Water Tables, Pumps, Pressure and Wells - Oh...And A Fridge And Car Update!

Pumpkins!!!

Hi Everyone 😊

Happy Sunday! I hope you're all doing well. It's dry as a bone here in Queen's County New Brunswick...we haven't had rain in a week and there is no precipitation in the forecast for another week. It's so different from my last place! In that area, there was constant humidity and rain several times a week. Complete opposite. 

Before we bought our home here, we rented a cottage that had a shallow well. That mountain village had lots of rainy days and MANY months of snow, so water supply was never an issue. We have a shallow well here too and we are finding that it IS an issue, mainly because of the current drought and the capability of our old water pump. Lately we have been running out of water and our pump has been struggling to draw water up.

Lesson time for those who are interested! 🎓  (And please correct me if I don't get all of this right!!)

There are three types of well water systems that most rural homeowners use. Shallow wells (also known as dug or water table wells), drilled wells and artesian wells. 

Shallow wells, like ours, are dug to the level of the water table, about 30 - 100 feet down. The water table is the top section of the saturated earth that contains underground water. 

Drilled wells are typically dug over 1000 feet below ground level to the zone of saturation. Artesian wells just confuse me so I won't get into those!

Most people will install a shallow well because it's cheaper. Ideally I would LOVE to have a drilled well because it's a more reliable water source.

To drill a "drilled" well, you need BIG machinery and it costs anywhere from 5-10k (CAD). This price doesn't guarantee you'll find water though. If the auger doesn't hit a spot with water, you are basically sitting on pins and needles as they drill lower and lower because most companies charge you per foot drilled. 

We have an old pump, likely about 15 years old. We knew it needed replacing in a year or so but we are trying to hold on to it as long as we can! It only has the capacity to draw about 40 pounds of water per square inch 😕. If I fill up my 2.5 gallon watering can twice, the pump turns on. Every time we use between 4-6 gallons of water, the pump needs to draw more water up from our shallow well. If we take long hot showers or do lots of dishes, the pump works harder to try to fill the 40-gallon hot water tank.

The water pump is attached to a pressure tank, this helps draw the water up to the pipes in the house. If the pressure tank's gauge starts to shake and shimmy, that means it's struggling and we need to turn the pump off. Why? Because the well is dry (figuratively) and if we leave the pump on, it will burn out. 

If the well is dry, it's because we pulled all of the water from the water table and there isn't any left. There will be more of course! But at this point, we've used too much water and the ground water needs to restore itself into our well. Another reason the well could be dry is based on the weather and seasons. We are in a drought right now so it's normal that the water table is low. The problem with that is the water table continues to fall year after year if there are a lot of summertime droughts...this means in the future we may need to dig a deeper well.

It's complicated, but we are learning. Here's an example: I can fill my watering can about 14 times before the pump starts to struggle. That means we can use about 60 gallons of water before the well dries up and needs to refill itself. Of course, that's right now because of the drought. So far we figure it takes a good few hours for the water table to come back up.

Alex and I are determined to conserve water. We are also trying to learn how to schedule our water needs better so that we don't get to the point of drying up our well. I stagger the watering of the garden now over several days. We only do one load of wash a day and it's in the morning. All leaky faucets will be fixed asap because that affects the water supply as well. We keep an eye on that pressure gauge to make sure it's not struggling. If we see that, we turn the pump off - the last thing we need is a burned out pump!! 

We are going to install gutters and we're on a waiting list for some food-grade plastic barrels that we will turn into rain barrels. The company sells them to people for $5 a piece. There is a waiting list for these barrels, and there are 3 people ahead of us; but the nice lady at the company said we should hear from her in about a month. I asked for 4 barrels so that we can harvest rain water.

The fridge??? Okay in short, the fan was broken and because it was one of those modern fridges run by a computer chip, that had to be replaced too. The fix was going to be way too pricey. We'd bought that fridge plus a washer and dryer from that second hand store. The washer stopped working as well. We never tested the dryer because we don't have an outlet, but we decided to rent a Uhaul trailer and return all three appliances. I was so sad because I LOVED that fridge!!! We were lucky that we got a full refund. We ended up buying some low-end new appliances, and even though it's not as big as the used one we returned, I'm still getting my stainless steel fridge! 😊 But, the appliances will only be delivered in mid-to-late July. It's weekly shopping, more canning and hand washing until then! We are pioneering right now so to speak!!

Our leak is pink.

The car??? When we returned the Uhaul trailer, the mechanic there noticed some grease on the trailer. He checked our car out and told us that he thought our transmission fluid was leaking. Oh joy. I've been checking the fluid level and it's borderline right now...I have to find a mechanic to check that out. But the good news is I have an appointment in early July to get my New Brunswick driver's license and plates! 😊😊 Getting rid of my Quebec license and plates is my last tie to that province!!

Fun stuff: In February I'd ordered a few trail cameras for our 7-year anniversary in March. They were on back-order but they were supposed to arrive at our new home just around the time we were to arrive. A few days before we moved in May, I was told that they were still on back-order. With all of the stress of the move I COMPLETELY forgot I'd ordered them and they arrived a few days ago! It was a wonderful surprise! We're going to have fun with these!! Last night when we brought the dogs out before bed, they all went nuts...barking, growling, pulling - there was something in the woods! It's a shame we didn't have the cameras up last night, but they are up now. I hope we get some good footage!

Charlie - resting by the window. She had an allergic reaction from what we think is a spider bite - her face swelled up three times its normal size. This has happened several times before. Poor gal was on Benadryl for 24 hours.

Big post today huh? Friends, I'm so busy. It's crazy. Tomorrow we have a chimney inspector coming. He's going to sweep the chimney, inspect our wood stove and help find out where it's leaking. We have rust on the top of the stove and inside so we need to fix that leak before the winter. I also have to figure out a menu plan and go shopping.

Sandwiches - a typical dinner these days!

Oh and during the last rainfall, we realized there are a few leaks in the roof too. One of these days Alex and I will get up there and try to figure out where it's leaking. We can't afford to fix the roof this year, but we CAN figure out a patch job. I was watching lots of videos on how to find leaks and caulk them. Worst case scenario we'll install a good quality tarp over the area where it's leaking and figure out how to fix it next year.

💞 We LOVE our home and property, despite its flaws and problems!! I need to find time to paint and draw this week!!! Please join me on Thursday for our art date, the theme is Heat Wave. 😊

🌅 A VERY HAPPY SOLSTICE TO YOU!!🌅