Yin Yang Ranch is...
a suburban 2 acre lot that we are gradually transforming into an urban permaculture farm. We are in Southern California about 10 miles from the Malibu coast. It is a dry Mediterranean climate with no freezing days. Drought and limited rainfall are the toughest climate issues.
Raised Bed Abundance
Ongoing transformation includes…
Getting rid of the lawn. Covering the roof in solar panels. Setting up rain barrels around the house and barn. Making compost bins and filling them with coffee grounds and food scraps from local coffee shops and restaurants. Using compost to build hugelkultur raised beds. Planting a diverse food forest of trees, flowers and vegetables. Building worm bins. Placing rain barrels to supply slow drip irrigation to the beds via gravity feed. Building a small fish pond. And maybe a bee hive.
Hugel under construction
We are automating some things…
using open source software and hardware. How many gallons did it take to water the mulberries today? (we have a Raspberry Pi server watching the water meter with a camera). When did the coyotes last run behind the barn? (we have a camera there). What is the temperature and soil moisture under the avocado trees? What is the temperature and moisture content of the 3 compost piles? How much solar electricity did we generate today? How full are the rain barrels?
We will be updating this website…
as we make progress, take pictures, write about some of our projects. But for now, this is mostly a placeholder while we build some stuff. The dashboard is empty now, but we hope to add real time screens to show our water usage and power generation. And the temperature and soil moisture in our different growing areas. And the occasional video of a passing coyote, hawk or monarch butterfly.