When I last blogged about the well I was waiting on a new pump as the old pump couldn't pump at full volume. I bought a 1/2 HP Wayne brand pump from Amazon. It works great.
It was a hassle to hook up the pump. The pump wasn't the problem - the piping was. First, the plastic hose that goes in the well casing had such a curl to it that it took finesse to get it into the well casing and then into the pitless adapter slot. In the photo below the straight part is an old pipe whose use is to lower part of the pitless adapter (hole seen in the following photo) into the pitless adapter slot already installed in the well casing.
Then the union connection between the pitless adapter and the pump leaked. Pipe thread tape didn't work but a silicon paste got the leak to stop. Then I needed the right amount of piping to go from the pump to the hydrant attached to the concrete wall. Those connections would leak. Usually it would be the last section to be screwed together. Or the last section of pipe to be screwed together would not screw together due to some odd threading.
The blue tank is the pressure tank. Not super big, but works. I bought it for $5 at a garage sale.
The hydrant drains when turned off. Since the hydrant usually is installed in the ground, it just drains out of a small hole into the ground. I wanted the hydrant to drain back into the well. Neither Home Depot or Lowes sold a fitting that screws into the hydrant hole with the other end being barbed so I could slip a plastic hose over it. But Ace Hardware had the fitting.
The well casing is hard steel and my drills bits are getting duller so it took a long time to drill through the pipe.
I bought a carbide tipped concrete drill bit to fasten the hydrant to the concrete casing. The first bit only drilled three holes before going dull. I figured it was defective so I took it back and bought another brand's carbide drill bit. This time I watered down the bit as I drilled to cool the bit and provide a little lubrication, and ended up drilling seven holes before this bit went dull. Do these bits drill so few holes before going dull?
Then it was time to rebuild the fence around the well. The new concrete casing is larger than the old casing and the fence needed to be moved in addition to being strengthened. The move resulted in moving part of the old corral fence instead of merely adding a little bit to go around the concrete casing. *sigh*I also rebuilt the fence that divides the water trough. And the gate and the post that held it. A ripple effect.
The gate is now attached to a taller more solid post and no longer scrapes the ground when opened wide. And I was able to drill new lag bolts into the post and have the bolts point to one another. This prevents the gate from being lifted off the post unless one section of the gate's hinge is unbolted - something the livestock can't do.
Knowing how cattle rub on things, I placed the hydrant outside the corral and added wire to the fence to prevent the cattle from putting their heads through the fence to reach the hydrant - which is what they would try to do. Trust me.
Because the horses rinse their mouths in the water trough, I am still using the small trough until they leave next month.
I hooked up a hose from the hydrant to the trough. Everything tested and it all worked. Then a day later I saw the white horse kick the empty water trough. Huh? The horses must have been thirsty. I filled the trough quickly and went off to work on another project. That evening the trough was empty again. Well... the temperatures have been in the 80s. I filled the trough again and went off to work on other stuff.
Within a day the trough was empty again. Strange, the horses never drink that much water. I checked for leaks. None. Okay....
I filled the trough again to the top. I checked after 20 minutes and the water was a few inches from the top. Well, it was dark when I filled the trough so I may not have filled it to the top.
Before going to bed three hours later I checked the trough.
Empty.
What?! Did a herd of deer come in and drink all the water? An alien spaceship? Where is this water going?!!!!
So I stopped and thought about it. Then it dawned on me. When the hydrant drained it was siphoning the water from the trough back into the well.
All the times I tested the hydrant I pulled the hose from the trough. These last times I filled the trough in a hurry and left the hose in the trough when I shut the hydrant off.I found a short section of hose and fastened it to end near the top of the trough. The mysterious draining stopped.
One of the last things is that I needed a cover for the well. I got a strong thick piece of plywood and cut a round lid with a notch for the hydrant to come through. But how to fasten it to the casing? Then my uncle Curt suggested attaching a piece of Styrofoam to the lid. The Styrofoam fits inside the casing preventing movement by the lid. While the pump is almost 6 feet below the ground and should generally be protected from the cold temperatures, the Styrofoam provides extra insulation to the well and pump from the cold.
To get the Styrofoam I bought a damaged piece of 4' by 8' insulation from Home Depot. They gave me 70% off the price because it was damaged so I got the piece for around $5 instead of around $25. The only sizes of insulation sold was 4' by 8' or 4' by 2'. I needed a 3 ft diameter piece.
The last things to do was to chisel a groove in the top of the concrete to lay the electric cords. This way the lid lies flat on the casing all around. I also added a light bulb. Not for light. For heat. An old fashioned light bulb generates plenty of heat and that should be more than enough in case I need extra heat against very cold temperatures.
Below...condition of the well before the final push to complete it. Once I got the pump and pipes done, Wyatt came over with his tractor and lifted the final concrete ring into place. Poor Daisy... she doesn't have that ring to lay inside of anymore. It was one of her favorite places to lay.
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| Start of the final push. |
The finished product.
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