Wind Patterns Digging Perfect Circle Pits with Loose Fabric

I noticed this magical effect that in the desert wind, from violent storms to light gusts, anything that's loose yet anchored to a point will spin a perfect circle mark in the sand. I've seen this happen many times with plants having long loose leaves touching the ground. I think they'd be damaged by the force, however they'd be perfectly fine after being wind whipped over and over. I couldn't understand how the wind which seems so chaotic could reliably create such perfect circles.

It's always awe inspiring when perfectly formed geometric shapes and patterns emerge from natural processes, most of all when those processes seem totally without order.

What really moved me was discovering that the sand circle effects made by shade clothes I'd draped over water containers, tables, and other items I wanted to prevent degradation of by the harsh sun. If there was ever even the slightest play in the corner of the canvas fabric, it would get whipped around in circles and actually dig out a perfect concave pond-like bowl shape. This would occur so consistently that one time it actually undermined a water tank and made it fall over, just be slowly eroding the sand supporting it.

To me this observance, while a bit of a nuance that luckily didn't result in the water tank breaking or leaking, was a major breakthrough. I suddenly realized that, if for example, you were to install something like a telephone pole or flag pole, and attach a very sturdy large piece of fabric, this effect could scale up the point of perfectly "digging" an entire full size pond with no human or machine effort beyond the installation of the pole and the fabric. Time and wind would do all the work, saving many costs, energy consumption, and most importantly save human backs from the perils of shovel digging.

This stood out to me probably more than it might to others, or to my younger self, because of how much torturous back pain I was enduring from digging ponds everyday by myself. It was as if nature was showing off and laughing at me for being so ergonomically incorrect, inefficient, and so blind and oblivious to the free and effortless energy flow all around me that need only design simple implements to fully direct and harness. Nothing could be more sustainable than digging ponds with the power of the wind.

I would definitely say that this was an epiphany, perhaps the most important and profound of my life thus far, due to the implications on future permaculture system designs. We all hear about trendy bio-hacks, life-hacks, productivity-hacks, etc. I'm keen to discover and implement eco-hacks based on observations like this.

I feel driven to pursue this experimentation to it's maximum potential, because I believe very strongly that the solution to all of the world's problems are to be found in the garden, and to take that a step further, in the water garden.