Metal Art by Horsefeathers, Holiday Seasonal Metal Art

It's that time of year were folks try to find that special something to add that finishing touch to their home or office decorations.

Check out the seasonal holiday items at Metal Art by Horsefeathers

Santa is there along with an angle and of course snow flakes.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Lava Rock used as a Filteration system in a Water collection system

Red Dome Inc. Lava (Foamed Obsidian) Used in Water Collection and Filtration Systems



Water Collection systems are old technologies in most of the world today. In areas of arid dry climates water harvesting practices are common. But for reasons that are unknown to me, harvesting rainwater, purifying that water are not practiced.
True most of us never give it a second thought as to where our water comes from. It’s just there at the end of the faucet when we go and turn on our tap. We expect it to be clean and clear, drinkable. When the day comes that for whatever reason it doesn’t magically appear when we turn on the tap some of us will go into “Panic Mode”.
I like most of my fellow Americans hate to be caught unprepared, I may though, take this as well as other things to the other extreme. Water in this area pits neighbor against neighbor, farmer against farmer, why? Because there isn’t enough to go around, this is mainly because farmers are ingrained in old farming practices. And aren’t willing to plant corps that are less water intensive such as grains like wheat, oats and barley, plant less water hogging corps such as corn and Alafia. The reason for this boils down to money and getting the maximum buck for the crop.
Trees in this area are viewed as undesirable because of the water they consume, sad isn’t it. The very thing that could help our farmers is the first thing they get rid of.
The past six years have been drier than normal, here in central Utah more specifically Millard County. Snowfalls in the mountains has been below normal, spring rains are the same. Fires have been common, in fact the largest Utah state fire happened in our county last year. The state tried to replant after the fire and went to great expense to do so many, many men worked day and night reseeding the burn area, but to no avail. Why? Because there wasn’t enough winter moisture to create and support the new plant growth, also interestingly enough the seeds that were chosen to plant were not the ones that nature would of chosen to restart the growth process in this burn area. The seeds that were chosen were grasses that cattle men wanted and needed to raise cattle, a variety that is less likely to brown up when it dries up. But that’s not the point here, “Nature” has a method, a step by step process to re-grow the burn areas, and man (aka over paid government tree huggers) in his inhalant wisdom feels he can skip these steps to speed up this process. What is this process? How does it connect to water harvesting?
In this dry desert area the first thing that grows in disturbed ground such as these burned areas are shade producing plants such as the black-eyed Susan, a tall thick stemmed plant that has a pretty yellow flower with a dark center, which the bees love. Funny thing about this plant is that they are only there for a couple years then they are gone. But it is more than enough time for the other plants such as sagebrush, ironwood, rabbit brush, etc. to start to take hold. True these aren’t the best feed for livestock, but they are what is needed to start the re-growth process. In the words of another man: “ What is best for nature isn’t always best for man, but its no use fighting nature because she will always win”.
Understanding Nature and working with her is always the best answer here but trying to force a rose to grow in an arid land where no rose has ever grown before is a fools efforts.
It is very true that the climate is warming up, and it is true that this has happened many times though out the course of time here on Earth. This was done in conjunction with cycles of cold and heat. Though many may argue that “Man” has done its fair share of damage, the least of which is pumping water from far below the surface, dropping our aquifers out of reach of the tree roots, (trees in of themselves are mini water pumps) killing those trees and collapsing micro climates around them. Nature seems to hates idealness, to her things need to change so she has created plants that do grow in their place, many of which considered to be undesirable by man. Lean waxy plants with thorns such as the Russian Olive are growing in areas never seen before. Cheat Grass aka June Grass is taking over also because they mature in a short time and need little water. Smoke Bush is another plant trying to take advantage of the water problem these plants are considered to be undesirable by the government and people who use the land for their own purposes.
