Completing The New Well Pump…and Some Gardening

Hello everyone.  It's time to finish up the "house" well and pump story.


Mike disconnecting the water pipes that go to our underground tank:

Cutting off the old water lines:

And plugging the tank:

Mike's new contraption to change the old water lines:

Now our water will go from our well and back into the house:

Our old water pump at the house which we will no longer need:

Mike started cutting the water lines to the old pump…forgetting that there was still some water in the lines, lol:

Now that there is no more water in the lines, Mike can finish cutting the lines and old pump out:

Setting up the electric for our new well pump:

Installing a water filter using Pex:):)  Love that stuff.  Now that we don't have a big tank collecting the sediment from our well we need a house filter:

The lines are a little too long…we need to go to the store for more pex parts:

Mike getting one more load of gold dirt for my garden:)

Ooh…I cannot wait to start planting:

Mike checking the water level in our batteries and adding some distilled water to the batteries that need it:

Loading up the trailer and making a trip to the barn and to the store:

We dropped off the pex and the water lines at the barn and took the rest to the store.

We rolled the concrete well cover off the trailer:

A first look at the mess in our store.  We need to get down and do some organizing.  Mike is picking up our old pantry.  It's going back in my kitchen:

Things our turning green:)

One of our next projects is getting ready for the new refrigerator.  This is one of our odd things left inside our house.  The two refrigerators, lol.  The big electric one can be used from about April-October  or so.  The RV refrigerator runs on propane or electric and is used during the winter months on propane.  Mike ordered a new solar refrigerator for us and it will be here anywhere from 2-6 weeks as it is made to order.

Mike taking out our old electric refrigerator:

Taking down the overhead cabinet:

For now we will leave the electric refrigerator in the house for the day of the switchover:

We got the pantry home and moved down to the house. Woo hoo….look at all that storage:)

Mike adding a trim piece:

Ha, ha…our fake rock well cover.  Mike likes it.  At least it is light:

Mike fixed the pex lines for our water filter.  As you can see we already need a new filter.  We stirred up the well and there is a lot of dirt in it until it all settles back down:

Getting the lines insulated:

This morning I went down to my "Big Girl garden"(that's for Jaxson:)), and planted my first seeds.  Yes I am anal, lol.  I had the tape ruler down there and planned it all out.  The straws are where my future tomatoes and peppers will be.  This helped guide me to plant my beets, carrots, peas, onions, some lettuce and spinach:

We have lots of outdoor plans for the weekend.  I hope the weather cooperates.  we are still waiting for the well guys to finish the well at the store.  I have no idea what happened to them.

Have a great weekend and I will post an update on Monday:)

A New Solar Well Pump and A Well For The Store

It has been a busy and exhausting week but a good one.  As soon as we got the truck washed we put it down at the store and I ran some ads.  We got a call right away and the man wanted to come on Wednesday but we made plans with the kids to ride the Creeper Trail which is an all day trip.

Taking a break off the trail in the woods.  Nicole and Ella:

Mike and AJ:

One of the falls on the side of the trail:

We did half the trail which is 17 miles.  It is a beautiful down hill bike ride.  You can rent bikes in town and get a shuttle to the top of the mountain.  We were a bit early as not everything was in bloom but we had a good time:)

Creeper Trail




Now it's time for some work.  There are a few things that Mike still wants to change on our house to make us less dependent on gas/propane.  One of them is our well.  We have a unique set up.  We have a 1000 gallon tank in the ground that we use to store our water.  When we need to fill the tank from our well we have to use the generator.  The well pump uses too much voltage for us to run it off our solar.  From the underground tank we have a pump that we use that runs it into the house.

Mike ordered a new well pump that we should be able to run on our solar set up.  We will by pass the tank and run the water directly from our well to the house:)  And now the work begins.


Starting to dig out the pipes that run from the water tank to the house and also to the well:

Mike taking off the pipe insulation on the water lines:

Next up.  We need to get the well cover off the well.  It's a good thing we lifted the top off.  We had a small leak and it got all of the insulation wet.  It was also full of ants.  Mike pulling out the insulation:

Time for the big boy.  Since Mike and I cannot lift the well cover off the well we have to use the tractor.  Love that tractor:)  We manage to get the chains around the cap:

And away it goes:

We will use the concrete well cover at the store.  We need a lighter one at the house so we can easily check it.  We also need the concrete one at the store since the well is right off the driveway and we don't want anyone driving into it.




Here is the plan for the day.  We will disconnect all the water lines and the electrical to our well.  Then we need to pull 300 feet of water line, the old well pump, and all of the electric out of the well.  Thankfully our water tank is full so we won't be out of water.  Most people who have to do this have to go without water until a new well pump is installed.

