Well,Well,Well

[bracabric]

As some of you may know, it's the driest season for 10 years here in the central zone of Chile, at the farm most of my neighbors wells have gone dry and so has mine although it's never done so before . The main River has gone dry and a stream that runs through the property has disappeared. My well was some 4 metres deep and now seemed (as it is dry) a good time to deepen it some more, so using the latest hi-tec systems (his name is Domingo) we set about digging it out some more. It never occurred to me until too late that hiring a Kango would have speeded up the job several times, but I went over on my new Motorbike and that's not really the thing to carry Kangos about on. The pictures are of Domingo out of and inside the well, I had the job of hauling up the buckets full of rock and earth.

Dick






PS. despite the well now being 15&1/2 metres deep instead of 14, it's still dry!!!!!!!!!!!

[FlyHiFlyLo]

I wonder if Hanmey sells Domingos?

It would probally be some Chinese knock off... Deng-Meng-ho

[bracabric]

Ah-so!

[3RRL]

Lucky,
It's always something isn't it?
You seem to at least have some decent warm weather albeit it's dry as a bone.
We are in the middle of another thunder shower with 3" expected tomorrow. It also snowed a couple of inches at camp!

So what's your plan then, digging deeper to get to more water? Is that going to do the trick for you?

BTW, is that an alluvial well or a hard rock well you have? It's probably alluvial right, being as big around as it looks. How deep is it now?
Rob-

[GuglioLS]

Dick,

I too wonder how deep your well is now, were you able to hit any water after Domingo dug it out deeper? He looks like a pretty tough dude. Are you hauling water to the farm? if so how much do you haul and how far to get it? If I were Domingo I would be wearing a hard hat, I sure hope you did not drop the bucket of dirt on him! You lowered the ladder back down for him to get out right?

I'm pretty dumb so please explain to me what a Kango is and why it wont fit on a motorcycle - thanks,

Larry

[FlyHiFlyLo]

I wonder if you could add a few 10 meter length shafts to your post hole auger???

[bracabric]

Rob, It's a sort of shale half way between soil and rock, a bit like marl and now it's five and a half metres deep which is I think about 18 feet. I am not to worried about water as a neighbor of mine has two very deep wells near what was the river and he still has plenty, so take a couple of 5 gallon drums over so I have water for the House and there is still one spring on the farm that should do for cattle some time in the future. The dry weather is exceptional, the worst for 10 years, so medium term the well should provide all I want.
Larry, To wear a hard hat is not macho! with your Palermo connections you should know that eh? Right Kango, you know those pneumatic drills that road crews used to use and maybe still do, well a Kango is the same sort of thing but electrically driven instead of compressed air the hire shops in the UK used to hire out a lot to folks who wanted to break up concrete or drill into hard stuff and when Domingo said a Kango would have speeded things up I assumed the name was universal which it seems it is not, sorry!
As an aside to the water thing,it makes you realize how much we take for granted, we just turn on the tap and let water just wast away and now I am having to be frugal with every drop and save used water for the toilet and stuff, I think in a world rapidly running out of resources ( peak oil and such) it's doing me good!
Flyhiflylo, hey! good idea, never thought of that!!

Dick

[GuglioLS]

Ah Ha - Kango = Jack Hammer. Yes that would have speeded things up quite nicely. Good to hear your neighbor still has water and is willing to share it with you. Many years ago I lived in a cabin without water, I think I have an appreciation for what your going through. Here in New Mexico we too are in maybe a 7 year drought, it's not as bad as yours though, as we still have water in our ~ 150 meter deep well. When will the rainy season (Monsoon?) start? That is if you normally have a rainy season.


Larry

[bracabric]

Hi Larry, usually starts April/mid April with heavy downpours off the Pacific and all those ditches and gullies around the place that seemed to have no use become natures storm drains and the river becomes a raging torrent. Access to the farm (or egress) on the 6Km. dirt road becomes impossible (unless you have an Enduro motorbike that is!ho ho!)Interesting that you have experienced similar things in the past, and real funny being back in Santiago , a city of 7/8 million with people carrying on as though there was water forever, car washes, hosepipes and watering everything green in the city, it's like two different worlds!
150 metres deep eh, soon be able to amble over and talk with Mathew!!

Dick

[GuglioLS]

Oops - I said 150 meters?, my bad. I really meant to say 50 meters ~ 150 feet deep.

Lets hope that the rains come on schedule for you this year.


Larry

[mariner]

bracabric said:

Hi Larry, usually starts April/mid April with heavy downpours off the Pacific and all those ditches and gullies around the place that seemed to have no use become natures storm drains and the river becomes a raging torrent. Access to the farm (or egress) on the 6Km. dirt road becomes impossible (unless you have an Enduro motorbike that is!ho ho!)Interesting that you have experienced similar things in the past, and real funny being back in Santiago , a city of 7/8 million with people carrying on as though there was water forever, car washes, hosepipes and watering everything green in the city, it's like two different worlds!
150 metres deep eh, soon be able to amble over and talk with Mathew!!

Dick

Hi Dick,

I have been reading your well,well,well and it is interesting. I too was surprised to read that your hired help knew of the Kango hammed drills. Have used them often in the past when still in Blighty.

Hope you get water soon. My well is 350ft deep and so I have been told, has not run dry yet. However having said that - !!!!
The old couple that had this place before I did had problems with the pump (they thought). It turned out to be a wiring problem, but they had the pump replacd anyway. My well is good for about 7gpm, not a very big rate but more than enough for domestic use. I would expect It could produce more with a bigger pump, but I sure as hell am not going to try.

Enjoy your sun - I am stuck in doors with 30mph winds outside, blowing light snow and an outside temperature of -21C (supposd to go to -35C tonight, with an artic front moving down for a few days). Keeping myself occupied with decorating a spare bedroom and the hallway.

Have a Womble (ing) time Dick.

mariner

[3RRL]

gugliols said:

Oops - I said 150 meters?, my bad. I really meant to say 50 meters ~ 150 feet deep.

Larry

I didn't think your's was as deep as mine.
Mine really is near 150 meters deep, actually 442 feet deep. My neighbor's well is right at 550' feet deep, and that's his second one! The first one they drilled got less than 2 gals a minute at 580' so they moved over about 10 feet and re drilled it. Then got about 65 gals/min. The drilling cost back then was $15 per linear foot ... no matter how many feet up to the drill rig's depth limit (around 700'). Go figure...move 10 feet over and hit the big one.
Rob-

[FlyHiFlyLo]

Or you could spend 83,000.00 to extend a water main and still have to pay a bill every month...

[Mrs3RRL]

bracabric said:

so using the latest hi-tec systems (his name is Domingo)

;D ;D ;D That's hysterical. Sometimes I wish we had such hi-tec systems!

[bracabric]

Well, bit the bullet and bought a submersible pump for the well, I had it (the well ) further extended last week to 7 metres and then we hit rock.....so...... thats as far as she goes unless I decide to dig a tunnel to the side. The pump is a German made fully submersible dirty water pump that is rated at 1.3 HP and will deliver (Max and low head ) 20,000 litres an hour which is as near to dammit 5000 US gallons or 4500 Imperial gallons.




Hope it works at least as well as the old suction centrifugal pump I inherited !!

Dick

PS They now say it's the driest years for the last 100 years, so hows about that!~