Cannot thank you enough, we used this video to find and tap a new spring to get water to our cabin in New York. It had been years since we had running water after the old spring dried up. Now we have water pressure like it was connected to city water. Thanks so much for your time and effort put into this video! We really appreciate it!!!!
Gosh! Woulda been nice to see a picture of the end result, as in the end of the pipe where the water comes out. Thanks. I won’t be able to sleep tonight.
This was a great video. Thanks so much for taking the time to post it. I just bought a property that has a long 200' high ridge. About 50' from the top of the ridge is a 50 foot "bench" of swampy marsh with multi springs coming out of the sopping wet blue clay. I'm assuming after watching your video, the safest thing for me to do would be to chase the spring all the way back through the wet area to the toe of the ridge so I don't get ground water contamination? The clay is very exhausting to work with. Every shovel full completely sticks to the shovel and needs to be banged off!
Hi Josh, Yes, if you want real clean water you need to find out where it's coming out of the ground. With this system if there are more than one spot it's easy to install more than one of these. Sounds like a nice source of blue clay. Bob
Thanks so much for this! I'm surprised that just clay will be durable enough through the winter. We have a similar situation in steeper terrain down south in Corralitos. The main spring has run dry this year, but there is still plenty of seep through a clay layer about 12" below the spring. Have you ever done a "dual source" spring like that?
Hi Steve,Good clay won't wash. Good clay is real sticky. I like the blue stuff the best. I don't think store bought clay is very good for the job, but maybe better than nothing. But if you have springs, you should already have some clay to use in the area somewhere as clay is made by water seeping though dirt for a long time as in springs. Sure on the duel source if it's close enough to run them together, otherwise it's not real hard to instill two of these as they are fairly easy to install. Oh, I tend to put a lot of rocks behind the dam to help hold the clay dam in in the winter and it gives the water a place to rush over in the winter helping prevent wash out.These things are so easy to do, do one and see and you can always adjust it to improve it as you go. They are much easier to deal with than any box. Period. :O)
Hey Shane, Sure, John's doing the work but because the method is so simple, he's not really working very hard. :O) It only took a couple of hours to do the work, not several days like most systems to tap a spring. :O)
@@bobseyes Hey man, I was just pulling your chain. Hardly enough room for two men to work in such a tight spot. We have a similar spring on the family property and the guy that does the physical work as my brothers watch.. Thanks for the great content. Cheers
Could you explain what you are using to catch the water coming through the pipe? I know you reduced to 3/4” so are you using a flexible hose or some sort? I have a very active spring that I want to tap but the end result on how your catching your water I need to know as well! Looking forward to doing this on a warmer day here in the NC mountains!
Yes the water flows into a black plastic pipe you can buy in rolls and is fairly tough stuff. You can run the water into any type of tank, or even a bath tub as I've used that for animal waterers and even used a tub once for the tank in a hunter's cabin. Most anything will work as long as it's sanitary for humans which isn't as important if it's for an animal waterer. Humans need a covered type water collector to keep things sanitary, like keep the critters and bird dropping out.
I don't think it would be thick enough. One can add some little rocks to it. You could try the bentonite if you can mix it thick enough, if it doesn't' work, it's not that hard to take it apart and do it with the right clay. It's hard to beat the blue clay, or clay like it for this project as it's the best for it. One can usually find it by a spring or another spring or go someplace else where there's springs and get a bucket or two. You don't need much if you keep things small as you should. Bob.
Yes, as far as I know it hasn't had to have any maintenance since we installed it in 2016 as compared to the old dam it up style system they had before where it needed some work mostly every year.
Not really. The spring has been working all this time with no maintenance at all. John did a good job. That's one of the benefits of this system, it's a very low maintenance system if installed properly as compared to most other spring type taps that require much more maintenance usually.
John's getting pissed of that he's doing all the work. That aside, excellent narrative. Useful information, that we can use in our own spring we want to develop. Thank you. Someone needs to mend john's hole in his shirt. Maybe the narrator is an expert with a needle and thread?
