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You know its a drought when..

J

John T

Well-known Member
Sure, Ive been reading about the drought and grass is pretty much dried up butttttttttttt

"You know its a drought when"...... The well runs dry grrrrrrrrrrrrrr

WE have a shallow hand dug hand lined with sandstone 6 ft wide by 18 feet deep well and back when 3 teens were home with all those long showers we would usually go dry in August when the water man dumped 2000 gallons right down the well once or twice max per year and then the fall rains began and all was well till next August

HOWEVER for years now since the kids left and its just me n the "first wife" we never ran out

NEVER UNTIL TODAY THAT IS and her doing a HUGE load of laundry yesterday was likely the straw that broke the camels back. I keep 70 to 110 gallons in the RV fresh water holding tanks for emergencies.

Since you just cant hardly sell a place (esp if mortgage is used) without city water (This County and Health Department and Mortgage companies have all sorts or rules n regs grrrr) I hooked on early this spring but havent plumbed it in yet, I was planning for this fall but if it dont rain we may have to do it now

Ever tell ya about its dry and theres a drought here in southern Indiana?? NOW I KNOW THERE IS

John T
 
Bummer John. Indy's westside along with eastern Hendricks County finally got 1 inch of rain Sunday morning. First significant rain since the first week of May. Soybeans around Eagle Creek Airport look awful.
 
Sadly when you hook up to city water, they will tell you not to use the water for this and that because they have a shortage.
We have well water and irrigation water which is seperate. We have never had the well run dry, but I've had it off a few times for repairs. Then we use the irrigation water for toilet flushing and that's about it. It comes right out of the Rio Grande River, not exactly something I would even consider bathing in!
Could you plumb into the city water on a temporary basis and run a hose off it and add water to your well to get you by?
 
Yep if worse comes to worse I can jury rig to the city water temporarily but Im gonna see how much it recovers today or I can just call the water man and buy 2000 gallons which will prob get me by

John T
 
I'm not sure how it is in your location, but the municipality here would normally do the tap and make the connection, and install the gate valve for you to tap into. Once the lateral work is inspected and approved, they call for the more expensive copper tube here, the meter, backflow preventer (BFP) and code compliant plumbing is usually it, costs may be the meter, (not sure how they do that where you are maybe they provide the meter and own it) BFP the lateral piping/trench and interior plumbing. My neigbhor was in a similar situation and just kept putting it off, but really needed it, and at cost. The darned main was only 100'-125'up the hill, one day I had time with a backhoe, dug the trench, they bought the tubing, forget about the meter now, we rolled out the tubing, bed with sand, left it open for inspection, passed then they tapped and installed the valve, and connected to the lateral.
 
Its already here (meter n base n pit n shut off etc) and already on my property and alls legal, I just have to dig a couple holes and trench it to my existing line to the house and cut out the old line to the well, they are kinda funny about not wanting people to pump well water into their lines ya know geeeeeeee

John T
 
Any wells around there, or just no water? Some wells up here north of you going dry blamed on large scale irrigation. When was your well put in? Sounds really cool with laid sandstone. Imagine digging that hole by hand.
 
Sounds like most municipal bureaucrats in North America have heard tell of the Walkerton Water Disaster. And been busy building empires even if they are not needed.
 



IT'S SO HOT and dry the birds have to use potholders to pull the worms out of the ground.

.....the trees are whistling for the dogs.

.....the best parking place is determined by shade instead of distance

.....hot water comes from both taps.

.....you can make sun tea instantly.

.....you learn that a seat belt buckle makes a pretty good branding iron.

.....the temperature drops below 90 F and you feel a little chilly.

.....you discover that in July it only takes two fingers to steer your car (one on each hand).

.....you discover that you can get sunburned through your car window.

.....you actually burn your hand opening the car door.

.....you break into a sweat the instant you step outside at 5:30 A.M.

.....your biggest motorcycle wreck fear is, "What if I get knocked out and end up lying on the pavement
and cook to death?"

.....you realize that asphalt has a liquid stage.

.....the potatoes cook underground, so all you have to do is pull one out and add butter.

.....the cows are giving evaporated milk.

.....farmers are feeding their chickens crushed ice to keep them from laying boiled eggs.



IT'S SO DRY that the Baptists are starting to baptize by sprinkling, the Methodists are using wet-wipes, the Presbyterians are giving rain checks, and the Catholics are praying for the wine to turn back into water!
 
It was hand dug around 70 years ago (Im sure it was more then 18 feet deep then) and all the sandstones were hand laid around the perimeter with no mortar and if you wait maybe an hour after a good rain and look down you see n hear water a tricklin down thru the stones buttttttttt its just run dry, the water table kept goin lower n lower and I dont wanna drop the suck pipe down any lower then it already is. I called my buddy with the back hoe n trencher we will prob hook on to city this week or next week

John T
 
Lots of wells have been having troubles here in central Kansas. Young man down the road has a well 64' told me yesterday that his water table is very low and the water smells like sulfur. Said that his Dad never seen that well have trouble in 70 years. Not a good year around this part of the country.
 
