Sinkhole

[Ky hills]

Our place has several sinkholes and more drop out all the time. I've found several the hard way with trucks and tractors over the years.
A few days ago I was walking down in a holler checking on some pairs we'd sorted earlier. All of a sudden I take a step and both feet go down a hole. I went down almost to my armpits, and backed out of it using my elbows.
The hole wasn't real big around like some are but was deep. at the base of the hole was a smaller one that went on down.

 

[jltrent]

You probably have running water and caves under your property. I have several holes to fall in from time to time. The best thing I have seen to plug them is good heavy tires. I have never had one to refall after putting tires to seal and then covering with dirt. Usually, the next year you have to fill in a little from sinkage, but that is about it. I can take a set of witching sticks and trace a lot of underground caves around here as one runs right under my house.

 

[Ky hills]

You probably have running water and caves under your property. I have several holes to fall in from time to time. The best thing I have seen to plug them is good heavy tires. I have never had one to refall after putting tires to seal and then covering with dirt. Usually, the next year you have to fill in a little from sinkage, but that is about it. I can take a set of witching sticks and trace a lot of underground caves around here as one runs right under my house.

Yes, there are several spring fed ponds and one place where we used to could pump water out of an underground ground spring to water cattle.
I'll have to try the tire, we've filled in several holes with field rocks and dirt.
Got one that's probably 7-8 foot diameter and 8-10 ft deep. We put a fence around it.

 

[bird dog]

A new entry into Mammoth Cave?

 

[jltrent]

Yes, there are several spring fed ponds and one place where we used to could pump water out of an underground ground spring to water cattle.
I'll have to try the tire, we've filled in several holes with field rocks and dirt.
Got one that's probably 7-8 foot diameter and 8-10 ft deep. We put a fence around it.

Rocks and dirt would be better, but I figure the tires underground will outlast me and it is a good way to get rid of them. I have one hole I bet I put 20 old tires in 15-20 years ago and after filling in for shrinkage the next year it is still holding good.

 

[moses388]

Yes, there are several spring fed ponds and one place where we used to could pump water out of an underground ground spring to water cattle.

During excessive rainfall, we have a spot where water will shoot up out of the ground. When the water stops, there is sand on the ground. Is your underground spring still active?

 

[4hfarms]

Just had that happen to us in the front pasture. 8ft deep 2.5ft around. There was an old homesite and well there. We are lucky enough to ask the neighbor, she grew up here 80+ years ago. It was her grandparents farm. Wonder if it would be worth it to dig it out and have a well again...

 

[Ky hills]

During excessive rainfall, we have a spot where water will shoot up out of the ground. When the water stops, there is sand on the ground. Is your underground spring still active?

yes, it's still active but over the years it seems to have shifted course and the basin must have changed because at some point we couldn't get as much water out of it. On down the holler below it, water started coming out of the ground where small pond used to be. It for a while we had a nice pool of water there but cattle and erosion from the branch above ground fills the pool in every few years. There is still a spot where water comes out of the ground that cattle can drink pretty much year round.
I asked my mother years ago, why our ancestors settled here in the Very early 1800's, instead of other areas of the county that are perceived as much better today. She said she had always heard they settled on this end of the county because there was water.

 

[Ky hills]

A new entry into Mammoth Cave?

Maybe, we are about 150 some miles east of there though.
Here is the biggest sinkhole we have. This picture was taken last fall, it's filled in a little and kind of grassed over some on the sides and part of the base by now as it's been there for 6-7 years. We fenced it off, and had to redo the fence to make it a little bigger, I guess due to erosion. The picture doesn't do it justice.
When we first found it, I joked that maybe a family of Sasquatches live down there.

 

[Logan52]

Like Kentucky Hills, I live in a county roughly half Bluegrass and half Eden Hills.
The famously fertile and beautiful Bluegrass lands that are today home to horse farms, were noted by early explorers and settlers as barren of surface water in the summer, enough to be a concern when crossing them on horseback. The abundance of sinkholes and underground drainage caused this. A good spring was foremost in the mind of the prospective new settler and a new land claim was always centered around one.

 

[greybeard]

All of a sudden I take a step and both feet go down a hole. I went down almost to my armpits, and backed out of it using my elbows.

I am not afraid of much on this Earth and have been in and seen lots of 's%*# in my life but I will relate this. That one line, would probably have been the end of me, as I have a lifelong fear of doing exactly that..suddenly falling off into a hole in the ground. I hve had nightmares about it and I think it comes from, as a youngun around 12 years old, reading the story of cave explorer Floyd Collins in Readers Digest.
Ky cave explorer Floyd Collins


When I was cleaning up my father's junk and trash filled estate in 2007-2008, I worried about that a lot and one day, picked up an old car hood and there was a hole, about 3' in diameter and I do not know how deep. I was told, it was left by 'doodlebuggers' blasting for seismic, and one of their drill holes caved in and Dad told them to leave it, "I'll turn it into a water well".

I know you love your property, you take care of it, and do well on it, but honestly, what happened to you would make me leave.

 

[MurraysMutts]

That would sure be a helluva surprise. Glad ur ok!

