Tending our Wild Ozark Water

Jan 3, 2015

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Springs at Wild Ozark

I’ve written before about how we are dependent on our wild Ozark water. This is a post from last year around this time of year and it’s one of my favorites. This activity of inspecting the tank and lines is one that occurs at least annually here and usually more often than that.

19 Jan 2014

Yesterday we hiked up the mountain to see what needs to be done with the logging road. It washed out several years ago and now that Rob is planning to get a tractor, he’s thinking of what he can do to repair the road. Up that road is also where the water tank and spring is and the water lines are, so we inspected all of that while we were up there, too.

A coupling on the water line is leaking.

A small leak at the coupler. One half is wet, the other is dry.

But the tank is overflowing right now so we’ll leave this alone until we get ready to do other things, like clean the tank. For now, it’s not a critical issue and to work on it right now we’d get soaking wet. When we come back to clean the tank we will shut off the line and then changing the coupling or resetting it will be easier.

Since this photo was taken, we’ve run an overflow line to a nearby gully.

We walked farther up to check on the spring tank. The spring is all covered and under the leaves so there’s nothing to see there. But some critter, a bear probably, decided it wanted some wild Ozark water and chewed through one of the collection lines. This one isn’t connected, so no loss this time. And no gain for the bear.

Uh-oh. Something chewed the line. Luckily, this isn’t the one in use.

This is the first collection point where silt drops out. This barrel needs to be flushed from time to time and it’s overdue. When we come back to do this during summer, that’s when we’ll probably also clean the 1500 gallon tank and repair the leaking coupling.

The chewed line is behind the half buried barrel.

Armadillo!

On our way to the spring, Bobbie Sue gave chase to an armadillo. She ran it back toward us where it buried itself under the leaves while digging an escape route. Did you know armadillos make a weird noise while they’re running? She didn’t pester it, just stood watch while it dug a hole.