I say these are the plants man “deserves” because of his fighting nature and not living in harmony with her. This may sound harsh but if one stripes the land and changes the order of things sooner or later one has to live with the consequences of their actions. And in this case here we are going to see many farms go under because of the lack of surface and deep well water. Hard lessons but that’s what is the trade off will be, and the of course people being people, they will never take responsibility for their own actions when they can blame an unseen force or the Government. (Silly Billies.)
My well here at the job site is now dry. Six years ago when I had to replace the pump I had between 40 and 50 feet of static, meaning there was between 40 and 50 feet of water to pump from with an almost instant refill, but today the well is dry.
My farming neighbor re-drilled his well to get at that deeper water, what he got was sand, so he put in special screens to hold back the sand, but now his refill rate is such that he is using less than half of the water he once was. Thus he is farming half the ground. And till pumping sand onto his fields and plugging his sprinkler heads thus forcing him to go to a larger size and putting more water on his ground, you get the point the cycle is one that isn’t for the best.
The farmers who use surface run off in the form of ditch water irrigation, feel the pain the most. But these farmers are the ones who are trying to do more with less. They are just this year experimenting with grains, such as Millet, White wheat, and Hard Red Winter Wheat.
I hope soon they will try to stripe farm placing crops together that are compatible and beneficial to each other, such as bush beans and winter grains, etc. But changing a farmers mind to a new way of thinking is as hard as dragging a mule across a creek.
I decided to create an experiment of my own on a piece of ground that I own. I call it the Horsefeathers Project. I wondered if it was possible to create the comforts of today lifestyle without damaging the land and water and wildlife around me. Mind you I’m not a tree hugger, nor am I a activist of any kind, but I was raised as a farmers son, with the firm steadfast belief that this land is for my children and that we are just quests on her for a limited time. And like a good quest in another’s home, we better not trash her least we get ourselves booted out.
The Horsefeathers Project is one that uses Green technologies by this I mean I am trying to build with savaged material, and recycled material. Not because I’m cheap, because believe me this isn’t the cheapest way to go. Nor is it the easiest way to go, there has been a lot of hard, hard work that has gone into this project already and there is a lot of effort yet to be applied yet.
The material of choice is the natural stone found on site. I like the Earthship style and concept for minimal environmental impact, but I need my animals and a large garden with fruit trees and brambles, so I need to step up the plan quite a bit, and I need to collect large amounts of heavens water for longer periods of time and reuse it again in different ways. And the animals I tend need to aid in this cycle also.
How am I doing this?
On the land that the Horsefeathers Project is conceived there is no water, no streams, no deep water well permits, nothing but so called worthless, sagebrush, cactus, and rock covered ground, (and I still paid to much for it at the time). But that was okay I had been looking for ground no one else wanted but it had to have a list of things that it had to meet. They were as follows:
1. no water sources
2. no tillable ground or used as tillable ground in the past 100 plus years.
3. It had to be rocky
4. It had to have a southern slope
5. It also to have a western slope (I like sunsets and long as possible winter days).
6. It needed to be minimally 20 acres, more it possible (don’t like neighbors in my back pocket so to speak)
7. It had to be at least a couple miles from the nearest small town.
8. It had to be seen from a distance, to get folks to ask questions like what are you doing out there? If people are asking questions they are thinking how can they apply this idea to their own projects.
9. Finally it had to have a feeling of comfort, privacy, and security. A place my triplets would like to go to help their old man.
There were a few other things too I was wanting but these were the main ones.


