That was an interesting weekend

That was an interesting weekend.  Some of you may remember a week-and-a-half ago my power went out for about four hours.  When it did come back on I noticed that I had lost about 50% of my water pressure.  I figured there was an air bubble somewhere between the house and the wellhead and it would eventually work its way out.

I grudgingly lived with a weak shower and barely enough pressure to wash the truck, but I did notice that at times the pressure would be better suggesting a cure was inevitable.  Thursday afternoon, I was cleaning up the kitchen and decided to go check the pressure gauge on the tank.  The pressure was holding, but I thought, I wonder what would happen if I cut the power.  As soon as I pulled the disconnect, I heard the water start to siphon back to the well (that isn’t supposed to happen).

Later that evening while getting ready for bed, I flushed the toilet only to realize that I had NO WATER.  Fortunately, I am still in prep mode for winter storms that can at times disrupt the power (and consequently the well pump), so I had a bathtub full of flush water and several gallons of drinking water stored up for emergencies.

Funny aside: While looking through a drawer to find the paperwork on the well, I found this neat book.  The pages were all yellow, so it might have been old.  Inside was the name, address and phone number of every business in the county, and they were categorized according to the type of business.  I found the phone number to the well company without looking at their invoice or even turning on a computer.  I don’t know who invented it, but what a neat thing:  Business phone numbers printed up in a book!

Friday morning the well company said they would be right over to get the water flowing again.  Four hours later, the truck pulls up.  (I had temporarily forgotten that everyone here works on mountain time.  Four hours is actually early; good thing it isn’t hunting season, it could have been four days.)

After an hour-and-a-half of studious diagnoses, he determined that he had to pull the well (exactly what I had told him when he arrived).  He next discovered that 6 small pine tree saplings had grown up near the wellhead, and they had to be cut down so he could get his crane in there.  He said he would find someone with a chainsaw, and if nothing else, would come back “after work” and do it himself.  He left with the promise that I would have water in the morning.

I started calling about 10:30 AM (allowing for mountain time), but never reached him until about 2:30 PM.  He said, “Oh, I thought you had worked something out.”  HUH???  “Let me find someone to help me, and I’ll be right out.”  Nope, never heard from him again.

After returning from the store with my truck bed full of clear plastic jugs reminiscent of an episode of Moonshiners, I settled in for another night no running tap water and the certainty that if he didn’t come on Saturday, there was no way he would come on a Sunday.

To my surprise, he called me about 8:30 in the morning and said he had finally found someone to help him.  He was going to meet him over at the business, pick up his truck and would head out my way.  2:30 in the afternoon, he starts up my driveway.

In the end, he found a busted coupling about 300 feet down, replaced that and by about 6:30 last night, I had a hot shower.  Today, well it’s a Happy Monday, so I better get to work, just give me a few hours, it is mountain time after all.