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Gomez Family Ranch

~ Foundational Site Assessment ~

~ Erosion Repair & Driveway Remodel ~

~ Mainframe Design ~

~ Off-Grid Solar Power & Water System Install ~

~ Market Garden Irrigation System Design ~

Foundational Site Assessment

Location: Santa Margarita, CA

Land & Climate Characteristics: The 160 acre rectangular parcel is oriented on the east-west axis. The property has a nearly 3 acre pond that is fed by over 1,000 acres of catchment, and is home to a diverse array of wildlife. An over 1 mile long dirt driveway, of which nearly .8 miles is off property, winds through the low hills and eventually follows the valley bottom at the entrance to the property. The chaparral vegetation is dominates the hill slopes, with trees being largely relegated to the valley bottoms. For a close up look at the natural beauty of this place, we highly recommend perusing Karilyn’s visually stunning Instagram feed @karilyn2, and for a deeper look at the farmstead activities check out Aaron’s Instagram feed @gcfamilyfarmstead.

2 acre pond at the heart of the Gomez Family property – a rare and precious find in such a dry climate!

Client’s Foundational Site Assessment Objectives: The Gomez family’s goals included gaining a better understanding of what is possible for the landscape in terms of habitat restoration and climate-appropriate growing systems at the homestead and small enterprise scale.

Site Assessment Takeaways

  • Water
    • The dam wall for the pond also showed evidence of boiling at its base (subterranean piping of water through the dam wall) and a detailed list of recommendations to ensure continued function and safe operation of the dam was included, including vegetation removal and resealing on the inside of the dam wall.
  • Access
    • Special attention was paid to multiple ongoing erosion areas threatening road stability and function. Recommendations for immediate erosion repair structures for critical locations were provided.
  • Shelter
    • Locations for additional homesites were identified for increasing the number of family members living on the ranch.
  • Living Systems
    • Existing vegetation communities were identified and analogous productive species were suggested for establishing a perennial backbone of productive species.
  • Energy
    • Existing structures were evaluated for their solar PV and solar thermal integration potential.

FSA Map Call Outs

Erosion Repair + Driveway Remodel

Implementation Scope: Based on the initial findings from the Foundational Site Assessment, immediate repairs to the badly eroded valley bottom driveway were designed and implemented before the winter rains.

Elements Implemented

  • Phase 1 – Stopping The Erosion
    • The first step was to armor all existing headcuts in the valley bottom gully with zuni bowls to prevent their continued incision and up-valley migration and begin the healing process by creating a place for water to pool, dissipate its energy and deposit sediment. Several one-rock dams were also installed to aid in aggradation (raising the bottom of the gully) by initiating sediment deposition and ultimately the establishment of perennial vegetation.
    • The installation took place over the course of 6 days, and was followed by a gentle but significant rainfall a week later during which the gully did flow and the installations performed as designed.
  • Phase 2 – Improving Road Drainage
    • Bank armoring for a deeply undercut and fragile section 100′ section of the roadway was also completed to preserve road functionality and begin the gully repair process.
    • Step 2 utilized the now-stabilized head cuts and their armored zuni bowl splash pools as convenient locations to drain the driveway more frequently to prevent water building up on the road surface to damaging concentrations.
    • A total of 5 rolling dips were installed to transition water that had been trapped on the road way (leading to puddling and wheel rut formation) into the now armored drainage.
    • Armored drains were installed in tandem with media luna flow spreaders where required to transition water from the road surface down the steeper grades to the valley bottom.

Erosion Repair & Drainage Retrofit Gallery

  • Valley bottom gully immediately adjacent to the driveway. The road was undercut by over 6′ in some locations!
  • Bank armoring and stepped energy dissipation pools at a grade transition.
  • Armored drain from one of the rolling dips, ending in a media luna flow spreader and discharging into the existing valley bottom.
  • Armored drain exit from a rolling dip leading into a zuni bowl.
  • Bank armoring along formerly undercut road edge.
  • Bank armoring section.
  • One rock dam flow spreader to maintain broad sheet flow in the gully.
  • Setting in the splash apron for a One-Rock Dam.
  • Beginning exacavation of the largest headcut to prepare for zuni bowl construction.
  • Large zuni bowl under construction.
  • Completed large zuni bowl at what was formerly the largest headcut.
  • Large armored zuni bowl in incised drainage, fed by armored drain from rolling dip on road above.
  • Armored drain connecting to large zuni bowl.
  • Excavating the outlet of a clogged culvert to install a self-cleaning Energy Dissipation Pool to stop culvert plugging with sediment.
  • Energy dissipation pool installed at remodeled culvert discharge.
  • Remodeled culvert discharge with self-cleaning energy dissipation pool.

