The Well

This is a momentous day.  That's the well guys truck.  Yep, we'll have water soon!

That's Charlie Ward.  One fine individual.  We had his father first as our well man and Charlie was always his helper.  When Leroy passed away Charlie took over the business.  A good well man is hard to find, but when you've got a great well man you thank your lucky stars.

The person in the purple shirt is Charlie's wife Stacy.  She helps Charlie out from time to time.  Today was Sunday and we did not expect to see them out here today.  And when they drove up we told them to head back to the house...it was Sunday after all and they needed to be home with their family.  They insisted on staying and getting some work done.

That long silver thing is a water well pump...not what you expected I suspect.  Neither did I when I first saw one but that's what that is.  Now you know.

If you blow up this picture  a bit you can see that they are putting the sticks of pipe together and putting them down the well hole.  That's how it all works.  The silver cylinder is attached to the first stick of pipe along with all the wiring and when they get to the end of the pipe (one end of the PVC has a coupler and one end is threaded.) they thread on another one, attach the wiring and so on and so on.  Interesting....isn't it.  So much is taken for granted when you live where all you do is turn on the tap.  But somewhere down the line....this is how it begins.
Here's a look at the inside of the building.....

Ok...going left to right...white PVC pipe at the bottom of the picture  is coming out of the cistern...the cistern holds water that comes directly from the well.  That pipe then goes to a Pressure booster pump, that's the greenish thing and from there it goes into the pressure tank (That's where your water pressure is made). And then from there the water is diverted to ( right now just to a water trough for the cows) the house, shop and outside faucets. 

I know this looks kinda messy but there is a method to the madness.  Ignore ( for now) all the stuff on the ground and concentrate on the boxes on the wall.
First box closest to us is the breaker box for the well itself.  The next box beside that is the Well Control Box.  It has the starting capacitor in it.  And the last box is a safety measure for that " just in case" moment.  One of those " just in case" moments is if the water in the well itself should drop below the pump then it shuts off the electricity to the pump in the ground.  That way you won't burn up your well pump if there is no water.
And there you have it...water from the hole in the ground to the surface.