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Within the confines of this blog, you will find bits and pieces of the life and times of myself, my family and friend dear and near., far and wide, few and far between. You will find bits and pieces of my world, tho small to some, but huge to me. You will find everything from 'soup to nuts',; recipes, hobbies,crafts, gardenings,loves of my life, GrandLoves-a-Plenty, and even my pets... Sooo, if you can handle family life, enjoy the tour of my 'Stuffings'.

Friday, February 19, 2010

Water-Witchin' and Well Drilling

Back in Oct. '09, we ran dry. I may be repeating myself again, but we have been in a drought in our particular area for going on 8 years. Little by little, it has been getting harder and harder to reach drinkable water, let alone water my gardens. Finally, we had a dry well.
Our dear friend and neighbor is from the 'old school'. He learned many of the old timers trades and has been doing his best to pass his knowledge onto all of his friends and family. Gene is a bachelor farmer who can teach all of us a thing or two about survival...real survival, not like the kind you see fabricated on TV.
He is holding a sapling twig with the roots on, waiting for some action. My son and grandson are learning what Gene had taught me centuries ago, and that is, how to witch for water.
The twig he is lightly holding takes on a mind of its own when water is located beneath the surface. It will begin to bounce up and down and for each bounce, it measures a foot in depth that the water flows. Gene consistently got 31 feet. I got 33 feet and a second vein at 50 feet. My grandson got 31. Once the stick stops bouncing is the depth. Hold the stick still and it will begin to bounce again measuring the next vein of water beneath the first measurement.
My grandson was just in awe. Unbelievable, he says, Ya Right.!!, in disbelief. His daddy thought this was complete nonsense, but then he is more of a scientist than believer. I guess it wasn't technical enough my youngin'.
'.
This is the drilling rig that had to come in and test our theory. Besides, we needed water a week already. I have to admit, I was not skeptical, but curious as to how accurate our old time predictions actually were.
The first vein was hit at '32' feet, that's right, 32 feet....right in between our bobs for water. Deeper drilling had to be done, however, as the first vein was not only too shallow for state regulations, but the water was full of silt.
It was quite interesting watching this slow process as they had to eventually go through hardpan before hitting drinkable water. That drinkable water was hit at '49' feet. That's right, one foot off my depth of 50 ft.
The drill was then fit with the proper pipes and drains, hooked up to a hose for 24 hours to drain the remaining sand from the water that we soon would be drinking. Another day later, trenching was done from the pipe to the house, and hooked up to the new waterpump in the basement.
We have a lot of iron in our groundwater so we had to invest in a water softener that removed the iron through a salt and filter system...it works great, we have more water pressure than any of the 30 yrs. we have lived here, and the water is so good. They say you know a good drink of water if it doesn't taste like anything. Well, we have it then because our water is wonderful to drink, soft to shower under and kind to my laundry. And, ta'da', this year I won't have to call the fire dept. to fill the kids big pool and I will have enough water to water all three of the gardens and all of the flower beds without the worry of running the well dry. Now let's just hope we don't have another 8 yrs. drought. A country gal couldn't ask for anything more than that.
God Bless Your Weekend.........drink lots of water......it's good for you

11 comments:

Betsy Banks Adams said...

How interesting, Dar... I'm sorry about your drought--but I'm impressed with your new set-up... We ALL need to listen and learn from the old-timers who are much better than we are when it comes to survival. Congrats!!!! Bet you are enjoying drinking more delicious water these days!!!
Hugs,
Betsy

jack69 said...

Hey the last two entries are great. I have lost three comments so this one I am cutting and pasting. First well I had drilled, the man said where do you want it. I said where the water is! He said no one knows where the water is, I said my grandpa did. He said go get him. Of course grandpa was dead at the time. No believers down here. gotta run the system is off the net every few minutes. Jack & Sherry

Nancy said...

I'm glad your predictions were so accurate. Our dowser in PA did not do so well for us and we had to drill very deep and expensive. But oh to have enough water and not worry about running dry!

Paula said...

Wonderful entry. My Daddy was a water witcher but he didn't teach it to any of us. You probably weren't reading my blog when I posted a picture of my husband's drilling rig. He bought it to drill a well for his brother who bought property and was promised water and they never delivered. It sat so long his sister-in-law complained so it was moved to our yard. I planted morning glories around it to make it look prettier. lol

Dianna said...

Isn't it so amazing how the older folk's ways work? I think that is one reason that I treasure so much being able to have grown up in the same house as my dad's parents. Glad that you have water...we've had warming temperatures and some of our snow is melting. Really praying that it is going to do it slowly, otherwise we are going to have a lot of flooding in our county and the next one over.

As always...it's been good to drop by!

Cher' Shots said...

I remember Dad teaching me how to "witch" ~ I held on a little too tight and just about broke my wrists! When that switch starts jumping it has a mind of its own.

Anonymous said...

MY PREVIOUS COMMENT WAS JUST ABOUT READY FOR THE FINISHING TOUCH AND ALL DISAPPEARED WITH INSTRUCTIONS TO RETURN TO 'DAR'S STUFFINGS' WHICH WAS DID AND NO COMMENT FROM ME IN SIGHT.
SORRY ABOUT THAT AND I WILL JUST GO AND TAKE A NAP. sam

crochet lady said...

I had not realized wells were going dry. That is a hard thing to live without. I think of the many people in the world who don't have access to clean drinking water and am thankful we live in a place that even though it can be difficult to find sometimes we are able to.

quiltmom anna said...

My grandparents had a well on their property and did not have running water in the old house for many years. I remember going to the well to get water in a pail. Later they had a hand pump in the kitchen. When they built their new house in the 70's they finally had running water in the house. No more trips to the outhouse.( I was a young teenager and was thrilled when they got indoor plumbing!!!)
The water was delicious- very cold and clear..
as they lived in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains.
We sure can learn from those who came before us. They learned how to do things with very little. My grandfather walked many miles to get work in the winter- or rode horseback. He has been gone for over 20 years now and would have been one hundred years old if he was still alive. Both of my grandparents celebrated the gifts of the world around them- clean water was one of them.
Thanks for sharing your story.
Regards,
Anna

lil sis said...

Dusty should have known that ol' Gene wouldn't
try to pull anything over on him! lol.
(unless he's talking hunting)

I think it's a great thing the way the elders helps out
the youngin's. Everyone learns something from
each other if they take time to listen.
Glad Josh found it so interesting too.
Carry on the tradition, boys!
Love ya,
me

tina said...

Totally amazing. I bet your grandson is a believer now. I know I am.

Your sheep are so cool. Those schoolchildren were some lucky kids. I still remember a visit as a child to a farm and it is something I will always treasure. We didn't get any cookies though:)