Most springs in our area are on hills so all you have to do is run the pipe down hill to a tank or some kind of collection storage tank. If you don't have a hill , you might have to run the pipe into something to hold water and pump it somewhere, especially if the place you need the water is above the spring area. In the olden days one would find a spring and put the place that needed the water below the spring such as a cabin or house. Now a days we have pumps so water can be pumped up hills and we have more choices in the use of the water.
Usually water that is not messed with runs clear. You could try digging it out with a shovel a bit and see if it improves. I once used a bathtub set up as a settling tank., just a tank with water going in the top and the outlet pipe letting water out near the top and that worked. I only needed it in the winter during big rain storms as the water would get a bit murky from the blue clay but it was always good to drink just the same. Another way would be to use modern day filters on any water you need for consumption. If you are not using a lot of water for consumption filtering would work but if you need to use a lot of water for that it's not so easy to filter large volumes of water.
Hi - I am trying to develop a spring not too far away from you in the hills above healdsburg, NE of Venado, and Cazadero. I'm wondering if I might be able to speak with you, I could use some help! Do you know anyone locally that I could hire to help me do this? (would you be interested?). I'd like to learn myself, work along side someone, while the work is being done. Thanks so much! Great video!
@@grubadubful hey that's not bad considering the drought. I'm just over the hill from you in Middletown. My place is on Mt St Helena. I'm about to tap a spring on my land. It's flowing about 3-4 gallons a minute. I'm just looking for ideas on how to capture it. I came across this great video. What did you use for a dam? Did you have any blue clay?
The green piece is a top screen for a down spout for a gutter. I used to have to sand the part down to fit on a 2 inch pipe but the last ones I purchased at Home Depot fit a two inch pipe. The stainless steel screen box is important. I'd suggest a stainless steel kitchen hand held strainer for that. Just cut the handle off and put it over the green strainer and push it into the clay to get a good seal. Bob
I live on a hill in central florida and have a location that is has been described as either a ground seep or spring. It stays wet year round and is about 4 feet wide and 8 inches deep but does not run. There are multiple cypress trees around it which is what made me look for it to begin with. I would be interested in tapping this spot in case of an emergency situation. Do you have any experience with developing something like that or would this method work for a ground seepage location?
Hi Andrew,I would take a shovel and dig into it and see if you can get a trickle of water to flow, if so, dig some more and follow where the water is trickling from if you can get it to trickle, you can get the water. Dig wait, dig. If no trickle there just won't be enough water to take. What you describe is what I look for, for springs to tap. Most of our springs around here are small and this method works well to get the water out. I'm my area, look for ferns and water type plants and damp spots.
Awesome, I will spend tomorrow doing some digging. The area is overwhelmed with giant, beautiful ferns. I will let you know what I find. Thanks so much!
Springs don't always just flow out onto the ground. Lot's of times they get to the surface and just flow back into the ground as water always takes the path of least resistance. I look for springs looking for wet spots and water type plants that grow around springs, such as big ferns or even big trees.You can try digging around a bit with a shovel trying to find some water flow. If you do find the flow, dig following the water. If you can't find the flow, one thing you can do is come back in the winter to look for water flow when it rains. Mark the spots and come back in the summer and dig around where the winter flows to try and find the spring flow. Maybe doing a little digging in the winter might help too. Sometimes springs come out under ferns or trees as they grew there because that's where the water was. The best time to tap a spring is in the fall, September or October, when the spring is at it's weakest. This is also the time you can tell where the main spring water is coming out as it will still be flowing when others dry up at this time. This is also the time you'll see the spring at it's weakest, so you can measure it and see if you have enough to use. Not to say you can't tap a spring anytime of year as a temporary tap is easy to put in, especially if you have a lot of water flowing.A half gallon a minute spring can serve a house, if it's conservative. A small spring can go a long ways if you have a big enough water tank to collect the water. Even a half gallon a minute spring at it's weakest likely will have enough water for a garden as there should be more water during the gardening period.Tap on. :O)
