How To Dig A Hand Dug Well
94A Shovel, A Ladder, And A Talented Wife
During the three years that my wife and I homesteaded a 20 acre parcel of mountain property near Craig, Montana, we obviously needed water. Not having the kind of money it took to hire a well driller meant digging by hand. When you do that, it pays to know where to dig.
Enter Pamela.
My sweetheart is a tiny, disabled, five-foot redhead with a bunch of talents as remarkable as her ailments are problematic. One of those talents lets her see where water lies close to the surface. If you don't have a psychic wife, you might need to use a dowsing rod made either from brass or from a green stick. In Pam's case, the process is fascinating. By the numbers:
1. She relaxes her mind while gazing out over the land.
2. She sees an oldtime well, the kind with a stone wall and a windlass for hauling water up from the bottom, one bucketful at a time.
3. She approaches the vision with care, reaching out to touch the "stone", becoming a little startled when she touches brush or grass instead of the rock she was seeing. The vision is that strong.
4. Either using her bare hand or taking off a shoe to use her bare foot, she feels the earth in that spot. Where the water is closest to the surface, the ground will feel colder to her.
5. She then tells me how deep she believes the water to be. I have never known her to miss by even half a foot.
Where we settled that year (1999) was--and is--a setting of stunning natural beauty. There are dangers, for sure, such as a plethora of diamondback rattlesnakes whenever the weather is warm enough. (The snake stories are worth another Hub, later on.)
But there is much, much more. A bald eagle pair nested a mere 100 yards from our cabin in the same tall, dead pine tree, year after year. Research in the Library at Great Falls said this would not happen, that eagles rotate nests from year to year. Not with us, they didn't. We felt they enjoyed our company and chose to remain close. Sometimes they would hover over our cabin while Pam talked to them, and they talked back.
My wife, The Eagle Whisperer.
More about the setting in other Hubs.... So, it was time to dig. I loved doing it, loved every part of it. Even when the topsoil was gone and I had to pry rocks loose, it was fun to do. As a child of nine, I had dug a "cache" hole behind our ranch house, complete with sod-covered lid. I could climb down inside, pull the lid closed, and disappear. No one else in our family ever discovered my secret. Give me a shovel and turn me loose.
I made the hole perfectly round and precisely four feet across. As it got deeper, it became necessary--or at least highly advisable--to pay close attention to the vertical sides. Were they safe? Was anything getting ready to crumble? Occasionally, it did become necessary to widen the hole a little to prevent a likely cave-in. Was I concerned? Not in the least. I have been an underground miner. One of my favorite animals is the mole.
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Down To The Danger Point
Once the hole was deep enough to require a ladder, I had to make a couple of adjustments. A number of big cottonwood trees had been damaged by the wildfire that hit our place on August 3, 1999, and DNRC firefighting crews had cut them down and into large blocks of wood which still dotted the area.
Using our workhorse, a 1984 Chevy Citation hatchback (and our only reliable transportation), it required only a matter of minutes to haul two of the blocks, each about two feet long, over to the well-to-be. A trip to Helena had yielded an old piece of two-inch pipe, some 3/8" rope, and a few odds and ends that were quickly fashioned into a hand crank for one end of the pipe.
With the heavy blocks standing on end, they served well enough as posts. The pipe crossed over the hole, resting on the blocks, and sticking out on either side. A dozen 20d nails, pounded partway into the wood on both sides of the pipe and then bent across the top, worked to capture the pipe. (Otherwise, obviously, it would have scooted right off the blocks the minute the crank began turning.
A five gallon plastic bucket was attached to one end of the rope by a metal snap, the other end being wound carefully around the pipe and tied off. Voila'! Instant windlass on a budget!
From then on, things moved a bit more slowly because there were more steps to getting each shovelful of dirt out of the hole. No longer could it simply be tossed aside or even up and out. Now the steps were:
1. Lower the bucket on the rope down into the hole until it hit bottom.
2. Climb down the ladder into the hole. NOTE: The ladder used for this was not from the store but was made of lumber--old lumber--by nailing 2 x 4 steps across two 2 x 4 side rails. The wood came from a demolished house and cost nothing. The nails did cost, being new from the hardware store.
