I have a 25 acre tract of sadly abused central Texas land that's more than half a mile long and very narrow on the western end, which ends at a small seasonal creek. It has a wide range of soils ranging from sandy loam over red clay on the high, eastern end to silt/black clay on the western end. According to the old timers who've been in the area for 50+ years, cotton and corn were grown on the land for many years on the upland sandy loam, and the creek bottom land was in coastal Bermuda grass. After the farmer died, the heirs leased the land to tenants who over-grazed the bottom land and killed all the grass. The upland sandy loam was mostly left alone and has grown a crop of mesquite, prickly ash, hackberry, and juniper. Most people around here hate the mesquite and do whatever they can to kill them, including bull-dozing and poisoning them. There is a common belief that mesquite trees "suck" water away from all the other plants. I have seen no evidence of this; to the contrary, the mesquite trees can send their roots down pretty deep to follow the water, and at night their leaves drip moisture. The most amazing crops of weeds will grow under mesquite trees, even during severe droughts when few weeds survive outside the mesquite trees' service area. Mesquites are nitrogen-fixing legumes. As if that weren't enough, they also produce beans with a very sweet pulp that can be ground into delicious, high-protein flour; they also produce a lot of BTU's when burned as firewood. I like to include some mesquite branches when I'm getting fire going, because they add so much heat. Although I'm still working on an overall design for the site, I already know where is the best place for houses. The main weather-related discomfort in my area is the heat of high summer, late June through mid-Septermber. There is a place on the land that always has a good breeze, toward the top of a hill, but not all the way at the top. I've never known the afternoon breeze to fail, it's like being on the coast. I believe it's due to the shape of the land to the south-east of me, which is the direction from which the wind blows in summer. This is where the old farm house is located (not worth salvaging as a whole, but there's some good lumber and stone that can be re-used), and this is where I have my current house. My current house is a delapidated mobile home I bought for $800, gutted, and am completely re-doing the inside using lumber from the old house and other scrounged and beautiful materials. I'm only at the land three days a week and was having terrible problems with rats and mice getting between the walls, chewing up wiring and generally making a mess and even getting into the house and chewing up rugs and so forth. Very destructive little creatures. I didn't want to poison them, and I hate traps that sometimes maim but don't kill. So I built a pole barn around the mobile home. It provides shade so the mobile home stays relatively cool in summer; it provides a roof to catch rainwater; I can put greenhouse plastic on the north side in winter to keep out the cold wind. But the best thing is that I put wire on the outside of the pole barn and keep cats inside it, half of whom are polydactyl which (I believe, having watched them in action) makes them better at catching rodents. Many dung beetles moved in to take care of the cat poop, and I've seen no sign of rodents in or near my home, or for that matter unpleasant bugs. Fortunately, I am also very fond of cats and very much like to sit in front of a fire with a purring cat on my lap. I'm going to try to attach a photo of the rodent filter. Hmm ... it looks as though I have to post the image online somewhere first and then link to it. OK, hang on, I'll upload it to my blog and see if I can move it from there to here.
There have been previous discussions here about whether you can justify the use of cats in a permaculture system. And you my friend - have done just that! Well done.
