Well, well, well.

I'll have to take & post some pictures at some stage soon, but SunnyO is bordered on two sides by a dry creek bed. Previous owners have diligently kept records of correspondence between various agencies & themselves, and through these records I have learned that the last time there was water in the creek was 1994.

Our drinking & washing water comes from a "bore", which I think is just another name for a well. It's quite clever really, the water is 12-15 feet down, we have a pipe with an electric motor sitting on top of it. We turn a tap, the motor pumps water at a very respectable pressure. It's been tested & is premium drinking water. Or, as we say in the business, "potable".

We also have a really big tank which collects rainwater from the roof of the stables. This water is for the plants.

And... there is another motor attached to that tank, which is controlled by a computer, which (if switched on) pumps collected rainwater, at a very respectable pressure, through a very sophisticated irrigation system that is woven around & throughout the property - nozzles rise from ground level like something out of Stingray. We don't need to use this system very often. In fact, the only two times I've tried to use it nothing has happened, or more accurately, very little has happened.

I decided I was doing something wrong.

Then last week, I tried it again. The water seemed to be going through, but no nozzles were magically rising from the ground.

Then a voice rang out from not too far away...

"Hey, we've got a lake!".

And goodness knows what happened, but water was bubbling up from a hole in the ground & forming a very expansive pond. SO I switched the magic system off. Tomorrow, I'll be digging around that hole in the ground & finding, if not fixing, the problem.

This whole bore thing though, has got me thinking. At first, we were really careful about the water we used. But then I realised that we can use as much as we want, aside from what goes down the drain, the water we use outside just immdiately returns to the water table.

So I'm gonna get myself a water feature, powered by a solar pump (only learned you can get these last week). I want something that's big enough for the dog to bathe in, with maybe water bubbling, if not gushing from above. A real well! With potable water! I'll site it in an arid patch where overflowing water will be useful.

No idea if this is feasible at this stage. I will keep you informed of progress.