How to gather water from a trickle stream?

[bushcraftlearner83729]

There is a tiny vein of water on the land.

It seems like it is a real vein, not just some run off, or at least not transient run off, as it has rocks at the mouth and when I dug down there are large clay deposits. Clay means water for a long time right?

How can I gather, say, 10 litres in my container at a time? Today I tried to dam it with the clay that is there and so far when I last checked after having been working around and checking back on it, it was about to wrist depth. I could now jug it into a container.

What is the common bushcraft, or other, wisdom for doing this? Not sure what to look up really as mostly it will either be for grabbing water for one offs when camping or gathering from fast running streams.

I will note I will also be filtering it after with british berkefeld so not to make concern there. The gathering is my current issue.

 

[TeeDee]

An Indian well is a hole dug about 18 inches across and down about 6 inches below water-level, a few paces from a pond or swamp1. It is used to obtain pure water when there is no other source available. In contrast, a stepwell is a well or pond with a long corridor of steps that descend to the water level, and played a significant role in defining subterranean architecture in western India from 7th to 19th century2.
Learn more:

 

[oldtimer]

Clean towel or similar. Put in water till soaked. Wring out into wide mouthed container. Repeat.

I learnt this the hard way during a hot day in the foothills of the Pyrenees

 

[crosslandkelly]

You could dig a gypsy well beside the stream, and allow it to fill naturally. The water also gets a degree of filtering too.

 

[bushcraftlearner83729]

Clean towel or similar. Put in water till soaked. Wring out into wide mouthed container. Repeat.

I learnt this the hard way during a hot day in the foothills of the Pyrenees

Lol, I am looking for more than that and on a regular basis. Not a 'when all else fails' but rather a regular solution for land I own. Would take a lot of soaking and wringing to get 10 litres to fill the container.

Probably should have posted in homesteading. Forgot about that subforum!

 

[bushcraftlearner83729]

You could dig a gypsy well beside the stream, and allow it to fill naturally. The water also gets a degree of filtering too.

Why would digging it beside, rather that damming the main flow, be preferable?

 

[crosslandkelly]

Why would digging it beside, rather that damming the main flow, be preferable?

I don't know if it would be preferable in your situation, you asked for ideas and I gave you one. Gypsy wells are a known way to collect water.

 

[haptalaon]

I don't know for sure, but stagnant water is dangerous in a way flowing water is not. Perhaps damming a flow to create a pool tempts one to drink from the stagnant water whereas if you've made an ad hoc well next to the flow, you're actively emptying the hole as it fills and the water never stagnates. Maybe?

 

[Herman30]

Too bad these pumps aren´t sold anymore, I bought one just to get water from streams hard to reach or to get water from trickle stream.

 

[Falstaff]

I have seen an army instructor gather a thin stream of water off rocks by using a t shirt as a wick, one end spread over the rock, the other end twisted into a loose rope put into a 20 gall container. I was suprised at how well it worked.
So if you dig a hole deep enough for a container, below the rock you mentioned, then you could do the same. No wringing out the cloth involved.

 

[Falstaff]

I've made a water collecting wick into a bottle using the same technique. The intention and design is to clip it to a tarp edge to divert & catch the water off the tarp. The first test using a dripping tap proved the principle works. Next is to try it on a tarp, but I'm still working on the bottle suspension detail.

 

[Moondog55]

Get a shovel and an old stainless steel pot, drill a hole in the bottom of the pot and add on a bit of pipe and some poly tubing, then run the poly tubing downhill to a food grade poly drum with a tap outlet on the bottom. Use the shovel to dig a hole for the pot and a trench for the tubing. You may need to add an overflow to the top of the storage drum leading back to the water channel. If it works well that start adding features like silt traps and silt drainage

 

[Stew]

I've made a water collecting wick into a bottle using the same technique. The intention and design is to clip it to a tarp edge to divert & catch the water off the tarp. The first test using a dripping tap proved the principle works. Next is to try it on a tarp, but I'm still working on the bottle suspension detail.

HH2O AutoMagic Water Collector & Rainfly Tensioner System – Hennessy Hammock UK

Description The HH2O: the next evolution of the idea to tension the fly with rocks or other weights is to clip a funnel onto the two side "O" rings of the rainfly. The narrow end of each funnel is threaded to screw onto a hydration water bag or any size of pop bottle. As the rain water drips off...

hennessyhammock.co.uk

Any good?

