Running the Well Dry

When we arrived home from our weekend trip to Chimney Rock, NC you know the first thing I do is head straight to the bathroom.  It is only a few hours drive, but still my bladder can barely hold…LOL! But when I go to wash my hands there is no water. Oh my!

Then of course I realize that the toilet has flushed, but it is not refilling.  Of course I go check the kitchen sink and yup….no water there either.  So, I tell Jon, and we start checking the breaker box.  All good there.  Then it dawns on us! We asked our son to water the garden in our absence.

So, we go check the outside water spigot and sure enough it is still on.  I quickly turn off the breaker to the water pump so the motor doesn’t burn up (if it hasn’t already).

Leaving the water on shouldn’t matter right?!? Well, here’s the thing….we have our garden on the far corner of the back yard.  It takes two 100 ft water hoses to reach that far to water it.  Well, we do have one good water hose that is the one attached to the house, but then we have this older one that has basically deteriorated at one end and leaks around the fittings and also through the hose because the hose has literally deteriorated.  We’ve rigged it with some duct tape and it keeps the leaking to a minimum. We might get a little wet on our shoes while spraying with the nozzle, but it isn’t bad unless you forget to turn off the water when done.

This isn’t the first time we’ve run the well dry.  I guess I should clarify, luckily the well didn’t run dry.  We just ran the water out faster than it could fill back up and the water table level dropped below where our water pump could reach.  So, the pump just lost its prime. Trust me that is so much better than truly running the well dry!

Because I had done this before when trying to fill an inflatable swimming pool too quickly (have we mentioned that we are impatient people), I was confident that’s all it was.  I grabbed a couple of water bottles and we headed to the well house.  The well house is a small little “house” with a shingled roof and everything.  It has a tiny door that Jon can barely climb/reach in to work.  The roof is not made to come off.  So, it is not a pleasant experience for him.

He loosens the nut on top and pours some water into the pump.  I turn the breaker back on and viola! We have water!  Of course it is spitting from all the spigots in the house while the air is pushed out of the lines. And there is a bunch of sediment in the water and it takes a while for it to clear up.  However, the crisis is averted!

Now, after all of the excitement calms down we go do our walkabout to check our new pecan sticks, bushes, and garden.  Yup, we still have sticks.  Surprise, surprise, we have pintos starting to make an appearance!