Desert homesteading?

Any update Loquisimo?



Oh and Phil.... not all parts of AZ are as "brutal"... mostly it's in the middle where it's low/subtropical desert. Extreme north or south has a milder climate and more rain... and the "high" heat doesn't last as long. Plus people do adapt and learn to stay out of the high heat/sun times too.

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Sounds like the deer in Wisconsin!

cold creek nv is beautiful

I live in Reno. We are high mountain dessert. Dry but cool. we had a couple of months with temps in the 90's one day that got over 100 this year and that was only for a few minutes. The nights will drop down into the high 50's all the way through summer. I got over 400 lbs of tomatoes from 32 plants this year. They grow melons in Fernly 30 minutes east of here. Garlic near Pyramid Lake north east of here. Lovelock is another 30 minutes east of Fernly and Pyramid Lake.

We have a short growing season so you have to know how to cheat. start things indoors early etc. We not yet had our first frost for this year although we are in the window that it could happen any night.

This is not a Hot dessert. It is dry. how to handle water is important. the best mulch I have found is rocks. We water every day. and the air just keeps sucking it right back up.
You have to watch your exposure to the sun as well. We are high altitude, thin air the sun will burn you badly in just 2 hours. I see far more people with serious sunburn than I do with heat problems.

Nevada has a better tax system than California.

Beware of the the desert regions if you are moving from back east. I have seen many people move out west and buy dry ground because it is so cheap. The thought of water never crosses their mind more than "oh it has a well". The reality is that it would take several acres to support one goat, a cow in my area on dry ground needs 4-10 acres per month to be sustainable. If you overstock on desert ground it will turn to dust and will take years to come back. Irrigation is the way to turn this around but water rights are very expensive and you can't just drill a well and irrigate with it. So if one thinks of moving out west to homestead think a section of ground.

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We live in southern AZ on a semi-suburban acre. Nothing like homesteading, but a couple of observations. Even container veggies take a LOT of water, the plant itself sucks the soil dry even with several total soakings a day, like watering until a couple inches is standing on the surface. The sun intensity is brutal mid-summer so that plus the basic heat will make things like tomatoes stop setting fruit by July and have a lot of trouble resuming if you bother to keep them alive. Shade cloth helps some but it's still a constant battle. Hot peppers, oriental eggplant, and okra seem to be the only things I can really take advantage of a long season with (those are still growing and fruiting right now), with productive but rather short seasons for summer squash and tomatoes. Corn takes too much soil and water in containers, and basic pole beans stop setting pods quickly in the heat. Of course, some micro-climates might do well for some things I can't get going, but don't make assumptions. Mesquite pod flour is technically usable but not interchangeable with wheat flour, it's much sweeter and is more for flatbread or frybread even with a lot of wheat flour added, plus has to have the seeds separated after grinding.

And as mentioned, beware the prevalence of predators. They're mostly nocturnal so you might not be aware of them with daytime visits. 'Yotes, bobcats, owls. Then in-ground garden pests like javalina, packrats, rabbits, and several types of ground squirrels. I'm sure this is quite different here than north in Nevada, but just for reference now that the thread in general has been bumped...

Oh, and from Phoenix south plus over into California, a lot of dusty areas will expose you to "Valley Fever," coccidioidomycosis, a fungal disease that can be very bad for newcomer adults getting exposed for the first time. Dogs can get it, too, and need lifelong medication.

We have a small homestead near Phoenix.....good and bad about all of it. Completely different style of homesteading than most of you have. If you had to rely on rainfall only to feed a animal it would as I saw someone else say take 3 acres to feed a goat, likely 20 acres to feed a single cow. Water is where its at here and what makes it really doable without having to have 100's of acres. Here in the Phoenix valley most ranches and homesteads have access to Salt River Project irrigation water. Through a series of lakes, canals, and ditches the runoff from the snows of northern AZ are channeled down to phoenix for use in farming. Its very reasonably priced and we have been very pleased with it.

The good news about homesteading in the low desert is that its a 365 day a year growing environment. Few places can say that. Most look at our soil and say it cant grow much but its actually very productive with the addition on nitrogen. Being that it rarely freezes here we can have most all the varieties of fruit trees that you guys have in the north along with lots of tropicals like bananas, loquat, mango, etc. We have 20 different varieties here with a really nice mix of tropical and sub tropical.

Yep its hot. Hot used to keep the idiots out. AIr conditioning changed that and now the place is being invaded by the Californians. Wouldnt be so bad but they bring thier retarded politics with them

The area from Lovelock to Elko are actually richer in water than you might think. The Humboldt river runs through that region, providing good groundwater. The water is pretty deep, normally 125 to 150 feet, but there's lots of it.

That area is also in the Great Basin, which is a geological region with no water outlet. Any rain that falls in the Great Basin stays in the Great Basin.

I homesteaded about 10 miles east of Elko, although I didn't farm outside of planting a few apple trees. Most people ranch in that area, and those who farm around Elko are mostly raising hay for ranchers.

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I love AZ, visited the brutal and the not brutal many times... worked six months as a ranger, at the bottom of the Grand Canyon... where it was 117 in the shade. A days hike north, you could get to the N rim and there'd be snow on the ground. Also trekked thru the Mogollon Rim area...

I know many spots I could move to, in AZ... in a heartbeat. I'd always worry about water though.

Of course, I'm sitting here in the 'wet part' of Texas, and I'm worrying about water.

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..................It is my understanding that LVegas is actively pursuing those subsurface fresh water reservoirs in the northern part of nevada with a passion ! The program on PBS didn't hold much hope that the local ranching , farming and small towns would beable too prevent Vegas from effectively stealing their only source of potable water . , fordy

I don't think it could happen under existing laws, but I'm confident that the political muscle in Las Vegas can change the law eventually. For now that issue has been stricken and Lake Mead is on the rise again. I don't thing we'll hear about it any time soon.

But the Great Basin is a prolific source of water. I think a huge amount can be removed in a sustainable manner.

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