Well casing - another failure

We need the economy to flat line again.  That seems to be the only way someone like with with a small odd job can get help.  The contractors are no longer hungry.

A few weeks ago I had a contractor with an excavator lined up to push my well casing pipe into the ground for my livestock well.  This past weekend he came to work at a house under construction a mile down the road.  I was next.  But when?  I had a dental appointment for Tuesday morning so I moved the appointment in case he was ready to work on my place. Good thing I did since this morning - Tuesday - he called to say he could come push my pipe this afternoon.

I had him come by first without the excavator so I could let him know how to drive onto the property seeing as how he wouldn't be able to use my driveway due to my entrance sign and overhead electrical wires.

I showed him the hole and the pipe. We hit a hitch about lifting the pipe into the ground.  On the phone I had told him the pipe was 25 ft long and six inches in diameter.  In person he expressed surprise the pipe was so long.  And heavy.

I had expected lifting the pipe into the hole would be no problem for a large excavator. We would wrap a chain around the pipe and attach it to the backhoe.  He had concerns the pipe could slip and fall.  He would have liked an attachment welded to the pipe to hook a chain.

I have two overhead electric wires nearby that go the barn.  The contractor was worried a falling pipe would hit the wires.  I told him - twice - I could pull a circuit breaker and cut the power to the wires.  If the pipe hit the wires I would reattach them before restoring the power.

Then he said he was worried a falling pipe might fall on the cab of his excavator.

*sigh*

While he said he regretted doing this to me, he was going to decline the job.  He said he had pushed a pipe in the ground for his father-in-law but that pipe was shorter and the location was in an open field.

You can't make a guy do what he doesn't want to do - when there are easier and more normal run-of-the-mill jobs waiting for him.

He recommended I hire a boom truck to lift the pipe and set it in the hole.  Then he could push it deeper into the ground with his excavator.

"Know anyone with a boom truck?"

He did.  He called Roy - who happened to be at a funeral.  Roy had a boom truck and might be able to lift the pipe for me at $95 an hour.   Next week perhaps as he was booked up this week.

So I was left in a frustrated mood this afternoon. 

I could just imagine - once again - that the boom truck operator when he came over would find some reason not to do the job and I then would waste another week or two.

Later in the afternoon I went over and talked with Wyatt.  He has a few tractors with loaders.   He was surprised as me with the contractor backing out over lifting the pipe into the hole.   While his loaders don't have the height reach as an excavator or boom truck, we brainstormed some options we can try on Thursday.

If our ideas don't work I can always call the boom truck operator.

Then once the pipe is in the hole I will get a contractor with an excavator to push the pipe into the ground.

Hopefully.