Differences in areas

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Most of you will remember how much I complained about all our mud & rain. Well, now we are dry. Haven't had a drop of rain for ?3 weeks? My house well is different than my outside water source well. It is pretty shallow (75"?) If I do laundry or, like last night, I watered some flower beds. Our house water is MUDDY. I can't remember that EVER happening. Not sure if it is really the "dry" issue or something funky with the well.
Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not comparing our "dry" situation (not drought) to all you folks in a true drought. Just saying how different areas are. This land NEEDS water every 3 days or so. We have CRACKS in the ground. When I watered the flowers, water just dissapeared in cracks.
I see signs of corn starting to "curl".
And it's only been 3 WEEKS - after a record breaking wet spring!
Shows how different soils are.
We've been dryer in the past. Just seems like our underground water level should be plentiful after the over-abundance of water all of March, April & some of May.
When we first moved here, we would have a heavy rain, then 2 days later (or less) farmers would be out plowing their ground. Hubby would say, "look at that fool - his land is going to be slabs". Well, it wasn't. It worked up beautiful. In Kansas, you couldn't do that.
Different soil.
We've had 3 weeks of sunshine. That's like a miracle around here. THREE DAYS is a blessing when you are trying to put up hay.
This area would be a DESERT if we were like some of you, not having substantial moisture since last year! :shock:
Hope the weather evens out. Those of you needing rain gets it & those of you flooding, gets sunshine.

 

[3waycross]

This weather deal is nuts I guess. We finally received some real rain yesterday afternoon and evening. Had to be close to an inch and around here that's a bunch.

 

[ALACOWMAN]

we had a little over 2 inchs yesterday evening,,, it came in from the north sideways then back from the east sideways then settled on staight down for awhile.........we were leaning toward a drought right after all those tornados came though but finally got back into our old pattern.....where you can drink the air,,, but ill take it over cold any day.... man came down from michigan last week to pick up his mother inlaw.. said be nice to get away from the heat up there for a few days.. he said,, dear god i never counted on this kinda heat here :cowboy:

 

[dun]

Haven;t had any in 3 weeks or so. The standard saying aorund here is that we're never more then 10 days from a drought. Soil doesn;t hold a whole lot of moisture.
I'm glad we aren;t calving now. If a little calf fell into one of the cracks it wouldn;t be able to climb out.

 

[1982vett]

Jeanne...."muddy water"....make sure your check valve isn't letting water back down into the well from your pressure tank stirring up the water sand. They do go bad or maybe some metal part from the pump may be lodged in it keeping it from closing.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Jeanne...."muddy water"....make sure your check valve isn't letting water back down into the well from your pressure tank stirring up the water sand. They do go bad or maybe some metal part from the pump may be lodged in it keeping it from closing.

Vett - I was hoping someone might suggest a different reason than the dry weather & using excessive water in one day for the "muddy water". I'll see if that's something Hubby can check.
If that was the reason - would it come & go? It's happened like 3 times this past week. Toilet bowl is where we REALLY notice it :shock: and then I think "and I only drink our faucet water" :shock: :shock:

 

[1982vett]

if it is a piece of metal that isn't stuck I suppose it could come and go. Don't know how and where you have shut-off valves...but simple way to check is to shut water flow off. If you have no leaks between the tank and shutoff it's a good sign it's going back down the well.

Had it happen to one of mine a few years ago...the valve broke and let water run back down. Had if fixed and a few weeks later it was doing it again....the nut that rotted off was lodged in the check valve...put another new one in and I haven't had trouble since. I really don't think low water levels would cause "muddy" water. Something is "stirring" the watersand.

Just thought of something else....is the pipe in the well galvanized? A neighbor recently had pump problems...not only was the pump bad, but they had a lot of bad pipe.

 

[MistyMorning]

Jeanne...."muddy water"....make sure your check valve isn't letting water back down into the well from your pressure tank stirring up the water sand. They do go bad or maybe some metal part from the pump may be lodged in it keeping it from closing.

