First, Water; Next, Underground Pipes.

The saga of the new artesian well continues as winter approaches. My frustration level rises daily as delays in connecting the new well to existing pipelines, the weekly postponement by the well driller to come back, and the need for an official volume test adds to my anxiety over being behind in getting ready for colder weather.

In South Dakota, anything can happen after the 1st of November. We could have another 30 days of mild 50ish type weather, or we could wake up to 10 degrees and a foot of snow.

We installed the concrete well pit earlier in the week. A well pit is a concrete enclosure about 6 foot long and 5 foot wide with enough room to stand up comfortably. You bury the pit so that only the concrete lid is exposed to the elements. Burying it prevents the pipeline from freezing. The frostline here can go as deep as 4 to 5 feet so anything having to do with water needs to be below that level. Inside the pit contains the pipeline coming in one end and going out the other with a shut-off valve, check valve to prevent the water from going backwards, and a water meter to measure how much water is going through the system. In addition, electrical panels hang from the wall containing circuit breakers and control boxes that regulate when the pump goes on and off. Finally, the pressure tank sits along side the pipeline to keep the water pressure at a level that will push the water to all the tanks and hydrants scattered throughout the prairie.

Our daughter-in-law's parents from CA visited me this week. They couldn't believe how deep the trench had to be to avoid freezing the pipeline. In CA, water lines rarely have to be buried more than a few inches deep. Trenching 6 foot deep is no speedy process. The trencher only moves inches per minute so when you put in a mile of pipeline, it's quite a project.

Two neighbors are currently hooking up to our pipeline at the nearest spot between theirs and ours. They are either out of water or their water is too stale in their dams that the cattle will not drink it. Both neighbors are currently hauling water from a rural water system 6 miles away in order to water their cattle. Hopefully, we can get water to them through the winter and by spring, and the Winter snows will have freshened our dams for next summer's grazing.

Holy Moly, we got a little rain - Surf's up: http://www.JoanWink.com/gifs/surf.jpg