3. Disconnect the rope from the bucket, fill the bucket with dirt and/or rocks, and reattach the rope.
4. Climb back out, crank the bucket to the top, swing it to the side, disconnect it, pick it up and dump it.
5. Reattach the rope and repeat the process.
Video Journal Of A Recently Completed Hand Dug Well
When We Hit Water, The Rules Changed
A gold prospector finding the mother lode could be no more excited than we were when water began seeping into our deepening hole. Once the water was deeper than the bucket was tall, though, more adjustments were necessary:
1. The rope stayed attached at the bottom. Who wants to dig around with your bare hand in muddy water several feet deep to reattach a metal snap every time you have a load to crank out?
2. Digging under water required a shorter shovel. To lift a load of anything but water itself, the shovel needed to "lie flatter" while lifting, and a full length shovel handle made that awkward in the extreme. So a second, older, wooden handled shovel got a chop job--a handsaw job, actually--and the rest of the hole was dug using a shovel handle only two feet long (wrapped in duct tape).
3. Two other tools, used from the beginning in conjunction with the shovel, gained even greater importance when the digging was done blindly under muddy water. These were (a) a specialized crowbar called a "spud bar", good for prying stubborn rocks loose, and (b) a clamshell posthole digger, great for picking up rocks under water and dropping them into the bucket.
The day came, though, when it was clear we had hit bedrock and could go no further without explosives or power drilling equipment. Since we had neither, but did have three feet, eight inches of water, we called it good.
The Short Handled Well-Bottoming Shovel
Now For The Casing
Every well needs casing installed to prevent the sides from caving in completely. Of the materials available for the job, we settled on ribbed PVC culvert pipe. A pipe company in Great Falls had several sizes in stock, for one thing. One piece, two feet in diameter and twenty feet long, would do the trick nicely. They charged just over $200, and that included delivery.
First, the pipe was shortened by 4.5 feet, using a fine toothed handsaw. When the 15.5 remaining feet were dropped into the hole, two feet would remain above ground. This could then be capped to keep out critters and dirt while still being high enough to stay above normal snowfall levels.
Then it was time to get out the electric drill. We now owned a gas powered electric generator, which made it practical to punch 240 quarter-inch holes (equally spaced) all around what would become the bottom four feet of the pipe. This would allow water to pour in through the sides with ease, rather than relying on seepage from the bottom.
Our best friends on the mountain, the Mortenson family, came down for the Casing Event. While Pam and Wendy (Mrs. Mortenson) cheered us on, the men "got after it". Our work crew consisted of two teenaged boys and two older men, which was helpful, because the casing needed to go down into the hole pretty much dead center--without scraping a dirt wall down with it.
The boys took turns steadying the top of the casing to keep it centered while the rest of us began gleefully dropping rounded river rocks between the outside of the pipe and the dirt walls. These rocks left many gaps between them, ensuring free flowing water as it came "in" after a rainstorm or snowmelt, and "out" during drought.
Once there were enough rocks piled around the pipe to hold it firmly in place, all four of us did the rock dropping thing, whooping and hollering like trail drovers hitting town after a cattle drive. The Mortensons were happy to offer their contributions of laughing good humor as well as C.I.M. (Casing Installation Muscle).
Of course, that could not last forever. We simply didn't have enough rocks to do the job. So Sam (the younger son) and I made trips to the creek on several "rock raids", loading that same Chevy Citation hatchback with several hundred pounds of well-friendly stones at a time.
When the rocks piled up near enough to the top, it was shovel time once again, finishing the fill job with dirt we tamped and packed firmly until the casing looked like it had simply grown out of the ground.
The final result? A solidly built, working well that had cost us exactly nothing but $200 for a piece of culvert pipe, $2 for a piece of windlass pipe, $7.50 for a bit of rope and a snap along with a batch of 20d nails, and enough exercise to get me into top physical condition. Well within our budget, and quite a financial bargain in an area where a driller typically charged around $20,000 for a commercially drilled well.
In closing, the overview of hand dug wells at http://www.minifarmhomestead.com/homestead/wells.htm might be worth a looksee. There you can discover that, although our projects were completely successful, the processes I used were also frequently in violation of "best practices". For example, I did not build a safety wall around the top (no children in the area)...did dig to the very bottom before lining...and did work alone.
