Water lifting devices.

[Cyngbaeld]

www.fao.org/docrep/010/ah810e/AH810E07.htm

[Cyngbaeld]

www.fdungan.com/well.htm

[joanfromzone6]

excellent sites - don't need the info at the moment but when the need arises i've now got a "go to" destination -

thanks -

[Cyngbaeld]

You're welcome. Here's another:
www.lifewater.org/resources/rws1/rws1m.htm

[Valerie]

There was a good article in Countryside Magazine last time, where a guy drew out and gave directions for making something like this with about $25 in materials. It's basically a giant siphon that you insert into the drop pipe. There's a piece that you move up and down that has something like a check valve to allow the water to come up in the pipe but not go back down. Only thing is, you would have to remove the electric pump from the well head to use it. That's why we haven't made one yet. We both agree that it's a great idea, but don't want to go through all that ordeal of removing the pump and hooking it back up.

[Cyngbaeld]

The instructions are in the first or second link, Val. I have all the stuff for that but have no idea how deep the well it I'd be using. If the grid goes down while I'm here I'd have to ask Roy and Chris if we could use their well as our shared well is over half a mile away. Theirs is just up the hill about 200 ft. I have the cistern to use if the power isn't off long. I'm sure they would be ok with it if I supplied the pump and probably if I didn't and they had some other way to pump. Amount used would sure go down in a hurry!

[Valerie]

Oh, Kim, I love that second link! The first one was a bit technical for my brain, but I understood the second one! I should print this out for Dave and it can be a project for us to work on. He said wells here are rock wells (why our water has so blessed much iron in it!) and are only 10-15 feet deep. Shoot, he could probably do one of those in a day!

I think the thing for us to do would be to dig the shallow well and go ahead and set it up with the hand-operated pump type deal, and just have it at the ready. That way we'd know exactly what depth we were looking at, too. We could use it for watering the critters and stuff, to keep it primed and flushed.

I think something like this will make all the difference during a sustained power failure. Living without electricity is so much easier if you have access to water! Many people just don't realize that they probably won't have water should the power grid fail.

[Cyngbaeld]

That would be a good idea, Val. Having a backup source of water that is ready and no need to switch out the pumps should make a big difference. I try to keep the cistern full, but it really should be under the gutter. It never got moved up here when the house was moved. I fill it from the hose. If I were staying I'd try to get my own well drilled. But that is money I don't have just to blow on a hole in the ground that I likely won't be using.

[Cyngbaeld]

I forgot Gayle messed with the smileys. That was a wink.

[Cyngbaeld]

I'm interested in learning more about man made springs where you dig a horizontal well and it doesn't need a pump. Has to be on a hillside where the water table is adequate. Not here though.

[Valerie]

Oh definitely not here either. The only hills we have are septic tank drain field mounds.

[joanfromzone6]

Aug 6, 2012 14:29:53 GMT -5 Valerie said:

Oh definitely not here either. The only hills we have are septic tank drain field mounds.

so you just dismiss the extensive canyon system in the immense area drained by the st. mary's river system ?

[Valerie]

Well, if that's a canyon, our yard must be a flippin' ski slope! If I lived in that little dip that is the river bottoms, I wouldn't fool with a well for emergencies -- I'd run a pipe into the river.