Rx for ponds silting in.

[patrickg]

SHF, I mean to get out and get some digital pix to share in photo section but I am pretty busy and we have had a heat index of 112 for a while. I promise I will do it fairly soon. Tried to put wire in 500 ft of conduit today AND bury some of it B U T it was too darned hot this PM and my helper brooked mutiny.

"Keep wondering how anything can
grow in places like that.

In Oklalhoma they sometimes don't but sometimes do. I think we get essential nutrients from the oil deposits. That and the BS the politicians spread around. Getting dry, lots of folks scrambling around looking for hay. Most folks have been getting about 20-50% of their "normal", whatever that is with our variability, hay crop and don't expect to get another cutting this year. Gonna be some beef being sold early this fall-winter as economics force them to market in face of feed shortage/prices.

Check out my post in Rural Living for yet another chapter in the ongoing love afair with my sweet intelligent neighbor, you know, the one putting his fence 10 ft over the line.

Patrick

 

[StoneHeartFarm]

Patrick,

I guess I lucked out. Our heat index was only 100. Still, it was pretty hot insulating and throwing 5/8 drywall up on those cathedral ceilings. Been awful dry here too. It's been trying to sprinkle for the past 2 days. Friday, I was at the farm (12 miles East), kept hearing thunder, but no rain. Got back here and there were puddles everywhere. Most of our farmers got their first hay crop in about the end of June. If we don't get some rain, they'll be lucky to get another crop. Usually, there are at least 2 cuttings, 3 in a good year. Corn is also doing lousy and the news is talking crop failure. Add that to the Bovine TB scare (what happens when the million or so deer can't get enough to eat and mister farmer has just thrown out feed for his cows?) It could get mighty interesting here in a couple of months. Last month, it rained almost everyday. This month, no rain at all and hot. It's not a drought, hasn't lasted long enough. But the fire danger is rated as extreme and given another few days without a break and we'll be looking at a state wide burning ban, not even supposed to smoke outside. Usually we get it in May or June, but it was a rainy spring.

I wanted to ask you about your fuel tank. Did you have to pour a cement catch basin underneath? I have heard they are required here (haven't checked, so I don't know for certain). Anything that hits the soil goes straight down in this sand.

SHF

 

[patrickg]

SHF, Boy I wish you were the winner in the heat index contest with your 100. We were only 112 but it felt like some sort of moist roasting process. Never heard of any requirement for a basin but sounds like a fairly good idea. Is the capacity of the basin supposed to equal or exceed tank capacity in case of a catastrophic failure or is it to catch litle nozzle drips. I guess maybe I could put out one of those drip pans like folks put under a drippy car to protect the garage floor to catch drips.

Around here folks are getting from about 20-50% of normal hay and do not expect a second cutting.

I got 2 1/2 inches a month or so ago and that almost topped off the ponds but they are starting to show a drop again. We are 4-5 inches behind seasonal average to date. We are supposed to get 33-34 inches a year but there is significant variability. Had a record drought 3 yrs ago and the ponds did not go low enough to kill off the fish.

Patrick

 

[StoneHeartFarm]

Patrickg

They're promising rain for tomorrow and then it's supposed to drop into the 70's. (September weather). What a relief. Normally we get about 3 1/2 inches in July. This year were about 1/2". The little rain we got the last few days dropped fire danger from extreme (explosive) to just Very High.

Last year at this time there was one cutting already in the barns and the grass was over the hood of my truck. This year when they cut it, it was barely making the top of my tires. I seem to recall a few years back we had a pretty good hay crop, but there was drought out west and a lot of the farmers were packing up truckloads of hay and sending it west just to get rid of it.