Thanks for reading,
Ghost32
World's Largest Hand Dug Well
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Thanks for the Heads Up! I viewed your video, which is so good I simply HAD TO EMBED IT on this Hub page immediately. While my 2 similar projects were also accomplished in heat nearing 100 degrees (yes, it can get up there in Montana during the summers), there were 2 key points I noted from your project:
1. It is possible to dig a bigger hole faster with more than one man and one shovel doing the work.
2. It's a good thing I settled on PVC culvert piping for casing--if I lived to be a thousand, I'd never master the extreme level of masonry skill shown in the artistic Mexican project. Wow.
what an accomplishment!!! you are defintely a survivor. i wish i could do something like that
pkt, thanks for the compliment. I suspect you probably could do something like that--but in our case, most of our "accomplishments" have grown out of simple need. For example, Pam and I recently became casualties (in the spring of 2009) of the gasfield drilling boom-gone-bust in western Colorado. As a result, we've moved to yet another homesteading situation on a small acreage near the Mexican border in southeastern Arizona. The seller does have a well already dug and a pump in place, but the challenges are more than plentiful even so: Desert heat...water pumping and storage...finding a job...etc., etc. I look forward to finding the time (someday) to begin writing Hubs about solving all of those little puzzles...:D
My wife and I purchased 3 acres in northern Michigan and are living in and old 5th wheel. I need a well but am not sure how deep the water table is . I don`t trust my dowsing abilities, what if I have to go 50 feet? Any words of encouragment ?
Big Igg, I'm not sure how encouraging my words will be--written at this moment while we are living on 4 acres in southern Arizona, in an old hitch-towed camp trailer--but here they are:
First, as simply a GUESS, the water table in northern Michigan shouldn't necessarily be down fifty feet, at least if you're talking about the Upper Peninsula (Up with Da Yoopers!) with which I'm familiar. But then again, since you only have a limited acreage to work with, it could be--water tables being the fickle things they appear to be.
If you do have to go 50 feet, you're well beyond my level of personal expertise...but I just did a Yahoo Search of "deep hand dug wells" and found quite a few worthwhile links (see my newly edited final paragraph in the basic Hub, above).
Another thought might be to ask around to see who is considered by the locals to be the "best" water dowser. If you do that, of course, there's still no way to be sure until you actually hit water. On our Arizona land, fortunately for us, the developer had already had a well put in, and we just have to connect a generator (and a bit of PVC piping) and start pumping. Meaning that now all I need to do is find a job! :D
Good luck with your project, and feel free to let us know how it goes.
I liked how you went into great detail!
How long did this take you?
It's been a while, and I wasn't keeping records. If memory serves, however, the whole thing was finished in a couple of weeks. It's not like I was working at it from daylight to dark evey day, though. One entire day was pretty much used up in shopping for the PVC culvert pipe in Great Falls and another one ditto while rounding up the smaller parts for the windlass in Helena.
Then there was one afternoon when we had to go help a neighbor whose wife had rolled her car a couple of ridges up the mountain from us. Oh, yes, and a fairly wacky interruption when an EMU came out of nowhere and showed WAY too much curiousity about my wife's little red head!
But that's another story.
I am not that lucky than you.
I was dig a well about 6 meter tall 1 m diameter and i have not a drop of water.I was bought 13 cement rings with aprox.700$ and the water did not come.I have no mony to finish my project.I dig finally in some kind a stratified rock.It is not so hard as a rock but is more harder then earth.It is very hard to dig in this thing.My problem is i have no idea if i ever see water in my will.If someone pass in same kind experience please give me ideas to sovercsaba@yahoo.com.Thank you and good luck.
P.S
Sorry for my poor english.
Sover, I'm sorry to hear about your "dry well". I honestly would not want to try digging a hand dug well without some advantage like my wife's ability to sense water. A number of years ago, an ex-wife and I lived on a place that had a well...and the water was 750 feet below the surface! That is not the depth you want to try with nothing but a shovel and a bucket....
We are just now moving onto a 5 acre mostly wooded area in the Ozarks Missouri (ozark ares that is) we were given a mobile home just having to pay to have it moved (got a guy to do it cheap) we are new to all this and going in head first some money in reserve (very very little)
Mobile needs lots of work but livable.