Use blue clay if you can find it It's a natural clay. When water sits in dirt a long time, it turns the dirt to clay. It can be found around springs or wet spots by springs. You will see John go off and look for some at some other springs as we don't want to mess up the one we are tapping and the ceramic clay we had was no good. The best clay I've used is what I call blue clay found by springs. But John didn't find any blue clay but found some brown clay at the other springs which is almost as good as the blue stuff. I've used potter's clay before but if you don't get thick enough stuff it will fall apart, but thick enough clay will work. Let it out and it won't seep In some ways you don't have to be too concerned about water seeping into the ground as this method keeps the water drained and should not back it up. Water wants to flow using the easiest route so it goes right into the drain pipe and on out which doesn't give it much time to seep out, so don't back up the water but give it the easiest way out, down your drain pipe. The reason this method works so well is all the water is drained and not backed up to make a puddle that is just a place for water to become contaminated. Don't puddle, drain it out, puddles are bad. I've used just plain dirt for the little sink and dam, but it can take more maintenance as it doesn't hold as well, but it will work and if the spring is done right, it's no problem to uncover it to repair it each year in the spring if need be. Oh, one other thing. This is just a guide to show you how to do it. Don't be afraid to adapt other stuff to do this. It's the idea's that are important. For instance a stainless steel screen would be hard for some to come by, so how about using a plastic window screen as it won't corrode and is much easier for most to come by. Bob
In that one water was coming out of the ground around 6 gallons a minute. But if one finds a wet spot in the dirt it's worth taking a shovel and digging around a bit following the wet spot and maybe you'll find even more water.
So maybe because the clay is light colored here, but our spring is extremely visible. I'm working on tapping it, but I just saw a big marshy muddy bit that stood out from the rest...boom...spring
The pigs haven't bothered that spring since it was installed and I think it's been about four years now. If the pigs bothered it, I'd do something else to protect it. The spring has had no maintenance since it was installed and is working very well. Bob
I do not see how this treatment is sanitary. A heavy rain will wash down the hill and into your cutout. A piece of plastic over the rocks will not keep out contaminated ground water. Now if the entire cutout was capped with clay and then buried, maybe.
Most of my spring taps are not in a place where water washes down the hill, but in a hole in the side of a hill. However, my purpose was to show you some new ideas that you can adapt to your needs, so if you think you need clay over the tap, do it or maybe some kind of roof might work in some situations. And by the way, the plastic bags I use are put in like shingles, and covered with dirt, so things just flow over the top of the tap. Dirt is a natural filter, it's what the water flows through to get to the tap. All the other spring taps are way less sanitary than this method. This method's footprint is so small, it is far less likely to get contaminated than what most people do to tap a spring. Much less surface area. The main difference in this method, compared to most of the others is this. Most of the other methods dam water up so you get a pool. This method works just the opposite. It lets all the water out into your tank so there is far less places for contamination.
Cannot thank you enough, we used this video to find and tap a new spring to get water to our cabin in New York. It had been years since we had running water after the old spring dried up. Now we have water pressure like it was connected to city water. Thanks so much for your time and effort put into this video! We really appreciate it!!!!
Reworking an old farm spring box in Tennessee... I have looked at a dozen videos so far and this one I really like... Thanks...
I need to get me one of those Johns
Great video, will save my life in the coming years, wandering the woods, just need to make sure and have some PVC pipe with me, thanks for the video!
Something about this video reminds me of group projects in high school.
Small and simple. What a rewarding task. Thank you both.
I had to see this one too. Thank you for posting.
Great video. I learned some good stuff. Great narration, and better than most videos. John worked hard too. Thank you!
John... you feel like you are working alone. Lol great video. 👍
Gosh! Woulda been nice to see a picture of the end result, as in the end of the pipe where the water comes out.
Thanks. I won’t be able to sleep tonight.
😂
Struth John,your a champion mate.
John, got it done ✅😉 Great job! 💯
Thanks for doing this video. This is the best one I've seen yet.
