Opening up a spring with a track-hoe

[txdon]

Our spring finally turned into a mud hole in this Texas drought. I heard the last time this happened (about 20 years ago) a track-hoe was brought in and it started flowing. I check the mud/silt depth with a rod and it was almost 6'.

The 27' track-hoe started digging yesterday afternoon and finished this afternoon.

The mud was removed and the spring pond slowly is starting to fill up. I can see the water coming out in about 10 places. I'll take another picture in a few days to see how much the pond fills.

 

[txdon]

Here are the finishing photos, I still have a little tractor work to do once the mud and clay dries out a bit.

 

[EddieWalker]

That just makes me want to do into debt and buy one of those toys!!!!!!

Nice to see the water coming out.

Eddie

 

[Mousefield]

Nice pics, guessing you were watching while the machine did the work.
You mentioned 6ft of mud and silt, did you go deeper and/or wider as well?
Be nice for you if the water flow fills up the pond. :drool:

 

[dave1949]

Nice pics. That should keep it in decent shape for another 20 years.

I am always amazed how much spring water y'all have in Texas even though it is very dry. Jim was describing the spring running where he used to live and Blueriver told about his neighbors spring running steady. Now you have spring water seeping into your pond. It's surprising.

Dave.

 

[dave1949]

That just makes me want to do into debt and buy one of those toys!!!!!!

Nice to see the water coming out.

Eddie

You need one with an articulated wrist ditching bucket Eddie. Nothing finer for shaping and bank work. I wish I had one too but I ain't going into debt for one :laughing: Time to buy a lottery ticket I guess.

Dave.

 

[jinman]

The mud was removed and the spring pond slowly is starting to fill up. I can see the water coming out in about 10 places. I'll take another picture in a few days to see how much the pond fills.

Nice job Don! With the water coming out in so many places, you must not have opened the main spring. Is there one spot that flows more than the others?

 

[johnk]

I feel sorry for all you Texans with the drought. Has to be reaping havoc on about everything and everybody by now. Hate to be a cattle farmer or just to be living down there at this point. I imagine most farms are using wells for water. How are they holding up in most cases?

 

[txdon]

Mousefield, we went deeper and wider to make sure 95% of the black mud/silt was out. The bottom is not stable and is like quicksand. The sides are starting to cave in a little. The spring is on a fault line and the soil is clay with stripes of sand. I had the hot (103) tough job of supervising, while the operator had all the fun in the AC cab.


Jim, the area that is narrow is where the most water is coming out. I was told by the grandson of one of the original owners that this is one of the 7 springs in the area and the water at this spring can be found going north east of the main hole - and that's where it was. A 5' round area has caved in at this point and water is seeping out fast through the sand.

Johnk, The auction barn is having record sell offs. There are a lot of mother cows being sold from people reducing their herd. There was only one poor cutting of hay this summer and now the grass is not growing and is brown. The ranchers are going into winter with no hay reserves and are having to make some tough finical choices -buy hay or sell cows.

 

[pacerron]

I can see the water coming out in about 10 places. I'll take another picture in a few days to see how much the pond fills.

Are the 10 places all about the same elevation?
I have water that creates wet muck areas in 4 fields and the woods and they are the same elevation. They all dry up about the same time in July so I figure they are all from the same source. I tried digging a trench with my backhoe above the pond years ago where one comes out and creates a mess in about a 4k sq ft area. My intent was to dig the trench diagonally toward the pond and put gravel and field drain pipe in it to divert all of that water to the pond and dry up the surface. I ended up digging a ditch about 4 ft deep and 100 ft long but never found the real spring source. Water just oozed into the ditch from many places in the sidewalls and overnight it caved in.
Then the rains came and I ended up filling the ditch back in with the dirt without any pipe or gravel. The area still gets wet and I can't take a tractor through it until late June. We had to stop digging the pond into that area during original construction as we began to hit a coal seam.
Keep the pictures coming. It may help some of us develop our springs.
Ron

 

[bindian]

Our spring finally turned into a mud hole in this Texas drought. I heard the last time this happened (about 20 years ago) a track-hoe was brought in and it started flowing. I check the mud/silt depth with a rod and it was almost 6'.

