To Drill or Not to Drill.......that was the $10,000 question!

Last week, my parents, who live about 35 miles from us, started having problems with their well. At first they thought it was a problem with the pump, so they called someone to come out and have a look. The pump was not the problem.........well it was a problem because it wasn't pumping water like it should, but it wasn't all the pumps fault. To make a long story as short as possible, in a nut shell, the water table in the area where my parents five acres are located dropped drastically over the last few months, with my parents being non the wiser until they stated having problems. The man that came to check out the problem tried to lower the pump farther down into the well, but encountered a major problem. When the well was first drilled many years ago, it was drilled to a depth of 148 feet. Which should have been fine.........but when they tried to lower the pump last week to where the current water level is, the pump would not go below 123 feet. The "Well Man" delivered the bad new...........the well had caved in, collapsed in on itself and there was no hope for it! So the decision was made to drill a new well.............believe you me, it was not an easy decision to make and certainly not a cheap decision to make! But what was the alternative........living without water! Lucky for my folks, the "Well Man" and his rig were able to start drilling this week. They arrived on Monday to set everything up and started drilling early Tuesday morning. Countrychick and I happened to be in town, so we stayed out at mom and dads to watch all of the action for most of the day. I will do my best to clue you in on what was going on when I took the following photos...........


They had just started up the rig when I snapped this shot. You could feel the rumble under your feet and smell the diesel fumes hanging in the air............this was around 10:30 AM Most of the morning was spent with a steady hummm coming from the rig and then things got a bit more interesting in the early afternoon...................around 2 pm dad came in to let me know that they would be adding another section of pipe to the drill shaft. At this point they were down around 60 feet or so........a hook was placed around a 20 foot section of pipe and then it was taken up into the air...................Up, up, up off the trailer it comes..................

It was then swung into place and attached to the existing pipe.................exciting, isn't it...............
Everything was then lined up and the pipe shaft was once again lowered into the ground and the drilling commenced once again....................
Look closely.........I think they struck chocolate milk! What a cool well that would be! No, it wasn't chocolate milk...........this is the mudbox......I think that is what it was called. Anyway, it moved the water up out of the ground and across this table. The moving of the water keeps the gravel that is being drilled from clogging up around the drill bit in the ground........or something like that..........................
Drill, drill, drill.............until you hit water or in this case until you hit 200 feet or so................
The photo below was taken in the later afternoon.........just look at that sky! Isn't it a pretty shade of blue...............at this point around 4 pm or so the drillers had reached a depth of 105 feet. When the drillers stopped for the day, they had reached a depth of 140 feet. Did I forget to mention that several of the neighbors are also in the same boat as my folks........no water..........so they have to drill new wells or re-drill existing wells as well. This rig was set up to the south of my folks. I talked with mom early this morning and the drillers were at a depth of 160 feet or so. They will start to case the well today as they should reach the 200 foot depth by early afternoon if all goes as planned. This means that if all goes well, mom and dad will have a new well that will be up and running sometime in the next day or so. Oh and yes, it really will cost them around $10,000 or so to have this little project done...............mom said that the new well was dads birthday present......Happy Birthday Dad...........just want you always wanted.........A Brand New Well!