Digging Springs
I live on the edge between the sandhills and the swamp. In the sandhills above there are few places where water is available for the wildlife.
Fewer every time the loggers pass through. The hunt club guys asked Old Stoney and me to clean out a few of the places they knew used
to be springs to see if we could restore them. Save the deer a long walk down to the branch.
Here's one of the spots; a hole that had been dug as a water source for a still, statute of limitations long since expired.
And just after cleaning it out, water beginning to seep muddily in.
A week later the water had filled in and cleared up. Tracks showed that the deer had found it.
And of course, the remains of the still, revenuers having been by a few decades back.
Farther up in the hills, at the base of the ridge line where the elevation makes its last hundred foot jump, is a spot where the water was
already seeping out across a firebreak. It took only a little scraping around to make a lovely pool.
Another view of that one:
A third spring a quarter mile or so along the hillside also cleaned out to give a good flow.
And the not-so-wildlife made quick use.
Late in the summer the bulldozer guys doing some work for the hunt club opened up an old road near the top of Collin's Mount (elevation about 450').
There's one spot on the road where a spring kept the ground wet, even flowing a little across the road. It only took a little digging to make a bathtub
size pool.
And no encouragement at all for a hot dog to take advantage.
I'm sure the water clears right back up when she's out.
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