Rob MacLeod is a history teacher at Harwood High School and runs a small farm at his home in East Hardwick. On Saturday, Sept. 20, while filling water for his cows, his spring ran dry.
Reporter Erica Heilman talked with him about his water deficit — and his plans for the winter.
This interview was produced for the ear. We highly recommend listening to the audio. We’ve also provided a transcript.
Rob MacLeod: We were watering the cows, they were down below the house, and the water stopped running. So I was like, “Uh oh.” So I went down, I have a 300-gallon storage tank down the cellar, and I went down there, and that was empty, and no water was flowing in. So I was like, "I think my spring is dry." I hadn't checked it because I was like, "Well, I can't use any less water than I am, and knowing isn't going to do anything except like rev the anxiety through the roof." So I knew it was going to be low, and it just ran dry. There's still water in there, but there's not enough to flow.
Erica Heilman: Has this ever happened before?
Rob MacLeod: No, I mean, I've talked to neighbors who have cultural memory going back 100 years or more, and the spring has never gone dry.
Erica Heilman: So what do you need water for here? What are all the things you need?
Rob MacLeod: So I have American Milking Devon cows. I have a couple Jersey cows. So I have 29 cows right now at the moment, mostly beef, one dairy. We also have eight pigs. That's about 200 gallons a day, cooler days a little bit less, hotter days a little bit more. But you know, and I consider myself lucky because that's a lot of water, but compared to some other farms, this is like a small amount, but it's still 200 gallons a day, 1,400 gallons a week, and I have no water.
So Saturday, when we found out, was slightly terrifying, we had enough water for Sunday. That Sunday, the 21st of September, I went and bought two of the 275 gallon IBC totes. And then Monday, I called the town manager, David Epson and said, "Hey, any chance the fire department can come up and bring some water?" and they were there within a couple hours.
Erica Heilman: So what is the fate of the spring? How long will that take to replenish?
Rob MacLeod: I don't see that coming back until the drought's over. Typically, when we have a full amount of water, it's overflowing, and it's actually the source of some seasonal springs and streams. Last couple years, it never stopped flowing. We had a stream year-round. This year, it dried up early July, and I don't think my spring would be back till next spring. And what do I do when it's too cold to store water? That has been a source of a lot of poor sleep nights, shall we say.
Erica Heilman: You're gonna dig a well.
Rob MacLeod: I'm gonna drill a well. I called Manosh right away when I realized I lost water. They just came out last Thursday and did a site inspection. Like, where can we put a well? Where can we park our trucks? They said that they can probably be here in two to three weeks, and the estimate is $20,000, which was not in my budget, but I'm just so grateful that they can do whatever it is they're doing to get me water in about a month, because otherwise, if I can't get a well drilled this fall, my options are find a place to board my animals, or I have to sell off the herd. I mean, it would be impossible to truck water in the winter. I don't see how I could do it and keep it from freezing.
You know, the experience of having no water when it's just a person is inconvenient and frustrating, but you can bring in enough to get by. But when you have a farm with no water, that becomes, you know, within two or three days, you're in crisis. Your animals are absolutely in crisis. In two or three days with no water, and you've got no options. But it's also, you know, I usually graze until middle of November, December, and I'm done. I've got a couple more days of grazing, and then I have no grass, because there's been basically no regrowth from August. And a lot of farms, especially farms that graze, are starting to dip into their winter feed much, much earlier. My feed budget is based on grazing until like Nov. 15. I'm going to be short of that by like 45 days.
