To build a bunyip for measuring land contours:
1. Attach yardsticks to two long poles at the same height and connect them with clear plastic tubing.
2. Place the poles anywhere on a slope and check if the water levels in the tubing are even - if so, the poles are on the same contour line.
3. With two people holding the poles, walk around a field marking the contour with stakes wherever the water levels remain even.
1. How to build a BUNYIP
to measure contours
Pictures courtesy of the Permaculture Design Course 2012
Homer, Alaska Ageya Wilderness Center
Co-instructors: Rico Zook and Cindee Karns
3. Nail your free
Spenard
Builders’
yardsticks to
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decompressor
them.
are needed to see this picture.
QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
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4. Tape on your
clear plastic
tubing.
I think ours was
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3/4”.
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Make sure the yard sticks are exactly the
same number of inches from the top.
6. QuickTime™ and a
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Now comes the hardest part!
7. QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
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Looks easy, right?
8. This end high.
QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
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QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
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This end low.
Trying to chase
the bubbles out. Got it!
9. Now you can
place these
anywhere on
your slope or
field and if the
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decompressor
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water level is the
same, the two
sticks are on
contour.
10. So it doesn’t
matter where the
tube goes.
QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
If the two water
levels are
uneven, they are
not on contour.
Can you see one is at 31” and the other at 30”
11. To find contour with a bunyip, you
will need two people.
And of course, lots of stakes to
mark the contour.
Then on to digging!
Argh!