I own a place in town and will continue to own it even after the completion of this project. And my day job takes up most of my time, though I work at this project daily mainly after work and on weekends. (It keeps me busy and it’s a good method of relieving the stress of my job.)
In this blog I’d like to show photos and talk to you about a small portion of my water collection system that I create this year it will grow in size as time and money aloud.

The Horsefeathers Water Collection/Filtration System

On the southern edge of the property there was a deep ditch that had been created by the washing away of soil by erosion of the flash flooding that the area was prone to at times. This was probably first created by over grazing of livestock, which killed or ate the plants that held the thin topsoil in place. Oh well the damage was done and this land scar was created. I thought this ditch would be prefect place for a cistern. I decided to recycle a tank of about 6000 gallons. This would be the first one and a little farer down I’d place a few like it or of a different style. But to start off with I went with this one. A 6000 gallon older iron tank.
It took a bit of doing to get it hauled up the hill to Horsefeathers and even more hand labor to get the site ready to place it in the ditch at just the right spot and at just the right angle of slope, with just the right amount of bedding material to set the tank upon. I used foamed obsidian 3/8 minus about 10 inches thick. Because any water that tries to nests under the tank will quickly flow out and away from the tank. I then carefully placed the tank in its home by creating a bi-pod using come-a-longs and 20 foot logs and heavy chains. This took some time and much strategic thinking about how to move this heavy beast. (I had the time of my life doing this, I do a lot of this type of thing on a daily bases at my job) After I got it in place I took recycled Ag. Bag Plastic I had collected from a feedlot owner who had used it to fill corn sawage in, (I love the smell of corn sawage I wonder if they can make a aftershave of the smell?) This plastic is thick and on one side it is white and on the other it is black. I took this plastic and covered the tank in two layers and then covered the tank now plastic covered in dirt that I had in collected from an earlier project using a skid steer that I bought years earlier that I had to find a 3 cylinder diesel engine for and machine parts for the hydraulic pump because they didn’t make them anymore. That was a good snow day project.
I left the down hill side open, rather exposed to be able to wield a peacock valve onto at the bottom of the tank and from that a 1 ½ inch black plastic water line that ran in a horse watering tank (to water the horses).

The Tank or Cistern is in place now to create a filtration system and a collection system.



I cleared off and leveled the ground over and above the buried cistern. This is a north-facing slope and is steeper than it appears in the photos. It is also bigger than it looks it is roughly about an acre in size. Notice all my construction material I’ve collected, slowly but surely it is being used up.
I had to cut a trench above the cistern about 5 feet wide and 25 feet long, sloped at about 10 degrees. I placed two layers of that Ag-bag Plastic within it, lining the future filtration system. Within this lined tapered trench of 5 feet deep I placed 11/2 mixed colored foamed obsidian aka. Lava Rock. The reason for using Lava Rock is because of the design nature has given it. It is very porous, light weight, water freely flows though it, there is no clay or heavy soils in it to block water movement, the cavities within the rock itself create micro climates for “good guy” bacterial that eat up those harmful elements within the water as it passes though the system. (Yes I know I simplified the complexities of the system but it would take a book to explain what is happening within that system hidden from the human eye.)



Once the filtration system was done the next step was to cover the hillside with this Ag-bag plastic in two layers and place Lava Rock on top of it to a dept of 12 inches. This is the least amount of material I thought best to go because the heat in this area does its best to suck every last drop of moisture from the rock. And with the great insulating qualities of Foamed Obsidian aka Lava Rock, that can be greatly reduced to just a couple inches of surface area, the rest of the depth is cooler to allow the summer’s rainfall to quickly flow though to the lower levels before the heat of the next day tries again to evaporate it.
As a point of interest, in August, Millard County received 1.5 inches of rainfall, on The Horsefeathers Project, I received a bit over ¾ of an inch, roughly half. With my system being brand new and totally dry with no moisture what so ever retained in the lower levels of the Lava Rock Collection/Filtration I was able to fill the cistern half way or roughly 3000 gallons.

Not to bad I thought.

But this is one system and it is a small system. Wait till you see what my plans are for the other 19 acres. There is no reason I can’t collect enough rainfall each year to meet all my watering needs. It just takes planning and hard work, and of course Money. If you would like to donate a dollar or two it would be greatly welcomed and be put to good use on the Horsefeathers Project. But just as importantly to me is that I hope that you were able to take a bit of this experiment and put it to use in some way, shape, or form for your own use. Everyone is free to use this and pass it onto their friends. If you have any questions please feel free to email me.
It you can help, great and thank you, if you see any anything that interests you in the columns please visit them also. Please help support work projects and experiments such as this one.

Water Rights or Wrongs, the Law may change?

Since my last post things seem to be changing, maybe.
Who does own the water that falls from the heavens? Who owns the sunlight that touches you on a cloudless day. How about the wind that blows over your property? Or the sky above you? Silly questions? Quess again there are those who feel that they have more rights to it than you do, and have created laws to back them up. But these laws may be changing.

