Well, Well, Well...

Yesterday was the day (we thought) that our nervously anticipated well was supposed to start becoming a reality. That didn't happen, as the driller's equipment was still tied up at the previous job. This is the story of our life when it comes to well drillers. We have learned that getting them to actually show up on a specific day (or week, or month) is impossible. It is not their fault, really, as they have no way of knowing what kind of material they are going to hit on most given jobs. The drilling could go fast or slow, depending on what is in the ground.

We are trying to be patient and understanding, but this isn't the first driller we tried to deal with, and since we actually switched over to the new one because the last one's delays were simply getting to be way too much, we had high hopes (based on the new company's promises) that this time, it would be different. This time, there wouldn't be delays. This time, we would actually get that darn hole in the ground dug! Yeah, right. We have everything ready for them -- rushed like mad to get the trees cleared and the road roughed in so they could access the site, etc., but still no drillers and not one piece of equipment has yet been brought to the site. Feels kind of like being on set at a movie: the old "hurry up and wait".

We rushed to get the road roughed in...Now it is just waiting.

It would be a lot easier to be Zen about all this if the well itself wasn't such a frightening specter. What, you say, can be so scary about digging for water? Around here, plenty! Although we did our due diligence by talking to TWO different drillers before buying the land, and only buying it because we were told by both that there was "plenty of water up on Castle Peak" and that we "shouldn't have to go down more than 300 feet", we are now quaking in our boots, praying that they were right.

You see, now that we have been living in the neighborhood for some months, we have learned the following:

• It is totally impossible to predict where one will find water in this area
• It is impossible to predict how deep you will have to go to hit water on any given spot you choose to drill on.
• Well drillers don't know a whole lot about how to find water -- but then again, neither does anybody else, so you can't blame them.
• Our next door neighbor on one side drilled 600' through nothing but sand and clay, and ended up with a well that is so low producing (2-4 gallons per minute) that we can't believe they were given a building permit -- yeah, your well doesn't come in, you don't get to build your house. Them's the rules in these here parts.
• The house on the other side of us originally had a good producing well (25 gallons per minute) and wasn't all that deep, but the people who own it now say it no longer produces anything like that. In fact, they are terrified that us putting in a well might make theirs yield even lower. We can all only hope that doesn't happen.
• Hiring a driller is not always easy. We had originally called one company who said they would be happy to do it, but by the time we were getting closer to actually drilling the well, that guy had retired and sold his equipment to another guy. So, we called that guy, who said he would do it. Delays on our loan pushed us back a couple of months, and by that time, the second guy had sold out to a third guy! Third guy seemed fine and actually came out to spec the job. He is the one who ended up getting jammed up by a tough job and had too many others before us. Clearly, he is overbooked, as everyone who used to drill up here is selling out! This is how we ended up with driller number four.
• Drilling is HELLISHLY EXPENSIVE. Forty-one dollars a foot. Yes, that is PER FOOT, plus set up costs, pump, water treatment system (necessary in almost all homes around here due to horrible water quality).

So, this is why we are quite literally losing sleep over this little exercise.

We did, at the urging of many people (friends, neighbors, and a couple of university-based hydrogeologists), hire a "water witch", also known as a "dowser", to try to increase our chances. While science says there is no statistical evidence that water dowsers do any better than sheer chance in locating water, long-timers in the neighborhood swear up and down that most good wells around here have been found through this ancient "art". We decided that since no one else could give us a good clue, me might as well give it a shot.

Did we feel silly shelling out $350 to have some lady come out and use her little copper rods to "sense" where the water is? Well, since so many had used this particular lady and said good things about her,

The dowser (or "Water Witch") doing her thing.

we bit the bullet and hired her, silly or not. She claims to have a 100% success rate having witched over 400 wells. Naturally, one neighbor popped up when the lady was pretty much on the way over to tell us that he had hired her and she had NOT been accurate -- he drilled where she said and it was completely dry.  Told her about this and she said she never heard that from him. Whatever!

Did she find water on our place? We still don't know. She definitely found a spot where she says there is water, and she was specific enough to state that we should hit it around 240-260 feet down. She says there are at least four "lines" of water converging on that spot, and she says we'll get something like 65 gallons per minute! That is a LOT of water! She also said we must drill on that exact spot -- not one foot over -- so we staked it and marked it, and we told the drillers to drill on that exact spot.

As for driller number four, when we first called them a week ago and asked how fast they could get to our project, the guy said, "Tomorrow!"  We were very pleased, but then during the next conversation (after they had received our deposit and we had signed a contract) a day later, "tomorrow" turned into "Friday or early next week at the latest."  Well, Friday came and went, but yesterday, which was Monday, had them saying they should be up there in the afternoon or Tuesday morning for sure.

Here we are now on Tuesday morning. They called an hour ago to say that their guys had a flat on the rig truck and some rod blew on something, so they had a late night and can't get there this morning. Should be this afternoon. If I were a gambling type, I would look at their track record thus far and our experiences with other drillers, and I would have to bet that they are not going to get up there this afternoon. There will be some excuse, no doubt.

Are we frustrated? You betcha. Are we starting to get really pissed off? Yup. Is there anything on earth we can do about it? Not a thing. Our project has been delayed weeks already because of these drillers, and in our case, every day counts. We have a nine month window on our loan in which everything has to be completed, or there will be big problems. We can't start the house until the well is in, so the builders are stuck twiddling their thumbs. If we don't get the house done quickly, there won't be time to order and build the barn we are so hoping to get. That means no shelter for the horses, no place to store hay, and winter will be coming at that point. So, this pretty much sucks!

We will also lose the ability to build the barn if the well ends up going deeper than we have budgeted for. Michael had already decided to drill to 400' instead of 300', as a deeper well is less likely to run dry in the future. But, what if we don't hit water at a reasonable depth? Do we keep going in the same hole and hope it shows up soon? You need to drill past the point where you hit water -- how far down do you go before abandoning that hole and trying somewhere else? There are wells around that are 1100' deep -- which would cost over $45,000 for the drilling alone! The current driller says that he tends to recommend that people stay on the same hole rather than start over with another, where there will also be no guarantee or real clue about how deep the water will be. Perhaps you are starting to see why this well thing is so scary.

However, as my sister-in-law wisely reminded me the other day, all of this is really minor compared to some of the problems people have to face in life. She was referring to a cousin of mine who at this moment is dying of cancer, having fought it valiantly for five years.  This does indeed put things in perspective.

But darn it... I'm still losing sleep over the stupid well! All I can say is that I hope the people who swear by the water witch are right. The guy who came up from the current drilling company doesn't believe in witching at all and says anyone can look up well logs in the neighborhood, get a sense of how deep they typically are and if they are located in any kind of "line" that would give you an idea of where you might want to try drilling. I told him that I didn't care HOW she finds water, as long as she finds it!

Hopefully, driller number four will actually show up this afternoon and get ready to start drilling tomorrow. Not the "tomorrow" we were originally told, but the best we can hope for at this point. We'll keep you posted. : )