Opening up a spring with a track-hoe

[txdon]

Our spring finally turned into a mud hole in this Texas drought. I heard the last time this happened (about 20 years ago) a track-hoe was brought in and it started flowing. I check the mud/silt depth with a rod and it was almost 6'.

The 27' track-hoe started digging yesterday afternoon and finished this afternoon.

The mud was removed and the spring pond slowly is starting to fill up. I can see the water coming out in about 10 places. I'll take another picture in a few days to see how much the pond fills.

 

[txdon]

Here are the finishing photos, I still have a little tractor work to do once the mud and clay dries out a bit.

 

[EddieWalker]

That just makes me want to do into debt and buy one of those toys!!!!!!

Nice to see the water coming out.

Eddie

 

[Mousefield]

Nice pics, guessing you were watching while the machine did the work.
You mentioned 6ft of mud and silt, did you go deeper and/or wider as well?
Be nice for you if the water flow fills up the pond. :drool:

 

[dave1949]

Nice pics. That should keep it in decent shape for another 20 years.

I am always amazed how much spring water y'all have in Texas even though it is very dry. Jim was describing the spring running where he used to live and Blueriver told about his neighbors spring running steady. Now you have spring water seeping into your pond. It's surprising.

Dave.

 

[dave1949]

That just makes me want to do into debt and buy one of those toys!!!!!!

Nice to see the water coming out.

Eddie

You need one with an articulated wrist ditching bucket Eddie. Nothing finer for shaping and bank work. I wish I had one too but I ain't going into debt for one :laughing: Time to buy a lottery ticket I guess.

Dave.

 

[jinman]

The mud was removed and the spring pond slowly is starting to fill up. I can see the water coming out in about 10 places. I'll take another picture in a few days to see how much the pond fills.

Nice job Don! With the water coming out in so many places, you must not have opened the main spring. Is there one spot that flows more than the others?

 

[johnk]

I feel sorry for all you Texans with the drought. Has to be reaping havoc on about everything and everybody by now. Hate to be a cattle farmer or just to be living down there at this point. I imagine most farms are using wells for water. How are they holding up in most cases?

 

[txdon]

Mousefield, we went deeper and wider to make sure 95% of the black mud/silt was out. The bottom is not stable and is like quicksand. The sides are starting to cave in a little. The spring is on a fault line and the soil is clay with stripes of sand. I had the hot (103) tough job of supervising, while the operator had all the fun in the AC cab.


Jim, the area that is narrow is where the most water is coming out. I was told by the grandson of one of the original owners that this is one of the 7 springs in the area and the water at this spring can be found going north east of the main hole - and that's where it was. A 5' round area has caved in at this point and water is seeping out fast through the sand.

Johnk, The auction barn is having record sell offs. There are a lot of mother cows being sold from people reducing their herd. There was only one poor cutting of hay this summer and now the grass is not growing and is brown. The ranchers are going into winter with no hay reserves and are having to make some tough finical choices -buy hay or sell cows.

 

[pacerron]

I can see the water coming out in about 10 places. I'll take another picture in a few days to see how much the pond fills.

Are the 10 places all about the same elevation?
I have water that creates wet muck areas in 4 fields and the woods and they are the same elevation. They all dry up about the same time in July so I figure they are all from the same source. I tried digging a trench with my backhoe above the pond years ago where one comes out and creates a mess in about a 4k sq ft area. My intent was to dig the trench diagonally toward the pond and put gravel and field drain pipe in it to divert all of that water to the pond and dry up the surface. I ended up digging a ditch about 4 ft deep and 100 ft long but never found the real spring source. Water just oozed into the ditch from many places in the sidewalls and overnight it caved in.
Then the rains came and I ended up filling the ditch back in with the dirt without any pipe or gravel. The area still gets wet and I can't take a tractor through it until late June. We had to stop digging the pond into that area during original construction as we began to hit a coal seam.
Keep the pictures coming. It may help some of us develop our springs.
Ron