In Texas, water is arguably the most important resource to have and manage.

The farm had one 1/2 acre pond situated near the original farm house.  Knowing that more water would be needed to develop other parts of our vision for the farm, we started to walk the pastures to understand how water drained after every rain.  While we had a seasonal creek running north to south across the property, this creek would not supply a constant source of reliable water to allow us to cross fence the pastures.  So we selected two locations to construct additional ponds.

The first pond dig was on the west side of the creek which would allow us to intercept, divert and capture water from the 50 acre watershed, which we can use to water livestock in the east pastures.  Our future plans include a new application with the NRCS EQIP program to cross fence the pastures, build access controls to the ponds, deploy watering troughs and construct water distribution lines across our cross-fenced pastures.  The pumping systems we expect to utilize a windmill and solar electric pumps. 

The second pond dig was on the east side of the creek which would allow us to intercept, divert and capture water from the 30 acre watershed, which we can use to water livestock in the west pasture and irrigate the high tunnels which we constructed.  Water from the 3rd pond will supplement rain-water harvesting and cistern access to sub-surface water for the high tunnel irrigation.

Texas water laws and regulations are a very interesting topic across the state.  In short, our location in Bowie County and by not incorporating the creek in connection with any of the 3 ponds means all the water from our water wells and the ponds is ours to use as we like without permitting or other limitations, except not to waste water at any time.  With these 3 ponds we calculate 8.5 million gallons of water stored to meet our demands year round.

Our longer term plan is to construct a wind mill and supplemental solar pumping solutions to distribute water to each place on the farm where water is needed and to incorporate our rain water harvesting efforts to maintain the deep commitment we have to conservation in every aspect of farming we undertake.

The original pond…

The 2nd pond…new construction

The third pond…new construction

Special thanks to Reggie, Dana, Jose and Ronnie is building these fantastic ponds. Once the ponds are full and the grass and aquatic life is established, I am sure we can capture some wonderful water reflection photos. Stay tuned.