Greetings from the LooseNatural farm in Andalusia Spain
This was a great video. Thanks so much for taking the time to post it. I just bought a property that has a long 200' high ridge. About 50' from the top of the ridge is a 50 foot "bench" of swampy marsh with multi springs coming out of the sopping wet blue clay. I'm assuming after watching your video, the safest thing for me to do would be to chase the spring all the way back through the wet area to the toe of the ridge so I don't get ground water contamination? The clay is very exhausting to work with. Every shovel full completely sticks to the shovel and needs to be banged off!
Hi Josh,
Yes, if you want real clean water you need to find out where it's coming out of the ground. With this system if there are more than one spot it's easy to install more than one of these. Sounds like a nice source of blue clay.
Bob
This is what I need ..thank you !
Thanks so much for this! I'm surprised that just clay will be durable enough through the winter. We have a similar situation in steeper terrain down south in Corralitos. The main spring has run dry this year, but there is still plenty of seep through a clay layer about 12" below the spring. Have you ever done a "dual source" spring like that?
Hi Steve,Good clay won't wash. Good clay is real sticky. I like the blue stuff the best. I don't think store bought clay is very good for the job, but maybe better than nothing. But if you have springs, you should already have some clay to use in the area somewhere as clay is made by water seeping though dirt for a long time as in springs. Sure on the duel source if it's close enough to run them together, otherwise it's not real hard to instill two of these as they are fairly easy to install. Oh, I tend to put a lot of rocks behind the dam to help hold the clay dam in in the winter and it gives the water a place to rush over in the winter helping prevent wash out.These things are so easy to do, do one and see and you can always adjust it to improve it as you go. They are much easier to deal with than any box. Period. :O)
that good clay is almost impossible to get off. it just sticks and stays forever. ask me how I know 😂 the damn crawdads can move it though 😆
give john a drink
Looks like John is the ME doing the work not the We a doing the work.. Nice job John
Hey Shane, Sure, John's doing the work but because the method is so simple, he's not really working very hard. :O) It only took a couple of hours to do the work, not several days like most systems to tap a spring. :O)
@@bobseyes Hey man, I was just pulling your chain. Hardly enough room for two men to work in such a tight spot. We have a similar spring on the family property and the guy that does the physical work as my brothers watch.. Thanks for the great content. Cheers
Could you explain what you are using to catch the water coming through the pipe? I know you reduced to 3/4” so are you using a flexible hose or some sort? I have a very active spring that I want to tap but the end result on how your catching your water I need to know as well! Looking forward to doing this on a warmer day here in the NC mountains!
Yes the water flows into a black plastic pipe you can buy in rolls and is fairly tough stuff. You can run the water into any type of tank, or even a bath tub as I've used that for animal waterers and even used a tub once for the tank in a hunter's cabin. Most anything will work as long as it's sanitary for humans which isn't as important if it's for an animal waterer. Humans need a covered type water collector to keep things sanitary, like keep the critters and bird dropping out.
Love this, thank you! Do you think bentonite clay would hold?
I don't think it would be thick enough. One can add some little rocks to it. You could try the bentonite if you can mix it thick enough, if it doesn't' work, it's not that hard to take it apart and do it with the right clay. It's hard to beat the blue clay, or clay like it for this project as it's the best for it. One can usually find it by a spring or another spring or go someplace else where there's springs and get a bucket or two. You don't need much if you keep things small as you should.
Bob.
@@bobseyes Thanks! I'll keep looking for blue clay!
he kept saying we ... lol... but whos doing all the wrk ? lmao
ty
Are y’all still using this?
Yes, as far as I know it hasn't had to have any maintenance since we installed it in 2016 as compared to the old dam it up style system they had before where it needed some work mostly every year.
Any lessons learned in the four years of using the spring?
Not really. The spring has been working all this time with no maintenance at all. John did a good job. That's one of the benefits of this system, it's a very low maintenance system if installed properly as compared to most other spring type taps that require much more maintenance usually.
