For those of you who are land owners, do you have a dudout or have you considered putting one in?
One of the best investments i've made on my property bar none was installing a dugout. With the closest volunteer fire department over half hour away I was pretty well crap out of luck if a fire started on or near my land. I hired an excavation company to start digging after first freeze right behind my house. I cleared the land just before they arrived and had everything ready. At the twelve foot depth on the south end of the new dugout they hit a natural undergound spring. First thought that came to mind was "Oh crap, how is this gonna affect my well?" I ran to my well (artisan) and popped the cap and up came the water. Close call for sure.
Anyways, other than it costing me about 1/3 more to dig because of the water entering the dugout as fast as he could dig it, was the new overflow culvert I had to install to get rid if the excess water.
Now I have over 1 million gallons of clear clean water to fight fire, have reserve emergency water, irrigation water and recreation. My kids skate all winter and swim all summer. Keeps them busy and out of the house.
Ive since put in a pump house with a Honda 18hp low pressure gas pump with 200' of 3" wet line and an ajustable fire nozzel. Shoots upto 100' if I need it in a fire situation.
Here are a couple of pics:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...r/DSC01499.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...r/IMGP0332.jpg
Cheers,
