Water Pump advice needed.

[WhyNot]

Eddie,

Not sure if the farmers use irrigation around you way but if they do you may be able to find a used portable irrigation pump with a diesel engine on it for a decent price then just put a 250 gal. fuel tank next to it and let it run till the lake is full. Then you will have it if you need some water to fill the lake in the summer and if you want some nice green grass in the park buy a used reel irrigation system and pump it out of one of your ponds. Not as cheap as you want but if you find one that requires some work it may be worth it.

 

[EddieWalker]

There's not much, if any need for irrigation pumps around here, but I'm familiar with them from a distance in California. Especially allong the canals and aquaducts.

I'm headed towards Austin this weekend, so I'm gonna do some searches along my route to see if anything looks interesting.

Thanks,
Eddie

 

[Mike120]

Eddie,

Don't worry about it....I expect we're gonna have a wet winter. My neighbor dug a pond about half the size of yours but about 15' deep. The rain we've had down here in the last couple of weeks have just about filled it up. It'll get up your way soon enough.

Mike

 

[EddieWalker]

Mike,

I know your right, but the rains we've been getting are all slow, light soakers. It's actually the best type of weather for my bermuda grass to get started and I'm thankful that hundreds and hudreds of dollars worth of seed didn't get washed away in one huge downpour, but I'm also wishing the lake would fill up!!!

One other thing to add to the equation is that we're having the family over for Christmas Eve dinner. We'll make a day of it with ATV's maybe some horses and lots of showing off the land. It would be real nice if that giant dirt hole in the ground actualy had some water in it. hahahaha

I've been looking for irrigation pumps, and there are are a few for sale around the country, but for pretty big bucks. $8,000 is one price I've seen, but most don't even have a price on them. I guess you're supposed to call to find out how much?

I'm still looking in the areas I'm headed to this weekend, but it seems people are very proud of there pumps and unless they are total junk, they seem to hold there value pretty good.

Eddie

 

[oliver28472]

Any dairy farms in that area? Tough times right now and some are going out. They have manure pumps.

 

[rswyan]

I guess the areas with trees absorb more water than open land??

It's my understanding that large trees can transpire (suck up moisture from the ground and give it off through the leaves) up to 200 gallons per day.

 

[Mike120]

Eddie,

Before the rain (I got 5" one day) my neighbor was going to put in a windmill to keep from running power to his pond. There is a company up in the Dallas area that deals in used windmills that had pretty good prices....those wells are pretty cheap because they're pretty shallow. It's not as fast but it's a heck of a lot cheaper than an irrigation pump. Have you considered that option?

Looks like you're getting some rain today....I'm happy that this one is missing me, but we'll both likely get drenched when the remains of hurricane Paul comes up from Mexico in the next few days.

Mike

 

[EddieWalker]

Eddie - the first question you need to answer when considering high pump rates from the creek is How Many Gallons per Hour can the creek supply? Also at high pump rates what is the trash content of the creek going to be?

I went down to the creek the other day and took this picture. It's flowing pretty good, but not great. It will go up to the edge of the bank after a heavy storm or several days of heavy rain. This is about four days after a long, slow 1 inch rain.

The creek is 8 to ten feet wide and this is a fairly shallow area. The deep hole is behind a big oak tree and not real easy to see.

I think there's more than enough water to pump from here and not even notice it. I'm sure I'll pump some debri, but the water is fairly clean. Just some sediment. The heavy rains do a good job of cleaning it out from leaves and small branches

I'm still debating on what pump to buy,
Eddie

 

[Willl]

Eddie, is your lake on the other side of that small clearing (top/right) in the pic ?

 

[EddieWalker]

Will,

Yes, the picture shows some of my bermuda coming up in that picture. That's actually below the dam. The dam starts about a dozen feet or so to the right of that clear area.

I added a few pics of the lake in the Projects section that shows it a little better. The thread is called "Creating a Lake"

Eddie