Well water woes

Well, it finally happened. Fourteen years after we were told our well pump only had five years left, the pump finally died (right in the middle of Don's shower, of course).

We got years of use out of this well pump. We have no complaints whatever about its lifespan. It was just, well, inconvenient to suddenly be without water.

The last time we were left high and dry was during the windstorm and four-day power outage we experienced in November 2015. After the windstorm, we put some additional emergency water preps in place -- and this was the first opportunity to test them. As it turns out, we were much better prepared. The three things that were different this time around was the issue of livestock water, showering, and watering the garden.

After the windstorm, we changed our water-storage ways. We moved two 50-gallon food-grade barrels into the washroom, added a bit of bleach, and left them there.

It was kind of inconvenient having these two honkin' big barrels of water in the washroom -- until we needed them, of course, after which we considered them to be a God-send. The stored water allowed us to flush the toilet and wash dishes without a problem.

We also had ten gallons (in one-gallon jugs) of fresher water stored on the bottom shelf of this unit. We used this for drinking water and had plenty.

The livestock had already been moved down to the neighboring pond property which we lease for a few months every year. As the name implies, the property has a stock pond, so we didn't have to worry about watering the livestock.

We had purchased a bilge pump last year which worked so well we purchased several spares. Don cobbled together a temporary system to pump water out of the pond and through a hose for watering the garden.

It was laborious but do-able. As it turns out, we didn't have to water too much of the garden since the pump was replaced within two days, but it was satisfying to take a theory (rigging up a garden-watering system) and turn it into proof.

Also, during the windstorm power outage in 2015, we had no way of showering. Shortly afterward, I purchased three solar shower bags. We stored them away but never used them until now. Following the directions, we filled them with water and laid them out in the sun.

Within a few hours, the water was satisfactorily warm.

Don rigged a hook in the ceiling of the shower, and hung a bag.

To be honest, I didn't have high expectations about these bags, but my goodness they worked beautifully. The hose nozzle allowed us to wet ourselves down with a minimum of water. In fact, Don and I both took showers off the same bag, and still had water left over (though admittedly I didn't wash my hair, which would have taken more water).

Within a couple of days, the well guys were able to make it to our place.

In the span of four hours, they pulled up 480 feet of pipe...

...and wire...

...and swapped out the old pump for a shiny new one.

Then they re-inserted all the pipe and wire and buttoned everything up.

Some people like to think preparedness is just for the end-of-the-world zombie apocalypse. Nonsense. When the power goes out, when the well pump dies, when you lose your job -- then having preps to fall back on is awfully nice.

We were glad for the chance to test our preps. We still have more to do on the water frontier, but we sure were better off than last time without water.

Wow, a product that WORKS!!

One of the eternal questions we constantly bandy about is the question of water for our homestead.

Our well is 610 feet deep with a static level of about 450 feet. Our well pump is electric. If we lose power, we lose water. Since we live on the prairie, surface water is nonexistent.

For years, we've investigated affordable options for homestead water without much success. Solar and wind options far exceed our budget. (A few years ago we were quoted about $18,000 for a windmill of sufficient height, size, and strength to power our well -- and I don't doubt the accuracy of that quote.)

Several years ago we purchased a 1500-gallon above-ground water tank, but thus far have not installed it. One of our winter projects is to built a heavily-insulated "cool room" in the barn and install the tank hooked up to filtered roof runoff. This would provide abundant water for household use.

But what about livestock? What about the garden? Well, we may have found the answer.

We had our pond installed immediately adjacent to the garden on purpose. Its location is convenient not just to plants, but to the livestock as well. However the question of getting water out of the pond and into a stock tank (for the livestock) or to the vegetables remained to be seen.

Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago. We had a trench dug for a project (a neighbor with a backhoe kindly did the job).

Then came days and days and days of rain -- the kind of heavy relentless downpour that leaves little checkdams of pine needles from the rivulets of water cascading down the road.

Unsurprisingly, the trench filled with water, which refused to drain out of our hard clay soil. We were tasked with removing water from a trench 30 feet long, one foot wide, and 18 inches deep.

Ah, but Don had a new secret weapon: a bilge pump.

A bilge pump, as you doubtless know, is designed to remove yucky water from the bottom-most levels of ships. It's designed to handle all kinds of junk: sediment, contaminants, etc. A few months ago Don realized a bilge pump would probably work to draw water out of the pond for whatever purpose (garden, livestock) we needed.

But we never had the opportunity to test it -- until yesterday, when he used the bilge pump to pump out the trench.

This particular model of bilge pump was astoundingly inexpensive -- $28.50. But how well did it work? And how hard was it to use?

First, Don screwed the pump to a small platform, then he got PVC connectors to attach to the inflow and outflow valves of the pump.

He dropped the pipe into the trench, and started pumping.

It -- worked -- beautifully. Astoundingly well. Fast, efficient, and easy. With every downward push of the lever, it shot out about a quart of water.

About halfway done:

Between us, it took us about 20 minutes to pump the trench almost completely empty.

The information on this Chinese-made product promised:

Well, they were right. I have seldom seen a product work so well. It more than exceeded our expectations.

The only "difficulty" was having the pump on the ground, since we had to kneel on the platform to operate it. We'll also have to be careful about leaving the pump outdoors since we're not sure how well the rubber gasket will handle extremes of temperature.

We're going to test the pump next spring and see how it works pumping water out of the pond, through a used pressure tank we salvaged, and into the garden's drip irrigation system. To do this, Don will build a platform and install the pump at waist level, and add an additional length to the handle for greater leverage. The pump's specifications indicate this shouldn't be a problem:

One of the reasons we're so delighted by this pump is because it's manual. In most of our prepping endeavors, we are trying to make sure everything stays low-tech and hand-operated (and, if possible, inexpensive).

Slowly, little by little, we're solving our water issues in affordable ways. This bilge pump is a valuable piece of the puzzle.

UPDATE: Here's the product on Amazon. It received seriously mixed reviews. All I can say is, our experience so far has been very very positive.