If anyone can help out with any information on digging a well by hand please email me we can use all the information we can get
I found this site last night and have a feeling I am going to be spending a lot of time on here
Thank you for this site it has a lot of great and helpful information
Oh yeah where our place is at has no electric water phone etc
Blessed at all of you out there and good luck with all you do
Lesa. lesa_d_burton@yahoo.com
Angel, my wife and I understand your situation completely.
To all of my readers, I wholeheartedly encourage you to contact Lesa (Angel) at the email address she provides if you have any clue whatsoever regarding the topic of hand dug wells.
Thanks Gost. All this time "2gather" n just NOW got to this GREATLY INFORITIVE Hub. You give me the currage to do something about OUR water needs. Again, THANK YOU.
A friend in Austraila told me what they do there 4 shallow wells. A Hand Post Hole Digger WITH EXSTENDED HANDLES ADDED. (Greater depth abilitys). I have one now. Allso a 1 man gas powerd P.H. Digger. Will use that to start, then swith to the hand one.
As I go deeper (n wider?) I'll use a "MORMON DERRECT" to raise dirt / etc.. This simple a tall Tri Pod with Leverge
handel (pole) on a heavy rope. Can thus Raise / Lower AND SWING TO SIDES to unload. Aho?
A texen Driller told me a way his dad tought / used: A Tri Pod with PULLY hung below the top. They would take turns STEPING FROM A ROCK "Step"....a rope from Pully to a WELL DRILLING 'HEAD'....Top of rope to a LEVERAFE BOARD "Titter Totter". Step, Raise, Twist. Drop...n on n on. Busting through stones etc. n hand hauling those out. Said it was good 4 shallow well makeing. Sounds feasabel IF SOILS STONES R NOT TOO BIG. (Ours ARE too big).
Wife n I bought a POWER Well Digger. Broke with-in 2 1/2 hrs. n part needed WAY "outta line". Just sold it "as is" for a 3ed its price. Better selling then setting n rusting.
Was WARNED it wouldnt work here. Ahh the learning exspearence........ (:
Ok, will start our new well at one that Ages Ago WAS, but caved in n filled long b4 we bought this property. Paying taxes opn TWO but not abel to use but one. Gotta pay 4 it I mize well get it going again. Winter now, so come spring....... re
Re-digging the old well site ought to work. I once owned a small ranch in South Dakota where the water came from more than 350 feet down...and yet a hand dug well right in the ranch yard STILL HAD WATER standing in it, right where it belonged.
Go figure.
Wont "hog" on this but give ONE BIT OF ADVICE to Well Water lookers. ANTS! LOOK FOR ANT HILLS. Find one, circle walk (bigger n bigger as u circle) till u find another. Do AGAIN N AGAIN. Keeping n eye on the "LINE" these r on. THEY BUILD ON WATER! Useing underground "streams" to keep thier homes supplyed with waters mousture for Water n Cooling. WATER WAY IS ON THAT "LINE"! No dowseing needed...just be AWARE n OBSERVE.
Ok, done. (: re
Thanks, Red Elk. Never thought of using the ants' knowledge. Didn't even realize they DID build on water OR run their hills in "lines". Now that I do know, the pattern(s) will probably jump right out at me....
Nifty. But what did you do about a septic/ drainage system? Or was it just grab some Toilet paper and head for the woods?
Kinda sorta. We had an outhouse hole positioned back in the brush, across an irrigation ditch and about 200 yards from the cabin. I built a two-seater you could sit on but never did build the enclosure--the "box seats" for that rodeo were right out in the open air.
Then for a toilet, we used my wife's design (which other people do use, but Pam's the one who told me about it). A regular five gallon bucket was topped with a standard toilet seat which actually snapped snugly into place--it happened to fit so well. In the bottom of the bucket, we'd pour a couple of inches of water and a splash of Pine Sol or, lacking that, a splash of bleach.
The toilet was tucked behind a shower curtain next to a short countertop just to the right of the door as you came into the shed/cabin. This provided a bit of a regular "facility" with privacy to boot. We'd empty the bucket daily, sometimes more often as needed, just lug it across the ditch and dump it down an outhouse hole.
