Little House in the Big Woods - Well, Well, Well

Well, Well; now that's a deep subject.

The house is going up. 

The well went down. 

Down to bedrock, about 18 feet to Bolson Creek sandstone formation about three years ago. 

Swath of fresh earth leads to water well, after clearing stickers

With the well down and the house up; it is time to connect them. They are 660' apart - that is exactly 1/8th of a mile. 

One of the difficulties in the intervening years since the original well (dug circa 1920) was brought up to code in 2017, is that a nasty tangle of blackberry stickers has grown in the 240' between the driveway and the well. 

The difficulties of getting to the well through the stickers and then laying a 1-1/2" poly-pipe underground from the well to the house for 1/8th of a mile is not so difficult if you have a trackhoe.

Phil (General Contractor) talks with Nick, excellent trackhoe operator

Nick does a great job of driving his trackhoe and solving some of our difficulties. We hire Nick to attach his brushhog implement to clear a swath through the stickers and then dig a three foot deep trench from the house to well. It is a beautiful day to watch the berry canes be cleared and fresh earth brought up in his scoop and piled next to a clean, straight trench, ready to receive water and electric lines. The underground service for both power and water will be fed through holes drilled in the basement foundation below ground level.

Water and Electric cables unspooled along bottom of trench

 

I dig progress!

 

Fresh trench for underground water and power lines goes 660' from house to water well

Trackhoe begins digging, Viewed from round dining room window

 

Ready for first scoop of dirt