The well at the "other farm" has never been very strong. There are three families living in the farm house, and we house our dry cows and heifers there as well...anywhere from 20-25 animals at any given time, and that takes a lot of water!
Several years ago, a new well was drilled at the "other farm". After drilling to somewhere around 500 feet, they got water...not very much, but enough that the second well could be used to supplement the old one. However in dry weather, there just isn't enough of a water supply to meet the demand. What to do?
For the past few weeks, we tried this...
A local company that supplies water, parked one of their tankers in the meadow. This tanker holds 4500 gallons of water. There was a hose trickling water slowly into the well to supply water for the house, and Jim filled this stock tank with a hose directly from the tanker. The cows quickly learned where to find their water...
The water tanker has been refilled several times, with no sign of the well making a strong recovery, even with the several inches of rain that we've had.
Next option...
Drilling a new well is very expensive, and with the history of trouble with finding water, the family decided to try something new...
Hydrofracking the well...
(you can read about the process if you click on this link. I understand the basics of how it works, but it's explained very clearly on the website from the company we used. Better than me trying to explain it!)
This morning, the plumber came and pulled the well pump. The pump itself will at the least need to be repaired, and possible replaced...
The tank truck to the right is filled with 5000 gallons of water which will be used in the hydrofracking process...
Uncle Ray watching...
Here they have their equipment lowered into the well, after the pump and piping has been removed...
Adding pipes to lower into the well...
Hooked up to the water tanker and ready to go...
Watching the pressure gauges...
Almost immediately at the first level, the water pressure dropped from 500 psi to 0 psi. That, in the words of the boss, was "a home run"! A large fracture occurred, allowing the water to escape, opening up a channel for more water to flow into the well.
They flushed the fracture with 2500 gallons of water, added more pipe to descend to a lower level and repeated the process.
Now the pump just needs to be replaced, and we'll hope for a sufficient water supply. That will make everyone happy!