During our first months on the land, I did sometimes sit on the open air facility to answer Nature's call. However, one super-foggy morning, just barely light, I decided to give that up...after hearing what I believed was a bear rustling around not all that far away. No panic or anything, but why push the envelope if there was no need?
I just bought a house with a well but we also have an unused fresh water spring, it is gushing water all the time..... is there some way we can "capture" this water in stead of just letting it run down the property to make a mud puddle??
There certainly ought to be, and you're absolutely right--letting it just "puddle" seems like a waste, for sure.
It would depend on what you WANT to do with it. On the Montana ranch where I grew up, we had a similar situation. House water came from a hand dug well situated about 100 feet from the residence, but several hundred yards up a steep slope, there was a spring that provided water every month of the year. Even at forty below in the dead of winter, the bottom of that spring never froze.
My Dad took advantage of that by hiring a backhoe to dig a six foot deep trench (to get below the frost line) all the way from that mountainside spring to our main set of corrals. Then they laid pipe, and that water supply handled the needs of every cow and/or horse we ever kept in those corrals--sometimes the entire herd of 100 cow-calf pairs and a dozen horses, especially during calving season.
At the spring end, they ran the pipe up into the BOTTOM of the spring, from directly underneath the "front" (and deepest) portion of the spring. The water entered the pipe through a wide, sieve-type screen--which was necessary to keep fallen leaves from hopelessly clogging the intake. On rare occasion, the accumulation of dead leaves and other debris would slow the flow enough that one of us would have to manually clear the thing, but this happened less than once a year.
So: That's one way, to run a pipe from the bottom of your spring to fill a tank, or a decorative pond if perhaps you dug one, etc. The other possibility that comes to mind would be to trench the flow openly, without piping, to either supply a dugout pond or possibly to irrigate a garden.
In any event, I envy your situation. As a kid, I took all that freely available water pretty much for granted but have never had such a fine situation since.
Dear Ghost,
Just read every post on the site page.
Am in the process of buying just over 5 acres of virgin land in North, Central, Florida. About 200 yards, down a dirt road, is some sort of spring - fed pond ... at least I hope it's "spring - fed". (Have not been up to property during dry season, as I live in Southwest Florida, at present and need to sell house, before I can move up to land.) No wife (psychic or otherwise)... so need all the help I can get - lol.
Anyway - I recently bought this 13.5 H.P. gas - powered generator, for an excellent price. Do you know of any sort of drilling - apparatus, which I could use, with generator, to drill down roughly 60 ft., to hopefully hit the same "aquifer - level" as that spring - fed(?) pond? I would go with 4 inch (or larger), 8 ft., PVC casing, which would allow a "Cable - Type" (NOT rotary), drilling device, to be inserted "inside" PVC pipe. Then, I would just place a piece of old 6 x 6 PT beam, (left over from another job), on top of PVC pipe and pound pipe downward, with sledge - hammer. I would drill downward another 8 ft., (inside first length of PVC pipe) and add a 4 inch PVC sleeve, primer/cement, plus add second length of 8 ft., PVC pipe, on top of first PVC pipe. I have a 12 foot aluminum, step - ladder, which would allow me to stand above second PVC 8 ft., pipe and pound downward, another 8 ft., till I hit dirt bottom, with "first" pipe. This process would be repeated ... for about 8 lengths of PVC pipe, or roughly 64 ft., till I pray I hit that spring - fed pond, water - level. (If that same water - level extends outward, for at least 200 yards, I should hit water at way less than 60 feet.)
Don't know know if this will even work, though. It is just a Da Vinci moment, of mine. The "best laid plans of mice and men".
Thanks for the read.
Arde
Hm. I haven't done anything quite like what you're describing, so please take my thoughts on the subject with a very large grain of salt. That said, however, a few things do come to mind.
1. No, I don't know a thing about cable-type drilling. A lot of water wells have indeed been drilled with them, but cable rigs are nearly obsolete in the U.S. Where to find one? No clue.
2. Will your idea work? Hm. I have trouble picturing any sort of drilling apparatus (cable or rotary) that would function properly through a 4" PVC pipe. Maybe that's because I've always dug the hole completely before adding casing, but wouldn't the drill bit and/or cable tend to tear up that soft PVC wherever and whenever it scraped the sides of the casing?
