This is Faith’s Blog, AKA Faith’s Well Woes
Morning Y’all!
I dashed this off, so please forgive the typos!
I live in the country. Sort of. We have a well and septic. We don’t pay city taxes. We don’t get city services like garbage delivery. Hubs goes to the dump for trash and recycling. I make compost. I like it. When the city loses its own water or electric, we are prepared.
Last week the well pump died. It wasn’t a quick death. There were death rattles and wheezing. But we still had a trickle. 10 psi. Which meant there was enough to flush about once every two hours, not enough to shower, and not enough to activate the in-line water heater. Pulling well pump up requires either a special winch (not wench) that came pull up a 250+ foot line with heavy (very heavy) pump at the bottom, or two strong people to pull it.
The local stores didn’t have the pump Hubs thought we might need on hand. Hubs ordered one rather than try and pull the pump and then discover that we were in a pickle because the pump was not here in town.
And my super strong, handy dandy brother who (like Hubs) can fix anything, was heading out of town for his anniversary. No way was I asking the Bro to stay when we had water supplies on hand and an RV out back with 50 gallons of water and a functioning water heater. Besides, Hubs and I, while not preppers, do plan well.
For about four days we showered out back. We, um, ahem, “Let it mellow when it’s yellow.” We used the electric kettle to heat water for dishwashing. We used laundry carefully. Each day, Hubs organized and brought up part of our emergency supply of drinking water. We had about 20 gallons to work through. We usually rotate through the water about once every six weeks, but with issues around here, we hadn’t been out in the RV in about eight months. It was time to rotate through and clean the jugs. First world problems. Inconvenient. But not waterless, thirsty, and drought.
The new well pump came on day three. The Bro came back on day four.
And then stuff started to happen. Together they pulled the pump. It was wet, dirty, exhausting work. (Not for me. I watched though the window. I’m sheltered and privileged. I know that. I thank God for my blessings every day.) They discovered a kink in the line that been there since the well was dug, explaining whey we never had a lot of water pressure. And they discovered that the special pump wasn’t needed. Bro went to Home Depot and picked up the right pump.
Another hour of hard, miserable work later, we had water. Better water pressure than we had had in 30 years. (For those of you who know about pressure, yes, that part comes later…) It was glorious fabulous water. The dishwasher and the clothes washer were put to work. And I had a fantastic shower!
Two days later…
Faith’s Flood. Coming soon to a blog near you.
Faith