Vett - I was hoping someone might suggest a different reason than the dry weather & using excessive water in one day for the "muddy water". I'll see if that's something Hubby can check.
If that was the reason - would it come & go? It's happened like 3 times this past week. Toilet bowl is where we REALLY notice it :shock: and then I think "and I only drink our faucet water" :shock: :shock:

Jeanne, we had that same deal here a few years back and it was the check valve.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Thanks guys.
Pipe was replaced about 10 years ago - assume that's OK. Hubby said check valve is down the well with the submersible pump. I'll call our well guy. He put the system in & should have a good idea.
Thanks for all your help.

Still no rain - in the 90's yesterday & today (rare for here - usually a total of 5-6 days a summer - and we already met that quota in June). Everyone is a little worried, but they all realize we are a whole lot better than some of you.

 

[ALACOWMAN]

Thanks guys.
Pipe was replaced about 10 years ago - assume that's OK. Hubby said check valve is down the well with the submersible pump. I'll call our well guy. He put the system in & should have a good idea.
Thanks for all your help.

Still no rain - in the 90's yesterday & today (rare for here - usually a total of 5-6 days a summer - and we already met that quota in June). Everyone is a little worried, but they all realize we are a whole lot better than some of you.

near 100 here today with the heat index of 112..... seen some angus in a field on the way in,, with signs ''compare this sht to Scotland'' :cowboy:

 

[1982vett]

Thanks guys.
Pipe was replaced about 10 years ago - assume that's OK. Hubby said check valve is down the well with the submersible pump. I'll call our well guy. He put the system in & should have a good idea.
Thanks for all your help.

Still no rain - in the 90's yesterday & today (rare for here - usually a total of 5-6 days a summer - and we already met that quota in June). Everyone is a little worried, but they all realize we are a whole lot better than some of you.

Strange....Here we put them behind the pressure switch with a snifter valve to slowly empty the water in the well pipe back down the well. Pump doesn't have all that weight of the water to over come when it switches back on. Motors last a lot longer...pressure tanks don't get waterlogged as air is always added to the tank when the pump kick in...(an air volume contol valve regulates how much air is in the tank). Anyway...your heading the right direction.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

That might have been hubby's excuse not to work on it :hide: has too many other things going on.

 

[Jogeephus]

This year started out stressful. Corn dried up in the fields. Some of my sweet corn tassled at knee high and what little I could water the coons ate. I was about two weeks from having to feed cows in the summer so I sold a load of calves out of the field. I didn't really want to do it but I saw this as a way to buy some time. BTW - many of these were off the sim bull I mentioned to you a while back. After seeing what I got and seeing what the high at the sale barn was I felt much better about the decision. A week later we got several good rains and everything exploded in growth. Hay is still going to be short this year since I should be working on my second or third cutting but haven't done any more than a cleanup cutting but its ready to cut now if I can get a break in the weather. Its not like we are getting rain but the threat of rain is too much to risk cutting this heavy of grass with. I'll need at least three good days to get it up and that is with conditioning.

Speaking of your muddy water, on occassion I wash semi-deep wells down and sometimes the water will get muddy after drilling or later if a big rain storm comes. Am told this is due to the collapse of a side wall. On a new well what we do is run the water full blast to pull out as much water and silt as possible to form a large pocket in the well and with time this keeps this occurance to a minimal. I do have one shallow well that milks up every time we have a good storm though. I think on this one I'm just going to have to go deeper but its never run out of water.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Right not, it has only happened 2 or 3 times, but it is AFTER we use a lot of water. Which made me think it was that our well supply was low. Still haven't called the well guy. Other things more important - especially since water is fine right now. You know, out of sight, out of mind.