 

[bushcraftlearner83729]

I don't know for sure, but stagnant water is dangerous in a way flowing water is not. Perhaps damming a flow to create a pool tempts one to drink from the stagnant water whereas if you've made an ad hoc well next to the flow, you're actively emptying the hole as it fills and the water never stagnates. Maybe?

It seems like the opposite would be the case that the dammed stream would still have some movement but the hole would not. Also the reasons you state would also apply to the dammed stream since it will be being emptied as often as the hole would.

As for the stagnant issues I have a british berkefeld which hopefully will take care of that. Not that it is going to be sitting for long as water is required every couple of days.

 

[bushcraftlearner83729]

I've made a water collecting wick into a bottle using the same technique. The intention and design is to clip it to a tarp edge to divert & catch the water off the tarp. The first test using a dripping tap proved the principle works. Next is to try it on a tarp, but I'm still working on the bottle suspension detail.

Another one for you if you haven't heard of it, which I read recently in the SAS survival guide, is wrapping a plastic bag around a tree branch as, it is claimed, they draw water from deep in the earth and then expel it above ground.

I do know in summer you can feel and see little drops from trees.

 

[bushcraftlearner83729]

Get a shovel and an old stainless steel pot, drill a hole in the bottom of the pot and add on a bit of pipe and some poly tubing, then run the poly tubing downhill to a food grade poly drum with a tap outlet on the bottom. Use the shovel to dig a hole for the pot and a trench for the tubing. You may need to add an overflow to the top of the storage drum leading back to the water channel. If it works well that start adding features like silt traps and silt drainage

As this is my land I am actually thinking rather just get a 12v pump and run off of solar.

Well that will be my mid term planned which maybe I mentioned in the OP but might move it forward.

The issue with the gravity method is the water is rather close to the southern sloped edge already, although I guess I could still manage to go further down as there are still a few meters left.

 

[Moondog55]

12V pumps usually work while under water so you would still need a sump. That buried pot is that sump. No experience with solar powered pumps but my decorative pool pumps work off 12V and while they are not powerful if you give them time they can move a lot of water. It depends on how great a head you want or need but a metres fall is all you need for drinking water; perhaps even less, maybe as little as 300mm would work. Charity shops are great places here for getting cheap stock pots

 

[bushcraftlearner83729]

12V pumps usually work while under water so you would still need a sump. That buried pot is that sump. No experience with solar powered pumps but my decorative pool pumps work off 12V and while they are not powerful if you give them time they can move a lot of water. It depends on how great a head you want or need but a metres fall is all you need for drinking water; perhaps even less, maybe as little as 300mm would work. Charity shops are great places here for getting cheap stock pots

The little dam I made is holding so don't see why I shouldn't use that.

I also thought that it is the same as the larger stream a little way down in that that latter one is fast flowing but pools at the bottom and I had been taking water from the pooling part and doing purification on it.

It seems this is a similar scenario just on a smaller scale.

I got some sand and had gravel so thinking to run it through a layer of each in a plastic bowl as a first pass before putting into main filter.

 

[Falstaff]

HH2O AutoMagic Water Collector & Rainfly Tensioner System – Hennessy Hammock UK

Description The HH2O: the next evolution of the idea to tension the fly with rocks or other weights is to clip a funnel onto the two side "O" rings of the rainfly. The narrow end of each funnel is threaded to screw onto a hydration water bag or any size of pop bottle. As the rain water drips off...

hennessyhammock.co.uk

Any good?

Mine is based on that, together with the tee shirt filter principle. In the Hennessy one, which is pretty good, the funnel can block up easily with leaves etc and still lets bits of debris into the bottle.
Gary (Steam Tent Co-operative & I think on this forum) on his personal website got over this by creating a weir tube inside the funnel. I'm going for a soft rope and no/minimal funnel so bits will drop off. I'm also trying to come up with a simple universal suspension method, not reliant on a specific thread/bottle. (besides the universal bit of string solution).

 

[Falstaff]

Tried it in the past, not very sucessfully, needs a substantial amount of leaves and apparently a pretty much airtight seal around the branch. The bush one is the same, never managed to get a good enough seal or catchment for it to work.

"I do know in summer you can feel and see little drops from trees". - those are the sugars the leaves give off, forget why, think its' probably to attract moths. Makes roads treacherous for motorbikes.