Fixing My Spring Water... In The Dark

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Most of ya'll know by now, i have been having every water problem thinkable since winter started. The last few days I had an increasing problem with sediment coming from my outside pump (cause of course my inside water has been frozen for weeks)- there was not just a lil dirt in my drinking & cooking water, but a dead salamander so decayed it's legs were gone, large pieces of bark and leaves, and the clincher that sent me out into the night... little shavings of plastic with bits of plumbing glue on it (somehow from back when the piping was put underground.)
I will drink salamander decay water ANYDAY over plastic!!!!!
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xoxoxox

My Gravity Fed Spring Water System (in the real!)

Ya'll might remember back when I first moved into the Luck Cabin, that a critter had pooped in the main puddling area of my gravity fed spring water. Not only that but the original system had all the piping (landscaping pipes) above ground which had cracked from harsh freezing temperatures in the winter, making the water pressure nearly nothing. The tank was also a small barrel that had some leaks too... with all the squirting water and the poop prob I had the system re-made this past Spring season, using the same spring water spot!

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I wanted to make sure the pipes were deeply buried so that they would not crack in the winter (5-6 feet), and a big tank put in that could catch sediment (at the bottom naturally) and wouldn't leak unless the water overflowed the top of the tank through a pipe (called an 'overflow').

**This all could have been done with back breaking digging man power, but I needed water right away and had some dudes use a bobcat machine to get all this in place.**

The spring water source was also 'boxed in' between the rocks it was flowing out of to keep out animals... with just cement in the front and tin roofing on top the larger rocks that existed there already.

My main concern was that if all my house pipes froze that I would still have water easily accessible down at the cabin, and this was solved with a non electric water 'pump' of sorts that won't freeze in the cold, and pushes the water down underground till it's ready to use. (Watch the video below to see how easy it works, and how much water pressure blows out tha' thing!)

To Make a Gravity Fed Spring Water System You Need::::

• Water source
  
• Tank(s) to catch the water (more tanks create more pressure)


• Pipes to get the water where ya want


• Digging power to bury pipes & tank in colder climates


• Ability to connect it to your house plumbing


• Something simple to 'box in' the source if critters might be a problem

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Here is a walk through vid I did today of the improved water system...
(guest appearances from JuJu the donkey, the chickens and my neighbors dog!)


Xoxoxxo

Spring Water + Old Sink = Fresh Water Container For The Animals

In the fenced in acre where my animals live there are two spring water sources (plus I have a rain barrel I am setting up at the mini barn!)...
I found a nice lil' sink underneath my cabin that I thought would be perfect for catching the spring water that had already been piped before I moved here. I settled the sink into the dirt and then took a handful of thick native clay (that has been dug up when building the barn) and shoved it into the drain to block the water from leaking. (I have tried this trick even with leaky buckets and had total success!)

Me and JuJu the donkey waited for it to fill up completely, drip by dribble for about 30 minutes.

Once the sink was full I had it lean slightly to the left side so that the water would overflow out in one spot... since it's spring water that constantly flows year round whether it comes out in a pour or a drip.

Before even pimping it out with some rocks, leaves and hay, the chickens came by to test it out...

Rooster approved.

I put a larger flat rock under the drip, and smaller rocks around the entire sink to make it sturdy. I also started covering the black pipe I had dragged under the fence with debris just to make it look like it's not there. Would be cool to make a second water pool with some rock and clay only under the drip.
This sink will ensure that no matter what the animals are constantly getting a flow of fresh spring water that has no contaminants in it of any kind (including their own poop.)

Yay, I am feeling clever now. ;)

PS - I got the idea to do this with the sink after having BAD dream last night that something happened to me where I couldn't get home & my donkey had no water and became very sick, I was crying in the dream because I thought she was gonna die of dehydration. Nothing like a lil' nightmare to get you extra motivated.

Xoxoxo

JuJu Across The Water (continued story...)

RECAP: JuJu Bean the donkey was terrified of water and we were stuck at the creek well into the dark of night when a neighbor pulled up and let me take JuJu to her barn and put her in a nice roomy horse stall for the night --- till we could figure out during daylight hours how to get her across!
It wasn't just creeks she hated, even a big puddle would bring her to a sudden hault ... and we had two rushing creeks to get across in order to get to my cabin, her new home. The first creek which was putting the absolute terror into her, there are no pictures of... that one was the first and hardest and here is how we had to do it....
At the first creek she knew she was stronger then me and when she saw an opportunity, she made a turn, pulled the rope from my hands and began trotting uphill, back towards the neighbor's barn -- with me and Bort walking swiftly behind her, then me finally getting close enough to her to start to run and grab the rope... she had a glint in her eye as we both ran side by side and she eventually let me catch her. Once I got her back down to the creek, we quickly had her tied to the hitch on a car so that she couldnt run away again....
Then we had to coax JuJu with these things:::::
1. apples
2. eye contact
3. spankings with a thin stick
4. pulling the rope over the creek

