It was a lot of water & now with the huge temp spikes - it looks like an eroded, bare "moonscape" or desert! AMAZING & not the most fun.
Finally got our water/well back online!!!! Turned out we had a variety of problems, some (or all?) started before the huricane but then then "Mathew" exacerbated the issues.
Found this out:
- our well was only 28' deep.
- the pump was sitting on the bottom of the well (& shouldn't have been).
- it seems I still don't know all the well terminology... so bear with me.
- the well is considered to be 24" - the distance across the round cement "tower" that is the actual well.
- the water is only 8' down from the top of the well access - so the depth of the water in our well is sitting at 20'
- the well casing didn't appear to be cracked.
The pump was good. The problems with it our water pressure/access were:
- pump had "sucked in" a lot of weeds and debris - while sitting on the bottom of the well.
- the pressure tank was not working correctly - had some holes in the actual tank and normal wear/tear damage to the piping leading to it from the well. Therefore, it didn't have the pressure to move the water appropriately.
- the pvc/flexible pipe that the pump was attached to was pulled out of the tank. The pump was checked, determined to be OK and the pipe was shortened by 3 1/2'. Now the pump should not be "sucking in" debris or any weeds.
- the pressure tank was replaced
- the piping between well and the pressure tank was replaced
We now have GREAT water flow to both the pasture and the house - at the cost of over $1000.00... But that is so much better than the $5,000 we were afraid it would be. We do need to replace the roof on the pump "house" and the door as well, but that was already a planned project for this fall, hopefully before winter. Since we are expecting rain and a drop in temps in the next week, we are getting the rest of the supplies to redo the roof this weekend. We do kind of need a break from things going wrong for a while - the 401K plan Larry has had for the last 16 yrs w/ the company he works for has taken a hit (several withdrawals this year - due to emergencies/large issues at once) and we need it to build back up ...
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The round pen was dried out in less than 48 hours and now, 3 weeks later, is a manure/dust bowl! UGH, it's awful. Had planned on a "cat" coming over one weekend - would have been used to scrape manure together/out faster than I can by hand and then it was to be piled up for use on gardens next year (in a lasagne sort of way...). Got the call that the "cat" had lost it's hydraulic lines - waiting for that to be fixed. With 5 ponies in it right now (1 mature, 1 yearling, 3 babies), it's staying pretty nasty...
More later - have to run