[PenultimateManStanding]

I tried to make amends to Heineken for hijacking his thread by pointing out that the Mariannas Trench is 6.8 miles deep. Just flattening that one out alone would probably put downtown San Diego under 6 feet of water. But we haven't heard from him. I guess he had had had had had had had had had had had enough. There are mountain ranges in the ocean that stretch for tens of thousands of miles around the globe that dwarf continental mountains.

[Heineken]

PMS, the connection of the Mariannas Trench with the specific subject I raised in my OP is very thin. I wasn't talking about underwater land.

I'll admit I've been irritated by the "hijacking" of my thread by the "had had had" nonsense, but I wasn't going to say anything about it.

[Heineken]

Thank you for some relevant comments, Giraffe.

Another reason food is hard to grow on mountainsides is that the soil tends to be thin and rocky.

Abundant sunshine isn't always an advantage, though, esp. with GW. I live in an area with hot sunny summers, but I really think I could grow more and better food in a cooler, cloudier place.

Trees grow better on hillsides (their trunks are straighter), especially on north-sloping hillsides (cooler temps actually make them grow bigger, since more moisture is available).

[Chaparral]

In the southwest where heat and light are in excess, the northern and eastern slopes have larger, denser forest cover than the southern and western sides. South facing hillsides come in handy closer to the coast up in the Pacific northwest where cool (but not cold) temps and clouds and fog can be an issue. Summer drought and heat are a concern though. It looks like we'll be landing ourselves in an area with generally dry summers (read, south of Portland). Depending on how far up the mountains one is, the winters may or may not be too cold to grow some cool season crops. The south facing exposures would really come into their own here. They'll receive more winter sunlight at the right angle and they'll drain off the cold air and hence be warmer than the ridgetops or the valley floors. Dry summers might mean the loss of a growing season on the hillsides while the flatlands or even a few north-facing slopes are cultivated.

On a smaller scale, some of the permaculture folks advise making your own south-facing hillsides by piling up the soil on say, the northern boundary of your garden plot where the mounds or berms wouldn't shade out anything of consequence.

I don't know how this would play out in a drying Appalachia. What would the growing seasons be like in a drier climate? Would precipitation take on a strong seasonal pattern that could be exploited (i.e. summer monsoon, winter dry-season as in subtropical savannas or winter rains & summer dry season as in the Mediterranean climate zones?) Would winter temps be warm enough to enable an additional growing season? Would summer drought and heat take away one growing season? There are lots of unknowns.

[PenultimateManStanding]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('MD', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('PenultimateManStanding', 'J')im, where Bill had had "had', had had "had had". "Had had" was right.

[paimei01]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6995999.stm
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he Northwest Passage is one of the most fabled sea routes in the world - a short cut from Europe to Asia through the high Arctic.

Recent years have seen a marked shrinkage in its ice cover, but this year it was extreme, Esa says.

It says this made the passage "fully navigable" for the first time since monitoring began in 1978.