Digging the Well...by Hand!
Food, water, and shelter are considered to be the fundamental physical needs of life. Food, in this enlightened age, is easy to come by, and we would like to offer a shout-out to Shy Simon’s for their fabulous Alfredo pizza and Pineapple cream soda; The Baker’s Pantry for wonderful sandwiches; and of course, M&W for a great grocery selection!
In the beginning we were spending every other day up here and just filling a five gallon water jug at my mom’s house in the valley. We knew this would not be sustainable, however, once we moved up full time, so it was time for the next phase of homesteading: a well.
Our property has a gully running the length of it, and, in the spring, it has water running down it to the pond. While building the fence, we discovered that there was water mere inches under the surface near this gully. Spencer has always wanted to dig his own well, and he saw this as the perfect opportunity to bring that dream to life. Hedging his bets, he started to dig next to the gully, and, sure enough, he hit water at six inches.
The first time he worked on the well, he was able to dig a 3’ by 5’ hole in two hours. At that time, it filled at a rate of about 1 to 2 gallons per minute. Two weeks later, Spencer pumped and bailed the water out so he could take the level lower. We have a little pump that runs off our gas generator. This time, it took 5 hours to go 2’ because he had started to hit the gravel line. The flow rate did not change. Shortly after this digging, some of the clay sloughed off the sides of the well, so that had to be cleaned out, which made for a great opportunity to take the well down another foot or so.
By this point, temperatures had begun to go up, and the level of the pond began to drop. Pretty quickly, we noticed a correlation between the pond and the well: they both dropped at a pretty consistent rate. Time to dig deeper! Unfortunately, Spencer had reached the heavy rock layer, and now it took 5 hours to dig down the next foot. Now the well was about 8’ deep, and the fill rate was 3 gallons per minute, but the level of the groundwater was dropping daily at the rate of about 2” per day.
We began to run into other difficulties as well. Up to now, we’d been working as a team, Spencer in the well and me pulling up the dirt and rocks in a rubber bucket on a string as he hefted it to the top. 8’ is a long way to lift that heavy bucket and our bail string was only about 8’ long. Clearly it was time to make some changes.
We pumped water out of the well for the final time during the last week of June. We have been so very blessed with kind neighbors who allow us to fill an IBC tote with water as needed. This has allowed us to focus on other pressing projects.
Spencer intends, however, to return to his well digging in August. When he does, he plans to add a breaker or chisel bar to his arsenal of short shovel and post hole digger. We are also looking at building a windlass or winch system to help haul up the rocks and dirt…and we will definitely use a heavier, longer rope! We will be putting in a cement casement around the inside of the well. This will make it safer to dig deeper, as well as hopefully deterring unwanted visitors that tunnel in for their final swim.
Once the well is producing again and the casement is in place, we look forward to sending a water sample in for testing. Until we receive those results, we will continue to only use this water for washing, garden, and livestock.
If you have any ideas, experiences, or stories about hand dug wells, we would love to hear from you! If you would like to see some of our projects, please check out our brand new Youtube channel, Beulah Land and Livestock, which will be premiering August 1st.
