Page Title

Horse Meadow Spring sits on
the side of a hill. Downhill from
the spring lies Horse Meadow
and Horse Meadow Pond.

10 years ago, Horse Meadow
Spring was a constantly flowing
spring. In the spring and early
summer months, it would have a
good flow which gradually went
down to a trickle in late summer.

About 7 years ago the amount
of water decreased to where
there was a flow only during
snow melt or frequent spring
rains.

As you can see in this picture,
the spring had become
surrounded by Juniper trees.
This picture does not show it,
but the hillside above this spring
was covered with Junipers.

The arrow in the center of the
picture points to where there is a
cistern tank sunk into the
ground at the spot where the

spring actually comes out of the ground. The arrow to the right points to the holding pond. This spring and every other water source on the property are
impacted by the cattle in addition to the invasion of the Junipers. The cattle that are grazed on the property every year continually break down the fences
in order to get into the water hole. I have fixed this fence multiple times over the years. And even though there is a big un-fenced pond down the hill from
the spring, the cows insist on breaking into this one and fouling the water. This fouling along with lack of sunshine due to the Junipers caused the pond to
cover over with a thick layer of moss-like growth every year.

I started on this project last spring. I spent a weekend cutting down the Junipers that were inside the fenceline. All except one. On that one, I trimmed all of
the lower branches and I cleared away all of the rocks and debris from under the tree in order to make it a bedding area for the deer. Once I had the trees
down on the ground, I cut a lot of the limbs off of them and made a big pile inside the fenceline. The object of this was to make cover and nesting areas for
birds and rodents. Within two weeks, a covey of quail had taken up residence.

Then I used the trusty old Chevy work truck
to haul the trees out of the fenceline. I piled
them up in a long row and then my forester
came along and turned them into chips for
the power plant.

A good friend of mine, Ken Peeler, donated
this truck to the project. It has been a great
asset to the project.

It only took a
couple weeks
of sunshine
falling onto the
pond for the
layer of growth
to fade away.
Here you can
see that the
water is
starting to look
healthy again.
Of course,
right after I
took this
picture, the
cows broke the
fence down
and got into
the pond again.

These pictures were taken on
12-23-04. The ground was frozen
solid. There had been no snowfall or
rainfall for a couple weeks.There is
water running from the spring. The
metal cistern is full and the water is
overflowing into the pond. On the other
side of the pond, the water is running
out where the retaining dam has
washed out.

Later this spring, I plan on removing
the rest of the Junipers and using an
excavator to dig the pond out deeper
and build the retaining dam up a little
higher and including a culvert for
overflow. Then, I plan on removing the
old makeshift fencing and putting up a
new solid fence that will keep the cows
out of the pond.

This spring is one of the priorities for 2005. The plan is to expand the holding pond, fence
it off from the cattle and pipe the water out to a water trough. I went up this past weekend
and got a lot of prep work done on the area. I had to take down all of the old fencing and
then remove the junipers that were in the way of progress. Here are a couple before and
after pictures.

Cost analysis:
Excavator: 3 days @ $275.00 per day
200 yds of four strand perimeter fence wire
2 strands of barbed wire = 400 yds barbed wire $55.00
2 strands of smooth wire = 400 yds smooth wire $43.00
60 fence posts @ $320.00
6 rock-jacks - 10 ft each of hog wire style fence = 60 ft fence $43.00
1 10 ft farm gate - $65.00
Culvert - $285.00

Labor required:
Operating excavator- approximately 24 hours
Building rock-jacks - approximately 24 hours
Driving fence posts 8 hours
Stringing fence - 8 hours
Hanging gate - 6 hours

Approximate totals: $1550.00 and 70 man hours