Two men pulled the rope (also tied to the car), one lady spanked with the stick, and I called JuJu to me from the other side of the creek- till she finally gave in after ALOT of heart breaking resistance.
The terrible thing was, right after she made it over the first creek, we had a second one to go over only 100 feet down the road! (I've got a really rugged driveway!) You can see as I am pulling the rope I am making a pout face for JuJu Bean cause I felt so bad for her!
But after the drama from the first creek, the memory of being spanked, the reward of the apple after she crosses, tug from the car and some serious trust/eye contact convincing she made it across the second body of water easier and we were on our way home FINallY! YAY!!! Go JuJu!

Proud! My neighbors and friends rock out wit' der' socks out! I love them and could not have done it alone.....

I made it easily up the road after that and got JuJu the donkey into her gated area, where she nibbled on hay, corn on the cob and tree sapling leaves... and started to LUv me!

She already HEE HAW's when she sees me out of excitment and follows me around her fenced area! I can't wait till I can take her hiking and she won't mind the water anymore. :)))

PS - (the title of this post is a play on this Paul McCartney song.)

Xoxoxo

Building A Watering Hole

So here's an idea I got today that I am building up and testing out. Right behind my mini-barn built for my (soon to come) donkey and chickens I found a small stream of spring water coming out the ground, moving downward then disappearing under leaves and back underground.
I decided it might make a good watering hole for the animals, since it flows constantly with fresh spring water, so I started digging out some of the built up deep silt and mud....

I then took clay that had been dug from deep underground when me and my uncle were putting in the foundation poles for the barn - I dumped buckets of clay across where the water puddled... then the water started to fill up in significant amounts! I put a slight notch in the middle so the water has a place to finally overflow and continue renewing it's freshness.

I still have a ways to go - I want to add more clay to my mini levee and dig deeper in front of it --->but does anyone have any engineering suggestions on how to improve/enhance my idea of a good natural watering hole for my animals?

XOxoxo

Poop In The Water: A Gravity Fed Spring

At my cabin deep in da' woods of Luck there is gravity fed spring water... pretty rad huh? I thought so too until I realized my system needed a bit of re-vamping. At first when I left Big Sandy Mush I cried a little bit cause I knew I would miss it, then I started crying cause when I went up to take a look at the pure spring source for my water - i found POOP!!!

I didn't recognize the scat, but I saw a racoon track and one other animal track that was smaller near the water. (When I looked up the poop, it was a raccoon for sure.) Duh! Of course animals are gonna be thirsty too which is why the system may need a little more protection from their tongues...and unintelligible potty habit. Since there is tons and tons and more tons of water on the property for the animals to drink, I don't feel too bad setting this one aside for the picky humans, like myself.
I scraped the poop away from the water, then took rich black clean dirt from the forest floor and placed it on top, then covered that with leaves - in order to keep bacteria from being airborne and to get the poop reminents into a composting stage.
So here is how the gravity fed water system here works... for now...

See that little dark cave in the pic below? There is spring water coming from rocks under there and making a pool of water. The water then goes down into the white pipe. The pipe is on a slope, going towards a holding tank.
The pipe at one time went into that old cement tank, which has long since fell apart - the blue tank was added instead. Water fills up the tank from the downward pressure and the tank creates even more pounds of downward pressure to bring water to the house.
After the tank is full, water goes down a larger pipe all the way to the house - because it goes quite a distance it gets good water pressure. I was told if i add more tanks it creates even more pressure and more sediment falls to the bottom of the tanks and is less in the water.
For now, I put a sediment filter on it inside the house.

Any of ya'll have experience, tips or thoughts about gravity fed spring water?
XoXOx

Frog Mating Season (tadpoles!)

I tried so hard to sneak up on the spring pond full of mating frogs... i walked quietly and slowly from far away, trying to stop in between each step so I would not be noticed. The frogs were loudly making all their spring time mating calls, which is enough to make me feel warm inside already. From a distance I could see their heads above the water, floating on the surface and singing their love songs - at first it looked like turtles, the way they float with just their nose poking out the water, and these frogs are quite large.
But as soon as I got within 3-4 feet of the tiny pond, they one by one started darting down to the bottom.
This brave one, was the last to go from their relaxed floating, to the unknowable abyss below.
I then noticed right next to the lone ranger, was tadpole eggs already starting their process of life!!! How cool is that?
Like abstract art, or really the mimic of how all life starts... beautiful dots just riding beneath the surface of the water.... I couldnt paint a cooler picture.
XoXo