The windmill won....

Well, (pun intended) I guess the windmill ended up winning the war after all.

It started off badly when I first looked down the well and it had caved in and was full to the rim with soft dirt. After a lot of effort (a couple hours) I ended up managing to get the hole re-opened by sticking a 1" pvc pipe into the soft dirt that had filled it in then moving up to a 2" pvc pipe and finally pouring some water into the hole. I was proud to have won the battle and got everything ready to get the mud out and get the windmill pumping water the next morning.

After an uneventful night (I didn't see any wildlife on this trip) I managed to muck out about 5 gallons of mud out of the bottom of the 30' well the next morning. The problem was that this is supposed to be a water well so water should have been flowing back in as I pulled the mud out. I thought maybe pouring some water down the well would get it started so I poured about 10 gallons of water into the well and proceeded to pull out about 10 gallons of muddy water. No water was flowing back into the hole! I waited about 30 minutes and there still wasn't any more water in the hole. 4 hours later and I still had a dry hole (there was still about 2' of mud in the bottom of the well) . Depending on how you look at it I either spent 3 weeks with nothing to show for it or I went quite a bit out of my way to get some exercise!

I'm not sure if the well was plugged before I started this whole ordeal or if through my comedy of errors and the hole filling up with dirt it ended up plugging the hole through that. I'm going to call some water well folks in the morning and see if they think there is a chance to renovate the well and get it to start producing water again. More than likely the most likely option is to just drill another well that will be cased and set up correctly for an electric pump so there will be no more need for a windmill.

I just happen to have a co-worker that had his windmill destroyed in a wind storm this year and I will see if he wants to help pitch in some on drilling my new well in exchange for my windmill.

Cathy and Eli are going to be visiting her parents this week, so I'm going to be home alone and I may be able to get back out there sometime again this week and will be trying my best to get things ready for hunting season. Dove season starts this Saturday!!

Still working on the windmill...

Well, I guess I'll start trying to post once a week at least. I went back down to the land to work on the windmill and made some progresss but it still isn't working. After spending 5 hours working on it I stopped by a convienience store to buy a diet coke and the clerk asked me if I had a fight with my tractor. (I was pretty dirty and worn out). I told her, "No, I had a fight with a windmill". She quickly replied "Well, it looks like the windmill won!".

It may have won the battle but I still think I will win war. The remants of tropical storm Erin passed through this weekend so I didn't go down there and battle the rain but I plan on making the trip one evening this week.

I did kill a large rattlesnake by the pond while I was there. One thing that suprised me is that I walked within 2 feet of the snake before I realized it and it never ratttled at me. It only rattled after I tried to chop off it's head with a grubbing hoe and missed! I ended up shooting it with my .22 rifle.

Not a whole lot else going on. Eli is growing up fast. He is crawling everywhere and starting to get into things that he shouldn't.

I guess that's it for now.

Nathan

Windmill Repairs

Well, I spent this weekend down on my new land near Snyder, Texas working on the windmill that is on the property. I ended up pulling the drop pipe from the well and it was quite a bit of work and in the end the way it was set up was not quite the standard way. I brought the parts home with me and was able to get everything cleaned up and sorted out and plan on going back down there sometime this week to try to get it pumping water.

I moved my automatic feeder to a new spot and got my trail cameras up and running again. I saw a doe and a fawn by the pond and a covey of 12 quail but no other wildlife this time.

Hunting season is coming up fast and I still have a LOT to get done!

1st Entry

As you can tell from my title, I'm not really that creative. I'm planning on using this blog more as a personal diary than anything else. Some people might find that interesting, most people probably won't.

I'm a little concerned about posting too much personal information on the web but we'll see how this goes.

I have several interests including saltwater reef aquariums, hunting and fishing, and country living. I'm involved with church and enjoy singing as well.

I live on 42 acres of property and own another 160 acres that is 100 miles away that I hunt on.

That's about it for my first post. Maybe it will continue, maybe not.

Nathan