I became aware - on a trip to the Far East when I was in my early twenties - how precious clean drinking water at the turn of a faucet is. I have never taken it completely for granted since. I'm so glad your troubles are over, Trish!

Happy for you too, Trish.
There's nothing like clean fresh clear water.

So did ya'll finally get hooked up to the community water? Or did the well digger find a clean well or maybe put a filter on one of the existing wells?

Either way, congratulations! Water. It's a wonderful thing to have, especially from a faucet.

Shoe

Shoe- We are hooked up to community water as of today.

We have discussed the well situation with many other people, those who know more about the situation that we do. They all pretty much agree that our driller was in over his head with such a deep well, but that it is possible for us to get good water out of the ground. However, this guy has been drilling for a long time, so....it's hard to know what to believe, except that no one knows what the problem is.

We're still using the (3rd) well for irrigation of everything, so that's something.

We are still deciding for the moment what to do long term. We can risk trying for the 4th well, and still might. Right now, though...it was more important to just get the clean water.

Wells that deep are very expensive, and not at all something that we would try unless we are convinced it could work. There are 2 aquifers we can reach- the first is at 300 or so feet, but it is extremely high in iron, and so not suitable for household use. The second is the deep one at 700-750.

The sand the well pulls up is so fine that it passes through the screens, the hundreds of gravel packs they put down, and the sand trap. On the second well, it even passed through a very expensive filter (we didn't try again with the 3rd one).

What a mess Trish and so glad it's fixed for you. I get it as we have been on well water wherever we've lived for the past 43 years.

At least you have access to city water - we've never lived in a place where that was an option.

So thankful you finally have clean, clear water and that you're able to use the well(s) for watering gardens.

My head is spinning at the cost of digging all those wells and bringing in water lines from the road. YIKES!

Wow! Ya'll have really had a rough time with wells and water. No fun there.

Just curious (or nosy?)...did ya'll bring in the big bottles of spring water (with the really cool dispensers!) for cooking and drinking all this time?

I'm happy to hear you can use your well for irrigation. Around here when the city hooks up water to your house they make it so you have to close off your well. I might be exempt from something like that being agriculture but "city folks" don't even get the choice. No fair, eh?

Congrats again. Ya'll should celebrate...make iced tea! Make lemonade! Make ice...all with your new water!

Back to work setting out tomato plants....
Shoe

Vic, We were very fortunate that the well driller was willing to work with us. He drilled the second and third wells at his cost because he had guaranteed us clean water. Because of the excessive (to say the least) wear on all of my appliances, septic system, well pump, water lines, and the list goes on and on...., he helped pay for the community water to be brought over. While we're still out a lot of money, no way would we have paid for 3 wells!

BTW- the first two wells are closed off and filled in. So, we're down to just one.

Shoe- we're hoping that we will be able to use it. The pump has lost a LOT of life (we ran it nonstop for a month, which was supposed to cycle it and get clear water, plus the added stress of pulling up sand). BTW- we now know the cost of running a 220v pump 24/7 for 30 days- OUCH!!!!! It really depends on what the well does now. The excessive sand will only clog up drip tape and small hoses...so, there's that. We'll really just have to see what happens. Just going through regular hoses is fine.

Yeah, we're celebrating! A shower without sand still in my hair for the first time in 4 months!

"Yeah, we're celebrating! A shower without sand still in my hair for the first time in 4 months!"

Hah! You must've felt like you always just came from the beach! :>)

Well, as for the sand in the well water issue, I foresee Dave putting in (or UP) a cistern and pumping water into it. Then the sand will settle to the bottle and clean water can be pumped (or siphoned) from above the sand and into the garden. Gravity would be your friend there!

All this talk about water and I should be watering in some plants. This place is too addictive but glad I finally had some time to sit down and visit.

Happy Day, All!

Actually, the water has ionized with the sand, so gravity is of no use at all.

It's really complicated, and there's so much to the story, but that's why it's taken us this long to work through all of the issues!

Glad you got to stop and visit too Shoe - you work too hard.

Trish, your patience and tenacity amaze me

I forgot to thank Hetty and Sharon for the well wishes! So, thanks :)

I also forgot to address Shoe's question about what we did about water. Fortunately, we have a large countertop water filter that provided most of our water. I also had a lot of canned and frozen broth that I used to cook with (rice, or other things that absorbed the liquid). For everything else, we bought gallons, and we simply didn't cook things that required a lot of water (like pasta). It was really really hard to cook, and honestly we ate more frozen pizzas these last months than we've probably eaten in our lifetime combined! It was part of surviving, especially those first weeks before I simply accepted that it was the new normal and I'd better adapt.

We probably would have been better off financially getting those giant jugs, but you have to remember that each step along the way was promised to work, so we weren't really going to have to live like that for long.

What a nightmare! And all along you never said a word. Well, (that's a deep subject ) I'm elated to hear that you have solved the problem & have clean water to bathe & cook & do laundry with.
Yes, we can so easily take things for granted can't we? Thanks for reminding us Trish.

Clean, drinkable water is such a blessing and I'm so glad that you have it. What an ordeal!

So glad that your issue is resolved, Trish! As we travel in our RV quite a bit, I too have learned to not take water for granted. Amazing how you learn to conserve when you have a limited amount...

now about the water for our gardens, well, that is a NECESSITY, no matter how much it takes, LOL!

Fortunately, the plants haven't cared if the water was dirty. There were several times that I mistook dirt for fungus, though!