Modern hand-dug wells:
Hand dug wells | WaterAid
A do-it-yourself story:
How To Dig A Hand Dug Well
Bruce
Hand dug wells | WaterAid
A do-it-yourself story:
How To Dig A Hand Dug Well
Bruce
one "hole" of a project
- Thread starter banditbooker
- Start date
- Views: 7383
MotorSeven
Elite Member
It's your property and that is a neat thing to have. No way would I fill it in. Your idea of making it a safe "centerpeice" is pretty cool. I would use one or two of those HarborFreight solar LED lights. Take them apart and add enough wire to lower them to the proper depth. That way the motion detector up top will kick the lights on "down under".
OP
banditbooker
Bronze Member
just letting you guys know i'm getting closer to uncovering the hole again and finalizing the project. it'll probably be another week or two seeing as how i only have the weekends to work on it and do all the other chores around the house. but heres a few pics of my new walk way that is the cause for all this discussion. 
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cycle_gator
Silver Member
- Joined
- Aug 2, 2009
- Messages
- 243
- Location
- Port Orchard, WA
- Tractor
- Kubota L4310 GST;Case 580 CK (1968)
Wow! Nice work, must be those two "supervisors". I only have one and my projects only turn out half as good as yours!!
Paul DFWTX
New member
- Joined
- Jun 8, 2009
- Messages
- 4
We found the same type well at our ranch, its about 50 ft deep. In fact Texas has a website that lists nearly every water well in the state, shows this one was dug in the 1890s. You can see grooves in the top stones where people repeatedly pulled buckets up with ropes. No way in the world I'd cover that up, in addition to it being cool, pretty sure the poor guy who dug it would crawl out of his grave and shoot me.
I welded a few pieces of steel pipe together in a grid and laid them across the top, then placed a sheet of heavy guage welded wire (we call it goat or hog panel here, it has about 2"x 4" openings). Then I built a temporary wood frame around the edge and poured an 8" x 8" concrete curb around the perimiter to hold the steel in place. Its sturdy enough for any grown man to stand on, and impossible that anyone could accidentally fall in, but you can still look into the well and appreciate the history of it. Even wrote the date the original well was dug in the concrete and let the kids write their names and the current year.
I welded a few pieces of steel pipe together in a grid and laid them across the top, then placed a sheet of heavy guage welded wire (we call it goat or hog panel here, it has about 2"x 4" openings). Then I built a temporary wood frame around the edge and poured an 8" x 8" concrete curb around the perimiter to hold the steel in place. Its sturdy enough for any grown man to stand on, and impossible that anyone could accidentally fall in, but you can still look into the well and appreciate the history of it. Even wrote the date the original well was dug in the concrete and let the kids write their names and the current year.
OP
banditbooker
Bronze Member
thanks for the comment paul, i feel the same way. i can really appriciate the effort it would take to create something like that and if at all possible i'd like to preserve it. its a little piece of history that i am now tied to and i'd like to keep it going.
