PV Gap

Terry Said:

Are ducks and chickens in my garden useful?

We Answered:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;…

normal chickens and normal ducks will destroy your garden
the chickens scratch and all the upcoming little plant litelary
hit the dust

Duck work like ninature ploughs doing maximum damage ,especially if the ground is moist ,they work with their beaks like hoes

Hoever Ducks contained in a pond provide a lot of fish food

Chickens that are contained can be used to clear land in a chicken tractor (a moveble corral ) other wise should be in a lagre fixed enclosure away from the vegies ,but above them in elevation ,and with land scaping you can lead the rain water into the veggie patch so that the chickens work at least as fretilizing agents ,every time it rains ,

Ok
there are many animals that can be used walking about free amongst you garden with out damage and a lot of benefit such as pest control and fertilization

the best are ,Chooks (chicckens with feathers on their feet,Partridge ,Guinny fowel ,My Favorite Silkeys and Bantam chickens ,these are small chickens that run about and chase anything that moves ,they go all over the garden fretilize and catch 70 % of all garden pests that walk jump or land

there is also a miniature white duck which does not do a lot of damage and they are the top expert in getting rid of snails their favorit food .

Breed these little ducks and chickens and sell them to other gardeners everybody that has them is delighted with the results

the danger to them is cats and other predators and they need a dormitory to sleep in a closed chicken house with staggered pols to roost on (staggered like a staircase so thy dont poop on each others head )
,everyday they will return in the late afternoon ,
some body must close the door after them ,

And in the morning they will rouse you to open the door so that they can go to work .

And all i can say is that i am impressed with all you have done so far

buy the The Permaculture designers manual by Bill Mollison,which cost about 40 dollars.
and is the best all round book you can get,on Environmental design,.(tagiari publishing, tagariadmin@southcom.com.au)

you will find some good ideas in there with drawings and instructions

think of everything that looks like a pole (trees ,fence posts ,fencing wire )as structures to be utilized for growing something on such as beans tomatoes vines etc,
Make all your path ways first so that you have a design and make the high and dry so that they drain to the sides this will result in you plots becoming like sunken bokes ,easy to mulch and retaining a lot of himidity
road high and dry
plots low and wet

nice structure easy and quick to put up for tomatoe and beans are tipis without material just the posts with cross bars

Ooops i am deviating again

Clarence Said:

best and cheapest way to heat a Swimming pool on a tight budget?

We Answered:

No other solution involving burning some kind of fuel will be anywhere near as cheap as solar to operate. I should think that in Southern Spain solar would work well - all you need is a large enough set of solar heaters.

You should be able to run the solar system from your current pump.

If you don't already have one, you should also get a solar cover for your pool so that you do not lose the heat overnight. This will help regardless of what you use to heat the pool.

Ralph Said:

Do ground source heat pumps work as well in the desert as other places?

We Answered:

Yes, they are effective in the desert, but are not widely used due to the expense of installing them in what tends to be exceptionally difficult soils to break through. Unlike another answerer says, the 2-meter (6 feet) rule is NOT global, and the desert regions often need to be excavated 10 or more meters (30-ish feet). So...if a house is to use a ground source heat pump, the ground loop usually has to be installed at the same time the dirt work for the foundation is being done (or, in your case, when the pool was excavated), because you will need to use the same heavy equipment to break the caliche layer...and god forbid the cost of excavating if you have baserock near the surface.

As for your pool, heating it in winter would be much cheaper and faster done by passive solar. There should be lots of services in the Palm Springs area that can do this for you. Also, look into pool covers or even pool rings, which can keep the pool a few degrees warmer.

Cooling is trickier, but there are a couple simple evaporative cooling methods. The simple and cheape way is large, low speed fans blowing over the surface 24/7, good for several degrees. If you have money to burn, then water walls or fountains that simply flow and pour the water through the air and recirculate the pool: these cost a lot to install, use a lot of electricity, need much more maintenance, don't cool any more than fans, but provide ambiance and beauty. After that, you move to standard heat pumps (remember a heat pump is nothing but a reversible A/C), which basically means refrigerator coils running throughout your pool plumbing or built into the pool walls -- the costs are astonomical, both upfront and throughout the lifecycle.