Rain. Glorious rain!

It's been terribly dry in the area surrounding the Aerie. Oh, there have been torrential thunderstorms to the north just across the NY-PA border that produced some real gully washers and even hail and there have been a few that have passed to the south of here along the I-80 corridor, but until today only one has drifted over our little patch of land. That storm yielded a mere half inch of precipitation which was about all we have had this month.

Today, however, a gentle soaking rain has moved in from the coast. It started here around noon and is forecast to continue into the evening hours and possibly later. The rain is sorely needed and I can almost hear the trees and plants sighing with relief.

Timing is everything. I had to empty the 500 gallon cistern this morning because of sediment build up due to my attempt to water the lawn last week. Now that it is empty and clean, the long slow process of refilling it has begun. Because the well produces very little water (only about 1/2 gallon per minute) I must draw from it sparingly. I'm running the well pump for just five minutes every hour. By doing so little at a time, the well has ample time to recharge without drawing lots of red clay into the pump's drawing zone (about 20 feet from the bottom of the 140 foot well). When I watered the lawn, I drew too much water out of the well during the hour and a half I had the sprinklers going and red clay got through the 20 micron filter and into the cistern. Things seem to be going as planned after five hours and the cistern is about 1/4 full. In another four or five hours, we'll have half a tank and can begin using the water again, albeit in a very careful manner. By this time tomorrow, if everything continues smoothly, we should have a full cistern again.

The rain will certainly help recharge the ground water and that should also help the well recover from my actions.

UPDATE:DAMN! Just minutes after I posted the optimistic note above, the water coming in turned murky and was filled with particles. I had to pump the cistern out again. It looks like I'll have to go on an different schedule. Maybe just five minutes (about an inch or two in the tank) in the morning, then at noon and again in the evening. It will take several days to refill the cistern that way ut at least we'll be starting with cleaner water.