Thursday, March 22, 2012

Blame It On The Rain

We drove out to the homestead today.  We have received several inches of rain over the past week and wanted to see how the water flowed thru our property.

In my last post I told you about my daughter digging a hole and it filling with water and my hypothesis of there being a spring.  At the time she dug the hole we had not seen much rain so I was really surprised when she hit water after digging less than two feet.  I don't remember if I mentioned but after she hit the water it made my wonder if the low spot of our land just below the berry patch would have easily accessable water.  It is always the last place to dry out and it's where we want to dig the pond.  We went to that area and dug down 3-4 feet and didn't hit any water, just clay.

When we reached the land today we didn't risk driving in for fear of getting stuck.  Once off the gravel the ground was saturated with water.

There was no way I was walking thru the pass so I took off on our path thru the woods.  Imagine my surprise to finding water flowing down the path we had cleared thru the woods.

I walked further into the woods to find the source of the water.  Remember that hole we dug?  The water was coming out of the ground about three feet uphill from the hole and also bubbling out of the hole.  The water in the hole was crystal clear.  I firmly believe I can drive a sand point well and have water for irrigation most of the year.

I made it out of the woods and found the cabin just like we left it.  It's a good thing I repaired the roofing felt because it would've been soaked inside if I hadn't.  The areas in front of the cabin where we have the play set for my son was wet with standing water.  Once I get the porch built we will have to make a path with pebbles.

On my way out I checked out the pass to the back of our property.  It looked like a pond and the water was flowing across it at a fairly good rate.  It will be a major project to make this area passable by car.  Right now I doubt if I could make it to the pass much less across it.

I shot multiple pictures, I will start with the picture of the hole full of water prior to all this rain.













Monday, March 19, 2012

Lofty Plans

What wacky weather we have been experiencing.  Yesterday was spent mowing and cleaning up the yard at the house we are currently renting.  It was nice that the mowers started up without much problems, I have kept the batteries charged throughout winter.  Jenn and the girls picked up sticks that had fallen from the trees and stacked them in a pile at the curb.  I had planned on taking them to the farm for tender for our bon fires but our land lord pulled up in his truck and took them away.  We lucked out and have a good landlord.  It's amazing how many sticks fall from the trees it seems like we are always picking up sticks.

We managed to make it out to the cabin.  The ground was really wet, the pass muddy with standing water.  I was hesitant to drive the truck through it as we need new tires, the tread is pretty worn causing me to nearly get stuck on an earlier visit.  The ground is saturated despite no rain recently. 

Lacie had to dig a hole, she got down about a foot and a half and the hole started filling with water.  In no time the hole was nearly full.  The area she was digging is just inside the woods about 20 feet away from the wet weather stream.  I have been thinking about driving a sand point well for irrigating the berry plants.  With this hole filling with water so near the surface dispite no recent rain only affirms my belief that I could be successful in driving a shallow well.

I got to work installing plywood for the loft floor.  We got all the pieces up to cover the loft but only one piece is nailed down.  I was running out of time and the girls were ready for their bonfire, I also had to repair some storm damage as part of the roofing felt had blown off one side when we had high winds recently.