We had a huge relief from the smoke yesterday, and the gale-force winds dropped to merely breezes … which gave the gnats license to descend. (Note Mike’s hand at his neck, below his ear. Gnats are no joke, folks, and they are out. I highly recommend head nets.)
Daniel had to help his wife with their sick baby, so Garth brought out two more water tanks, and Mike and I delivered two more that Garth had brought a week ago to a site nearby for easier transport (the flatbed carries two at a time). They’ll bring the fifth today. This year, the catchment will be built with five 2,500-gallon tanks, compared with the four 3,500-gallon tanks we used last year. These are a bit thicker-walled, and they’re shorter (8 feet tall compared with 10 feet tall), meaning the hole for them doesn’t have to be as deep.
In the pic above, Garth is checking for uniform depth across the bottom of the hole with a laser level so the tanks will have a level base. As before, the tanks, with a roof to be built over their tops, are on high ground, and water will run downhill with gravity to the trough, to be maintained with a float.
Note Mike, still brushing at gnats. 🙂 This time, Garth dug one big hole to accommodate both the tanks and the plumbing (instead of doing one hole for the tanks and then a parallel trench for the pipe to connect the pipes from each tank, as they did for the first catchment of this design, last year). Again, the tanks will be buried about half deep to prevent the water inside from freezing during the winter months.
This catchment is in the far northwestern corner of Spring Creek Basin, which boasts a tremendous and far-reaching view.
Digging and leveling and digging and leveling were the big missions of the day.
For the fine work of filling here and digging there, Mike wielded the shovel while Garth manned the mini excavator.
For those of you wondering just how Garth was going to get that machine out of that hole, there’s a little bit of a ramp that he left under the digger (bucket?). 🙂 Here, he was extending it a bit after we measured the length of the hole to ensure it would hold the five tanks. Two tanks are on the ground behind him, and before we left for the day, we unloaded the two from the flatbed.
More to come!
Spring Creek Basin Mustangs 
Thank you all for the hard work! Get those gnats, Mike!
Gnats suck, straight up.
Once again, a huge thank you to the BLM folks !
They feel the love!
I really the step-by-step construction of the water catchment with your daily progress reports.
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Good. 🙂
Thanks to the great BLM guys!
I’ll pass it on! 🙂
So happy for you and the horses!!!
🙂
This is wonderful. I love this piñon hills. The horses are going to be so happy.
It’ll take a bit to get to water collection, but yes, it will be one more source of wonderful, clean water. Happiness in a trough. 🙂
Many thanks to our BLM guys once again! Glad the weather turned out a little better for them on Day 1. And that area is one of our favorites in the Basin – a frequent lunch spot. How cool that now there will be a catchment to attract even more mustangs to our “dining room!” 😄
It’s amazing how blue the sky has become again. 🙂 But now, with the gnats out, we’re wishing for wind again!? Ha. Never fails. I love that area up there, too.