Pressure Is A Good Thing!

Back, mid-winter, we had a problem with our well and, therefore, water in our house.  We called the plumbing company; the fellow came and had a look, opening the well and checking around on a frigid day.  He told us that the pipe into the house must have burst and there was nothing to be done until Spring.  At that time, the yard would have to be dug up and the pipe changed.  We accepted that; in the twelve years we've been on the farm we've never really had much of a problem with the well, and don't have a lot of experience with them.

We have lived for more than three months now with extremely poor water pressure.  The five minute shower became a ten minute shower as we tried to fit our soapy body parts under the dribble ensuing from the shower head.  Filling the chicken waterer became a five minutes job.  Filling a bucket of water for the goats became a five minute process.  The water dispenser and ice machine in the fridge hardly worked. The dishwasher wouldn't work.  What was usually a thirty minute laundry cycle became an hour.  It hasn't been fun!

So, as the snow finally melted and the ground dried, Farmer Man prepared to dig up the back yard.  He opened the well to take a look at where the pipe was going and started to think about the process.  It looked to him like a flexible pipe could be and had been pulled through the larger pipe.  He talked to the plumbing company fellow who didn't seem to agree.  Farmer Man then discussed it with our neighbor Mike, who has a bit more experience with wells.  The two decided to give a go at fixing it.

What they discovered, on the appointed day, was that a hose leading from the pump itself to the piping had been chafing, perhaps for years, and had split open.  If the plumber had only pulled the pump up that day, we wouldn't have had to go through all the low pressure trauma of the last months.  While the boys were at it they did pull all new hose from the well to the house and replaced a few old fittings.  Good to go with an afternoon's work.  Morale of the story?  Always get a second opinion?  And always trust your instincts.....And now we sooooo appreciate a shower with good pressure!