Rosalie Gilbert

It is summer so there is water news.   Cody put the cows in the pasture around the house about a week and a half ago.  For the first few days they didn't come up to the house at all, and instead got their water out of the stream, which is still running. Two good water years in a row have filled up all the aquifers.  A few days ago cows started hiking up the hill to the house and drinking out of the trough.  A herd of thirsty cows can drink a lot of water, and I always begin to get nervous about the system.  It seemed like a pretty sure thing that the springs would need a good cleanup -- and they did.  I haven't even been up to the springs for at least a year. They are about a mile up the road from the house, on the terribly steep slopes of a canyon.  There is a drive up the hill and then a walk along a trail cut into a really, really steep slope and a scramble up a slope that it is easy just to slide back down.   
The "good" spring was dribbling a tiny trickle into the cistern.  This was unsurprising since it regularly gets buried in mud and gravel. The cistern is a section of concrete pipe set upright in the ground.  It has holes drilled in the sides to let the water in. A plastic pipe pokes into the side low down to carry the water down the hill.  To work properly the outside walls of the cistern need to be cleared so the water can flow into the holes.  I undid the plastic pipe joint below the spring so mud wouldn't flow down the pipes and into our tanks. There was about 3 inches of fine mud to remove from inside the cistern, and lots of mud and gravel to dig out around it. My tools were: an old aluminum spatula that I think was meant for ice cream; and a tiny sauce pan which is ideal for scooping up mud and throwing it downhill.  Eventually water began pouring in at a brisk clip.  The next cleanouts were three tiny seeps  just to the right of the "good" spring.  They were flowing well too.   With those finished I scrambled up the terribly steep slope to the 2nd best spring.  Last year it never was cleaned.  This year a clog had formed in the pipe and the whole cistern was full of water.  My t-shirt got wet as I reached in and groped around for the plastic pipe. It was under more than 2 feet of water.  Again I took the pipe apart at a joint a few feet below the spring, so any material blocking the pipe wouldn't  block things up further down.  Suddenly a great jet of water shot out and the cistern quickly drained.  Once the mud had settled, the pipes went back together and I had quite a flow of water.  I was happy with the outcome, though I might go back up in a week or so to see how things are holding. 
The hill up to tanks where water is stored is really, really steep, just like the canyon walls.  Made it all the way up without stopping, and found we had 1/3 of a "tank" of water.  Actually the water was up to the 1/3 mark on all three of the active tanks.  3 1/2 hours later we had gained 8" of water in the tanks. That is a lot. By tomorrow they should be full.