Mainframe Design

The following year the Gomez family invited us back to do the Mainframe Design for the larger property once all of the immediately pressing erosion problems had been stabilized and set on a course to heal. The vision for what was possible had clarified amongst the decision makers and with family moving back onto the land and new enterprises beginning, existing patterns of use needed to be shifted and many new elements needed to be sited, oriented and arranged to maximize efficiency and resilience.

Mainframe Design Elements

  • Water
  • Access
    • Access routes planned for future agroforestry development, hiking trails around entire property, as well as to proposed new residence locations.
  • Shelter
    • Specific locations for additional homesites were identified and ranked based on their climate favorability, ease of access, views and ease of construction and development.
  • Living Systems
    • Enterprise and homestead-scale production systems – terrestrial and aquatic, nutrient cycling, dryland agroforestry guilds and assemblages, mushroom cultivation, biomass production, charcoal production, aquaculture and more.
    • Livestock specifications and system integration for worms, bees, goats, chickens and ducks.
  • Energy
    • Off-grid energy systems for electricity, heating, cooking and transportation.
Heart of the Gomez Family Ranch property mainframe design element map.

Mainframe Design Map Call Outs

  • Future pocket pond swale system feeding wood core swale for perennial dryland growing system.
  • Larger network of hiking trails throughout the property, largely folloing valley bottoms and ridgelines.
  • One of the agroforestry paddocks at GFR, patterned off of a keyline system for consistent width between rows for equipment access.

Off-Grid Solar Power & Water Install

Implementation Scope: Design and oversight of the implementation of high-efficiency off-grid energy systems to serve the various needs for two single-family residences, a shared laundry shed, and a shared bathhouse.

Design & Implementation

*Credit to Wes Cooke of 7th Generation Design for being the master architect of the solar system.

  • Needs & Use Analysis
    • System design began with an extensive needs and use analysis to design a solar system met the lifestyle requirements of the occupants while minimizing both implementation and maintenance costs for the long term.
  • System Design
    • Specified end-use components (including lighting, cooking, refrigeration, heating, device-charging, and laundry) that would provide for the residents’ needs in the most efficient and low-cost way.
    • Designed a system for moving electricity and moving things (water, refrigerator and laundry motors) that included a 1.44 kW solar PV array, 24 kWh battery bank, and voltage/current processing and distribution systems serving the electricity-using components, with proper safety considerations and component protection devices throughout (including fuses, breakers, low-voltage disconnects, and grounding).
    • Designed a water distribution system to the laundry shed, yurts, and several outdoor spigots that is currently served by the site’s central water pump, but can easily be retrofit to accept water from a gravity-fed system with supplemental pressure provided by an inline DC pump powered by the off-grid electricity system.

System Overview Video

  • Elements Installed
    • Materials acquisition and preparation as an authorized dealer/installer for Backwoods Solar.
    • Solar PV panel array mounting on shed roof.
    • Installation of battery bank, solar charge controller, DC-to-AC inverter, AC-to-DC backup generator charger, and necessary fuses and breakers in laundry shed power center.
    • Over 650′ of trenching for water lines from the site’s central water pumping system and conduit containing wires for 48VDC electricity distribution from the laundry shed to the yurt power centers.
    • Construction and installation of custom waterproof yurt power centers to accept the 48V direct current (DC) supplied by the laundry shed battery bank and convert it to the lower-voltage DC and invert it to the higher-voltage alternating current (AC) required by various end-uses in each yurt.
    • Water stub-outs at yurts, outdoor spigots, and at laundry shed for future pump installation if a gravity-fed water distribution system is used.
    • System commissioning.

Installation Gallery

  • Distribution panel and inverter for individual yurt residence.
  • Water line from central well system coming in to the utility shed.
  • Wrapping up the water line plumbing for the utility shed.
  • Trenching in the water line.
  • Battery bank in the utility shed serving both yurts.
  • Mounting the solar panels on the utility shed roof.

Market Garden Irrigation System Design

Scope: Design of the irrigation system including the off-grid timer and manifold the GC Family Farm market garden that was installed behind the old barn. The system accommodates two types of emission – drip and overhead spray – and can switch back and forth between the two easily depending on the season and the crops being grown.