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RE: Day 791 (Daily Post)
That's great! Do you have trouble with the water supply in the summer? If we have too much dry weather in spring and summer we tend to run out of water in the fall. We have to be very careful.
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No i do not actually. I spent the better part of the first year developing the spring so it would flow all year. I highly recommend the SKAT pdf document found at the bottom of this website if you are interested in spring development. http://www.clean-water-for-laymen.com/spring-development.html
That's so nice. We started capturing the rain water for the animals to take some pressure off the spring. Thanks for the link! I will check it out.
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I started the opposite way by doing rainwater catchment first and then transitioning to spring water. I was able to discontinue my rain water harvesting but I do plan on setting it up again eventually when I need it for irrigation purposes. The spring water is great but it is not the best for irrigation. I am not sure if it is because of how cold the water is or if it lacks the nutrients that rain water has or both but eventually I will probably implement a system that mixes the two sources of water so that I have the best of both sources.
As for spring/seep development it is a tricky prospect at best and some springs/seeps are what they are and not much can be done about it but even if you can marginally improve the production (or consistency of production) it is well worth the time to at least give it a try.
Definitely. Our spring was here when we bought the place. I looked at the PDF you sent and it's got some great ideas. Our water comes from under a huge maple tree so I don't know how much we can do to improve the flow, but it's certainly worth a try just to relieve some anxiety! We have an old cistern that we think used to feed the house but it only runs in the winter now. Hence the new spring. If we could get that to flow year round that would be awesome.
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@goat-girlz Well your biggest problem is actually probably the maple tree itself. Trees and springs never mix well together because one they consume an incredible amount of water and two the roots growing in or near a spring can disrupt the path of the water. The only benefit a tree(s) give a spring is some shade so that the sun does not evaporate the water or work to gradually dry the spring area up. Shade can be easily created though with a small pole building whose water shedding potential will help add water to the ground around the spring itself. If i were in your position I would look at deleting the maple tree (along with it's root ball) from the equation entirely or at the very least pruning it back as much as possible so that it does not 'drink' the spring dry every summer. The other big concern to note with trees growing in a spring area is that if they ever get uprooted by the wind (which is highly likely in such wet terrain) there is a good chance that when the root mass tears free of the ground it will either divert, partially obstruct or fully destroy the spring itself.
P.S. If you post some pictures of your spring, the catchment system around it, the silt trap (if there is one) and the cistern I may have some helpful advice on things you can do.
Well hell. Now I have something else to worry about! That may be why the original spring doesn't run in the summer anymore. It's surrounded by trees.
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I wondered about the 'more things to worry about' when I was typing that out! The original spring may well still be producing but the tree roots are not allowing it to reach the surface. I am fond of saying something along the lines of 'it is important to understand the relationship between one thing and another'. Seriously it sounds like a chainsaw would remedy a good part of your spring water difficulties even if you just turned all the trees into copicced stumps.
Hahahaha! It's ok. Worrying is something I do as a hobby. The original spring is surrounded by for trees, which have very shallow roots, especially considering how tall they get. It would be sad to cut them down but we might have to think about it.
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