Farewell, well driller...

The picture shows the second well we drilled on the ranch. Remember those milsurp communications shelters I bought last spring? You can see that one of them is now set into the hillside just above the wellhead, and will serve as the pumphouse. When the trenches are filled, I will backfill dirt around the back and sides of the pumphouse, thereby increasing its insulation, and reducing its visibility. All the water pipe and electrical conduit is now laid in the trenches. If you look carefully, you'll see an arm and a leg in there as well. I will now spend the next several days putting sand in the bottom of the trench to cushion and support the water line, then backfill the trench.
We are finally finished drilling wells. Jim finished drilling the well at the High Valley Road house, bring in 10 GPM at 485 feet. It was an expense we would have preferred not to incur, but it will make selling the place a whole lot easier. Looks like I'm going to have to hold a few bake sales this winter.
Because it is so late in the season, we have decided to postpone pouring the concrete for the house and the shop until springtime. The steel company will store the components for the shop for the winter, and we weren't going to start on the house until then anyway.

Power to the people...

The Idaho Power crew arrived at 8 o'clock this morning to run power from the adjoining property. By 6:00pm they had installed nine power poles, two transformers, 810' of conduit, and pulled all the wire necessary to energize the installation. Now that's what I call a good day's work! They then cut the power until my electrician can install the temporary meter pole, and the water lines and power lines for the pump system are laid in the trench. Once the trench is backfilled, Idaho Power will energize the lines again.
Denny Weaver is shown digging another 310' trench to connect the powerline trench to the well, which can be seen in the background to the right of his backhoe. Once that is done, we will run the 2" water lines and the electrical lines from the well to the shop site and to the home site, and backfill the trench.

Can you dig it?...

The pace is really picking up. Jim has moved his well drilling rig down to the High Valley Road house, and is preparing to drill a new well there. The old well is so poor that the pump guy can't even get a flow reading from it. Hopefully Jim will have the same success he enjoyed on the ranch property. In the meantime, My friend Denny Weaver is finishing up a 4' deep, 850' long trench for the power and water lines to the house. I started digging with the backhoe attachment for my Kioti tractor, but hit decomposed granite, and had to go with the heavier, full sized backhoe. Denny will also dig a trench from the well to the existing trench and connect at the base of the hill, a distance of another 300' or so.
Idaho Power is scheduled to bring in the power from the adjoining parcel tomorrow, planting five power poles and setting two transformers. By Friday we should have power to the building site.

All's well that ends well...

This is a picture of Sherri, Jim and their daughter, Pearl. The first well Jim drilled for us was one problem after another. After drilling 420 feet, the hole collapsed, trapping his drill pipe in the hole. It took three days of constant and determined effort to retrieve the pipe. The hole was then lined with casing, and the drilling resumed, only to have similar problems further down the hole. Reluctantly, we had to stop drilling, and, after two weeks of work, ended up with a 5 gallons per minute well - mediocre at best.
Susan and I agreed that 5gpm would not meet our water needs, so we decided to drill another well. This time we had three different people witch for water, and they all picked the same spot. Jim drilled to 210 feet in three days, and brought in a 60+ gpm well. That, my friends, is a huge well for this part of the country. My scepticism about water witching is fading rapidly.
Jim has now moved his rig down to the forclosure house we just moved into, and will begin drilling a new well there. Needless to say, we will have the same folks witch this well, too.

More traffic congestion...

Chilly nights and shorter days mean that old man winter is on his way. Usually the first snow comes right around Halloween. Winter really sets in about mid-November.
Time to move the livestock down from their summer range in the high country to the winter range in the valley. This band of several hundred sheep was being moved along the Sweet - Ola Highway. Hundreds of head of cattle have come down High Valley Road past our house headed for winter pasture.

More news on the well and the driveway in the next post.

You don't miss your water...

...'till the well runs dry. This old blues song has a lot of truth in it. If you don't think so, try shutting off your water for two days.
This week is water problem week in Ola. We are in the process of moving into the forclosure house we bought on High Valley Road. We had heard that the well might be a problem, so we were delighted when we tested it and were able to draw over 800 gallons before the pump shut off. Just to be sure, we tested it again with similar results. Imagine our surprise when our neighbor from up the hill came down to tell us that since we moved in, he had been running out of water!
We found out that the previous owner of his home built our home for his mom. When his mom's well didn't come in very strong, he simply connected his mom's house to his well.
The solution was simple - all I had to do was dig a four foot deep trench to locate the water line, then excavate the connection and reconnect the house to our well. We now have water again. That backhoe attachment I bought for the tractor is really paying off!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...
The driller was down to 400' when the hole collapsed, locking his drill pipe string in the hole. It took him three days to work the pipe out of the hole. Now he'll have to case the entire hole to prevent further collapses. He's now back in business, and is hopeful that a good well is not too far off.