3. They do insert rotary drill bits through casing (STEEL casing) when drillng for oil (or natural gas), but the process is to (a) drill down a number of feet (often 1500 to 2000), (b) drive the "surface casing" into that depth, (c) cement around the outside of the casing, and (d) go from there.
4. It sounds like once the hole is drilled, you must be planning to install a submersible pump. But no matter what sort of getting-the-water-to-the-surface system you use, I WOULD make sure to drill many holes in at least the bottom piece of casing to allow water to infiltrate rapidly.
5. One final concern: Pounding PVC pipe down (even cushioned by six inches of wood) sounds like it might turn out to be a real exercise in frustration. PVC is relatively soft stuff. Hang it up in a tight-diameter hole at any time--enough to require pounding--and it's likely to either stick in one spot like crazy or get terribly gouged (if the sticking point happens to include a sharp rock).
Summary: There's no reason a cable type drilling rig wouldn't do the job--if you can find one. But I'd seriously consider drilling the entire hole before adding the casing...and also drillng the diameter large enough to simply drop the casing down-hole without any pounding. To avoid having to pick up a complete 60-foot string of pipe as a single unit, you could manufacture some sort of "collar" or "yoke" that would hold the pipe snugly just below the upper collar. The yoke would have arms that stretched across the hole to keep it from falling down-hole. Then snug a second, identical yoke ABOVE the collar to the NEXT cemented-together piece of pipe before loosing the lower yoke.
That way, even if the pipe string got away from you and slid downward out of control, it would only slide far enough for the next collar to stop it in perfect position to add the next section of pipe.
As you said, just a thought (Da Vinci moment).
Hope this helps at least a little.
I homesteaded a property in North Florida near Jennings and Jasper. We used a well point and drove it with a sledge about 24 feet until we hit water and then a few feet more. That's at the max limit for a basic pump. After several days of pumping water and sand, it ran clear and gave us almost continuous water year round. You could do the same or buy a gas-powered drilling rig for a few grand. I've seen them on ebay a few years ago. They should work no problem in soil and sand, but I would not recommend them for any hilly terrain as rocks stop them dead cold. I'm in Missouri now and they wouldn't work up here. Not enough power and weight with all the rocks up in the Ozarks. I know. I've tried it.
Thanks for this key piece of info--it fills in a gap about the workability of sandpoints I've had for a long time. Kind of felt the wouldn't work where I was; looks like I guessed right. (Montana's got plenty rocks!)
Where we are now in Arizona, near the Mexican border, they wouldn't work, either--the water table is down some 325 feet....
Interesting blog, certainly brings back memories.
Back in the late sixties, early seventies, in my hippie youth days, I had friends who allowed me to set up a camp on their 80 acre farm, about 1/2 mile off the main road, back in the woods, about 20 miles outside Cleveland Oh.
I discovered an old hand dug well, nicely lined with masonry, maybe 4-5' in diameter, probably 15-20' deep.
So, I finagled a ladder somewhere, climbed down with a bucket, and cleaned it out.
It was pretty clogged up with mud, black rotted leaves and sticks, and even a canine skeleton, nicely preserved.
Once I cleaned it out, it flowed full of crystal clear, sweet tasting earth wine.
Amazing experience.
Regarding springs, I had a 12 acre parcel in Ohio, up about 50' higher than the main roadway.
Way back in the woods, along an old logging road, was a spring.
Someone had hand dug a hole inserted a 24" glazed tile, maybe 2-3' deep, allowing it to collect the water.
Then, they ran a pipe from it, down the hillside, to the roadway below, somehow got the pipe to pass under the roadway, and then proceed south another 2-300' to the next neighbors home, furnishing them with spring water from my spring.
I had a shallow well, with fair water, so I was always a little envious of the excellent spring water I was furnishing for this neighbor. lol
Anyway, I now reside in S Florida, and while searching for info on driving a well point, I stumbled on this little blog.
I'm moving into a condo, and trying to set up my survival program, in the event the SHTF and we need to survive off the grid.
What I'm thinking, is here in S Fla, water should be pretty shallow, since you can't even build a basement, so I should be able to sneak a driven well pipe into my patio landscaped area, to fall back on, if the grid goes down.
