ᎣᏏᏲ ᏂᎦᏓ! Osiyo nigada! Hello everyone!

[ᏩᏯᏩᏯ]

ᎣᏏᏲ ᏂᎦᏓ!

I am a new convert to "the way".

I am a computer programmer who is about to end up on a farm that will be converted into an orchard type setup. Swales are definitely in order.

Hard clay....

[eco4560]

Welcome! There's plenty of swale info hiding in the archives here. There's also some discussion at present about hugelkultur as an alternative option. If you have clay and plenty of dead trees it might be a better option than digging swales.

[ᏩᏯᏩᏯ]

Nope, existing trees and pioneer "weeds" all look health. I am warm temperate so as soon as the paperwork is final and I get the time (after moving, etc), swales to capture winter rain is (in my mind) the highest priority, though my landlord may have other higher priorities from time to time.

Because of my work scheduling, etc, I have been trying to decipher the different online course offerings... trying to figure out which one(s) would result in a properly recognized certificate that can later (after appropriate field work) be converted into a full diploma.

My perusing the forums here has left me uncertain on that.

[Michaelangelica]

Welcome
Clay is a good start to building soil. It is easy to break up with gypsum an LOTs of organic matter.

[isabear]

ᎣᏏᏲ ᏩᏯᏩᏯ!
Wow, Tsalagi speaking permies! Now there's two of us! Funny, I just left your neck of the woods! (Milledgeville).
Hey, as far as classes go, you might keep an eye on koinoniapartners.org or Brandi Hall up in ATL (http://shadesofgreeninc.org/) , Koinonia does PDC's once a year, (and I HIGHLY recommend taking the two weeks and joining in-it's WAY more than just a class) and Brandi's doing one that I think is one weekend a month over 6 months...I would NOT recommend an on line class...SOOOO much of what goes on in the classes is not translatable to a computer...it's sort of the antithesis. It's all about hands on, and people to people info...not just the cold hard info.

We were teaching and farming (and our farm's for sale if you know anyone interested)...
and if you need some permie advice specific to that area, I can link u up with my sweetie...he's a master plant man and permie.
Are you on the Tsalagi group on FB?

ᏗᎯ,
ᎢᏌ ᏲᎾ