Bodhi Farms: Rebirth and Renewal and Rain!

The re-building has take time but Bodhi Farms has rebounded. We had some great help with our WWOOFers. We are adding a new greenhouse with a USDA Eqip grant. Our latest WWoofers had a great time building the infrastructure.

Picture above are Rachel, AJ, and Shea with a power pullup celebrating our success in getting a portion of the steel structure in place. We have begun a long term permaculture project, namely a series of settlement ponds to slow the water on our property. As the hail in July and the recent 12 inches of rain we received in the last 4 days, water management and water storage are crucial in the changing climate we face as farmers. I have begun the first of 30 or so settlement ponds along our arroyo.

This is going to be our winter permaculture project. I am really excited. This will anchor our permaculture food forest and hopefully we can even add trout to the ponds in time. The recent 1000 year flooding we experienced this week has really emphasized the importance of water management in our environment. In many ways the flooding we received in the last week was far worse than July but it only highlights the need to address the problem in a sustainable fashion.

We got over 12 inches of rain in less than 3 days. This is over half of our annual rainfall we would normally receive in Las Vegas, NM. I suspect this will be a regular occurrence – 1,000 year rain events at least once a year.