It turns out the place I board won’t be boarding come spring, and my boarding options in the middle of nowhere have dropped to zero. Crap. So I’m going to purchase a piece of property to move our two horses to. With purchase price, building shelter and fencing, and not a lot of time, I’m hoping to hold off a year on having water on property. I’m wondering if anyone has a solution to hauling water out to the property to save on digging a well my first year. We just need water for troughs for two horses. Property is near my house so I was thinking maybe getting a 100 gallon tank that lives on a little trailer I fill up at home and drag over to fill troughs every few days. Is that totally nuts? Well estimates are $15-20K so it’s a pretty hefty expense. Has anyone done this before? If so, any tips or product recommendations? I would like to slowly build this up to my dream property, and eventually put a house on it, but I’m going to need to move fast to get horses over there this spring when the ground thaws and we can get fencing up. Would love any input, ideas, etc! Thanks!
I think your idea is a good one provided the trailer is legal to pull. Lights - plates - size might be a factor so check with DMV. And of course get a potable water tank.
Given you are living in Wisconsin, you stand a good chance that snow may keep you from getting to the property with a trailer and your horses will have no water. Also, how are you going to keep the water from freezing in the winter?
Wow where do you live? I had a well dug 4 years ago for 4 thousand dollars. that included the well pump.:eek:
We do it on property for one field. It’s definitely a PITA especially in winter. We have two 50 gallon barrels that can go in the front end loader, the back of a truck, or the wagon we use for manure, and just empty them by hand into the trough with a bucket.
If you have a 1/2 ton truck, the 100 gal
tank can live on your truck, no needed trailor. This will work for most weather but, as FitToBeTied stated, the snow could be a problem getting to the trough. And will you have electricity to keep water from freezing? I would start looking for short term winter boarding with a neighbor or someone within a comfortable driving radius, maybe someone on your drive to work, if you do work.
I would get some more estimates on a well. That price is a bit much. Is there a neighbor close by the property that would let you purchase water and run a hose to your water tank? Plus you have to figure out how to keep the water unfrozen and drinkable for the horses in cold weather. I think I would rethink your plan a little harder before I bit the bullet. It is doable but at what expense?
It sounds okay for now and you will have the warm weather months to work out winter details. An alternative to the tank is two 55 gallon plastic barrels that can be easily lifted into your truck and filled. To make life easier add spigots to them so you can use a hose to fill the troughs.
For winter make sure you have the tank in a accessible spot near electric for a tank heater.
These show up used for sale periodically in my area. http://www.thecarycompany.com/275-gallon-reconditioned-ibc-tote-a-2-npt-valve-26wtot?utm_source=google_shopping&m=simple&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIwsLGuLy52AIV2bbACh03cgGREAQYAyABEgIACfD_BwE
Fill it on a small trailer on in the bed of a pick up. The bed of the pick up may be easier and just let gravity drain it into the water trough.
Pay to get electric on the property first. You can use it for fencer and a tank heater come winter. Plan your fences and tank location for easiest acess in winter for refilling the tank. Plan an alternative should the snow get really bad. I hauled water to my 2 horses in winter at the barn i rented. The well would freeze no matter what measures were taken. I had electric for a tank heater, but sometimes the heater could not prevent freezing. I got several 5 gallon bottles and hauled HOT water to horses twice daily. It was not easy but it worked. When the road drifted shut (6ft deep, closed a week) I had to pull the water on a sled, the short distance thru a field around the drifting to the barn. Truck could not get any closer. It sounds pretty incredible now, but there was no other way to get water in there. Being a lot younger helped too! Ha ha
It is doable, but not easy. I could manage the bottles when truck could not get closer. I filled them in the house laundry tub, carried them out to the truck. Bigger containers would not have worked for me then. Time constraints of getting to work on time were a factor in such bad weather. Am feeding and water was at 4A to insure I had enough time. They accepted no excuses for being late or days off, you lost your job which actually paid pretty well in our town. There were other folks eager to fill your job.
Those are easy to move around by yourself and most are 220 gallons.
You can put them on the back of a UTV or pickup, just don’t fill them more than your vehicle can haul safely.
Those here are called totes and used for restaurant food products to herbicides.
Be sure to get one that was used for something safe, or that has been cleaned very well.
In any case, here buying land without a water source is something no one would do.
You may drill ten wells and still not hit water.
Are you sure you don’t want to re-think if that land is the one you want to buy?
Here some rent land without water for the grazing, haul water, but if there is a problem, they can move their animals somewhere else, something I am not sure you can do, if that is the only place you can keep them?
That would worry me, you hauling being the only option for those horses.
Have you already purchased the property? If not, can you find one with a stream on the land?
I used to farm-sit a couple places that did not have water for the barn, but they did have spring fed streams on the property. The horses had free access to the streams in the pasture with no other water source. The one place had an electric pump so water could be pumped into a tank in the barn if need be. They would do this if horses needed to be stalled so water buckets could be filled easily or in extreme cold when the stream was at risk of freezing over. They used tank de-icers to keep the water unfrozen in those situations.
I too would look for a different property with water already available (if not a well, a pond at least).
Although probably important in WI, I don’t know how you’d have a heater nearby for the tank, as I’d assume if you don’t have water on the property there also is no electricity run. You can build insulation around the tote and trough, that will help immensely without having a heater available.