Hopefully this goes well as we have never done this before.


Mike taking the electric off and loosening the well seal:

Rigging up a way to get the well seal off and pulling out 300 feet of water filled pipe and old pump:

OK…here we go:

We wrapped some carpet around the casing on the well so we don't tear up the electric wire.  We want to reuse that.  We are about 20 feet out….only 280 more to go, lol:

Mike pulls the water line out while I pull the electric at the same time.  We don't want to kink it.  Mike can only go so far with the tractor then we need to reset.  Sadly when we reset we can't use the well seal.  We have to use a large strap, tie it around the water line multiple times, knot it and then tape it all up.  Then we can pull another 50 feet or so:

We get about halfway and we come across one of the rubber adapters.  These are used to protect the water line and electric wire while going down the well.  Mike taking it off:

We are getting a very long pipe on the drive.  Mike cuts the old water line so we can reset:

Yay we finally got the old well pump out:

Now we have to change gears, lol.  The well drillers showed up at the store. Mike and I go down to watch the big trucks do their thing:

Well drilling is always a little nerve racking.  You don't have a set price.  They will drill until they hit water or in some very bad cases they don't hit any water.  The well drilling rig is set up with 20 foot lengths of pipe. First they attach a 6 inch by 20 foot drill bit that will drill down for the casing.  Then 20 foot sections will be added one at a time to continue drilling.

Once they get a 20 foot section of casing in they take out that 6" diameter drill bit and change it out for a 4" drill bit:

Changing out the drill bits:

Looks like we need more casing.  The casing is used to protect the sides of the upper part of the well.  Here they are welding tow 20 foot sections of casing together:

The drillers got down 80 feet and then we got rained out.  They will be out to finish sometime next(this) week.



Saturday…

Mike sold the truck this morning:):)

It's a beautiful day….time to get the new water pump in at the house.  We went to the Farm Supply and picked up 300 feet of water line.  We laid it out on the lawn to let it heat up to make it easier to work with:

Mike cutting off the hose off of the old pump:

Aww…poor Niki girl is getting old.  Since her back and back legs are bad I have to carry her up and down the driveway.  It so sad to see our furbabies get old.  At least she still likes to be with us…most of the time:)

Getting ready to hook up the new well pump.  Mike clamps the pump onto the new water line:

 The new well pump to the water pipe:

Before we go any further Mike takes out the test meter to make sure the water pump has electric:

Time to splice some wires and hook up the old electric line to the pump electric:

Using the shrink tube and torch to seal the newly connected electrical:

Wiring is done on the pump end:

We clamp on the rubber adapter to protect the electrical.  This part will be at the bottom of the well:

Taping it up with electrical tape:

Now for another fun part.  We have to attach the rest of the electrical wire to the water line before we can send it all down the well.  We tape the electric wire to the water line every 15 feet or so….for about 285 feet:

Half way and we connect another rubber adapter:

Yay…we are done with that part.  Time to feed it into the well.  It's a lot easier to send it down the well since there is no water in the line yet.  It is so much lighter:

I stand in the back and feed it to Mike while he guides it down the well:

Woo hoo.  We hit bottom.  We have extra water line but we will cut it off after we get the new pump hooked up.  Mike tests the pump by hardwiring it to an extension cord:

Whew…it works and we have water:

We take a sort break after that.  Nicole stopped over earlier to pick up our pressure washer and she is now bringing it back.  We talk with her awhile and then we go back up top.


Uh oh…since we turned the pump on to test it, it filled with water.  When it filled up with water it pulled the rest of the water line down into the well.  We are so lucky that we didn't cut the extra water line or it would have been 20 feet down.  As it was Mike was able to stick his hand in the well and grab the water line.  Now for the hard part.  We have to get it back out.  We recruit Nicole for some help.  We all get the line out about 12 feet.  It is now very heavy because it is filled with water.  Nicole and I hold it while Mike gets the tractor to try and strap the water line until he can get the well seal on.



Finally we get the the line out far enough so Mike can pull the electric though the well seal and then bolt the well seal onto the casing:

We are so lucky we didn't lose the water line.  If it went any farther down the well we would have had to have the drilling company come and bail us out.



The pump is in and the electric is hooked to the pressure gauge on the pipes that go to our tank and to the house:

We are finished for the day.  The old line is out and the new well pump is in.  Mike tested it and there is no more surge when we turn on the water.  Once he cuts off the lines to the water tank we will run it straight to the house.  We also don't need the generator to use the hose anymore:)



I will stop here as this was a long story.  I will write again this Thursday to bring you up to date.

Have a great week:)