Well, well, well...

Okay Dear Reader, let's go back in time a bit, and I'll tell you a story. This past summer was not a good time to be a well on our property. Home or cabin in this case.

After several decades of hard work, the well in our back yard decided to call it quits. Now, we've been on city water for the 3 main uses of water in the house for a long time. (3 uses, you ask? why, drinking, cooking, and well... you know!) but the well water was very useful for keeping the plants, lawn and gardens alive in the long hot summer without increasing the water bill to astronomical levels. The well water was also very handy for things such as filling the wading pool, washing cars, power-washing the siding... you name it! We love our well.

So in the heat of the summer, we had a local well guy out to see what was going on. His name is Joe, we call him Joe the well guy. (No, not Joe the Plumber)

First he replaced the pump in the well...

Discussing the problem

But that didn't seem to fix the problem.

It was frustrating to say the least.

For a while, we just gave up on the well, and connected a hose to the spigot for the washing machine in the basement, ran that hose through the basement, up and out the window. Chuck split the water with a connecter so that some could be used in the back yard... and ran another hose all the way around to the front of the house so we could at least keep the front lawn alive.

Needless to say, we skipped the wading pool last summer! And I got stronger arm muscles carrying a 5 gallong watering can around to all my vegetables in the garden. Heck, we even started collecting rain water, run-off from the water going to our swamp cooler... any water would do.

Then, a few weeks later, Joe came back. He and Chuck decided that Joe would install a pump saver (a contraption designed to sense the well overheating/working too hard, and stop it before it burned itself out.) This might have been the very thing that caused the problem in the first place. And maybe the pump saver would save the day.

Now, you might be thinking- hey Nicole, how'd you get that big truck into your BACK YARD?! oh- that's a mighty good question reader... glad you're paying attention.

Turns out- Chuck removed a large section of the fence in the back yard each time, and Joe drove his truck into the back field from beside a neighbor's yard around the corner. yep. Crazy times.

The building you see in the background of the pic below is the garage. I took this pic standing just outside the back door on our side of the house.

Now we're getting somewhere!

Unfortunately... installing the pump saver didn't seem to fix the problem. After a day or so, the water would work for a minute or two at full pressure, but then slow to a trickle and eventually stop. I think I tried to water my rose bushes about 17 times that night, and only got it half-way done.

grr.

parched roses

So, Joe the well guy came back yet again, with more solutions up his sleeve. Testing the pumpsaver proved it was working fine, and not the issue. However, in testing the new parts, he was able to determine that the old wiring from the house to the well pump had aged and probably cracked, and there was a short causing the problems. So- this time he brought over a crew and more big machines, and dug a nice deep ditch from the well-head to the basement and ran some purty new wiring.

Can we keep it?
And here's the well-head in the middle of our back yard... don't mind the tree roots they had to cut through to get down deep enough. We wanted to make sure the wiring was significantly below the frost line each winter, so it wouldnt get damaged by the cold weather.


After a couple months of "roughing it" in the garden... Yeah, success at last!

Water, AND a pot of gold!

We love Joe the Well Guy!!!

And every time we watered the lawn for the rest of the hot season we marveled at how much we'd taken it for granted for so long. The electricity bill to run the well is so much easier on our monthly budget than paying the water rates. phew!

Hmm... But lest you think my story is finished... there is still more to share.

The cabin well must have been jealous of all the attention we were paying to the well at the house. So it decided to act out too.

Now, well water at home may be a nice convenience, but well water at the cabin is all that stands between you and this situation:

Mm-hmm. It really happened.

Did you know you can rent a "honey - hut" for a weekend? They even deliver and pick up. It's just like being at your very own state fair, or concert... without the crowds!

All I can say is, thank heaven it happened in the summer and not winter. I would NOT have wanted to trudge through 6 feet of snow in the middle of the night, just to "powder my nose"!

I think Chuck must have paid a lot of attention in his times with Joe the well guy, because he chose to pretty much live in the well house at the cabin over several weekend (and weekday) visits.

The well house, a nice spot in the summer!

Turns out the heavy clay soil up there had really clogged everything so that nothing but a trickle was passing through. The pump couldn't get enough water to recover between uses, so the storage tank didn't fill, and the water pressure was lacking. The pump would then need to be re-primed anytime you needed to use water. And the situation was only getting worse.

So, Chuck-the-well-guy pulled all the piping out of the well by hand, replaced it, and installed a new pump.

And here's my favorite pic of all... Chuck was in the well house for an ENTIRE DAY over Labor Day Weekend. (Notice the sack lunch, he didnt take a break the whole day.)

My hero!

I know everyone in the cabin was THRILLED when we had running water again. It was the best part of the long holiday weekend for me, that's for sure.

Well, my story is nearly finished.

If there's anything else I would ask of you, dear reader, it would be this: When you next flush, remember this little tale of woe and hope, and be grateful that your flusher is there when you need it!