Corral well digging

In between all my other activities I have been squeezing in digging on my well for the livestock's water trough.  It is slow going as I have been hauling the sand and gravel out with a pail.

Steps:

1. Put a 6 ft ladder in the hole.
2. Climb down with a pail and a post hole digger.
3. Lift the ladder out of the hole as there is no room to dig with a ladder in the hole.
4. Fill the pail.
5. Reach up and get the ladder back into the hole.
6. Climb up the ladder with the pail.
7. Walk over to the pile and dump the pail.
8. Repeat.

 I hadn't been hauling many pails each day.  On average four to eight pails.  One advantage of going slow is the ground dried as I moved down.  The better for wall stability once I quickly dropped below the concrete casing.

As I neared the water level Tammy even helped me one day and I got lots of pails of sand and gravel out of the hole. More than my average.  She stood on the top and carried the pail over to the pile.  That saved me from doing steps 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, and 7.

I reached the water level by the time she got too cold and bored and quit.  Water level is at 8 and a 1/2 to nine feet depending on which side of the hole you measure.

Saturday I worked more on the hole.  Tammy has gone to Minnesota for "Christmas with the family in October" so I am on my own.  I was back to doing all the steps.

Using a post hole digger was slow going at times when the sand and rocks wanted to slough out before I got the digger over the pail.  Once I started digging in water the sloughing out even got worse.  Adding to the difficulty was that the sides of the hole near the water line wanted to slough down a little at a time due to the water moving and the impact of the post hole digger hitting the ground.  The area up where it was drier was stable, but if the wall keep sloughing wider that could pose a problem as gravity can be mean.  As it is, one small section sloughed out almost a foot wider than the casing.

I found some small sections of wire and used that against the area causing trouble.  Something with more holes than solid is not ideal but was what I had on hand at the time.  It actually helped.

When I quit for the day I had dug down four to six inches below water level on two thirds of the hole.  The other third was just at water level on which I set the pail.  My goal is at least two feet of water.  That should give me a large enough pool for filling a water trough and allow the sediment to settle.  The sand and gravel seems pretty porous and the fill-in rate combined with the starting pool should not let the pump run dry.  I hope.

After Saturday's work I see the need for a casing below my existing casing.   The problem to be solved is how to get or build a casing down there.  I like having the current concrete casing where it is as my upper body is still within it.  So if there ever was a major sloughing on the wall I believe only my feet and legs would be covered.  I may build a temporary casing out of some sheets of tin/metal while I dig the two feet in the water.  Then decide if I want to dig out the concrete casing and lower it to the bottom and then add a newer concrete casing above it.

I'd feel better with a second person here both to speed up the digging and to watch out for me.  I also am getting closer to the limit where I can lift the ladder out of the hole.  Tammy will be gone for a week.  I'd wait but this is October and I want to get this done this Fall so I have a source of water for Momma and Baby this Winter.

The amount of sand and gravel I have dug out of the hole so far.