An Electric Blue Well

I'll admit living with a well is a little bit different than what I expected.

For instance. It's not this kind of well. It's this kind of well.  



This is what we got

This is what I had in mind

The charming well is from one of the many

trips to and from Chico that I admired as I

passed by an old man's little roadside shop with

windmills and wishing wells out front.

I had to have one, and we shook on it

and in a couple of months

when he got around to it, he said he

would call. And he did.

 

 

We had to get to the bottom of this well thing. How exactly does it work, and how long do they last, and when was our soon-to-be well dug and by whom? So many questions. 

 

We got a tip that a local drilling company did the work sometime in the 70s, a father/son team and we found a really old number and rang them up just to see what would happen, and darned if the driller's wife didn't answer. Coop was long since retired, but he found the original drawings for us and dropped them by and chatted a while and had all sorts of recollections about who lived here and when. 



 

You can't buy that kind of connection. We also had the water tested. Being surrounded by farmland that probably uses some type of pesticides, we were leery of it as drinking water, but it turns out as the water makes its way trickling down 275 feet through various layers of rock and shale, it is cleansed and flavored before it is drawn back up through the enclosed pipe, filtered once more and then diverted to the house and yards. 

We were deliriously happy.

And then came the first shower in the guest bath, by one of our sons who worked his butt off to move us, and who emerged with the most vile stinky sulfury smell on his skin, wafting from the bathroom and filtering down the hall. Whose great idea was this country living, again? We needed this looked after, and how.  And the next day the problem solved itself when the sulfur smell was flushed through the system and water flowed sweet and clear again.

When the water pressure became iffy, we figured out about the filter thing and how to balance the output. A friend asked the other day about our plans for a storm generator, and I replied happily that we were in the process of procuring one for the house, but she asked if we were getting one also for the well, and I looked at her dimly because at no time did it occur to me we would need one for the electric pump that motivates the water to the house.

There is no more shock over the modern looking, electric blue well that stands out like a sore thumb. Now there is only appreciation for how strong it is and how capable. And yes, we are on the hunt for a little generator for the well, and another for the house, as winter sets in.