Fascinating! Please keep us updated!
I hear comfrey is a good plant for livestock fodder, and it certainly grows everywhere, as well as having medicinal properties. Are you planning to use it?
What other plants are you thinking of?

I am planning on using comfrey and a long list of different plant varieties. The garden will have many zones and elements, but currently I'm planning on chicken coops and a run, grape arbors, citrus trees, fig trees (for the shady borders), fruit trees, olive trees, blackberries, a number of different herbs, various heirloom veggies, and plants (like sweet alyssum) that attract predator bugs. Also, there will probably also be a small pond to raise tilapia. There will be three sheds and a small barn. Electricity will be brought to the property within the next two weeks, and a well will be drilled (about 180' down) within a month.

How exciting! Starting from something like scratch with funding. Tell us all about it. I am particularly interested in the wind-powered water pump. How does that work? Are you going to build it or buy it?
Many happy and productive adventures!

Jib

I'm buying a reconditioned antique windmill from:

http://www.windmills.net/

With the wind profile of my area and and a well depth of about 180', you're looking at about 200 gph of water.

The well is being drilled this week.

The wells have now been drilled. One is 300 feet deep, the other was only 50' from the first but required only a 200 foot hole. Groundwater flows in unpredictable ways. Anyway, lots of fresh clean water with a static level about 90' down the pipes. One well has an electric pump and the other will be used for the windmill.

I planted a few figs around the shady border of the clearing. Comfrey is also being planted around the border next week.

The red wattle hogs had young three weeks ago. The thing hanging on their neck is the 'wattle,' and the 'red' part of their name has an obvious origin. Beautiful, fat little piglets:

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Aww, what cuties! I love baby animals!

Still working on the basic infrastructure for the garden; water lines, sheds, windmill, etc. I'll post pics in a couple of days. But for now, here are some pics from yesterday evening showing my Gulf Coast native sheep (with surprisingly colored lamb)and pineywoods cattle.

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Too cool! Looks like good progress.

thats gorgeous. great work.

need any WOOFers?

What are WOOFers? Dogs? The bass speaker for a stereo? Either way, thanks, but I don't need any. (I've got six dogs.)

Anyway,the work continues. Poured the concrete slabs for the windmill (requires a 5' deep, 18" diameter piling at each corner), chicken breeder pens, and two sheds. The used windmill arrived in dismantled condition two days ago. Will be trying to assemble it this week. It has plenty of character...if you like bullet holes in the sheet metal.

I also installed a two-line watering system for the garden: one for well water and another for water from my tilapia tanks. These will be used to irrigate the garden.

I've made a bit of a design breakthrough on growing tilapia in a more sustainable way. One of the high-energy aspects of intensive tilapia culture is running pumps for filter system. And, lots of fish require lots of filtering. Anyway, I've come up with a way of eliminating any filters for the tilapia tanks. Basically, the tanks are elevated a couple of feet off the ground. Every few hours, a timer activates a solenoid that opens a purge valve for a couple of minutes. The tilapia tanks dump about 25% of their water which is then routed to the garden to water the plants with the nutrient-laden waste water. There's an automatic refiller valve that then allows fresh water gravity fed from an elevated water tank (that is filled with the windmill) to refill the tilapia tank with clean water. This would happen four times a day, thus completely emptying and refilling the tank once a day. This will keep the water clear and clean and provide all the irrigation water (and much of the fertilizer) to the garden. I'll be building this system over the next couple of months.

The comfrey and figs are growing as is the livestock. One of my red wattle sows is pregnant and should be having a litter any day. The chicks I hatched this spring are starting to get big. The pens for the sheep and cattle have watering tanks with automatic refillers (I can highly recommend the Rubbermaid brand) and my days of carrying water are over. (Whew!) In North Florida, spring gives way to summer and the permaculture garden continues to take shape.

This is excellent stuff! There was a fish and basil farm in either Amherst or Sunderland MA when I was a UMass student. Fish waste was used to fertilize the basil. That was my first exposure to this sort of system, and I've been fascinated since.

Hello;

Can you tell me how you made the trash can aquarium for the tilapia? I am interested in growing them as a backyard project for eating. I know where to buy them, but not sure how to make the tank. Thanks for your help. Please emial me at rob1988@verizon.net. Thanks.

You can use a Rubbermaid cattle trough for a tilapia tank. They range in size from 50 to 300 gallons.