The Water Trough

On a hot summer day, there is nothing as satisfying as a nice, long drink of cool water.  I can remember as a kid playing in the yard.  We'd be all sweaty and stinking like little puppies.  We would line up at the water spigot and someone would turn on the water hose.  This was an exercise in patience as you would have to wait for the water to cool off.  The water that was in the hose was scalding hot from the sun and unfit to drink.  

However, as they say, "Good things come to they that wait."  The person at the head of the line would be rewarded for their patience.  Soon cool water flowed from the end of the water hose.  You could drink and drink and drink.  It was so refreshing!  Pretty soon, though, the next guy in line would nudge you and let you know it was his turn.

Animals enjoy lining up for water, too.  August 22, 2021 was an important date at the Our Maker's Acres watering hole.  Today was the first day this year that I turned on the water valve to allow water to flow to fill the trough.  All year I've refilled the trough with rain water that we captured from our rainwater catchment barrels.  We have barrels that can catch about 500 gallons of rainwater off the dripline of our roof.  This doesn't count the 730 gallons we can catch off our our barn in the back.  Up until today, rainwater provided all water for the animals.  That shows how much it has rained so far this year.  

Here is the water trough.  The small one is for the chickens.  The big one is for the cows and goats.  There is a valve so that it doesn't overfill.  Looks like a peaceful place to drink, doesn't it?

I potted and replanted a pecan tree near the water trough to provide the animals some much needed shade while they drink.  

I like to watch the cows when they come walking up to drink water.  They are panting heavily.  They don't do well with the extreme heat.  They dip their nose into the water.  They drink much differently than a dog or a cat.  They don't lap it up with their tongues.  Cows slowly take deep gulps, drawing water into their mouth.  You can watch their throats as large volumes of water go down.  The cows are happy, peaceful and refreshed.

It is amazing to watch the water level go down as they drink and the valve turns on to refill the trough.  How much do they drink?  Estimates vary, but I did read that there are many variables, but a dry cow should drink 9 - 12 gallons a day and a lactating cow should drink 30 - 40 gallons day.  Amazing!!

When The Water Is Runnin'

In years past, I've posted about picking dewberries out of the ditch right across the street from our house.  Now that that land is being developed, scavenging for food from the ditch is gone now out of the question.  Or is it?  Maybe for berries it is, but there are other edible plants and creatures out there waiting in the ditch!  Things like crawfish!

As a sidenote, about 15 years ago I was farming rice and crawfishing for a living. Those were good times and I may dig up some pictures and post about that at some point, but back to our story. One thing about crawfish is that when rains come and the water is running, the crawfish follow the water.  As a crawfisherman, I would hate to see all the crawfish leave my ponds, go into the ditches and swim away...

For passersby, though, it is like manna from the sky.  All you have to do is go pick it up.  That is exactly what Benjamin and his friends down the road did for several days during recent rains.  They would go out with nets and buckets and scoop up hundreds of pounds of crawfish.  A sack of crawfish is roughly 35 pounds.  One day they caught 5 sacks, the next day 3 sacks, and so on and so on.  They would boil them up and feast on them at each others' houses.  On the final night they came to our house.  Here's some of the catch all washed up and ready for boiling:

With plenty of seasoning added to the water, along with lemons, onions, potatoes, corn on the cob. garlic, and the live crawfish were poured into the water boiling atop a propane burner.  I love the smell of crawfish boiling!

In mere minutes, the crawfish were ready to eat.  Benjamin and all of his crawfishing buddies sat down around a table covered with newspaper and the spicy, hot crawfish were poured on top of the table.  Everyone began peeling and eating.  Those guys can eat some crawfish!  We were thinking that we would have to freeze some, but by the end of the evening, there was not a single crawfish remaining.

The dewberries in the ditch across the street may be gone.  However, after a rain when the water is running right, you can drive down country roads and find an abundance of crawfish to pick up, bring home, and boil.