The catch basins as I understand them are basically a small slab with a lip around the edge to catch drips. I don't think they are too concerned with a catastrophic failure. Seems like that would be a fairly rare experience. But think about 1 teaspoon of dripping every time you fill your tank. After a few years, you could have several gallons of fuel soaked into the soil. The service stations around here have catch basins built into their parking lots. Everything is sloped to run to one spot and there is apparently a filter which passes water but catches gas. Don't know how you'd work something like that into your system, but a simple cement slab with a lip around the edge would at least give you the advantage of determining if you have a tank leak. The DNR here is pretty hard on fuel leakage. A lot of older homes have heated with fuel oil. It was common in the 60's to bury the oil tanks since it kept the oil warmer so it would flow easier. Unfortunately, a lot of these people are now digging their tanks up and that's an expensive proposition.


If your ponds don't dry up even in drought, you must have some pretty good springs running. I've got a little damp spot at the back. Went out and visited it yesterday. Grass was still green even though everything else was brown. Might have to do some exploratory digging. Sink a couple of post holes to see what turns up.

SHF

 

[patrickg]

SHF, I really don't know if I have springs that run during extended dry spells (avoiding the use of the D-----t word) or not. Seem to have been many many of them this last winter and spring. Wetest late winter and spring for many moons.

I haven't got around to sounding the ponds yet (measuring depths, nautical term) I need to take my canoe or kayak out and use a lead line to get some general idea of the depth contours. If I wasn't so cheap I'd get an inexpensive sounder/fish spotter and do a bang up job.

Three years ago when we bought this place, removal of an underground diesel fuel tank was a contingency of the sale. I agreed to pay to have it removed and the soil sniffed and tested IAW dept of enviromental quality stds but if it turned into a super fund clean up of biblical peoportions I could back out of the deal. We removed the 3,000gal tank which somehow had grown over the years in the ground into a 10,000gal tank and the ground passed testing with flying colors. Now I have a 300gal overhead tank. Today I bought a new brass shutoff valve for it, the kind with the locking hasp that is the handle for the 90 degree off/on. The old one seemed to be damp and might be leaking a few drops a day (with 30 gal in tank). 300 gal would raise the head of pressure by a factor of 10 so I could have had a tablespoon or more a day drip out if I filled it (30 gal was a test which I'm glad I made). I'll drain the tank into my 7 ea 5gal diesel cans, swap valves, and try again. I tightened the packing nut (i think it is called) but it didn't stop the leak just slowed it I think. So to be sure, I will replace it. Tank is about 5-600 yds from nearest ponds but wouldn't want any fuel to get int a pond from rain runoff. Don't need oil on the water as I have very few mosquitos.

I think I will just use one of those approx 30x60 inch gal sheet metal drip catchers with some kitty litter type oil absorbent in it or (thinking on the fly) just leave it standing beside tank to put down under tractor when fueling in case of an oops and skip the kitty litter.

If the two ponds nearest my mom's house get very low I may siphon water from a higher pond, sacrificing it for her fishing ponds even though we never lost fish even in the record rain-short-fall-period (dodged the D word again).

Watershed above the two aforementioned ponds had chest high "hairy clover" couple years ago but isn't doing so good now, won't make a cutting but is useful grazing.

Patrick

 

[StoneHeartFarm]

patrickg

Must have something keeping em full. But here, I've seen springs that only run in the spring and fall when the water table moves closer to the surface. You may have something like that going on, which would explain the drop in hot dry weather and the rise in cooler weather. You have changed my perception of your part of the country. I had always imagined it as somewhat dryer, not arid, just considerably dryer.

SHF

 

[patrickg]

SHF, Rest assured, amigo, it will get a heck of a lot drier before it gets much wetter around here. My compadre and farming/ranching consultant to the ignorant (me) cut and bailed some of his acreage. Got 20 pretty fair round bails which is better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick B U T in a reasonable year he would get 100 out of the exact same place.