Again I thank KSL.com for this bit of news.


Legislators reconsider law that outlaws using rain water
August 18th, 2008 @ 5:26pm
By John Hollenhorst
After we revealed last week that it's illegal for most people to collect and use the rain that falls on their roof, lawmakers are talking about changing the law.

We've received e-mails from people who are upset about this. They say, OK, if we don't own the rain, it's like making it illegal to use sunshine or the air that blows across your property. State Sen. Scott Jenkins has already filed a bill to change the law.

It's all a question of water rights. If you capture rain water in a barrel and sprinkle it on your flowers, you're technically breaking the law unless you hold a valid water right.


Pat Jones
Lawmaker Pat Jones hasn't decided yet if the law should be changed, but she's looking into it. "My first thought was, this is ridiculous that we can't collect our own rain water."

State officials argue there has to be an orderly system of defining who has the right to use state waters.

Boyd Clayton of the Utah Department of Natural Resources explained, "Because the rain water is the water supply that the state has."


Boyd Clayton
The state made an issue out of it in the case of car dealer Mark Miller. He built a rooftop system to capture and store rain water for his new car wash.

Sen. Jones said, "We shouldn't punish someone for doing what we feel is the right thing to do."

The state never enforces the law against home users of rain water, even though users could theoretically get jail time for repeated violations.

"Well then, let's change the law," Jones said, "because that doesn't make sense, either. If you're going to have a law, enforce the law."

Ultimately, the city of Salt Lake agreed to let Miller use city water rights. Officials say that should reassure people downstream who have made investments based on their own water rights.

Clayton said, "That's the idea of the water rights system, is to protect the people who put water to use and who want to put water to use. They ought to have some certainty about what to expect from everyone else."

The state even argues Mark Miller himself benefits by pinning down his legal right to the water. "His investment is secure because he has the right to use it," Clayton said.

Well, maybe so, but our story touched a nerve, especially with people who think it's just way too much government. Right after our story aired, Sen. Scott Jenkins filed a bill to change the law. He says the state shouldn't interfere with beneficial uses of rain water

Water Rights or Wrongs

Did you know that in the great state of Utah it is illegal to capture rain water? It is, believe it or not. The rain that falls techoly belongs to those who owns the water rights downstream.

Read this next part you may find interesting.

Catching rain water is against the law
August 12th, 2008 @ 11:49pm
By John Hollenhorst


Who owns the rain? Not you, it turns out. You're actually breaking the law if you capture the rain falling on your roof and pour it on your flower bed! A prominent Utah car dealer found that out when he tried to do something good for the environment.

Rebecca Nelson captures rainwater in a barrel, and she pours it on her plants. "We can fill up a barrel in one rainstorm. And so it seems a waste to just let it fall into the gravel," she said.

Car dealer Mark Miller wanted to do pretty much the same thing on a bigger scale. He collects rainwater on the roof of his new building, stores it in a cistern and hopes to clean cars with it in a new, water-efficient car wash. But without a valid water right, state officials say he can't legally divert rainwater. "I was surprised. We thought it was our water," Miller said.

State officials say it's an old legal concept to protect people who do have water rights. Boyd Clayton, the deputy state engineer, said, "Obviously if you use the water upstream, it won't be there for the person to use it downstream."

"Utah's the second driest state in the nation. Our water laws ought to catch up with that," Miller says.

So what about the little guy, watering with rainwater at home? Will anybody do anything about that violation of the law? Clayton said, "If she really does that, then she ought to have a water right to do it." He added that they would not likely make an issue out of it, though, because they have "bigger fish to fry."

After months of discussion, city and state officials worked out a tentative compromise with the bigger fish, Mark Miller Toyota. Jeff Niermeyer, the Salt Lake City director of public utilities, said, "He would basically be using a Salt Lake City water right and diverting it under our name."

State officials say the Mark Miller agreement could become a blueprint for other rainwater projects. Homeowner projects, although technically illegal, are likely to stay off the state radar screen.

I thank KSL.com for this news story.

