment and it looks promising.We get quote a bit of dew in the winter months. Nothing exciting yet, just a couple of ml each day, but a great part of my learning curve and next winter I'm hoping to up scale my technique.
    We'll also be planting some larger windbreak trees in the fall ( no point now, the summer will just kill them) and that should also help reduce evaporation.

    So basically Im not "catching" that much water at the moment but I'm making sure what I do have is being fully utilized and hidden from the sun and drying winds.
     
  8. Grace Pignatello

    Grace Pignatello Member

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    Thank you Shawichick for the great info! You are doing great work. It never hurts to try everything. Permaculture teaches us this and allows us to push the limits and to go beyond.
     

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