Need some help with a Well

[Gio]

Hi All,

There is am unused Well on the west side of my 5 acres that I would like to get up and running. We have been on the property for a year now and we are starting to bring in some livestock. It would be great to have a water source nearby and I think the Well would be perfect.

The neighbors say it used to be active. The Well casing is covered with a wooden platform and there is an old (broken) iron hand pump mounted on top.

Question is: How do I check for Water and how do I get it up and running. I am not looking for anything fancy and I don't mind hand pumping for water.

Also, how would I keep it from freezing up in the Winter?

Thank you in advance for your help

Gio

 

[Mousefield]

The property that we live on how used to have a dug well, (hand dug in clay) which due to collapse has now been filled in. Before we moved here I did take off the lid and used a rented water pump to pump it out so I could tell how fast it would refill and also see how deep and wide it was. I think you could start by carefully taking off the lid and seeing what the well itself looks like. Try to figure out how deep the well is, use rope with a weight on the end and put it in, then measure how much rope to go to the bottom. You may want to pump it out to make sure there is nothing in it that shouldn't be. Once it is empty you could check to see how fast it fills up. That will give you some indication of how much water you could expect to be able to pump out. Remember the refill rate may change through out the year, depending on rainfall, drought or Mother Nature in general. As far as freezing in the winter do you have power available to the well?
Hope this gives you a couple of ideas.

 

[Gio]

Thanks Mousefield. I will pull the cover off this weekend and see what's cooking. We have a nice deep well with good water up by the house and I am hoping this is linked into the same source.

 

[Egon]

Rod pump water wells usually have a pin hole in the tubing below the frost line. Lets the water drain out so nothing to freeze.