It took three more on and off attempts to rinse clean with dwindling to non-existent water pressure. I got out of the shower and saw that even the garden sprinklers were struggling to spray. What on earth was happening?
I quickly dressed and ran to the basement to shut off the sprinkler system. I stood there staring at the water heater, well's pressure tank and cluelessly called Handy Man. Water wells are not his area of expertise but we both agreed we better get someone out there right away to check it out. I made a quick call to the well guy, Ted, and made an appointment for the next day.
We had water the entire day. However, the water pressure seemed low. I wondered if the pressure tank was starting to give us some trouble. By the time Handy Man got home, the kids and finished dinner and had started to take their showers. I made sure the bathing beauty (aka my Brown Eyed Girl) knew she better make it a fast one since we weren't quite sure what had happened earlier in the day. Both kids commented that their shower felt very "soft" as the water pressure was definitely struggling.
Handy Man and I were eating dinner and replaying the situation that had occurred earlier and I made the comment that maybe I should go fill up a water tank for the horses before bed time. Our horses are now on an automatic waterer at this house. They receive water on demand but there is only enough water in the reservoir for one horse to drink and then the float needs to refill the reservoir - kind of like a single toilet flush. It's wonderful, when it is working. I haven't had to use water tanks for years. No more standing for 15 minutes in the winter time filling tanks, draining hoses, dealing with tank heaters and frozen hoses or iced over tanks.
About the time we were agreeing that I should fill a tank, just to be safe, Mr Blue Eyes came rushing out of the bathroom and said, "Mom, I just went to the bathroom and there is no water in the sink!"
Crap!
Handy Man got up and checked the kitchen sink... dry.
Mr Blue Eyes ran to our bathroom, "Mom! your bathroom is out of water too!"
Yes honey, same water.
Quickly he sprinted to the basement and I hear, "Moooommmm! The basement is out of water too!"
YES honey, it's all the same water. It all comes from the same place. Trying my hardest not to direct my frustrations towards that cute kid trying to help access the problem at hand.
While Handy Man started to trouble shoot, I ran next door to ask our neighbor if he wouldn't mind letting me borrow some water to fill a tank for the horses. He was more than happy to accommodate and actually volunteered to come over and try to help Handy Man trouble shoot the problem.
When it was determined that there really wasn't much we could do, our amazing neighbor offered to let us hook up to his well by connecting a hose from his spigot to the water hydrant in the barn and back-flowing water into our house. Say what?? I didn't even know that was possible.
We connected some hoses.
Came in through the barn.
Thank goodness my hay doesn't come until next week.
Connected to the hydrant and what do you know....
The next day the well guy, Ted, came out and after a quick assessment determined that our 24 year old well pump had shorted out and we were going to need to replace it. Dang... Worse news, he couldn't get to it for a week. Ohhhhh hell no! I convinced Ted to come out on Saturday morning before he had to attend a wedding. Still, that was a little over three more days living on our neighbors water.
I am telling you, city folks have no idea the struggles living on a well can be.
Saturday finally arrived and Ted and his son pulled up in the truck needed to pull all that pipe and old pump out of the well.
Section by section, pieces of pipe were pulled out of the ground.
It sure was something to watch.
Eventually we came to the old well pump.
I can honestly say that I have never seen a well pump in person. It wasn't quite what I expected. All I know is I never hope to see one come out of that hole again!
Ted and his son assembled the new pump and then reversed the order and started lowering the new pump down the well, slowly adding sections of pipe.
Once the new pump was in place, they added some chlorine to shock the well for good measure against any bacteria that might have been able to sneak down. Then they fitted a pressure valve onto the well to measure the capacity of the new pump and make sure it wasn't a lemon.
While that test was being done, Ted installed the new control box for the pump.
He also made sure to test the old pressure tank.
Ted had been out to look at the old pressure tank last summer as it had lost some air and wasn't working quite up to par. Well, wouldn't you know... we also needed a new pressure tank! Thank goodness Ted came prepared!
A bit more than we anticipated, but at least Handy Man and I felt better knowing everything was new. Finally we could disconnect our neighbor's hose after five days. Handy Man and I both thought about what a disaster something like this would have been if we were still out at the little house on the prairie where the nearest neighbor was 35 acres away. That would have been a LOT of hose!
We made sure to give our wonderful neighbors a very nice "Thank You" gift! It truly was a wonderful gesture.
New pump, new tank... bring on the rest of summer!
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