 

[Ky hills]

I am not afraid of much on this Earth and have been in and seen lots of 's%*# in my life but I will relate this. That one line, would probably have been the end of me, as I have a lifelong fear of doing exactly that..suddenly falling off into a hole in the ground. I hve had nightmares about it and I think it comes from, as a youngun around 12 years old, reading the story of cave explorer Floyd Collins in Readers Digest.
Ky cave explorer Floyd Collins


When I was cleaning up my father's junk and trash filled estate in 2007-2008, I worried about that a lot and one day, picked up an old car hood and there was a hole, about 3' in diameter and I do not know how deep. I was told, it was left by 'doodlebuggers' blasting for seismic, and one of their drill holes caved in and Dad told them to leave it, "I'll turn it into a water well".

I know you love your property, you take care of it, and do well on it, but honestly, what happened to you would make me leave.

Yeah, holes like the drill hole you mentioned and sone of these sink holes are dangerous for sure. My wife thinks I need a tracking device on my phone.
The sinkholes are a fact of life here. When I was was a small child and my parents bought stocker calves instead of running cows and calves. One evening they were coming up short in their head count and a neighbor happened to be walking her dog along the fence line. The dog crossed under the fence and was barking at something she went to it and found a 400-500 lb steer completely hidden down in a sinkhole standing up. They drug it out with tractor.
Years later I had a probably 200 lb calf down in another one that several of us pulled out.
A few years ago while bushhogging the ground dropped out and swallowed one of the rear tires of a 7710 Ford. Had to get a bull dozer to pull it out. It was leaning and up in the air in front. Had it not been hooked up to the batwing it would have turned over I believe.
I was pretty nervous in it while the bulldozer was pulling it out.
We are thinking seriously about relocating not necessarily because of sinkholes although that is an aggravation that certainly adds to the negatives.

 

[kenny thomas]

Good place to hide the people who bother you.

 

[farmerjan]

I am not afraid of much on this Earth and have been in and seen lots of 's%*# in my life but I will relate this. That one line, would probably have been the end of me, as I have a lifelong fear of doing exactly that..suddenly falling off into a hole in the ground. I hve had nightmares about it and I think it comes from, as a youngun around 12 years old, reading the story of cave explorer Floyd Collins in Readers Digest.
Ky cave explorer Floyd Collins


When I was cleaning up my father's junk and trash filled estate in 2007-2008, I worried about that a lot and one day, picked up an old car hood and there was a hole, about 3' in diameter and I do not know how deep. I was told, it was left by 'doodlebuggers' blasting for seismic, and one of their drill holes caved in and Dad told them to leave it, "I'll turn it into a water well".

I know you love your property, you take care of it, and do well on it, but honestly, what happened to you would make me leave.

I read most of that story but could not finish it... I am like you... scares me to death to think of getting trapped in something like that... and we have our share of sinkholes around here too... usually drop 2-4 ft and have practically busted some front tractor axles on them... makes me nervous to bush hog one place.

 

[Ky hills]

Good place to hide the people who bother you.

I'm too paranoid for that, I just try avoid the folks that bother me.
When our rent house burned we had man with an excavator to finish tearing it down and clean up the area. He found an old well under back porch that had been built over it. He asked if we had anybody we didn't like before he filled in the well.

 

[chaded]

That is some scary stuff and would probably have me on edge, especially running equipment.

We have two wells here. One is a shallow hand dug well around 16' deep and 3' or so in diameter. There is a piece of metal over it but my plan is to get rid of the thing someday. I need to check more into the best way of going about that.

Another one is in our hayfield. It has a very heavy metal lid and I am not too worried about it. Not sure of its depth but the hole is probably 18" in diameter.

My brother in law bought the property next door a couple years ago and is about to move in next week. There is one of those old round concrete cisterns right up from the house on the hill. The thing is deep. He has 4 kids and I told him he needs to get something on the top of that thing..I have some pretty big pieces of concrete I been tempted to put one on it with my tractor.

 

[Ky hills]

That is some scary stuff and would probably have me on edge, especially running equipment.

We have two wells here. One is a shallow hand dug well around 16' deep and 3' or so in diameter. There is a piece of metal over it but my plan is to get rid of the thing someday. I need to check more into the best way of going about that.

Another one is in our hayfield. It has a very heavy metal lid and I am not too worried about it. Not sure of its depth but the hole is probably 18" in diameter.

My brother in law bought the property next door a couple years ago and is about to move in next week. There is one of those old round concrete cisterns right up from the house on the hill. The thing is deep. He has 4 kids and I told him he needs to get something on the top of that thing..I have some pretty big pieces of concrete I been tempted to put one on it with my tractor.

Several years ago my cousin had a horse to fall through an old cistern when the top fell in.
We had a mess with our septic tank too, we have a basement and the tank is buried very deep down and I guess under the weight of all the dirt on top the concrete tops were breaking caving in.
Finally after 2 or 3 attempts a plumber came up with the idea of putting one of those metal plates that they put over holes in the road for construction sites over the tank. So far so good with that.

 

[M.Magis]

Just had that happen to us in the front pasture. 8ft deep 2.5ft around. There was an old homesite and well there. We are lucky enough to ask the neighbor, she grew up here 80+ years ago. It was her grandparents farm. Wonder if it would be worth it to dig it out and have a well again...

Sounds like it's likely an old cistern.

 

[TCRanch]

During excessive rainfall, we have a spot where water will shoot up out of the ground.

That would be so cool to see!