Well Hell !!!!

Most of us have a sentence we either love or hate. Ginny had one when we were raising the kids. It was "Mom I'm DONE!!!" That meant it was time to wipe someones butt on the toilet. I don't think it was one of Ginny's favorites at that time but as always "time heals all wounds" so we tease the kids about it now. I think Blaine was the loudest.



I have a sentence that just sends shivers up my spine every time I hear it. "The water's out!!!" Those of you that live on a well knows exactly what I am talking about. The thing that baffles my mind is why it always goes out at night when no one uses the water! And it seems like it's always on Saturday nights, so Sunday morning "the water is out" is what I wake up to.


Well (no pun intended), enough intro, let's get to the story. A few weeks ago we started having problems. First thing one morning, "the water's out" was the cry and so out of bed I went. I slipped on pants from the day before, put on my slippers, a shirt and a hat. Why the hat, you ask? Well, I know I don't have much hair now, but for some reason when I wake up in the morning the hair I do have forms a sharp mohawk-like ridge right down the middle of my head!



So i jump on the quad or in the truck and over to the well I go. I found the well pump starter switch had tripped, so I reset it and headed to the house. Little did i know this was just the beginning. That dang switch just kept popping more and more so I called out the electrician to check it out, but by the time we figured it out and the starter switch replaced it had cost us $500.



About a week went by and life was bliss! Then that %&#*@ sentence woke me up again! So on with the hat and off I went. This time the well pump was running but not putting water in the tank. The pump is 600 feet in the ground. The pipe that runs the water from the pump to the tank was leaking so badly that the water just fell back in to the well. That meant pulling out the well pipes!



I had them replace the pump since it was ten years old and use Schedule 80 PVC pipe so it would not rust out. That cost $5,500.00. We didn't have water for three days.



Now remember, our house isn't the only thing that relies on this well. There is also our business, another house and seven other businesses. (When we first moved out here the houses were seven and businesses were two.) So I had people upset! Lucky for us, we have a 300 gallon water trailer with a gas pump that we can hook up to the house and shop, but we have to go and get the water twice a day. One of our customers on Warner road was kind enough to "lend" us the water.



So we got the piping done and again life was bliss...... or so I thought. "The water is out" I heard a few days later! CRAP! So on with the hat! This time the starter switch for the booster pump had popped! I reset the switch and wondered what that would lead to. I found out soon. A few days later the booster pump burned up. Thinking, "No problem. All I have to do is turn a few valves and run the system off of the well pump"! When I went to do that we discovered one of the valves was in the wrong spot. It must have been put there during a previous repair so Jesse, Blaine and I had to tear all the plumbing apart and re plump it so we could run off the well pump.

While we did the plumbing, Blaine went to Chandler to get a new pump and motor.($1000.00) We could not pick it up until later in the afternoon. when we did get it Jeff Long installed it and everything was good to go until the next morning......"The water is out!!" On with the hat, into the truck, over to the well , low and behold the booster pump motor was out again!!! Switched back to the well pump and Jeff pulled the pump and took it over to Chandler. They blamed it on us but after having Bill Tilton (electrician) look at it we strongly disagreed But that is another story.

We bought and ordered another motor for the new pump ($500.00) One morning before the motor came in I woke up at 2 am because I had a feeling. I laid there until 4 am when I got up to go to the bathroom. As I walked by the sink I turned it on and yes "The water is out!" That was the first time I was able to say that but i new this was really bad since we were running off the well pump that we had just spent $5500.00 on. I was sick! On with the hat and dragging Blaine out of bed (I thought it would ease the pain if I shared it) we went and hooked up the water trailer and filled it. I called the well people and picked up the booster pump with a new motor. Jeff Long installed the booster pump and the well people pulled the well pump. They found a shorted wire and would take care of it under warranty. I think this is the only thing that went right. After a couple of days they got it put back in and at 8:30 am we started the well and all was well!!!! Have you heard that before? You will hear it again!

That same day at 2:30 pm someone dug up a power line and shorted it out so our power went off! At 3:00 it came back on. At 3:30 Billy came in the office and said "The water is out!" After investigating i found that the power was off along Warner road from Power Rd to Recker Rd. I saw a SRP guy and asked when the power would be back on. He Said "in the morning" So back to the house, grab Blaine and the water trailer to get water but realized our customer neighbor might be out of power so there well would not be working. Yep! no water! We had about a foot of water in the tank. Enough for toilets only! So back to the house.

The next morning, putting on my hat, Blaine and I went out in the dark and found a fire hydrant to fill up the tank so we would have water for the day. Ya Hoo the power came on at about 10:00 am and believe it or not the well is still working good! Knock on wood!!!!!!!!



Moral of the story? When someone yells "I'm done!!!!" make sure you have baby wipes because someone might have all ready yelled "The water is out!!"

"YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING" TOM