Almost there:
We brought the well contractor in early in the construction process because they needed a flat spot for the rig. The truck on the left is actually parked where our garage will be. Had we waited until construction had begun, our "flat spots" wouldn't be flat spots any longer.
Looks like they're adding another 25" drill shaft:
Adding another 25' section of drill shaft:
Drilling through rock...notice the red dust cloud:
Still going through rock...I'm glad we had this part done at the beginning...can you imagine the dusting I'd have to do?
Close up of the rig operator...can you say "Dirty Jobs?"
I think here they're pulling up a section of drill:
It's hard to believe this hole eventually reaches 470 feet deep:
Shoveling the mud away from the well opening:
We were momentarily excited when they began placing the first casing section. We thought they might be finished...but they were only about 75 feet down at this point:
One 20' section of casing in...here comes another one:
Applying the PVC adhesive to join the 2 sections of casing:
Back to drilling again:
The water is being pumped into the shaft...not coming up as we had hoped:
A little while after this last photo was taken, the rig overheated and work came to a stop. I think they were about at 90' at this point...no water yet. Here's one of the workers on top of the rig trying to assess the problem:
The problem was fixed a few hours later and work resumed. (Too much dust from their previous job combined with ours to clog the radiator.) By the end of the day, we had a 450' deep well, and a flow rate of .5 gal/min. Less than optimal, but our well contractor assured us it would be enough for normal household use, based on an average usage of 75 gal/person/day. Assuming the well shaft would fill to within 100' of the top, we'd have 350' of water, where each foot holds 1.5 gal, yielding 525 gal of "reserve." By his calculations, our family's usage would be approx. 450 gal/day, (although I doubt we use that much...), so we would be restricted somewhat as to outside watering, gardening, etc.
Our well contractor suggested that we allow them to drill 50 more feet, if for no other reason than to increase our reserve. We gave him our go-ahead.
Are we glad we did!!! The next morning they resumed drilling, and at 470', hit a soft spot, giving us an ample water flow rate of 8 gal/min! They also think that the water filled the well shaft to about 50' of the top, so we have about 420' of reserve at 1.5 gal/foot means 630 gallons of reserve!!! We now have no worries about watering the garden, washing cars...we just feel so blessed. That extra 20' cost us less than $200 in labor...and will definitely be worth every penny!
Tomorrow (Saturday, May 2nd) we meet with our builder to put in the perimeter stakes.
Lord willing...
Our excavator will be digging the footers next week;
We'll be closing on our loan May 7th;
And the month of May should see the completion of the foundation work and a real good start on the framing and exterior work.
Then we can jump right into summer with the school year finished and nothing to do but the inside work...hoping to have the bulk of it done by fall.
When we start to see the walls going up...I think it will finally seem real.
Thanks for stopping by...please leave us a comment...we'd like to know who's visiting!
Stay tuned,
Kris
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