Documenting my waterflows

Documenting my water flows for future reference for myself (while things are wet)

Heres a hand drawing showing the 3 waterflows on my property. Until this year, the longest flow has been six weeks and took 12" of rain in 2 days to get that flow. Currently it has been flowing since oct 5. A new record. But if you look at our drought map today versus the last 7 years, i think it tells the story. I did nothing to achieve this, nature did it.

This is flow 3. Starts in at a culvert on paved road. This is segment one, which is gradual slope that leads to ravine.

I put in swales but question why. Since its depressed like a dry river bank, i think the smart move would be to add a dam vs digging a hole. Whether it be roxk gabions, earth dams.

The flow dumps into a ravine. There are at least 2 areas that water will trickle out after the ground dries. Seepage? Spring? I once found a crawdad in there.

I have a small rock dam to try to collect sediment. Theres an oak tree at risk from erosion. Past the small rock dam, i have a debris dam that has turned into a spongy mass that slows water. It has caught many leaves and debris.  The last portion is a low water crosding made from concrete.

After the low water crossing it goes to a pond. I have a debris dam. I don't want it there, just a place to put it for the time being.

The pond holds water, but i wanted to  add a creek entrance. A paul "finger" if you will. The creek channel is dug out but i didnt dig out to the pond yet as the creek channel may not hold water.  If the channel is 3ft deep and i cut into the pond, the pond will go down 3 ft. Rains came and stopped the project. Idea was/is a creek channel, then a weiss rock flow behind that, then a weiss sediment hole behind that.

Last pic is the pond overflow.

After that is where the other 2 flows converge and exit my property.  The culvert under the hiway is likely big enough that i can walk under it without crouching.

In a funny note, i see where all my winter grass seed ended up. Lol.

Flow 2, the middle flow or swamp. Comes around my pavillion. This is sheep area. Not much ravine/depression as other 2 except where i created  pockets. There is a culvert under a road on my property. I needed soil so i took it from both sides. It holds water that infiltrates. Past this it connects into flow 3 past the pond. Only flow 3 enters pond.

Flow 1 runs parallel to the hiway. Itls like the big water ditch on side of road but is on my property. Its maybe 50 yards from hiway. There is a culvert on my property that is 40 yards long that dumps out like a waterfall. The hole may be 6ft deep where it dumps out. It then merges with other 2 flows and exits property.

This is my first swale. Water that flows past it hits my shop space.  Flows into my shop. That swale points straight to the beginnings of flow 3. Id like to put a culvert and divert the overflow into the path of flow 3. I saw that in a lawton video, where culverts/monk pipes were used to direct swale flows.

This is the only "terrace" type area i have. There is seepage coming through right now. That water ends up in flow 2/swamp

Follow up Natural Sequence Farming. it highlights ways of helping nature get water and fertility back unto the soil

Zach weiss (elemental ecosystems)is coming out for a consult.  Part of why i did this. Super excited about it. He's the water retention master imo.

Wow, how cool, wayne!

Yep. Very excited. He's in the area so no travel expenses. But I will say this, if i knew zachs rates were as reasonable as quoted i would have got him in 2 years ago. For the price i paid for a hole in the ground, I could have had zach for 2 weeks building a pond (vs the hole i got). The only extra expense is the equipment rental.

Right now its a consult to take a look, dig some holes to see whats there. I'm excited to see what his thoughts are.

Great day with zach. We walked the property. Then we drilled holes up to 8ft deep. Plenty of workable clay! One hole showed the underground flowing river. Top soil followed by wet clay followed by dry clay underneath. The water was gushhing out the sides of the hole. It was awesome.

After the holes, zach privately walked the property to absorb it. He then came in and drew up a plan on recommendations.  

Looks like a mid april start date. Look for lots of pics in the near future.