Thar She Blows!

When last I left you, our ag well was simply a hole in the ground.  On Monday, the Web Spy dropped a camera down, to see what there was to be seen.  Everything looked good, with one exception:

Sometime, someone dropped a 100' measuring tape down the well.  There it is, at 198.8'.  All 100 feet of the tape were loose, making a wicked web, to catch anything that might not want to be caught...say a submersible pump?  Can you imagine if we hadn't known this was down there?  The pump would have jammed and we would have been at a loss to explain it.

The well itself, is dug to around 204'.  The casing (metal sleeve, into which the parts are inserted) reaches down 200'.  It is an "open bottom" well, meaning that below the casing it's, well, it's open.  Unfortunately there was a lot of sand and silt build up, which we were highly encouraged to remove.

First, they went fishing.  This hook was lowered 200'.  The cable was twisted, then let go, twisted, then let go, allowing it to spin and snag (hopefully) the tape measure.  They spun the cable a half dozen times, then brought it up.

Victory!

The next step was to lower 200' of 4" pipe with an air compressor hose attached to the bottom.

Section after section was added.  (See the pipes behind him?)  They used all of the 4" pipe.  Once it was all lowered into the well, one section at a time, they added an elbow.

Once it was set into position, they turned on the air compressor.  Fire!

Water would gush out, then stop, then gush, then stop.  All the while, they were lowering the pipe up 12' then back down to the bottom, then up 12' (by 4' increments), then down again, trying to flush the mud and silt and sediment from the cavity.  This went on for over an hour.

When at last he was satisfied with the output, he had to once again remove the 200' of pipe and haul it away.

Our sons have also been trenching, to lay larger wire to handle the larger, more efficient pump.  Today's goal:  to have water flowing for irrigation by sundown.  Goals are good!

On a quilting note, I may have promised quilt pictures.  This little quilt is ready for delivery.  I finished it last night.

One more item checked off the quilt guilt to do list.  woohoo!