The Well
(Great story about well, WELLS… between homeowners Bear and Paw, referring to a submersible well pump and piping coiled up in Bear’s yard)
Above is an image of a Bucyres-Eire Percussion Cable Water Well Rig.
It is exactly like the one I remember working in our backyard all spring the year our Deck House was being built (circa 1970). Our General Contractor (Ray Varian) recommended that we hire Thomas Sayer and his rig to do the job because we appeared to have bedrock between us and underground water. The pounding method would create numerous cracks in the rock allowing water to pour into the well hole, whereas modern, high-speed well drilling methods would create smooth, almost burnished well walls in stone. Also, the cost was competitive with the large rotary drilling rig approach.
Mr. Sayer, who looked as ancient as his rig, selected the place to start drilling (perhaps using dowsing rods) and it only took a couple of shovel fulls before we exposed grey-green Connecticut Granite. He set the rig up and began pounding and we heard it running every time we went to visit our new construction project over the next many months.
At 128 feet, Mr. Sawyer hit a large crack in the bedrock and sweet, clear, cold water poured in. The preliminary water quality tests were wonderful. However, a measurement of the flow rate made it clear that we had to go deeper.
At 333 feet with no more cracks discovered, we admitted defeat and began constructing a well house buried in the yard deep enough to house a 750-gallon water tank well below the freeze depth. That would give us plenty of capacity for a family of four and guests. The well pump would replenish the storage tank at the rate of flow from that one crack. Also, the long, vertical well shaft itself also provided backup storage. Volume = Length (depth) times Pi times Radius squared which works out to another 650 gallons.
The well house was an eight-foot square cinder block and poured concrete structure. It had a standard manhole and cover at ground level just above the wellhead. It had good illumination, too.It was a curious thing to have in your yard although I found it fun to visit. The face of the tank with a water level indicator glass and all the valve fittings protruded from the wall.
The good news was that we had wonderful water all our years there. At the beginning, while I was away at work, the Culligan Water Treatment guy arrived and did a thorough set of tests. He appeared at our front door and few hours later and announced to Bev, in a very sad voice, “I’m sorry mam, but there is nothing we can do for you.” Bev was horrified until he explained that we had perfect well water.
Only once were we out of water. The previous night’s lightning storm had made a direct hit near our wellhead and the stroke followed the wires 333 feet down to short out our pump. I arrived home from work to find our pump at the foot of the driveway with all 333 feet of black well pipe stretched out up our driveway and across the lawn like a snake.
Homeownership is often challenging.