John's getting pissed of that he's doing all the work. That aside, excellent narrative. Useful information, that we can use in our own spring we want to develop. Thank you. Someone needs to mend john's hole in his shirt. Maybe the narrator is an expert with a needle and thread?
Thank you for this video
Good job...
So how do u harvest the water? U dig under the pipe to collect water into containers?
Most springs in our area are on hills so all you have to do is run the pipe down hill to a tank or some kind of collection storage tank. If you don't have a hill , you might have to run the pipe into something to hold water and pump it somewhere, especially if the place you need the water is above the spring area. In the olden days one would find a spring and put the place that needed the water below the spring such as a cabin or house. Now a days we have pumps so water can be pumped up hills and we have more choices in the use of the water.
@@bobseyes thx 4 the reply!
I located a spring on my uncle's property, but the water was murky because of the coarse black dirt, need info on how to make water clear.
Usually water that is not messed with runs clear. You could try digging it out with a shovel a bit and see if it improves. I once used a bathtub set up as a settling tank., just a tank with water going in the top and the outlet pipe letting water out near the top and that worked. I only needed it in the winter during big rain storms as the water would get a bit murky from the blue clay but it was always good to drink just the same. Another way would be to use modern day filters on any water you need for consumption.
If you are not using a lot of water for consumption filtering would work but if you need to use a lot of water for that it's not so easy to filter large volumes of water.
Hi - I am trying to develop a spring not too far away from you in the hills above healdsburg, NE of Venado, and Cazadero. I'm wondering if I might be able to speak with you, I could use some help! Do you know anyone locally that I could hire to help me do this? (would you be interested?). I'd like to learn myself, work along side someone, while the work is being done. Thanks so much! Great video!
You want bob's job
We ended up getting only half a gallon flow per minute but that was during dry season. Not bad but not amazing. Thanks for the help
@@grubadubful hey that's not bad considering the drought. I'm just over the hill from you in Middletown. My place is on Mt St Helena. I'm about to tap a spring on my land. It's flowing about 3-4 gallons a minute. I'm just looking for ideas on how to capture it. I came across this great video. What did you use for a dam? Did you have any blue clay?
Bob,
Could you help me with identifying the green inlet for my purchase? (Part # or item description?) Does that go to a 2" pipe?
Thx Joel
The green piece is a top screen for a down spout for a gutter. I used to have to sand the part down to fit on a 2 inch pipe but the last ones I purchased at Home Depot fit a two inch pipe. The stainless steel screen box is important. I'd suggest a stainless steel kitchen hand held strainer for that. Just cut the handle off and put it over the green strainer and push it into the clay to get a good seal.
Bob
I live on a hill in central florida and have a location that is has been described as either a ground seep or spring. It stays wet year round and is about 4 feet wide and 8 inches deep but does not run. There are multiple cypress trees around it which is what made me look for it to begin with. I would be interested in tapping this spot in case of an emergency situation.
Do you have any experience with developing something like that or would this method work for a ground seepage location?
Hi Andrew,I would take a shovel and dig into it and see if you can get a trickle of water to flow, if so, dig some more and follow where the water is trickling from if you can get it to trickle, you can get the water. Dig wait, dig. If no trickle there just won't be enough water to take. What you describe is what I look for, for springs to tap. Most of our springs around here are small and this method works well to get the water out. I'm my area, look for ferns and water type plants and damp spots.
Awesome, I will spend tomorrow doing some digging. The area is overwhelmed with giant, beautiful ferns. I will let you know what I find. Thanks so much!
