Water, Water Everywhere

Tuesday, October 8

Framed and hung the outside door today and despite the fact that it was too big to allow for a proper door jamb it went up well. In fact I was very pleased with it, especially since I’ve never hung a door before. I also removed the window between the main house and the addition and that too proved to be an easy task. This is where the new interior door will go so it will have to now be enlarged to allow for both the new door and the side window. 

At about 3:30 the well rig arrived and they started drilling right away. After some discussion about placement of the well, they convinced me to drill as close to the house as possible. I’d originally thought that the parking lot along the drive might be a better spot as it was at a much lower elevation but they, the two man crew who were operating the rig, said that didn’t necessarily mean that the well would end up being any shallower because the water table probably followed the lay of the land anyway. In the end though they said it was entirely up to me. The thought of having the well just a few steps from the front door was all the argument I needed to give them the go ahead. Not unexpectedly, they hit solid granite after about two feet and it was shortly after that that they left for the day. They were kicking up a lot of dust so tomorrow they will be using water to keep the dust down as they drill. While they were here I gave the guys a tour of the place which took all of about two minutes, and explained my plans for a back-to-nature lifestyle. The younger of the two showed a lot of interest in and seemed somewhat envious. .The older guy turned out to be a bit of a character. During the tour he let one rip, loud enough that he had me half expecting to hear the echo off the surrounding hills. He just carried on as if nothing had happened. His partner also explained that the old ‘fart” as he so aptly called him practically owned the entire town of Palm Rapids – owns a combination convenience/liquor store plus several other businesses. They’ll be back tomorrow about 8:00 to start drilling. Another major step towards independence/self-sufficiency is about to become a reality.

Wednesday, October 9

Drilling is now underway. They guys arrived, as promised, at 8:00 and had the drill operating within a matter of minutes. As I write this, they just completed the third section which means that, at twenty feet per section, they are at sixty feet. Tom says his well is sixty-four feet although when I mentioned this fact to the guys they said that they drilled the well and that it was closer to forty. All of this may or may not be relevant to the drilling going on here of course but I can always hope. Anyway, I’d figured that sixty feet would be the best case scenario and since that hasn’t panned out this is when I start sweating. It’s now 10:45 and buddy tells me they are working on section number seven which means we’re approaching one hundred forty feet. Now I’m starting to get really nervous. 

11:52

Struck water at one hundred thirty-nine feet. There appears to be a strong flow, estimated to be in excess of ten gallons per minute or “enough to run a small hotel” as the old fart put it. So the well depth is right about in the middle of my best case/worst case scenario as described by the guy who gave me the original quote. Not bad. The guys have gone to town for lunch which gives the well time to settle and will allow them to measure my static level, the actual depth at which the water pressure will maintain the level of the water in the drill hole, when they return. This will, in turn, determine what I’m going to do for a pump. According to my research a twelve volt pump, my first choice since it won’t be too much of a drain on my electrical setup, is only useful to a static level of fifteen feet or less. Anything more than this means that I will have to go with a one hundred twenty volt pump which will be too much for my system. Here’s hoping.

4:15

The static level is approximately forty-five feet. Back to the drawing board.