Sharon Kay

I'm a newbie to permaculture myself, but living in what was once part of the Big Thicket in southeast Texas, I understand some of your problems. We also have periods of flooding, then summer hits with zero rain and high temps especially the past few years-we've had drought years. I'm lucky though, I have trees everywhere.

When the floods hit they carry off much of the years leaf litter leaving very little behind as mulch in the woods. There's a lot of just dry hard clay under trees where water in previous years has sat for weeks on end after the first major flow across them. I imagine the same may happen to all of the grass you cut down and let lay for mulch. A foot of water carries off a great deal. You may want to try leaving much of the native grasses in place to help catch and hold the mulch.

And one other suggestion, perhaps try to meet some of your neighbors and let them know you'll haul off their mulchables before they burn them.

I lived in a used, very used, 1975 mobile home for some years. There are some drawbacks. Many of the older homes are not solidly built and are poorly insulated. And here in TX you cannot get insurance on them.

They can be bought very cheaply and if you are able to do the upkeep yourself, and live without insurance, they can save you a great deal of money. But you could have high heating and cooling costs.

After Ike clobbered the old house I bought a new mobile home. It's 940 sq ft, energy efficient, and was within my budget. My heating and cooling costs are almost half of what I paid in the old home.

I have been listening to Part One and remembering learning German in high school a verrrry long time ago. We struggled with the 't-s' sound until our teacher made us all say 'pizza' ten times then drop the 'pi' from it lol.