Water tank was pretty badly beaten up by cattle and deer visiting the local water hole. The edge was very downtrodden and untidy and weeds were having a field day. In addition the spill way was broken and was a large bog pit.
I decided, what the heck, and rented a dump trailer and fired up the tractor and started moving some dirt we had that had a high clay content.
While tank was empty we removed broken wire and what not and waited for the rains – photos show how low the tank was.
Once tank was full, I started hauling in dirt and leveled the tank edge and raised it up a good 7 inches. I was soon intimate with the rake and spade and started neatening up the edge and then used tractor and box blade to level ground and compact soil.
We also inserted a marked dropper in order to measure water level. Much to my surprise the water level rose more than two inches overnight. Two days later we were up by a total of four inches – it was amazing how much better the tank looked and how much more water there now is.
Job is still not complete as I need to compact soil more and want to bring in at least another 6 inches of dirt. I also plan to add two PCV runoff pipes to control the overflow of water and protect the tank edge.
A side benefit is that I am now convinced this tank is spring fed!
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