 

[john250]

Most of you will remember how much I complained about all our mud & rain. Well, now we are dry. Haven't had a drop of rain for ?3 weeks? My house well is different than my outside water source well. It is pretty shallow (75"?) If I do laundry or, like last night, I watered some flower beds. Our house water is MUDDY. I can't remember that EVER happening. Not sure if it is really the "dry" issue or something funky with the well.
Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not comparing our "dry" situation (not drought) to all you folks in a true drought. Just saying how different areas are. This land NEEDS water every 3 days or so. We have CRACKS in the ground. When I watered the flowers, water just dissapeared in cracks.
I see signs of corn starting to "curl".
And it's only been 3 WEEKS - after a record breaking wet spring!
Shows how different soils are.
We've been dryer in the past. Just seems like our underground water level should be plentiful after the over-abundance of water all of March, April & some of May.
When we first moved here, we would have a heavy rain, then 2 days later (or less) farmers would be out plowing their ground. Hubby would say, "look at that fool - his land is going to be slabs". Well, it wasn't. It worked up beautiful. In Kansas, you couldn't do that.
Different soil.
We've had 3 weeks of sunshine. That's like a miracle around here. THREE DAYS is a blessing when you are trying to put up hay.
This area would be a DESERT if we were like some of you, not having substantial moisture since last year! :shock:
Hope the weather evens out. Those of you needing rain gets it & those of you flooding, gets sunshine.

Jeanne, describe your soils. Are you on some peat, like N IN? Or something else? I am on some rather odd soil types, shallow, limestone and shale base material. Our soils don't crack open in dry times, that is why I ask.

Yikes! That is Northern Indiana, not "Nine Inch Nails" or NIN.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

OK - had to think about that one - that's over my head.
Here's what is written in our Farm Management Program:
Geographic Setting: Erie soils. Slope ranges from 1-25%. These soils formed in till of Wisconsin age derived from siltstone, sandstone, shale & some limestone. Mean annual precipitation ranges from 30-45"; mean annual temp ranges 47-50 F and mean annual growing season ranges from 120-180 days. These soils are at elevations between 1100 -1800'. (house is about 1400' - some lower, most higher)
Geographically Associated soils: --soils are on nearby glacio-fluvial terraces & formed in gravelly deposits.

Does that tell you anything? I know they talk about a clay base.

 

[john250]

OK - had to think about that one - that's over my head.
Here's what is written in our Farm Management Program:
Geographic Setting: Erie soils. Slope ranges from 1-25%. These soils formed in till of Wisconsin age derived from siltstone, sandstone, shale & some limestone. Mean annual precipitation ranges from 30-45"; mean annual temp ranges 47-50 F and mean annual growing season ranges from 120-180 days. These soils are at elevations between 1100 -1800'. (house is about 1400' - some lower, most higher)
Geographically Associated soils: --soils are on nearby glacio-fluvial terraces & formed in gravelly deposits.

Does that tell you anything? I know they talk about a clay base.

Ah, the wisconsin age. You didn't get the Illinois age? You would remember the Illinois age. It ends with several of your elected representatives in jail.
Got rocks? A lot of those "glacial till" soils have rocks?

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

We grow rocks. They pop up every year.
We don't have those house-size rocks like Hudson Pines Farm down near NYC have - mostly fist-size to bigger than I want to pick up. But, planted fields need rocks picked each & every year. You would think they would run out, but they don't.

 

[VanC]

OK - had to think about that one - that's over my head.
Here's what is written in our Farm Management Program:
Geographic Setting: Erie soils. Slope ranges from 1-25%. These soils formed in till of Wisconsin age derived from siltstone, sandstone, shale & some limestone. Mean annual precipitation ranges from 30-45"; mean annual temp ranges 47-50 F and mean annual growing season ranges from 120-180 days. These soils are at elevations between 1100 -1800'. (house is about 1400' - some lower, most higher)
Geographically Associated soils: --soils are on nearby glacio-fluvial terraces & formed in gravelly deposits.

Does that tell you anything? I know they talk about a clay base.

Ah, the wisconsin age. You didn't get the Illinois age? You would remember the Illinois age. It ends with several of your elected representatives in jail.
Got rocks? A lot of those "glacial till" soils have rocks?

Define "several". :D

 

[VanC]

We grow rocks. They pop up every year.
We don't have those house-size rocks like Hudson Pines Farm down near NYC have - mostly fist-size to bigger than I want to pick up. But, planted fields need rocks picked each & every year. You would think they would run out, but they don't.

It was the same on my aunt and uncle's farm in central Wisconsin. The earth just keeps pushing them to the surface. Picking rocks is one memory from my youth that I don't relish one bit.