Fixing water line

[leanin' H]

On the leased ground I currently have my cows at, suddenly the water cut way back to barely a trickle. Had been doing well. So I took a day off work and chased it. The spring is about five miles up a canyon above the pasture. Found a leak about 300 yards below the spring. Of course I started at the pasture and walked the line up!!!!
Anyway, got it dug up and repaired today. Sandy granite soil and not too many rocks. Still am tired as it was all done by hand. Headed back over now with a tank load of water to tide them over til the water works it's way down to the trough. All in the life of a dim wit who seems to enjoy misery in copious quantities.
On the bright side, I was worried the spring just quit. So at least that didn't happen.

 

[jodywy]

hauled water last summer, so be happy. we got a spring we call prostrate... it just trickles. takes days to fill a 6 foot round tank

 

[webfoot]

I have a spring which has a 1 inch plastic pipe running from it. I timed how long it took to fill a gallon jug and did the math. It is flowing at 168 gallons in 24 hours. There is an old trough there that must be 800+ gallons. It has holes rusted in it but at one time the spring must have run more. There are 3 big junipers (24 inches + in diameter) up hill and close to the spring box. Those trees are reputed to take up 100 gallons per day. I need to kill those trees.

 

[leanin' H]

I'm still chasing it. Dug up a new leak and going over with a mini excavator Friday to do more

 

[jodywy]

we looked at a ranch that had close to 50 miles of the light walled PVC, it was sandy soil so the leaks were easy to find.

 

[leanin' H]

If I can work out a long term lease on this place I'll re-develope the spring and install a new water line. It's frustrating cause nobody alive knows where the line runs. So it's a shot in the dark guessing. Pretty much the story of my life

 

[leanin' H]

Went 103 miles east and picked up a load of poly pipe this morning. Spent the rest of the day building a bypass around the 900 feet where the heavy equipment crushed the old line. Had good water at the bottom junction with the existing line. Now we wait for the water and gravity to work down the canyon. Hope by morning I've got good water to the cattle. If not, Gcreek will hear my cursing from his place. Y'all think happy thoughts in my behalf please. I'll report back sometime tomorrow. Hopefully happy or possibly drunk.

 

[Mountain Cowgirl]

I remember one spring on my property, downhill and at the far end, that had the best flow but was at creek level so I dug back in the hill hoping to trace it up and gain elevation. I was making progress and then one scoop of the backhoe bucket was one too many and it split into three sources. I dug back on them just to find out they were spreading out more. I ended up making a collection box for each and then routing them into one pipe. The end result was about a fourth of the GPH I had before and not enough elevation gain to write home about. It was enough to run under the county road and over to my fall pastures' lowest point and keep a small stock tank partially full. My dream of having gravity flow to the upper end where the barns and corral were, vanished just like my bank account.

 

[jodywy]

Friend on the highest part of his place, an oil company put in a well. they hit oil but not enough to pay for the power and pump. They made a deal he cleaned up the well site they mud the hole down to where they gone thru water. They pert the pipe the next day he had a flowing well and the oil company let him have the 10,000-gallon tank. They took out the power line on the way out. he has pipelines all gravity flow.

 

[webfoot]

We were going to develop a spring last year. neighbor was up there with a D-3 Cat with a backhoe. It is sort of slick shod and the sides of the draw are a little steep. He slid into the bottom of the draw. He found a nice solid bottom under about 3 feet of mud. Spent a hour trying to get out of the mud. I ended up with a hole about 15 by 15 with about 2 feet of water. It has held water ever since. Do to some circumstances we never got the pipeline in to the trough. But the cows are drinking just fine out of his waller around hole.

 

[leanin' H]

Walked 11.3 miles today according to my phone. Finally discovered a bad leak in the brush. Had no idea where the line was because it's so old. Dug up and repaired the leak. Finally have water starting to improve at the trough. Going back tomorrow to replace an old iron valve that is leaking. But hoping it'll be good water for the cattle.