living on a slope: the ups and downs of marginal land

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SLOPE

Let's think first about the slope of the land and how it will affect your life. Obviously, the less grade the better: You'll spend a lot of your time walking up and down, which can be a drag (particularly in wet, muddy weather). Still, that activity does put you in shape and you'll notice the hills less the longer you live on such a homestead.

Another disadvantage to a slope is that—unless you own a fourwheel-drive vehicle—you'll have limited access to the steeper portions when you're hauling construction materials, manure, firewood or anything else that's heavy and bulky. It's possible to pull some building supplies and logs fairly easily, downhill, but not up.

One way to get manure to gardens and orchards, and fir, wood to houses, is to rig up a cart or trailer which can be lowered with a strong rope or cable attached to a trucks on your road. We've also used trams and slides with success. Just be sure you have plenty of access for motor transport, and that most of your acreage is below the road.

Of course, a four-wheel-drive vehicle solves those problems for most of the year. The best strategy is to make sure you've got enough enough money left over to buy one after you've bought the land!

WATER

Flatland folks usually have to pump the water they use for irrigation and in their homes from wells or some abovegroud source. This entails the initial expense of the necessary machinery plus its maintenance and the cost of the energy to run it. People on marginal property, however, can make use of inexpensive, pollution-free gravity-flow supplies.

Near the top of the slope on our place we have a small dam which collects water and empties it into a 600-gallon storage tank located just below the dam and off to the side. At the bottom of this reinforced concrete reservoir (cost of construction tion: only $50.00) are outlet pipes that distribute the water to several buildings and to our garden and orchard.

Some friends of ours a few miles away live on sloping land with a sizable creek. Since they have no need to store water, their pipes for irrigation and home use are simply placed in the stream at the top of their property. (Of course, surface water must always be checked for contamination before it's used for drinking and bathing.)

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