I predicted a month ago that there were going to be three groups of cattlemen later this summer/fall. Those who sold early to avoid the rush, those who held on to their animals beyond the point of diminishing returns where each day each head cost you money instead of making money, and the fortunate few who somehow have enough pasturage and have enough feed put aside to hold out till their stock hits optimum weight. The third group will be very small but should turn a tidy profit with proper sized animals raised at minimum cost. The first group could lose significantly less than the second group but I fear traditionaly the second group is the largest and gets hurt the worst, hanging on, expecting to draw to an inside straight.

Patrick

 

[Chillimau]

Patrickq,

What direction are you from Stratford? I'm ten miles south and was down there last W/E and was surprised as to how green the hay meadow still was. ( not lushus green but just green). I think there has been more rain south than here in the city at least in spots.

If you are the ignorant, I'm out there with the pond silt. Anyways we cut at the end of June and got 24 round bales, had 50 last year. If I had got all the trees cleaned up from the winter ice storm would have probably gotten a couple more.

Have you heard anything about the Stratford schools? Probably not a concern for you, but thought I would ask. Neighbor said she liked them better than Sulfur but that didn't tell me a thing!

I grew up in the city entirely, my wife spent a little while in the country and liked the county schools better. I really like it out there but wonder about the quality of the schools. Probably should worry more about the schools in the city!!

Later

Gary

 

[patrickg]

Gary, Would that have been the Stratford Peach festival and rodeo days? My wife and some lady friends went but left to go to garage sales. I was busy. I'm about 15 miles mostly north of Stratford, their clear blue ponds, sandy soil, peaches and watermellons. Got friends in Stratford, own/operate Hinkle Homes. They build really nice houses, tend to drive the local market, first to go to manufactured trusses, vinyl siding, and 2x6 stud walls in the home building enclave on highway north of town. There must be 7-8 builders in a 3 mi stretch along the highway north of Stratford. I interviewed most of them, at least 6, before selecting Hinkle Homes to build my mom's house.

Patrick

 

[patrickg]

Gary,

About the schools in the area. My information is mostly anecdotal but could give you refs to better. I have a friend who taught college (he's PhD in zoology) and taught some HS. His wife retired as teacher a few months ago. I will ask them for the best way to get good info. As to What I've heard, which is very little of fact, is that Asher has a good school and that Konawa has a good school and an excellent library with lots of new computers. Seems a retired Hist Prof from university in Boston was raised around Konawa and came home to retire. Anyway he ignored the naysayers and went to the capitol to fight for a colocated public/school library. Now Konawa has a library with reserved parking for library users (non-school kid) and it is on the school campus. Kind of interesting to go to the library to research something and have all the high school kids there when school is in session. It is a very nice modern library with internet access and computers for research etc. free to the kids and the public. Takes more to make a school than a library but a good library is a great start.

If you have a kid with baseball aspirations, Asher is the ticket. They have been baseball champs, a lot. Terrific coaching, a ball diamond that looks like the minor leagues. Of course several of the small towns around the area that aren't fortball powers take their baseball seriously. I went to a football highschool (Lindsay) didn't have baseball but we had church leagues that got pretty serious (I pitched and did some outfield).

The Hinkles of Hinkle Homes in Stratford (Joyce and DeWayne or their son Barry or Grandson Jeramiah (out of school about 3-4 yrs) would be good sources. They have been in Stratford literally for generations. They might be able to give some comparison to Ada, Pauls Valley, etc. Ahh, there are some fond memories, Lindsay used to kick Pauls Valley butt in football but then Lindsay used to kick everyones as they were always contenders for the state championships way above their enrollment size.

Anyway the Hinkles are real honest GOOD people. I'm sure they are in the book.

Oh yeah, Wanette is a good little town but they have a reputation for wild (drugs often involved) teenagers.

The Ada side of Stratford seems to be horse country central. Lots of horses in evidence, starting gates in fields etc.

Hope this may help. I'll send along anything I get from any other sources.

Aren't there statewide standardized tests with published results that would give an insight into the academic excellence side of the schools?

Patrick