Permaculture Week: A-Frames to find Contour!!!

With this very simple tool you can find the contour lines on your property so that you can dig swales and harvest water to make YOUR property more hydrated, fertile, and more productive.

So let's get started!

So how do you make an A-Frame?

List of materials include:

1. 3 pieces of wood, 2 about the same length, the other one a little shorter (lumber, sticks on the ground, old tree branches, rebar can even work)
2. String
3. A heavy object (rock, marble, anything solid small and heavy)
4. Pencil
5. (Optional): screws and a drill
6. Hammer

Step 1

Use the three pieces of wood to make an A shape, using the two same lengths for the outer and the last one for the inner. You can screw these in place with a drill and a couple of screws or you can tie them together with some string.

Step 2

By using either a screwdriver or a hammer, put in a a nail or screw at the top of the a frame to hang a string off of. Once that is done tie a rock (or any other heavy small object) to the string so it is weighted down.

Step 3

Lastly to find the level on your A frame take it to a ground that looks about level (doesn't have to be perfectly level) and place it down, marking where the two legs are. Then take your pencil and mark where the string lies on the middle of your A frame. 

Then turn your A frame exactly 180 degrees around so that it comes back on the markings but the left leg is where the right leg was and right is where the left was. Now take your pencil and mark again where the string lies.

After that take those two marking and find the middle between them, mark that and WALA that is your center!

Now where ever you are on your land, when ever that string touches that line on your A frame that means that spot is contour.

Thanks so much for reading here is the article I got most my info off of... they do a good job explaining it as well:

http://reap-eastafrica.org/blogs.info/reap/pdf/AFrame.pdf

Also here are some youtube videos:

Skip to 2:10 to find out how to mark the level on your A frame.

Stay tuned next topic will be on Hugelkulture!