The cost on city water is a factor, too, and once you hook up, there's no turning back, generally. I shudder to think what I would have paid out over the last 40 years on our country places if we'd have had city water instead of wells. I'll bet I haven't put $1,000 into the water system in that time, in repairs.

I think I'd try to get by with the water guy, if I were you. Unless this heat/drought thing becomes a habit.
 
Oh, absolutely, thats what the backflow preventer is for, not sure about the piping layout or if you can utilize both supplies, or the well supply will have to be separate. Myself and a friend in the plumbing business, pulled 300' of 1 1/2" galvanized steel pipe from another friends well, to replace a pump, so he could still use the source, but I forget what the layout was inside, he had municipal water, and he probably would not have done it 'cept we did it for cost, new pvc pipe and pump went back in, boy that steel is heavy, we had a rig set up over the casing to pull it.
 
If I remember right you were around Monroe Co.? I saw a lot of dry crops around Spencer and out towards Columbus. Amazingly, my family"s place around Brummett"s Creek had caught a lot of rain in July. I was surprised how green it was in that small area last weekend when dropping off an aunt. Their crops looked bad around the 4th, but looked awesome last week. I farm and mow grass for a living, I"ve got a lot of guys with obviously not too much to do. We can be down tomorrow to trench that in!!!
 
City water only runs me about $20 every 2 months, so $120/year.

40 years would be $4800.

I wonder what the cost of replacing well pumps over 40 years would turn out to be.
 
Ours is 12.01 per month for the minimum which me n the first wife prob wont go over often. Ive spent a lot on pumps and electricity to run them the last 42 years when we were on wells

John T
 
The city water is $12.01 per month minimum and we wont hardly go beyond that amount. Ive had pumps n tanks n electricity to run it for 42 years, I dont have that total but it wasnt cheap. HOWEVER I still have the pump and well as soon as it rains that is lol so I can pick n choose the best of both worlds

John T
 
Im NOT doing this to get rid of the well, its because its needed if I want to sell the place !! Besides Im KEEPING THE WELL also so I can use either woooooooo hoooooooo if it ever raisn that is grrrrrrrrr first time in yearsssssssss it went dry but it always recovers once it rains

John T
 
We lived in a small town with water and sewer. If the water cost you $10.00, the sewer cost you $20.00. Our water and sewer bill with three teenagers would run $150.00-$200.00 per month. When we built out here 6 years ago, my well was $3,200.00, and the septic (which I installed) was $2,100.00. We are money ahead already, and no monthly water bills.

Our well is a bored well 45 ft. deep and 3 foot diameter. When dug, a 35 gpm pump could not lower the level after 3 hours. And we do not have to treat the water at all. No filtering or softening. Drink it straight from the well. When we filled the pool (30 ft.X 52in.)it was crystal clear. We only have to use minimal chlorine to maintain the water.
 
18ft deep that wouldn't get you thru the first rock here.My well is around 350ft but I can use all I want and never run it dry,well man said its at least 300Gal/minute because thats all he could pump.
 
John T. If I lived close to you, I would clean your well for you back to its original depth. Just need a windlass and a couple of good guys on top to pull up the muck. Heck, I've been in wells 3 times that deep.
Richard
 
John T: Do your water like my daughter's is. The city water is hooked to the bathroom and utility room. The well is still to the kitchen. That way you will still have the better tasting water for cooking/drinking. You also have one backing the other up.

Then if anything goes wrong with your well/pump you can decide to switch over or not.
 
John,

You may already know this but if you are think'n about selling it (home inspectors crawl'n around and such) be sure you have a gap between the town's water and the well's/not just tee the two together with a valves. Health departments/county water folks get a little picky about such things if any one ever sees it, even with a double check back flow preventer.

Just a heads up on something some people over look.

As for here on this hill my well is an old coal test well that was cased down 430 some odd feet. I have all the water a man could ever want, it is just loaded down with sulfur, iron, manganese, and calcium. It didn't cost much to get it in the house but made a mess out of what ever you were try'n to clean or cook. Best money I ever spent was run'n county water to house but at $8/1000 gallons I still have well water in the barn, by the hog pen, and to the garden. And if any thing ever happens to the county's water (in 09 durring the ice storm parts of the county lost water while the county was look'n for gennerators to run pumps) I can have the house back on the well in a half an hour or less.

Dave
 
(quoted from post at 17:21:36 08/06/12) Ours is 12.01 per month for the minimum John T
Click to expand...
A meter with the regional co-op is $35/mo (even if no water is used) plus about $0.005/gal used. The water pressure only runs 35-40 psi and it's hard water. The positives are: When the electricity is out we still have running water, it doesn't have hydrogen sulfide (just smells like chlorine), and we haven't run it dry (yet). The drilled well at the house is 320' with 220' of casing, it's sulfur water, and runs dry after about 1/2 hour continuous pumping (but it does recover).
 
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