Hell, this condo will be the first time in 25 years that I have not had well water, and had to depend entirely on the grid, and I'm not real thrilled about it, especially considering the state of out government and economy.
Someone mentioned the Ozarks, I lived back in the hills outside Van Buren Missouri, back in the late sixties, early seventies, and we got our drinking water from a spring, coming out of the hillside. Awesome water.
Nice little blog, good memories.
To the guy in northern Fla, here is a youtube video that might be the solution for you and I.
Interesting blog, certainly brings back memories.
Back in the late sixties, early seventies, in my hippie youth days, I had friends who allowed me to set up a camp on their 80 acre farm, about 1/2 mile off the main road, back in the woods, about 20 miles outside Cleveland Oh.
I discovered an old hand dug well, nicely lined with masonry, maybe 4-5' in diameter, probably 15-20' deep.
So, I finagled a ladder somewhere, climbed down with a bucket, and cleaned it out.
It was pretty clogged up with mud, black rotted leaves and sticks, and even a canine skeleton, nicely preserved.
Once I cleaned it out, it flowed full of crystal clear, sweet tasting earth wine.
Amazing experience.
Regarding springs, I had a 12 acre parcel in Ohio, up about 50' higher than the main roadway.
Way back in the woods, along an old logging road, was a spring.
Someone had hand dug a hole inserted a 24" glazed tile, maybe 2-3' deep, allowing it to collect the water.
Then, they ran a pipe from it, down the hillside, to the roadway below, somehow got the pipe to pass under the roadway, and then proceed south another 2-300' to the next neighbors home, furnishing them with spring water from my spring.
I had a shallow well, with fair water, so I was always a little envious of the excellent spring water I was furnishing for this neighbor. lol
Anyway, I now reside in S Florida, and while searching for info on driving a well point, I stumbled on this little blog.
I'm moving into a condo, and trying to set up my survival program, in the event the SHTF and we need to survive off the grid.
What I'm thinking, is here in S Fla, water should be pretty shallow, since you can't even build a basement, so I should be able to sneak a driven well pipe into my patio landscaped area, to fall back on, if the grid goes down.
Hell, this condo will be the first time in 25 years that I have not had well water, and had to depend entirely on the grid, and I'm not real thrilled about it, especially considering the state of out government and economy.
Someone mentioned the Ozarks, I lived back in the hills outside Van Buren Missouri, back in the late sixties, early seventies, and we got our drinking water from a spring, coming out of the hillside. Awesome water.
Nice little blog, good memories.
To the guy in northern Fla, here is a youtube video that might be the solution for you and I.
Some great information here; thanks.
You're obviously a nicer person than I am. Had that been my parcel, the stolen water line running under the road might have had a bit of an "accident", stopped working quite so well.
I actually looked at a parcel, in 1999, high up in the mountains of Montana, that had a situation much like that. Three Russians (two men, one woman) were the only known neigbors within miles. The parcel I was considering included an awesome spring--and yes, they'd tapped into it, running water to their cabin half a mile downslope.
They were known to shoot at people, so I'd have had to clean them out before I cleaned out the spring. Decided it wasn't worth the effort and passed on the purchase.
Realtor did NOT point out the water piracy to me; I studied that out while roaming the back country solo.
Excellent article! Clean water will always be important. My well is 160' deep and am thinking about installing an old fashioned manual hand pump on my well as a ISHTF backup in case the power grid goes down for an extended period.
Good thinking, except I'm not sure--will a hand pump pull from a well that deep? Or is depth no object?
I've done a lot of Internet research on hand-dug wells recently and found your story full of gumption, resourcefulness, and persistence to find or adapt whatever you needed.
My recent blog post was about how Russia still allows hand dug wells, and that few seem to worry about contamination.
I recommended "How To Dig A Hand Dug Well" in a section Great Additional Reading, as your humor and good spirit shine through it.
Thanks for the recommendation. I read your blog post and enjoyed it greatly. Not really sure there's any Russian in my direct ancestry, but yeah, gotta like a place where the rules...don't exist.
I really had to think about their "caisson dropping" method of well production. Can see how that could get the job done.
Richard 4 years ago
We just did a hand dug well on the coast of Oaxaca in Mexico
project is on youtube
http://youtube.com/watch?v=RuzDyFquyqw