Springs

[Ky hills]

Other day I posted about falling in a sinkhole, and in the conversations underground water and springs were mentioned.
Here is one of our springs that is the start of a branch that goes through our property and couple others before becoming a sizable creek a little ways down.
There has been a small dug out basin there where the spring comes out of the ground but it gets filled in over time and has now made another smaller basin on its own just below it.

 

[wbvs58]

Does it ever dry up?

Ken

 

[Travlr]

Other day I posted about falling in a sinkhole, and in the conversations underground water and springs were mentioned.
Here is one of our springs that is the start of a branch that goes through our property and couple others before becoming a sizable creek a little ways down.
There has been a small dug out basin there where the spring comes out of the ground but it gets filled in over time and has now made another smaller basin on its own just below it.
View attachment 45336View attachment 45338

Have you ever lost a cow, truck, whatever, in a sinkhole?

 

[Ky hills]

Does it ever dry up?

Ken

Not in my recent memory, though I'm sure in severe drought conditions it does. On down the branch does dry up in the summer during extended dry spells, but there's always some water right there just below that hole at the bottom of the hill.
It stays open during the winter too and doesn't freeze unless it's an extreme cold .

 

[Ky hills]

Have you ever lost a cow, truck, whatever, in a sinkhole?

Yes, yes, and yes,
Have had a 500 lb steer fall in one, neighbors dog found him and we were able to get him out alive. I’ve had a 200 lb calf in one that we were able to pull out and also a baby calf a few days old. Thankfully have never had one die from falling in. Have had a calf break a leg from falling over a steep bank,
I’ve had trucks get stuck, one time I had the front of a truck down in a hole and the back end up in the air, had to walk to the house and get a tractor to pull it out.
Then was batwinging and the front of the tractor went over but the back tire broke through and got stuck. had to get a bulldozer to pull it out. The front end was up in the air and leaning on that time. If it hadn’t been hooked to the batwing mower it would have turned over maybe before or during pulling it out.
Then there was last week or so when I fell in one.

 

[wbvs58]

Not in my recent memory, though I'm sure in severe drought conditions it does. On down the branch does dry up in the summer during extended dry spells, but there's always some water right there just below that hole at the bottom of the hill.
It stays open during the winter too and doesn't freeze unless it's an extreme cold .

I have one that I found in our big drought in 2018. I don't know if it is a true spring but is below the wall of an old tin mining settling pond that had been bone dry for about 10 years after the wall had been breached. We were doing some work with the dozer when it sunk down in it, my grandson dug it out a bit with the excavator when we were doing repair work on that pond wall and it filled up immediately. It was comforting to know we had water coming out of the ground during what many said was the worst drought in 100 years.

Ken

 

[Logan52]

The higher elevations of my farm are based on a porous limestone that allows rainfall to peculate down into it. This limestone soil sits on a layer of hard shale and in wet weather numerous "wet weather springs" pop out along that layer. They continue to run as long as it stays wet, but when you really need them are dry as a bone.
Ponds were once a solution to this but were bad about leaking and not holding water.
The majority of the water for my livestock comes from the county water system and is supplied through plastic lines to water fountains. A big improvement and not as costly as you might think. I try to keep some springs and ponds in working order just in case.

 

[Ky hills]

I have one that I found in our big drought in 2018. I don't know if it is a true spring but is below the wall of an old tin mining settling pond that had been bone dry for about 10 years after the wall had been breached. We were doing some work with the dozer when it sunk down in it, my grandson dug it out a bit with the excavator when we were doing repair work on that pond wall and it filled up immediately. It was comforting to know we had water coming out of the ground during what many said was the worst drought in 100 years.

Ken

I’m not sure about that one in the picture as far as whether it runs all time or not but it does pretty much all time. When we kept a man made pool open right there at the hole it stayed open even in drought conditions, but since it’s filled in with mud there now it gets down to a smaller area at the base of the hole in dry or winter conditions but I’ve seen them drinking from an area like a good size cow track pretty much all year regardless.but in case of real severe drought I’m not sure what it would do. I think as it filled up it’s coming out in another place below a little stronger and feeding that pool where the cow is standing.
,we had one up the holler from that one that never went dry, I believe it’s all part of the same underground system it has a bit of a basin at the bottom of hill and water can be pumped out if it. Yes it is worth a lot to not have to worry about water.
There is a spot at a bypass road about a mile from we are that our road intersects with and water comes up year round through the pavement and just makes a big puddle.

 

[Ky hills]

The higher elevations of my farm are based on a porous limestone that allows rainfall to peculate down into it. This limestone soil sits on a layer of hard shale and in wet weather numerous "wet weather springs" pop out along that layer. They continue to run as long as it stays wet, but when you really need them are dry as a bone.
Ponds were once a solution to this but were bad about leaking and not holding water.
The majority of the water for my livestock comes from the county water system and is supplied through plastic lines to water fountains. A big improvement and not as costly as you might think. I try to keep some springs and ponds in working order just in case.

We have two spring fed ponds, and have a “city water” fed waterer in one field, and in a field close to the house we run water in a tank with a garden hose. Nothing like going to bed and wondering if I turned the water off or not, made a many a trip out to look.
We think our rural water is pretty expensive last bill was over $300 without watering cattle it’s usually around $120 give or take.

 

[gcreekrch]

18 springs on our home 80 acres.

 

[Caustic Burno]

I live on an escarpment we’re covered up in springs.

 

[Shuttle50]

This is my main spring, I have about three more around the place that run all year long even in the drought we had a few years back. Not exactly covered up but here round Bugtussle water just squeezes out of the ground.

 

[Dave]

I have 7 springs on my place. It is amazing how many springs there are out here in the desert. Five of them have been developed to supply stock water up in the hills, most but not all feed a water trough. One has been developed to supply water to the house. That first picture is a hole that a spring fills. It is about 15 feet across and 2 feet deep. It stays full of water year round. The second picture I am standing on a tank that holds about 700 gallons of water from the spring that supplies water to the house. It is gravity fed to the house and in the cellar under the house is a pressure pump and tank.

 

[cowman82]

not sure how many springs I have... close to 2 dozen. here in sw mo I guess we are the only part of the USA that springs can be at the top of the hills. I have lots that flow from the top... and have lots that flow from the bottom. When it rains real good, I have a cave that will rush out an incredible amount of water. I went on a cave tour and it was a 17 mile cave, they showed how much water comes out of theres after a storm.. and mine was about double that.... I think I have a pretty large cave system for that much water. maybe one day i'll try to do some digging but I really don't like being underground much.

 

[Travlr]

I looked at a 400 acre place in Arkansas that had a spring flowing out of the ground maybe three feet higher than the pond less than a hundred feet away... and it was ten feet wide and six inches deep and fed the pond that was no more than thirty feet wide... and the pond had no outlet.

In Arkansas it wasn't unusual at all to have some pretty big water coming up out of the ground and within a short distance that big water disappeared back into the ground.

 

[Stonewall Joe]

when I was a kid growing up in SE MO there were a lot of springs around, we had a spring house in one place that was about 6 x 6 and the bottom part was concrete walls and it had a pump that supplied all the running water to the place, after the bottom would fill there was an overflow going into the pasture to water cattle, a close neighbor had a dairy with a spring coming out of a hill with a big spring house and concrete deep troughs that would hold milk can standing up and after milking they would place milk cans in there to keep them cool before they got refrigerated tanks