The tote would be a good way to store water so you have more than 100 gallons available at a time. Two horses may drink up to 40 gallons a day, so a 100 gallon trough you’d be refilling nearly every other day - with your system having to drive it off to refill, that’s quite tedious. The 275 gallon tote would be helpful, but you’ll need a flatbed for it if you want to fill it all the way. Water has a density of 8.34 lb/gallon, so a 275 gallon tote will weigh over 2300 lbs full. I’d leave it full on the trailer at your property with a hose attached or available to fill the trough as needed; that and the 100 gallon trough gives you at least a week of water.
If electricity is unavailable as well, I’d look into propane (or other fuel burning) water pumps and tank heaters. Growing up in SE PA, my Amish neighbors always had them, although I can’t say I’ve ever seen them for sale anywhere. A quick google search turned up this (scroll to the bottom):
http://stockyardsupply.com/index.php…icers-heaters/
But no water and no electricity is a bit more of a gamble than I’d personally want to take for any extended period of time. Desperate times call for desperate measures, it definitely can be done, but I’m unlucky.
I think you are crazy. You are committing to wasting a couple of hours every few days messing with water, never getting sick, never getting snowed in, never going on vacation, never having a truck breakdown.
I’d consider it somewhere warm where you could get 5000 gallons at a time delivered. In freezing weather it’s nasty, cold, stressful work and you’ll very quickly figure out why people invented plumbing and stopped carting water by hand.
You need to either sort out water at the property or board them somewhere else. Going from boarding to self care is hard work enough. Sentencing yourself to living like a medieval peasant is a terrible idea.
Thank you for the input! We haven’t bought the property yet and are still looking for the right one. So far none have wells or water in them, but I’ll ask the real estate agent to hunt hard for something. We will have electrical on the property for water heaters and electric fencing. I was planning on putting the trough very near the road so I can fill it from the road if needed in the snow, but this is definitely something to keep in mind and think through. Winters can get hairy here so I need to be certain the plan is feasible all year long. Hopefully, it will only be a year of schlepping water, but if not I need this to be doable. The well quotes are unfortunately what it costs up here to have a well anywhere. We are on very rocky terrain and wells need to be over 150 feet. My mother, neighbor, and friend all had one done this year and $11,000 was the cheapest. $19,000 was the most expensive. Oy!
We are looking for other options and trying to find a piece of property to lease that has water/electrical on it already but it’s not turning up anything. I’m just hoping to get my ducks in a row so I’m prepared for whatever I need to do to make sure our two ponies are safe, secure, and has a place to go. Keep the ideas and tips coming!
I understand not having any boarding options. Believe me, I’ve been there.
Another idea is to spend the money on the well (and electricity) and try to save money on fencing and shelter the first year.
Good fencing is expensive, but t-posts are dirt cheap. If your ground allows for it, you can drive them in yourself. You can then fence with woven wire field fence or electric tape/rope/wire. For a few hundred dollars, you could create a secure yet temporary paddock for the first year, then put up more permanent fencing as you rebuild finances.
Temporary shelter can also be accomplished reasonably. My husband and I put up a 2 stall shed for $1000 using new materials from Lowes. If you’re not handy, a Carolina Carport + corral panels for stalls + plywood wind breaks can get the job done for around the same price. Big box stores sell small, relatively inexpensive plastic and metal garden sheds that could be used for limited hay/feed storage.
It’s cold outside, so I’m basically over-posting and talking to myself as I mull over how I would handle this if it were me… but just thinking of yet another approach to save money…
My friend built up a very nice, permanent shedrow barn with feed room, heated grooming stalls/tack storage area, hay storage, and 8 stalls. She built it in sections over a 10 year time period. She started with just 2 basic shedrow stalls, knowing she would expand as money allowed, then added on the other parts over time.
I thought it was a pretty savvy way to go about things when you don’t want to waste money on temporary fixes but can’t afford everything at once. She has a very nice set up thanks to good planning.
[QUOTE=mmeqcenter;n9976437The tote would be a good way to store water so you have more than 100 gallons available at a time. Two horses may drink up to 40 gallons a day, so a 100 gallon trough you’d be refilling nearly every other day - with your system having to drive it off to refill, that’s quite tedious. The 275 gallon tote would be helpful, but you’ll need a flatbed for it if you want to fill it all the way. Water has a density of 8.34 lb/gallon, so a 275 gallon tote will weigh over 2300 lbs full. I’d leave it full on the trailer at your property with a hose attached or available to fill the trough as needed; that and the 100 gallon trough gives you at least a week of water.[/QUOTE]
She really can’t leave tote full all the time for easy delivery of water, unless she heats it. There would be a solid block of ice inside at her location! Hose left outside, attached, would also freeze, probably break off when trying to use it, maybe even break the frozen spigot on tote!
Time spent filling large containers, emptying them into trough, driving wind chill, may have frozen water already when she goes to fill the trough.
If OP gets really desperate she might shovel snow into her tank, let the heater work it’s magic in making snow back into water. Does cost in electric, but if she has good, deep snow cover, it can work to keep horses watered in a pinch. I recommend a submerged heater for this task, heat rises to get all the snow, ice, liquified.
I spent a couple of years when I was in high school keeping my horse in a barn that had no electricity and no running water. Nice little barn, great fencing, $50/month, but I had to truck water in every day from home. I had several plastic 6 gallon gas cans (blue like this one: https://www.hardwareworld.com/p5gdotr/Blue-Water-Can-6-gallon ) that I filled at home from the hose in the summer, bathtub in the winter and lugged to the barn (which was a couple of miles from home). Only the one horse, and he got buckets of water, no trough. It was a lot of work but it was doable… Not sure about two horses in a WI winter, though…
