u/Main_Bid8104

Hi I am going to try again: Has anyone used IBC totes as temporary portable cisterns? We are trying to establish brush islands in a larger pasture to create permanent habitat for songbirds etc. The pastures get rotationally grazed but the whole area (8acres) is too large for small birds to safely traverse. We are trying to simulate a natural prairie/brush land landscape that used to exist where we live. We have a summer drought of about 100 days and need to get plantings thru the first summer(s). All natives so eventually they should be fine- it's just getting harder to establish stuff with higher temps, more wind, less rain. Question:

Has anyone done this sort of thing? We can easily fill the totes with water during our wet winter month with rain catchment but I am wondering how feasible this is. Is there a problem with algae growth etc. Planning on using tree drip bags and other slow release systems to water the plantings - ideally just trudge our there once a week to water stuff. It's too far away from hoses and pond to run permanent irrigation. My math says two IBC totes could suffice for aproximatly 600 sqft of brush island.

I am not really looking for general advice on my plan- we worked with some experts from soil and water conservation on the layout but they had no working experience with this- so i am looking for practical experiences anyone might have with irrigation from water stores.

I have had to recognize the simple fact that silvopasture won't work without a lot of fencing if you have goats. It just won't, I can show you a few girdled trees to prove my point. Now I am trying to design around this by creating "habitat islands" rougly 10mx10m fenced areas with assorted plantings (hazelnut, elderberry, gooseberry and currants with some ground cover/ green mulch.

We farm an old christmas tree farm with our goats and the soil is still recovering from many years of agressive spraying. The large pasture that we created where the trees used to be feels too big and barren and makes it difficult for small songbirds etc to traverse without being picked off by hawks and the like. Creating "stepping stones" across the pasture with these islands will create eventual shade for the goats and habitat for wild life. We have hot and dry summers- an easy 100 days without rain in our "new hot summers". I am planning to establish the islands with IBC totes placed into or next to the fenced areas that will fill (with the help of tarps) during the rainy season. According to my math I may be able to grow quite a few things and get them through the summer with the IBC tanks as water source.

Has anyone tried something like this?

Had this bag of "winter lamb wool". If you haven't seen the movie Sheep detectives- doit doit doit.

https://preview.redd.it/skuf0rh5nz0h1.jpg?width=4284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=09c542093684670415e7fe5b176b3ff1c4f78432

I saw some elderberry tints in someones lip balm but elderberry and red beet just do not disperse in oil base. Anyone have sucess with a true natural tint?

I have been a little irritated w Burt's Bees- the ethos of down to earth crunch vs the being owned by clorox and their slow ingredient shift.

They moved to cheaper oils in the ingredient label - soy and canoloa are now listed

The "99%" natural label is just screaming "what's in the 1%" to me.

Then the addition of hexyl ciniamal - a potent allergen in their product - and the limonene another ingredient that can cause so much trouble for sensitive folks its on the EU "mandatory allergen declare" list.

So lots of ingredient shifts that don't make a product better, they make it cheaper but then i saw that they switched to recyclable packaging. Or did they. It was on their website at least and a friend send me a pic of one but I have never seen any in the wiild. They have a huge multiplyer when they sell 10 million balms a year or more so a shift to cardboard tubes would be a big move. It wouls also require them to increase the fill content by almost 100% - the cardboard tubes are 8g vs the standard lip balm tube is just 4g and I cannot really see them doing that without raising the price. Anyone out there seen one?