Friday, May 12, 2017

WELL IS BEING DRILLED

Our well hasn't been adequate for the last few years.  When we could no longer rely on the well to keep the pressure tank filled, we got a 2000 gallon tank and set up a system for the pump to pump water into it every hour until it ran out of water.  That's been doing OK for about 3 years.  BUT lately it hasn't been able to keep up, with the donkeys and 3 households and we've had to buy water for the last couple of months.  




Had well people come out and they said there just wasn't enough recharge on the well.  When the well was originally drilled, it was put in with a cable tool rig.  They thump and crush thru the rock and gravel, a lot slower and noisier than a hydraulic.  The guy that put it in was getting ready to retire, and hadn't upgraded to a hydraulic rig.  Once he hit water, he used a cutting torch to cut holes in the well casing.  Unfortunately over the years the holes have filled in with mineral deposits.  We had a guy come out, pull the pump and clean the well casing, but that's only been a few years ago. 

So we are having to bite the bullet and get a new well.  YIKES the price has gone up more than I'd like to think about......!!!   LOL  But it shouldn't take them but a few days to get it drilled, another plus for a hydraulic rig.  



The old well is only 120 feet deep and is pumping surface water.  Below that is a layer of clay and we had been told that it could be 1000 feet deep or more, which is why we stopped with a surface well.  But 2 neighbors real close have wells at 470 and 500 feet.  So we're crossing our fingers and hoping for a good outcome.  I have no idea what they are doing, but it looks interesting.  

I hope they get the well going before our 2000 gallon tank runs dry.   They are required by law to destroy our old well, they will fill it with concrete............once the other well is usable so it's still operational, just not pumping much water.  

Other than that things are going pretty good.  No major health problems, except for Friolita.  We actually had 4/10's of an inch of rain a few days ago, and I don't know if the high humidity is making her stringhalt act up or what.  When we got her about 9-10 years ago, we were told she had been diagnosed with stringhalt.  She was taken out of the wild by the BLM at age 6 months and she already had it.



Friolita with Doug


The only time we would notice it is when she got in a hurry, and both hind legs would jerk.  This is the 1st time, she's had a problem 24/7 for a few days and it's slowing her down whenever she moves.  If she doesn't get better over the week-end I'll call Dr. Jeremy and have him come out.

It's been cooler, so the skin problems aren't as bad as they could be.  Heard from Linda at the "Colorado Satellite" and the boys are all doing great.  She said Quilla and Boaz act like they want to go out when they take Turbo and Leddy out for race training.  I guess a couple they know wants to go running with Linda and Lynn, so when they do, they will take all 4 donkeys.  That should be "interesting"..........LOL


This is a video of Turbo and his opinion of going "thru" water, trying not to "touch" it.






3 comments:

ellie k said...

It is so dry here in Florida. We had a nice rain today but it was north of us and south of us. Just kind of stopped when it got here and started below us. My kids are farmers and their well went dry a few weeks ago, they had to drill deeper and hit a new water vain. I asks my daughter how deep they went and she just said big dollars deep. I pray we have some rain tonight, they say we might. Glad you are taking care of you well. Hope you hit a good flow quick. Thanks for all the good posts. I do enjoy every one of them.

Tish said...

I feel sorry for your kids, they are probably getting an agricultural rather than residential well. A residential well is bad enough......LOL We actually got 4/10's of an inch a few days ago, which is pretty weird this time of year. We usually only get rain in the winter or during the monsoons starting in July thru the middle of September, so this was unexpected. Glad you enjoy the posts, they were a lot more interesting when Lynn and Linda were here. Hopefully she'll not get too busy to keep us up to date, I'm pretty sure they will be doing more interesting things than we will.........LOL

ellie k said...

It rained all around us yesterday some places getting 8-9 inches and we did not get a drop. I find your posts interesting and have even learned things from it. We never had donkeys when I was growing up but we had work horses, ponies and one full size mule that dad worked that mule was so funny, he sit like a dog , his but on the ground and his front feet standing up. People would stop along the road to look at him.