Monday, January 26, 2015

We've Got Water!


The Man and I were recently talking about how we don't have a source of water on our land.  We are on city water and I can't stand it, as it smells of chlorine so badly it almost burns my nose!  I'm really surprised our animals will even drink it, although they do so without complaint.  However, lest you should think I'm a whiny baby, I'm very thankful to have city water (right now) because we don't have to worry about power outages or running out of water.  Here's another however, however, I don't like feeling as if city water is our only option, should we ever need to go another route.


Ok, so that leads us to this blog post!  The Man came in from working on his new quail pens and said..........Hey!  We've got Water!

Our land is split into two sections.  The bulk of our property is on one side of a dead end road and that is where our house, the goats, chickens, rabbits and pigs when we have them, live.  Right across the dead end road is the remainder of our property....


This used to be quite full of junk when we first bought the place.  We've been working on stuff over on the part of our land that our house sits on, and working with building outbuildings and fencing and such and haven't done too much with this side of our property.......


But inside this cinder block enclosure.......


Is this!!  That's a well my friends......


And we wanted to know how deep it was, so we can start planning on putting in a "pitcher pump", or hand pump......


So how do you measure the depth of a well?  It's terribly difficult and complicated....go get some paper and pen so you can write down how to do it.......

Ha!  Just kidding, it's easy peasy!  

Get a long ball of yarn and about 5 nuts....or washers....or a heavy rock even and tie to the end of the yarn.....


Then drop the weighted end down your well, slowly and being careful not to drop the whole shebang down there!


Keep feeding your weighted line down the well.  Once you reach the water, you'll know it because your weight will stop swaying side to side and will pretty much just go straight down...and once you hit bottom you'll know, although it's a bit trickier about that.  You have to feed it down slowly, and just "feel" when it's on the bottom and not going down any farther.  This isn't an exact science, but will give you a ball park figure on how deep your well is.....


Then we went back to the main yard to measure.  We used a 100' tape and first measure how much of the yarn was wet.....about 16 feet.  That means we've got 16' of water in our well.  


Then we measured how much total string we used......


It's a loooooong way, as you can see.......


We had 90' of dry yarn, plus our 16' of wet yarn for a total well depth of approximately 106'

What does that mean for us?  Well we'll have to figure out the best type of non-electric pump for this depth of well and then begin plans for getting it installed.  Then we'll test the water with a home test kit and hopefully have good drinkable water in the event of an emergency!

I've got hopes that it will be good water as it's the highest point around, there are no septic systems close to it, and it isn't around any farm ground for pesticide run-off.  Of course that doesn't mean much nowadays because that stuff can seep into just about anything!  :)  However, it's a start!

But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.  John 4:14


Till next time.....I remain yours in Christ,


10 comments:

  1. Wow, that is so neat! We had well water where I grew up and it was so tasty with the natural minerals. The city water here is like pool water, too. Also, I LOVE the new banner. So beautiful!

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    1. Thanks, I'm not sure how long it will be before we can get a hand pump so we can use it, but I've got hopes that it will be fresh and sweet. Thanks also for the compliment on the banner! My camera will take panoramic photos and I thought that might make a better banner! :)

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  2. What an exciting find! Back up water is NEVER a bad idea. Love the new banner as well! :)

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    1. I was very excited! Thanks about the banner. I took advantage of the snow we got on Saturday, and it's a good thing because it was all gone by about noon! :)

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  3. We have Simple Pumps on our deep water wells, Goodwife.

    http://www.simplepump.com/

    They are fairly easy to install, Frank and I did ours, and the parts are easier to deal with than the classic cast iron deep water wells. Congratulations on having a well. Water can be a priceless commodity during storms, long term power outages, or just to increase your independence. Good for you!

    Fern

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    1. We actually just watched a video on the installation of the Simple Pump. It did look pretty straight forward and easy. Thanks for the link and the tip!

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  4. I am so happy for you. We were on a well for 30 years, didn't have city water, thank goodness. I thought that I read somewhere that chlorinated water can make birds and rabbits sick. Who knows what the long term effects of that would be? Better to be safe.

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    1. Hi and thanks for stopping by! Yes you are right, we often don't know what the long term effects of a lot of things are! I look forward to the day we can use our well water!

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  5. That is so exciting! Having your own water source on a farm is so important. We discovered we had a spring with tanks and water rights after we bought the property and we felt like we had won the lottery! I am happy for you :)

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  6. Yeah city water doesn't always taste the best. It's funny because showing livestock to get them to drink city water I used to put orange koolaid in their water. no sugar or anything, just the cheap orange packets and it worked. Then having this baby I always thought well water was best and the nurse practitioner couldn't believe I was using well water with her :(.

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