Well Progress

Today began with snow squalls and an abundance of wind. With the temperature in the teens, most of that snow drifted off the deck and some off the roof to create an 8" drift in front of the garage doors. Around 10 AM I went out and shoveled that and the stuff over by the wells--new and old--in preparation for the drillers' return to install the pump.

This whole thing is dragging on a bit longer than I expected but a lot of that has to do with the weather. It's difficult to work with water when the temps are in the teens--or lower. They couldn't even get the rig running on what was projected to be day one (Wednesday). And on the next day (Thursday), they couldn't keep the water hoses from freezing during the initial drilling. They only managed 30 feet that day and not the 200 they hoped for. They finally punched down deep enough for ground water to keep the drill bit cooled and they quickly went down to 320-340 feet which is where it stands. Monday they came back and drew up the drill, packed their gear and drove the rig out.

I didn't really expect them to show today because of the weather, but a guy did show up just after noon with a small backhoe. He was here to dig a trench between the two well heads for the pipe needed to connect the two. The trench he dug is about 40" deep so as to be below the frost line and runs about 40 inches between the two well heads. It doesn't sound like much, but with all the shale, he was here for three hours. And left one heck of a mess! But a necessary mess.

With the weather improving over the next two days (40s? Seriously?), I'm sure that the crew will be here tomorrow morning to drop the pump and pipeline into the new well and connect it to the old line coming into the house.