It’s still flowing quietly away. Hasn’t slowed down in the slightest.
When I lived in the land of grass and trees I was used to this sort of thing. But open water where none belongs seems like a failure mode to me now: Something I’m supposed to fix somehow. Meanwhile this thing is developing its own little ecosystem on the sand. Before I came along this morning a bunch of small birds were cheerfully drinking and bathing, the cold be damned. I only see sign of cattle and goats, but the cattle sign is so disruptive that the spring could be attracting all sorts of wildlife and I wouldn’t know from looking for tracks.
Funny thing…
The water flows on the surface for a little under a hundred yards, then disappears in the sand only to re-emerge further downstream, still flowing, for another 25 or 30 yards until it runs out of steam or sinks back under the sand. I don’t know how that works at all.
But once I get this new game camera figured out I’ll put it on my poor battered cottonwood tree. At least then I should see what if any wildlife is being attracted to the water.
Sounds a lot like my area of TN. This is limestone country; water finds the underground passages, disappears for a ways, then reemerges.
Joel, if that is a deep spring that has found a way to the surface, you might want to find a way to tap it or at least form a small pool such that you can take a gallon of it and evaporate it to see what the mineral content it compared to your normal supply.. Deep springs can have a lot less dissolved solids than normal aquifers. Would be neat to find out.
Cool pictures.
If the spring continues into the spring, maybe you could try planting a fruit tree in the out flow? Would that give the tree a chance?
Any trees I planted there would only last until the first flood, I’m afraid. The wash is a riverbed, after all. I’m always surprised that the cottonwood tree is still alive after every really big flood, but it’s not in the main channel.
Terrapod, that’s an interesting idea. If I still had my TDS meter I could at least test it.
The cottonwood implies a water source beneath you, i.e. a spring. In fact, not far below the surface.
Have NASA come out and do a deep-radar scan.
You have Amazon’s best seller TDS meter arriving next Thursday:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07H578WWT?psc=1&smid=A3SOI4KNAFF0W3&ref_=chk_typ_imgToDp
Thanks, MM! I’ll use it on the spring water when it arrives.