Springs don't always just flow out onto the ground. Lot's of times they get to the surface and just flow back into the ground as water always takes the path of least resistance. I look for springs looking for wet spots and water type plants that grow around springs, such as big ferns or even big trees.You can try digging around a bit with a shovel trying to find some water flow. If you do find the flow, dig following the water. If you can't find the flow, one thing you can do is come back in the winter to look for water flow when it rains. Mark the spots and come back in the summer and dig around where the winter flows to try and find the spring flow. Maybe doing a little digging in the winter might help too. Sometimes springs come out under ferns or trees as they grew there because that's where the water was. The best time to tap a spring is in the fall, September or October, when the spring is at it's weakest. This is also the time you can tell where the main spring water is coming out as it will still be flowing when others dry up at this time. This is also the time you'll see the spring at it's weakest, so you can measure it and see if you have enough to use. Not to say you can't tap a spring anytime of year as a temporary tap is easy to put in, especially if you have a lot of water flowing.A half gallon a minute spring can serve a house, if it's conservative. A small spring can go a long ways if you have a big enough water tank to collect the water. Even a half gallon a minute spring at it's weakest likely will have enough water for a garden as there should be more water during the gardening period.Tap on. :O)
This looks like Western Washington, where I'm from.
Similar, Guerneville California on the Russian River. A bit warmer here, but nice.
Those rocks on top look like petrified wood :0
What is the material you used to stop the water from seeping through the ground?
Use blue clay if you can find it
It's a natural clay. When water sits in dirt a long time, it turns the dirt to clay. It can be found around springs or wet spots by springs. You will see John go off and look for some at some other springs as we don't want to mess up the one we are tapping and the ceramic clay we had was no good. The best clay I've used is what I call blue clay found by springs. But John didn't find any blue clay but found some brown clay at the other springs which is almost as good as the blue stuff.
I've used potter's clay before but if you don't get thick enough stuff it will fall apart, but thick enough clay will work.
Let it out and it won't seep
In some ways you don't have to be too concerned about water seeping into the ground as this method keeps the water drained and should not back it up.
Water wants to flow using the easiest route so it goes right into the drain pipe and on out which doesn't give it much time to seep out, so don't back up the water but give it the easiest way out, down your drain pipe. The reason this method works so well is all the water is drained and not backed up to make a puddle that is just a place for water to become contaminated. Don't puddle, drain it out, puddles are bad.
I've used just plain dirt for the little sink and dam, but it can take more maintenance as it doesn't hold as well, but it will work and if the spring is done right, it's no problem to uncover it to repair it each year in the spring if need be.
Oh, one other thing. This is just a guide to show you how to do it. Don't be afraid to adapt other stuff to do this. It's the idea's that are important.
For instance a stainless steel screen would be hard for some to come by, so how about using a plastic window screen as it won't corrode and is much easier for most to come by.
Bob
How did you know there was water underground there?
In that one water was coming out of the ground around 6 gallons a minute. But if one finds a wet spot in the dirt it's worth taking a shovel and digging around a bit following the wet spot and maybe you'll find even more water.
So maybe because the clay is light colored here, but our spring is extremely visible. I'm working on tapping it, but I just saw a big marshy muddy bit that stood out from the rest...boom...spring
You put john to work..lol
Dam that's a mess
I think that 🐖 can disrupt your plans at the spring, just my thoughts.
The pigs haven't bothered that spring since it was installed and I think it's been about four years now. If the pigs bothered it, I'd do something else to protect it. The spring has had no maintenance since it was installed and is working very well.
Bob
That is good.
7
I do not see how this treatment is sanitary. A heavy rain will wash down the hill and into your cutout. A piece of plastic over the rocks will not keep out contaminated ground water. Now if the entire cutout was capped with clay and then buried, maybe.
Most of my spring taps are not in a place where water washes down the hill, but in a hole in the side of a hill. However, my purpose was to show you some new ideas that you can adapt to your needs, so if you think you need clay over the tap, do it or maybe some kind of roof might work in some situations. And by the way, the plastic bags I use are put in like shingles, and covered with dirt, so things just flow over the top of the tap. Dirt is a natural filter, it's what the water flows through to get to the tap. All the other spring taps are way less sanitary than this method. This method's footprint is so small, it is far less likely to get contaminated than what most people do to tap a spring. Much less surface area. The main difference in this method, compared to most of the others is this. Most of the other methods dam water up so you get a pool. This method works just the opposite. It lets all the water out into your tank so there is far less places for contamination.