Anybody dug a well ??

I am digging a well. No big thing... But it occurred to me that
several people here have dug wells, either as peace core people,
back to the earth people, or just raised in poverty.

Florida...

No big thing?! Say whut? Or do you mean you're hired a well-digger
and a nice big rig to make your well?
Either way, a new well always seems like a big deal to me. I grew
up in a big city (Buffalo) which was rich in water, supplied by the
vast resources of Lake Erie and abundant rainfall, with water pressure
was so strong in an ordinary sink tap that sometimes a water glass held
loosely in the hand was knocked out of that hand. Private wells were
something exotic from stories about pioneer days, and it still felt
that way even after our own first well was done by a well-driller. I
loved that water, it was so... so... ours.

So..... want to talk about the wells you dug in your youth ??

Florida...

I'll go ask the Old Dude to think about it. He's busy right now
building ornamental brick pylons next to the front steps. That is part
of his aerobics program - buy, load, move, unload, and build with
cement block and brick, stopping to mix cement or mortar in the masonry
wheelbarrow every couple of hours.

Andy in Eureka, Texas

Rita...

Sure, but don't belittle those who lack your expertise or who
no longer have the physical capability to do some jobs they
once could. it is no fun to be dependent on others -- paid or
unpaid help -- in my view but I have to ask for it more often
these days than I would like. And why make it a conservative/
liberal thing? That is quite unfair. And very silly.

jimstevens...

As a kid we dug cistern. about 5 ft across at top and 8-10' across
at bottom. 25 or so foot deep. We put on a temporary frame at the
top to mount pulley to help remove dirt and that job sounded easy -
until you pull up a couple hundred buckets of clay. Bricks on bottom
and up about half way covered with concrete and concrete the rest of
the way up. It is horribly hard work.

Later we had street water (off city main) and put shiners into the
water. Problem was getting them out. I wonder if that old cistern is
still there?

Harry Thompson...

Some 25 years ago wells were used in this corner of Denton Co. I've never
heard of anybody digging a well, they were always drilled by water drilling
companies.

We have three water formations one under the other. The surface is lousy
tasting (too many oak leaves I think) and is used nowadays only to water the
golf course. The next one IIRC is the Hillwood, which is only ok, and waaay
down is the Paluxy which is sweet water. Westlake once used Paluxy formation
water, but nowadays we all get our water from Fort Worth.

A lot of the history of Texas I understand is water.

Sorry, not much help to you.

Earl...

You may have a few problems if I remember the geology of that
area.

Your surface is Black Gumbo which is definitely no permiable to
water. There were shallow cisterns that were used to supply
local farmers but they were limited to about 30 feet deep, and
the water they collected would set off all the water quality
alarms the TWC could imagine.

Below that surface "soil" you have soft clay/lime for about 2000
feet, and then you reach a very brackish aquafer that would be
fit only for the desparate.

The only good water in the area is surface water.

Your other post about the lake water (low) raises a different
issue. There will not be much flow through the Gumbo from the
lake to your well even though there is an elevation difference.
I really doubt that the water from the lake could travel more
that a few feet. That is why you can have low areas that fill
with water -- the water is not able to penetrate the ground and
reach an aquafer.

Looks like you would have to run a pipe all the way to the lake
and actually pump (illegally) the water from the lake itself.
You are not sitting on a sandy rivercourse.

Gary James...

I've never dug one, but if I were to, I'd dig right over a water
pipe. You wouldn't have to go quite so far down.

I dug 14 fence posts holes last summer, if that will qualify me as a
digger.