The 27' track-hoe started digging yesterday afternoon and finished this afternoon.

The mud was removed and the spring pond slowly is starting to fill up. I can see the water coming out in about 10 places. I'll take another picture in a few days to see how much the pond fills.

Don,
It is always good to muck out when you can. Sounds like there was a few decades of silt there.

Was that excavator a Cat 235C? I have been seeing these on the I-45 construction in Conroe and this Cat is the biggest excavator Williams Construction (no relation) uses.

Like Eddie, I would like to have one to play on.
hugs, Brandi

 

[bindian]

I feel sorry for all you Texans with the drought. Has to be reaping havoc on about everything and everybody by now. Hate to be a cattle farmer or just to be living down there at this point. I imagine most farms are using wells for water. How are they holding up in most cases?

Thanks Johnk,
I am starting to see tops of trees turn brown on my place. Critters are literally coming out of the wood work for water. I'm seeing a lot of dove around my pond.:thumbsup: But my area's hawks are AWOL.:thumbdown::smiley_aafz::mur::confused3:
hugs, Brandi

 

[Western]

Don, I'd give a couple of acres to have a spring, you guy's are lucky that have them. I love looking around them for old Indian stuff "arrowheads"

 

[jinman]

I keep mentioning the springs on my dad's old place in Denton, TX, but the one spring that ran the most water was dug out with a backhoe down to about 12' deep. Your 5' round area might be the same. Too bad the trackhoe didn't dig that down like a pit. You could backfill with crushed rock or gravel to keep the sand from silting in. One spring on my dad's place had been rocked up like an old dug well. When cleaned out, it was a great producer, but when it silted in, it just became a constant mudhole.

 

[txdon]

Are the 10 places all about the same elevation?

Ron

Good question. The water starts seeping at whatever the depth of the hole is. right now the most water is flowing down to the pond area which is about 2 feet lower in elevation than the 5' round caved in area. When the pond fills up 2 feet I don't know if it will continue to fill. There is a berm around the pond to keep rain water out, and at 5' the water will flow under the fence to the neighbors. He also has a spring right on the other side of the fence and the flows join and flow across his property. All Our property is uphill from the spring.

Jim, the area is really unstable with the sand. I should have had a large culvert placed in the ground to stop the cave-ins. Hey, I have a 4' round culvert that is about 3' tall..... Hmmmm..... Got to go, I have an Idea......

 

[pacerron]

Good question. The water starts seeping at whatever the depth of the hole is. right now the most water is flowing down to the pond area which is about 2 feet lower in elevation than the 5' round caved in area. QUOTE]

Don,
Maybe you should look at some artesian well strata diagrams.
Ron
artesian well - Google Search

 

[pacerron]

Here is a good article about milking water from the Caliche dirt, etc. in central Texas.
http://www.acresusa.com/toolbox/reprints/Water From the Hills_Prehn Method.pdf

 

[txdon]

I have several steel culverts from with diameters of 3.5' to 5'. See photo.

My plan #1 was to put the largest one in dig it out, put in next, dig it out etc....

and then put gravel in the bottom.

I put the 5' X 1' culvert in first to stop the cave in and dug it out, and then that was it, I was through for the day.

I need to get my tractor near the culvert to use my backhoe, but to do that I have to cut a landing next to it. This will take a couple of weeks. All the bulldozers are tied up for weeks cleaning out dried up ponds so I'll start with the tractor. The dug out dirt is still wet so I will have to wait a few days.

I'm counting on no rain and the pond not to fill up over the first culvert.

There is about 8" of water in the pond and it has gone up an inch since this morning.

 

[jinman]

Great job Don! That lip of the culvert will act as a silt barrier too. That sure is alotta wattah.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Great thread Don. Very interested to see your progress with the culverts. It must be frustrating not to be able to use your backhoe.

The barber down at City Barber shop swears we must have a spring in our pond as it stays up so well. I don't know but would like to know.

I would love to dig it out but it is still 3/4 full and it would cost a whole bunch of money since there is so much silt and mud. I would suspect it would take a week or more with a dragline and a 1 yard bucket.