00Spy
08-02-2011, 04:09 PM
For several years I had a constant wet spot on my property just below a bluff. Realizing it was a spring, I "hogged" out a depression to let the water pool and it has been with water for the last 3 years. The drought this year is challenging the spring's ability to keep up with the heat and increased water use by the animals and the pool level dropped by over half. So Ithought I should try to add some water before things went dry. The water was getting pretty nasty as it was as the level dropped.
Now this isn't a big pond. Iestimate that the water hole only holds about 600 gallons when it is completely full. For the most part when there is regular rain and the aquifer gets recharged, the spring will keep it full or very close to full and usually the water level never drops more than 3 or 4 inches...until now. We are down over a foot. The water hole itself is only about 2 feet deep at its deepest. So things were getting bad. The spring is still putting out water, but much less and certainly not enough.
So I wrangled a 230 gallon tank into the back of my truck to create my own water buffalo. Given the terrain (steep incline to go down) and the truck's capabilities, we could only fill it about half way. 10 minutes to fill the water tankand 10 to get on site with 100 feet of water hose and we were in business. The truck was still about 15 feet higher up than the water hole, but it took about 25 minutes or so to drain down the water hose (longer than Iexpected). While filling the first time, my buddy had a little armadillo come by and visit him while he was working the hose. http://texashoghunter.com/images/images/forum/emoticons/surprised.gif
In all, it took 2 trips and a couple of hours time to haul in 275 gallons from a well up the road about a mile and raise the water level about 10". So far, the work appears to be a success. The water level has already started dropping, of course but traffic appears to have picked up and we even had new deer show up to drink. Ichecked with a couple of buddies and it would appear that there are ponds on adjacent properties that are starting to dry up as well. With a bit of luck, my little water hole may become locally critical to some of the wildlife and hopefully....the hogs will return to that part of the property!
Assuming no rain, I would guess that Iwill need to repeat the process in 2-3 weeks which is about the same time I need to service my feeders.
http://texashoghunter.com/oldatt/IMG-20110730-00141 r.jpg
Now this isn't a big pond. Iestimate that the water hole only holds about 600 gallons when it is completely full. For the most part when there is regular rain and the aquifer gets recharged, the spring will keep it full or very close to full and usually the water level never drops more than 3 or 4 inches...until now. We are down over a foot. The water hole itself is only about 2 feet deep at its deepest. So things were getting bad. The spring is still putting out water, but much less and certainly not enough.
So I wrangled a 230 gallon tank into the back of my truck to create my own water buffalo. Given the terrain (steep incline to go down) and the truck's capabilities, we could only fill it about half way. 10 minutes to fill the water tankand 10 to get on site with 100 feet of water hose and we were in business. The truck was still about 15 feet higher up than the water hole, but it took about 25 minutes or so to drain down the water hose (longer than Iexpected). While filling the first time, my buddy had a little armadillo come by and visit him while he was working the hose. http://texashoghunter.com/images/images/forum/emoticons/surprised.gif
In all, it took 2 trips and a couple of hours time to haul in 275 gallons from a well up the road about a mile and raise the water level about 10". So far, the work appears to be a success. The water level has already started dropping, of course but traffic appears to have picked up and we even had new deer show up to drink. Ichecked with a couple of buddies and it would appear that there are ponds on adjacent properties that are starting to dry up as well. With a bit of luck, my little water hole may become locally critical to some of the wildlife and hopefully....the hogs will return to that part of the property!
Assuming no rain, I would guess that Iwill need to repeat the process in 2-3 weeks which is about the same time I need to service my feeders.
http://texashoghunter.com/oldatt/IMG-20110730-00141 r.jpg