Promise Acre: Our Journey

promiseacres

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Mom's been here almost 2 weeks. We found a new home for her parrot after she decided there was not room for him at her new place.... we considered taking him but we really don't need another critter. :confused: We just have the horses and hay to get moved, have until June 17. It's a tough time of year for Mom as my big sis passed away on May 28, her birthday May 29, back in 1991... but she's been coming to our ballgames and seems to enjoy being around the kids.
On the farm front : The soil scientist is coming this afternoon to take a soil sample for the septic and I've contacted a well company to fix the well head. DH think it's turned artisan :idunno But who ever repaired it in the past didn't know what they were doing... so we'll get it fixed right and the water treated.

A skag zero turn mower came into DH's work as a trade in, only 100 hours and he was able to purchase it at a very decent price. So that should help with us mowing 3 places at this time. Jocelyn found this guy in the farmhouse yard. 87359B0C-615A-4DA5-B5E8-EC810C387B86.jpeg

Rabbits- well no new litters and no does acting pregnant but... a couple are due this week and several in June. :fl The polish litter are weaned and doing well. The NZ are growing well and are 5.5 weeks.7EF2BAAB-AD8F-43E5-867A-C3AF4C04D524.jpeg

We got our hay picked up, though it's at the farm. But I've been grabbing 5 bales when I need them... about once a week. VERY NICE to just put it in the shed on the wagon...:D =D Duke and Daisy are on pasture and the ponies get some. Even Richie has been getting some... but not too much. 2FC5F6C7-FB4A-4D92-9E38-9B35DEF99DF6.jpeg Jocelyn has been brushing Rayne almost every day. Hoping we'll get time to ride soon. John is done with school... Jocelyn isn't but that that's ok.
My 5th graderCE87F2D5-0A67-413E-9144-ACD6F38FE539.jpegmy horse loving girl66C4D872-75EF-4B1F-8AD8-CA987AC3AF14.jpeg
 
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Baymule

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My husband once had a Skag zero turn when he had a landscape company. Very good mower, congrats on the good deal. This is a big upheaval for your Mom, but will be so worth it when it all gets done and y'all are settled in your new home. Your Mom will always be in remembrance at this time of year.

Moving horses and hay, you will get it done, along with everything else you do! You and your husband have gone out on a limb, but look at the life you will have. Look at the life you are giving your children, what a gift!
 

promiseacres

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So you can move into the new place as soon as the well is fixed?. That is a step forward.
QUOTE

Oh I wish... the new septic needs to be put in, new plumbing, new wiring, new posts in the basement, probably will start removing plaster soon... and removing all current broke down fences... probably next year


(I believe you meant artesian, not artisan)[/] yes...lol I should have Google it.
 
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Bruce

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There was a well here quite near the house that was covered over. It was discovered when the north building was 90+% rebuilt from the foundation up in 2013 (we bought the place in 2011). I think it was an artisan well because it was very well done
P5010047.JPG

Sadly it had to be filled in. Sure wish it had been 15' farther from the house.
 

greybeard

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It's hard to say Bruce.. just looking at the picture, unless water flowed up the pipe on the left of the picture, all by itself, it's not artesian. The definition of an artesian well is one where the water is under enough natural pressure that the water flows on it's on 'power' all the way to the surface. No pump or other lift is needed. The water flows out of the ground on it's own.
artesianwell.jpg


Sometimes they flow with a great deal of force and flow, sometimes just a steady, unrelenting trickle, but the operative word is they flow to surface. There is an artesian well about 20 miles south of me that has been flowing for as long as anyone here remembers, in downtown Humble Texas. It began when an oil well was being drilled there and they hit pressurized water and it began flowing back up the drill stem. When I was a kid, the flow was substantial, out a 6" pipe at full flow spouting several feet out from the pipe. I drove by there less than a month ago for the 1st time in decades and it has been all but capped off and now barely flows not much more than what would come out of a 1" garden hose.
 

Bruce

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I didn't say artesian, I said artisan. Took a lot of craftsmanship to make that well :)

Sure could use an artesian well down by the pond though. There may be a small one just south of the pond because there was some water flowing down into it (on the "road" I made when I dug the pond out) in the spring after the snow melted but no rain for a few days. But it is pretty weak, there is no water running now but it is still really squishy in the "well" area. I'm wondering if I could dig a trench and make a curtain drain to the pond. What happens if I dig a hole several feet deep and there is an artesian well there? Maybe the clay soil is keeping the water from coming up??
 

greybeard

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Sounds like a gravity seep spring. That happens when ground water that's in the very top of the tables seeps horizontally to the lowest elevations via gravity.
My sister has several on her place that run during winter and most of the spring spring season and dry up in the middle of the drier months. Seep springs are notable because there is rarely a single identifiable point of exit. It doesn't bubble or flow up, it's just there; usually in a mushy/marshy area.

Actually, I have them too but I have to walk down to the river and look up along the steep banks to see them. Water is seeping/coming out of the sides of the higher river banks. Any strata that takes water in vertically (from the surface) can and will also transport water horizontally to the lowest point of the strata.
Gravity is a wonderful thing and......it's everywhere around us.

Flowing springs are about the same as artesian wells.
My grandfather's place had one on his place and it was substantial. I walked with my uncles and father many times to get a pail of water from that spring. When I was about 10,his sons sunk 2 concrete culverts down on their ends to make a collection point, and broke a bit of concrete off at the top for the flow to exit at one single point. Later, since the spring was down a long hill, the put a pump in with the pump's suction about 3' down in the culverts and piped water up the hill to the house. Before that, that home had no running water of indoor plumbing. The excess water just flowed on down a draw and they later dug a pond and dammed the flow up. It has an overflow in the dam so the pond water doesn't back up into the spring itself.

The little community they lived in was named after his spring. Moss Springs Texas. My cousin owns the place now but no one lives in the old house. I was there about a decade ago and the pond and spring were still there but google map shows what looks like a dam breach and no water in the pond area. Spring is undoubtedly still there tho.

STA doesn't know it but he's probably driven within a few miles of that place when he was near New Boston Tx.
 
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promiseacres

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Got some things moved around at the farm. The new mower does a good job! And under 2 hours (3/4 acres). :yesss:
DH is frustrated about not being able to make hay, but between work and the weather... not sure there's much we can do at this time.

And super excited to have our first Velveteen Lop litter yesterday! Hoping they're on a roll now!:bunny:bunny:bunny pictures on the kindling thread.
Mom's birthday is tomorrow, hoping to take her trail riding Wednesday (REALLY shouldn't with everything we need to get done...:rolleyes: but I need it!!)
Ok need to get to work... :ya
 
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