The Coon Camp Springs area
contains two seperate springs.
Both flow well during the beginning
of the year. Later in the year, one
of them slows to a trickle but the
the other continues to flow well,
usually around 30 gallons per hour.

These springs fill two retaining
ponds and then the water flows
underground and moves across
the property to lower elevations.

Because of the constant flowing
nature of the springs and because
the water travels across the
property, I consider the springs to
be "the heart" of the property. This
is why I named the project Coon
Camp Springs.

As with the other water sources,
the cows get into the springs and
foul them each year. Which makes
the water unusable by the wildlife.
We are in the process of putting
up a secure fence around the
springs to keep them out.

We have sunk a metal cistern tank
at the main spring. We then placed
rocks all around the cistern and
installed a pipe. We can now draw
fresh water for drinking.

We also draw water out of the
retaining ponds during the summer
to water down the roads. When the
18-wheelers are actively hauling
chips from the property, they turn
the clay into dust fairly quickly. We
use a pump to fill the water truck
and then water the roads to keep
this from happening.

Over the last week of June and the first week of July, we had a work gathering on the property. Several people
came up and camped for various lengths of time. Each day we got more and more work done on the property.
The main project for this gathering was to improve and protect Coon Camp Springs.

Below is a picture of Bob and the startings of a new rock jack.

And then once we got the rock jack made, we used it to hang a gate. This will allow us to still be
able to access the water when needed but keep the cows out.

Over the years, several make-shift fences have been put up in attempts to keep the cows out of the
springs. We had to remove them before putting up the permanent fence.

We expanded the retaining pond of each spring.

And then we connected them together.

And then we started fencing. We put up additional rock jacks in each corner and then strung the wire. The
fencing we put up is considered to be wildlife friendly. The top and bottom strands are smooth wire and the
middle two are barbed. The bottom smooth wire is at 16" from the ground and allows small animals to crawl
under it without getting hurt. The top smooth wire is at 42" from the ground and allows deer to leap over without
getting cut. The two center barbed wire strands will still keep the cows out. In theory that is.

And now, the cows still have a place where they can drink the water from but they can't get near the source
and foul it as they usually do each year.

6 rock jacks = 60 ft hog wire = $50.00
1800 ft of barbed wire = $72.00
1800 ft of smooth wire =$61.00
58 fence posts = $288.00

Approximately 140 man-hours of labor @ $12.00/hr=$1,680.00

Approximate total =$471.00 + $1,680.00=$2151.00

Coon Camp Springs