Interesting isn't it. That makes me a lawbreaker, because I collect rain water, off my roof into a barrel for the house plants. I also collect rain water from an acre of cleared ground and funnel it into a 6000 gallon cistern to water my horses on mountain dry ground. More on that later

Soil Remineralization, Mount Saint Helens, and the benifits of a Volcano eruption

Potato harvest was coming up quickly and the framers in the area were hand digging little test sites to see what they were in for that year.

Lamb Weston a local potato processing facility was hearing rumors and seeing samples of oversized potatoes being brought into their operational offices. The samples were huge and bigger than normal, and concern in the production areas were beginning to arise.
The potatoes were bigger than normal but with no hollow rot, or end rot. Water had been cut back a month or so earlier to slow the growth but for reasons unknown by most, at that time. All types of plants were growing huge, there were cases reporting 8 to 10 pound potatoes. Sugar beets were topping 30 pounds and more.

What was happening?

What was happening was happening on the micro level. Plants were getting what they were needing and getting it in unlimited quantities.
The eruption of Mount Saint Helens was in a sense, a giant mixing bowl. Crushing and heating and mixing all the near surface and deep earth elements together. These elements that are the basic building blocks for all living life on earth.
This was delivered by the wind in bite size pieces easily utilized by the plants themselves.
The plants didn’t have to work hard to extract it from the soil. So with their needs were being met the plant was growing larger and healthlier.
That year and for a few more years following it, there where bumper corps for the farmers, but like everything this was both good and bad for them.
The laws of supply and demand was being the usual back-side kicker here. Massive harvested amounts drove the prices down and the man at the working end of the shovel felt the pinch most. But as time went on the crop sizes deceased and the prices went up. Many farmers went back to the producers of fertierizers and bought and paid for the commercial products; applying them to their fields. Which did what they were designed to do.
There were those that had paid attention to what really was happening to their corps on the micro level and these folks went back out to their barrow pits and to their low laying areas and collected the fine power that they had deposited there years earlier.
They dug it back up and using their fertilizer spreaders they reapplied this volcanic material and thus remineralized once again their soil and their corps.

Once again the plants responded in return by growing large and healthy.

Nature has a way of balancing itself, (in spite of mans best efforts). Man has no idea what nature is or needs, not really, it is all a educated guess at best. But as time marches on, it is mans responsibility to take notice of our planets natural patterns and to mimic them and live within its laws.
One such way is to use natural sources of natural deposits of this remineralization material and one such deposit is located outside a small community in central Utah. A sleeping volcano call; Red Dome.

Within every piece of its foamed obsidian material is found the following elements: carbon, oxygen, iron, sodium, magnesium, aluminum, silicon, phosphorous, sulfur, potassium, calcium, titanium, and manganese. The plants main needs require the following elements; calcium, potassium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, sulfur, and manganese.

Next time we’ll talk about foamed obsidian and grey water treatment. Nature calls this “bogs” or “wetlands”.

Natural Lava Rock, Natures Soil remineralization and Revitalizing

May 18, 1980 a day that will live in many peoples memories. It was the day that Mount Saint Helens erupted in the state of Washington. No one was prepared for what did happen. Everything that happened was just someone’s educated guess; no one knew anything for sure. What did happen was a complete surprise to everyone involved. And a long overdo soil Reminalization for the surrounding landscape.

