Well question

[280plus]

I used up a lot of water out in the yard yesterday and now the water is  pretty brown. What is this telling me? I always thought it was good to run a well out once in a while. Trouble is I wanted to use more in the near future. Is that ok? It has been dry out here but rain is coming. Would drilling a second well be smart?

Now for the bad news. The wife's not happy.

The good news is, we got a doghouse last night for new dog Max. So I'm not completely homeless.

[grampster]

Gee, his name is Max?  I sure hope he's not related to a dog that we had called Max.
He used to shed his hair like a porcupine sheds quills.  In addition he used to catch rabbits and other sorts of critters and kill and eat them.  Then he'd digest them for awhile and pork them up on the living room carpet.

[garyk/nm]

Is your well your sole-source water supply, or just for irrigating?  Deep well with full casing or sandpoint? Lots of variables.

[280plus]

Sole source fo domestic water. Don't know the answer to the second question. I'll have to find out. I BELIEVE it's deep well with full casing. I see a casing above the ground. Put in 1970 as far as I know.

So far Max has been a sweetheart. (Black Lab cross) Although he did already break his collar and escape but was easy to catch and then he also managed to chew up the tags on my wifes stuffed easter bunnies when nobody was looking. She laughed. How come HE get's off so easy?

[Art Eatman]

You can overpump a well and get fine sediments into the system.  Commonly, the below-ground reservoir recharges from adjacent water in the formation.  Might have to let the system flush for a bit, after the well "catches up".

It's possible that the over-pumping caused some sort of partial collapse in the underground formation, stirring up fine sediments.  These should settle out in a relatively short time.

run the pump and fill a container.  Filter a gallon or so through a coffee filter, and see what sort of sediment you have...

Art

[280plus]

Thanks Art, will do...

It does seem to be getting better but now I'm afraid to use any sizeable amount of water. I wanted to give all the trucks a bath.

[garyk/nm]

Ask around, and see if a sandpoint (shallow) well would be feasible. This is a well where you hand-drive a pointed pick-up and add piping as necessary to get the correct depth. We use 2 of these for irrigating the "grounds". This will require a seperate well pump, but will cut down on the draw down on the domestic supply. (read: make wife happy).

[280plus]

I'm fairly certain we're on ledge here. I'll look into it though. If thats what a sand point well is I'm sure we have a deep well with casing. I'll have to ask momma if she knows how deep it is.

Poor momma, she gets the heebie jeebies easy as it is. Try feeding her brown water.

I played the "But it's MINERAL water, they'd charge you a LOT for that in one of them fancy restaurants!"

She ain't buying it though...

[280plus]

The water is much clearer today. The wife says it has "happened a lot" in the past. Should we be thinking about a second well?

[garyk/nm]

Probably wouldn't hurt to consider it, since it doesn't seem to take much to get to the point of sucking up sediment.  Did you find out what depth you're working with? Could play a large part in the decision making process.
Something else I have heard of, is backflushing the well to create a larger pocket around the intake. Your local well driller would have better info.

[280plus]

No, she has no idea how deep it is. I'll check around with the locals. One thing after another out here. :sigh:

[Tallpine]

Some folks with low volume wells put in a cistern tank and run the pump on a timer (the on and off period depends on what your well can handle) and then use a shallow pump to use water from the cistern.  That way your cistern can be filling during the night for high volume use later.

Our well is something like 30gpm so we don't have to worry about that much

[Guest]

The county may have records on the well. On newer wells, they do record some data. If you need a source of water for a peak demand, consider a storage tank, 500 gallons or so. it will be  a lot cheaper than a new well.

[280plus]

Thanks guys, I'll keep that idea in mind.