How Dry Is It?

It seems that if you're not a farmer or not relying on a well for water, you may not be aware of how dry it is around here.  The ewes have been moved to a section of pasture served by our "middle water tank".  This tank is fed by a spring development that always goes dry seasonally.  That season is usually August through September.  Unfortunately, it's not producing a flow of water right now.  That means carrying buckets or running our portable 35 gallon poly tank out on a wagon to where the sheep are grazing.  Of course the temperature "spiked" today up into the high 60's, so the ewes were thirsty.  Time for some heavier rains to get the ground charged up again! 
Here's a look at one of our other dependable spring developments.  This tank is gravity fed by a spring that originally came from the farm spring house.  When we bought "Wild Rose Farm", all that was left of the spring house were a few stones and a collapsed & rotted roof.  We developed the spring as part of our farm conservation plan.  This summer we replaced the old tank and directed it's outflow to a new 2nd tank.  In the picture you can just see the light colored tip of the 2nd tank in the upper right of the picture.  Now what's that floating in the tank?  A bundle of barley straw!  Yes, an old time solution to the green slime build-up in tanks & ponds ..... the water is now clear enough that you can see the inflow pipe under water and the overflow stand pipe.   So ...... these water tanks are full and flowing, but the sheep are somewhere else grazing!  

Moving To New Pasture