The government people were doing and saying what government people say and do; trying not to cause undo panic and flex the necessary muscle to get their points across in the name of public safety because they always know what is best for everyone. The news media people were doing and saying what news media people say and do, which seemed to be not much because no one knew about what was to happen. The rest of us were just living day to day going about our own business. The farmers in this Colombia River drainage area and especially around the towns of Quincy, George and Yakima were busy planting their corps and trimming their fruit trees and tending their livestock hoping for a decent price to make their efforts pay off at harvest time.
The winter had been a normal one that year and the spring was a bit wetter than usaile causing some to get into the fields a little later in the season. All eyes were on the hard red winter wheat coming on strong and which the outlook was promising for a high yield. All in all it was looking like any other past year; that was until later that day.
A slight tremor was felt by a few but most were to busy to notice anything. More folks noticed a darkening of the western sky. This grew in intensity over a span of a few short hours. Then this mysterious light grey volcanic ash started to coat everything. Its appearance was as a super fine abrasive dust. Those that were driving started to notice it was unlike anything they had experienced before. It scratched the windshields, it scratched the paint. It chocked the air filters and fuel intake filters. It stalled cars on freeways and roadways. This was no sand storm. This was no dust storm. This was worst in many ways.
Everyone exposed couldn’t help but cough it was dry and hurt ones throat and nose. It seemed to rub your skin raw if one tried to wipe it off instead of washing it off. It struck everywhere it touched that was moist. It got in your eyes and nose and there was no relief. Dust masks helped a little but very little, because this dust found its way around and into every thing and seemed to be every where. A breeze didn’t help to clear the air in fact it made it worse. Soon it started to coat the insides of homes and businesses.
The Government people were doing what government people do in times such as these. They were telling people what they were already doing, and that was get inside and stay there, don’t drive, keep the kids inside, cancel work and social events.
The news media people were doing what news media people always do. They were out in it and filming and talking to everyone who had some option about this or that, trying to overstate the obvious and understate the lack of knowledge of what really was happening.
The farmers and orchard men and livestock people did what they always have done since the beginning of time; they sat and waited, thinking at times “this to will past”. Unbeknown to them at the time it will be these folks that will benefited the most
for what was later called a “blessing”.

It was said by some expert that it didn’t take long for the ash to hitch a ride in the jet stream and be carried around the world. It didn’t take long for the same ash to rain down and spot and ruin a large number of vehicle paint jobs as far east as New York. Greenland saw it, as did England and France. Some say Japan noticed it. But it was the Columbia River area framer that felt its impact the most.
On the Robert Hammond Farm as well as the Bushman Farm and the Child Farm work soon begun to remove from the fields the large amounts of this material for it was inches thick, to thick to just plow into the soil. The crops that had been planted earlier had died, so replanting was the only option. Large tractors and land scrapers, front end loader were used, any thing and everything was used to remove as much as possible of this material. It filled ditches, borrow pits, anyplace that needed filling up was filled. It was everywhere and lots of it. This Volcanic ash had its toll on the equipment filters had to be replace continuously the abrasive nature wore out bearings and seals. Many machines died never to be used again. Time was running out and the fields had to be replanted. What remained on the fields had to be worked into the soil, in the hopes that the plants would survive this “contamination”.
What grew out of that soil that first year was what surprised everyone. Who knew then that this Volcanic ash was natures way of remineralizing and revitalizing the soil. More to come

Todays world is full of new or seemly new concepts in landscape design, but the most conmen thread though every elment of these "new" designs is the ease and beauty of the finished layout. How much work will the finished design take to maintane? How much watering will it take to keep the plants producing? How much furterizer will it take? Many other questions pop into ones head as you veiw images of project designs of others in maginzes, books and on TV shows such as Gardening by the Yard, and Victory Garden. We all have seen the big visions of beauty that took many years and much time and money to create. But what is never spoken about is the mistakes that were suffered though on this path that preceded the finished product. What plants had to be moved because they were dieing where they were because it was shaded or to wet or any number of other reasons. They don't tell you about the failed atempts, this learning curve that everyone "grows" through because maybe they desire to make their designs to look effortless. I belive that it is in these little misgivings that the real interest and grace of these projects can fully be seen for what they are, man's attempt to create heaven here on earth.

Another topic or catch phrase that is now gaining popularity is "Soil Reminalization" though natural methods and though natural materials. What is this? and How can this be done?

What it is, is the natural process in which mother earth uses to bring to the surface of our planet deep earth elements, minerals and mixes them up and breaks them down to small enough particals that plants can readly consume, thus causing them to flurish.

How is this done? It is done on a planet wide basis though a scary bit of earth activity called volcano eurptions. That lava flow and those plastic flows are super heated deep earth minerals combining and mixing with surface materials that are tearing themselves apart into very fine dust particals. This is the basic building blocks needed for plant growth and substainability.

In future blogs I will talk about this in more detail. Where this has recently happened and what noticeable effects if any this has had on the plant life there. This may surprise you....