Four years ago we began to heat with wood full time. Took two years to optimize the stove configuration and another year to build a new chimney and install the Pioneer Maid cookstove. After eliminating a pesky ceiling and insulating the rafters, last winter was the first time we stayed barefoot and shirtsleeves – toasty warm with minimal wood usage. Once we figured out that wood was doable we yanked the propane central heat unit out and since it was pretty crappy took it to the scrapyard.
It’s a process, and we (because my wife isn’t as insane as I am) sorta test unconventional systems out before pitching the fire and forget factory technology out the window. “Heat” we got down, now “water” seems to be beckoning.
The spring is 85 feet downhill and 600 feet away from where the inlet for a gravity feed tank could go in our “garage” loft. I have 600 feet of 1 1/4 inch tubing, a homemade pump, a pumpjack, a stationary bicycle and a 9 year old kid. It is theoretically possible to fuck around and see if I can get that worked up. Perhaps first use some alternate tech – a couple years ago I got a gas powered transfer pump in case human power (and my contraption) had problems beyond quick and easy fixes.
Addressing the “rainwater catchment” et al theme, yes, we can get by on a whole lot less water than the typical suburban household. I can even run a washboard and plunger for laundry – in my world I can wear the same rancid overalls for a couple of weeks and keep skunks away by lifting my arms over my head, but I don’t wanna give the social workers an excuse to mess with my kid if the school… raises a concern, and the wife isn’t going to be teaching students looking like she spent a week with Survivorman. Food trucks are rolling into the grocery stores, gas is 2.39 a gallon and the electric lines are steadily pushing electrons. Bottom line – the household as it functions today requires a steady, reliable, tried and true well pump system as the alternate source develops itself.
Oh yeah – and if total collapse happens next Tuesday dealing with the marauding hordes sorta overshadows where we get a drink. Now on to where we stand on the well issue…
The water test from 2 1/2 years ago shows no bacteria or evil substances. Our water is pretty hard stuff – calcium deposits build up to the point of clogging the shower head once a month. A little iron bacteria in the toilet tank, but no gobs of slime or odor. It’s the rust in the system that is our problem so I’m tracking down the source.
First I ran the hydrant (right off the well head, not through the household plumbing or pressure tank) wide open to see how much water the well is producing – is the well shallow or not? Averaged 45 seconds to fill a five gallon bucket – 6.4 gallons per minute and the damn thing kept that flow up for over an hour until I said fuck it we got lots of water. The water was clear at the start, and clear all the way to the end of the test. If it had run dry I would have waited an hour and then ran it dry again to calculate the recharge rate. Being able to pump 500 gallons in one whack makes that issue moot. Depth of the well? Do the math: 450 gallons in a six inch cylinder is a column of 300 feet. The well is either not even close to shallow or I have an underground river recharging it.
Next up in the system is the well pipe itself. Galvanized pipe. The old plumbing pipe I have ripped out over the years hasn’t been in the best of shape – scale, corrosion, rust colored, and generally not what you’d drink out of if you had the choice. So I’m going to suppose that changing out the old galvanized well pipe for pvc is the way to go – and might as well change out the pump while I’m at it – the last well service call on record at Tiff City Pump was back in ’83 when a control panel fried.
Since the pressure tank is shot I’ll replace that with a fiberglass tank – maybe 100 bucks more than a steel tank but, hey, it won’t rust out. The whole system will be Plastic Fantastic and come in at a couple thousand tops… thereby keeping the tractor dream alive.
When the kitchen is done and the well is fixed I’ll probably get my leg caught in a machine…
comrade simba 
September 5, 2010 at 6:01 am |
Since the well is good, it looks like everything else is a plumbing problem. Beats the heck out of drilling a new well. Plastic Fantastic is the way to go, as far as I’m concerned. Some purists don’t like it, but hey, only god is pure, right?
Whatever you do, avoid putting any pipe splices underground. It will come back to haunt you.
Be thankful you aren’t dealing with a 6-8′ frost line.
As for getting your leg caught in a machine . . . don’t borrow trouble.
Good luck!
September 5, 2010 at 8:38 am |
This reminds me of when my family moved into our new house in the country when I was a kid. I tried to drink the tap water but it was DISGUSTING. My dad said “It’s spring water, it can’t be disgusting. It seems fine to me!” But I didn’t give up and he finally went down to the spring cover and started poking around in there. He found a bunch of dead mice floating in the water. Ha ha ha. Wanna see somebody turn GREEN!
September 5, 2010 at 10:31 am |
Sounds about like our City of Corpus Christi “chunky” water. Clogs faucets and shower heads, and tastes like dog piss (or so I would assume!). Oh, but the state rates ours as a “superior” public water system, in spite of the fact that you can fill a glass, let it settle for half an hour, and get a 1/16″ layer of crud on the bottom. Oh yeah, and we get to pay for it… I’d rather bucket the stuff up from your spring.
September 7, 2010 at 6:53 am |
Going back to my pump selling days (nearly 10 years ago). Get a pump that can be attached to a PTO and power it with your tractor. Pump to a holding tank and fill as needed. There is my 2 cents.
September 7, 2010 at 5:14 pm |
Comrade,
The take around here lately is to try and solve every problem twice. First solution is to send a bit of cash to China and get it fixed well enough to wait for an 1800s solution that will last a couple of generations. All the wells here are shallow, so I have a hand pump on a tee off of the jet pump inlet. I assume that you have a deep well, so the best solution may be to find a windmill pump even if you hook up the kid instead of the windmill. I do like the cistern solution if you can make it work. We keep 7500 gallons tanked high enough that we get marginal gravity feed to the house. Figure out half a dozen ways to get it fixed, and wait for the first farm/garage/yard sale that provides the solution. Maybe you could get a windmill down at the spring and hook it to an old piston well pump to push water up to a tank in the shop. Some clueless wonder will have just what you need if you can afford to be patient.
Chores here are slow getting done with us old folks trying to do all the doing, so we are attempting to get a doomer hippie chick to come and help with the critters. I’ll let you know if we have any luck and what kind of a deal we cut.
The new hay extension on the barn has a finished floor ( plywood A/A sides, treated exterior ), windows, a skylight, insulation, electric and finished interior walls. Don’t yet know if it was planning ahead or just making a job take three times as long. No sense in letting old age stop me from being foolish now and again.
I hesitate to say you could try a “green” solution and put a pump and a solar panel at the spring and pump it to the shop. You might have to protect it if it is visible though. I assume that already paid for solar panels will be hot items on the used market some time in the future.
tired john
September 8, 2010 at 5:00 pm |
Hi,
We looked at a home in Colorado and the well used a windmill to pump into a 1500 gal tank, then at the tank was a 175 watt BP solar panel that went through some kind of MPPT device and used no battery. It would pump water up the side of a mountain slowly and fill a 1500 gal tank with a head of at least 200′. It only worked when the sun shined obviously, but when it was sunny it was said to work pretty well. The water would also drainback so it wouldn’t freeze. The pipe was black somewhat flexible pipe.
I would be glad to help more if you like.
Still looking for LMI East of Kansas City.
MOFreedom
mofreedom2@yahoo.com