Raised bed w galvanized metal roofing
Something like that. If high enough it might keep the rabbits out. (Not your goats of course!)
Buying or scraping up enough dirt to fill them might be the biggest expense, but it sounds like you were going to buy compost in any case.
I had thought of that. Only thing is I'd have to cut them lengthwise because their 2 foot wide and I don't want to deal with with the cost and work of filling something that tall. I have cut sheets like that lengthwise and it's no fun at all.
I cut those three 2x8 boards for the top, shortest bed already. Going to do two more 30" beds, each one slightly longer because one end of the little front yard garden is at an angle.
Then I'm going to basically treat then like Square Foot Gardening and get my feet wet with succession gardening and rotation. It's the next natural progression and will help when I do get to growing in the tunnel.
I took care of the rabbits last year by wrapping the fence with a layer of poultry netting.
Talked to my new(lottery winner) neighbors this weekend and they went to the second aquifer for their well and it ended up being 440 feet. Cost them $21,000.
Their well is 5-700 feet away from where mine will be and at the same feet-above-sea-level so mine will likely have to be about the same.
Now I’m wondering what kind of used drill rig I could get for $20k.
The first aquifer here is 150-220 foot but the water has a high lime content and you go through water heaters fast because the heat separates the lime and chunks build up inside. Use cold tap water to fill your coffee maker and the last sip of coffee will have chunks. Plus there’s tales of a couple of people having their well run dry.
I made my smoker out of water heaters I got for free that were full of lime. I repurposed one as a water heater by pulling the heating elements and all plumbing fittings out and rinsing while poking and prodding in the holes with a coat hanger to help get the chunks out. Had to replace the lower element because the lime had made it that high and caused it to burn out.
Maybe I should invent a pre-water heater; water heater with an easy to drain and an easy remove/open bottom. A lime separator unit.
Reverse osmosis is the only known way to get the lime out but it also takes every other mineral out. Then you have to add some back in for taste if you want drinking water. That’s what most bottled water is. I think Nestle does a good mix of re-added minerals with their Nestle Pure Life water.
The guy who used to own the land across from me with the big spring on it, was set up to bottle spring water to sell. Had the spring approved by the state but when the first bottles sat on the shelf for a couple of months, it had little white chunks because the lime separated. The state approved the water as potable but come to find out, it was not presentable after sitting. He priced a reverse osmosis unit big enough for the operation and looked into adding back minerals and gave up on the idea.
That’s the water I fill my tank with but I get it from the creek several hundred feet down stream. We don’t drink it but I’ve been known to make creek water coffee in a pinch.
When it’s not sub-freezing temps, I have a clean 55 gallon drum and get drinking water from a neighbor down the road who was a 350 foot well. He likes to talk though so what should take 25 minutes takes an hour. He also repeats stories. Good guy though.
The new neighbors said I can get water from them. Gonna have to make a joke about; How much pipe do ya think I’d need and how much a month do you want? (I’d gladly pay $25/mth)