See that small roofline right there on the right of this picture, in the foreground, that is the top of the well, 88 feet down from there dangling on the end of a long long rubber hose is a little submersible pump.
Right when I was half way through the washing and the watering and the filling of animals troughs. The pump stopped. 
What will you do the Kiwi Builder asked.
We need a lot of water out here.
Guarding the newly seeded fields from the guineas is thirsty work.
Not to worry, I said. I have these ugly things.
The rain barrels. One day I shall paint them and turn them into artworks but for the moment they are full of clean cold rain water.
So we had water for the animal and the milking and the neighbours filled up a few water jugs for the house, and John has a guy, and the guy has a plumbers truck and the guys father is called Joe so it is called Joe’s Plumbing .. and he and John took the little well house roof of,f pulled all 88 feet of pipe out, fixed the wire that had broken, replaced the little pump with a bigger pump, fed it all the way back down into the earth, and once again the water flowed. It is flowing black, the well has been stirred up with all the activity, but after a while it will settle down. The well house roof has been put back on and 1,200 dollars poorer we are set to go again.
Good morning. The things we take for granted. Without water, we are sunk. The rain barrels would have covered our water requirements for about three days. It is a shock when I am reminded how much I rely on machines and electricity to survive out here.
Is that sustainable?
Have a lovely day.
love celi
PS The essay over at the Parents Space today is a story some of you may have read before. It has been edited and improved. (I hope I improved it anyway) It is called Balloon Girl and it is the story about the time I bit the man with the newspaper on the plane when I was a teenager. I used it to illustrate how we collect experiences throughout our lives that will be useful to us when we are parents, grandparents and loving carers of children. That our past is important, even the hard unexplainable bits are important to who we are.
c
The Kitchen's Garden 
78 responses to “And then the water stopped flowing”
Lucky, lucky you! I know you didn’t really think so, but YES lucky! Because, here is Colorado it is against the law to collect rain water. We are mandated by the highest powers that all rain in Colorado is to be allowed to flow back into the ground, then into the the ground water or into the canal systems to be carried on to Arizona, Nevada, and California…to save rain is a fine and jail time. So to have rain barrels of lovely fresh from the heavens water is really a lovely gift.
Sorry about the wire…we seem to be having huge expenses going out right now also..this time of year is so terribly expensive with seed, fertilizer, water, taxes, land taxes, fuel for the farm and of course repairs that it gets rather depressing.
But we all shall proceed and move forward!
I hope you have a lovely day, Cecilia!
Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
You have got to be kidding???!! Since when has Colorado owned the rain? I don’t know what I would do without my rain barrels as living in the boonies the power goes out quite often and the captured water is used for flushing toilets, animals and chickens and watering my plants. Coming from just outside London, I was bought up on city water, and boy what a difference in my life now. Living at the base of the blue ridge mountains the water is pure, clear and very cold (when the power is working!)
How scary as well as expensive. We do take water for granted. So glad you had the rainwater on hand and that their was still water in the well once the pump was fixed. That is the wildest picture of Daisy! She looks quite distressed about the whole situation.
We had a dowser when we built our house. No one believed that we found water at 240′ here, most wells are much deeper on this part of the coast. Glad you had a little bit of backup, but sorry about the cost. Ouch.
Look at Daisy in that shot. She is telling you she doesn’t want the paparazzi to take photos of her lol.
I was freaking for a minute there thinking your well had gone dry.
As for the color of the rain barrels, our recycling bins are that atrocious blue. Who chose that color? Who? All over my town those ugly blue recycling bins sit on curbs, lean into garages, etc. I hate the color.
I am sorry, I understand as we have a well also. This is why farm folks are just so tough!
Just a note that the link to your article seems to be incorrect. Please change to http://www.parents-space.com/diverse-families/adoption/we-all-have-a-past-and-all-of-it-is-useful/. 🙂
And so glad your water problem was easily solved . Whew.
Good to read that you got the pump fixed so quickly. How nice that your neighbors responded so quickly. Yes, it was an expensive repair but, just like when my furnace stopped in January, what else could you do? Let’s just hope both repairs will last a very long time.
Nice to see the animals out in the Sun under blue skies. Soon they’ll be standing in green fields. Yay!
I felt that when the power went out and the house got cold, and there were no lights, it make you feel very vulnerable indeed.
Ouch!
whoosh, glad that was fixed; my emergencies have been dental – I’ve begun writing dental pieces! hugs to you!
Ouch – that was expensive but necessary – good job you’ve got rain barrels 😉
When the pump ran dry at home, the pump needed to be ‘primed’ which was difficult and the air was ‘blued’. The pump was in the basement and the well was out the back of the house and 30′ deep. The priming was necessary to get the air locks out of the pipes. I was relieved you were spared that ordeal until I read that the fix was such an expensive pump!
It seems to me the sustainable thing is not a hand pump, but a wind turbine to create your own electricity! Hand pumps are hard work and pumping 88 feet would be difficult, I believe. You seem to have lots of wind. I suspect they are pricey. Getting off the grid would leave more power for your poor city neighbors. : )
they are pricey, like out of our league pricey!! which is miserable as i would love a windmill and you are so right about the wind! what waste.. c
Hi hi hi!! I’m so behind on commenting on blogs, I’m sorry I haven’t visited in a while. Glad all is fixed–water is definitely one thing you need on the farm, and in general! Hope you had a wonderful day. xx
don;t you worry about commenting at all! we are all busy.. and that is perfectly fine! lovely to see you tho caroline.. c