Managing Without Plumbed Water

I’ve been writing this blog to help me think about how and when to retire.  My decision is made.  I’ll be parting from my employer at the end of November, but I’d change that date if I’d have known my rural well was about to fail. I would have worked for a few more months to put some money aside for this emergency.  

I’m including random water pictures in this piece, because I crave running water.

Late one evening about ten days ago, I planned to take a hot bath to relax before bed.  I turned on the faucet in the tub, and turned to look for some bubble bath.  An absence of sound drew my attention back to the tub.  The water stopped gushing from the faucet.

It was the beginning of a cold snap.  My first thought was that the cold air must have frozen the pump.  A friend checked the mechanics in the well pit the next morning.  His repair did not re-start the pump.  Next I called a well repair company  from a near-by town.  They brought a huge truck, and attempted to pull the old pump from the well to replace it with a new pump. 

The  well pit was completely rusted shut.  No amount of pressure over the course of two days budged the well.  I consulted with the company owner about how to proceed.  He recommended drilling a new well.  I choked over the projected costs, then told them to proceed.  That occurred on Friday. Nothing happened over the weekend.

Monday and Tuesday of the next week hovered in the teens and twenties.  The temps finally warmed to the forties on Wednesday. Drilling commenced.

Wednesday: Clay collapsed into the well pit.  Thursday: A steel liner is added to 80 feet.  Friday: The drill reaches 220 feet and finds water.  When the crew attempts to pull the drill out of the well, it hit a rock, and is stuck.

Another weekend and nothing will happen.  I’m now ten days without water.  I invited company for an early Thanksgiving on Sunday.  We will prevail, somehow and have a meal.  Eventually, there will be plumbed water.