Yup! First thing I did on the homestead was to develop my water system. The previous owner had hauled a couple bags of concrete mix up the creek and made a "sort of" dam to collect water. I got into this area in late August when the water was at the lowest. Took my old trusty friend John Deere up there and started digging all the slush and gravel out on the creekbed. I discovered three inputs of water into this area. At the time there was NO surface flow upstream and some flow downstream. Yup, A BIG muddy mess!
Once I had identified where my water was coming from I continued digging and excavated for a dam. At the time the Federal AS****ES flying the Campaign Against Marijuana Planting kept photographing us being bad boys in the creek with John and no permit. Guess they liked the tatoos on nether parts of my hired hand...at any rate didn't hear from them until several years later and only VERY polite inquiries at the time.
Formed up what I needed and then called for the Misery Wagon (transit mix concrete) to bring me 7 yards of mud. Before it got there I prepared a diversion to drain the upstream area of water...used 4 inch DWV and later simply capped it. That kept the water away from the fresh mud and allowed me to pour the dam. After the forms were stripped I laid in water takeout lines (perforated pipe into a manifold inside the dam) and burried it all in about 40 cu yards of pea gravel. The creek moved gravel, added sand, and simply did its thing. Now it is all completely overgrown again and it is hard to tell I was ever in there.
Later went on to trench and bury about 1/2 mile of 2 1/2 inch water pipe down to the garden and house areas.
Later, I was cruising the neighbor's land (he is absentee) and located what I am sure is the source water for what I collect. He has a VERY NICE spring coming out of the hillside well uphill from my dam. Always a mudwallow on the road just below that spring (nobody has legal rights to drive through there, not even the property owner) I hiked up the draw and found the source spring. Very difficult access, but it could be developed into an outstanding water source. Would have to be hand dug...no way to get John in to work. And also would required just bagged concrete to divert water. But I have done nothing since it is on the neighbor's place and he is never around.
If you have enough water to feed a pond I encourage you to do that. Another neighbor has his house built next to a 1/2 acre impoundment and we spend much time on his deck feeding the fish and snarfing up his grapes (what an arbor). For my own place water is too limited for such a pond, but I am ready to build another 10,000 gal water tank. It is sorely needed to provide water over the dry times in August and Sept. Either the pond or a very large tank will provide water for firefighting, if needed. In my area that is a serious concern.
Digging out those nasty mudholes can be a lot of work, but the benefits are well worth the effort. If you are as fortunate as me you will end up with abundant gravity fed water. All the 'hoe work and cat work to fill all the trenches and "landscape" it back to a more or less natural configuration was time consuming, but more than worth the effort.
If I can help further, ask.
bearkiller
I'm sure I'll be right in the mud too- hopefully as it is getting warmer here. 70's tomorrow!
