In the summer of 2023 we both took seasonal jobs and saved a much as we could. There was so much to get completed on the house. We had to set priorities based on our available funds. Pam said we needed to get our water well drilled. We've lived 2.5 years without running water and it was about time. Our first step was to extend our driveway to where the well is getting drilled. We started by clearing out trees and rolling out 17 foot wide typar.
We rented a Skid-steer from a local equipment rental store. Benny the pastor was busy, but he still made time to deliver 12 loads of gravel.
It took some time for me to feel comfortable operating it. After that I increased the throttle and got to work.
The same equipment rental company picked up the "Skid" and delivered a roller. It was imperative that we compact the gravel, since the water drilling rig weighs over 60,000lbs. The roller was very simple to operate with basic steering and a rumble setting for extra compression. It moved very slow, so it took longer than I expected. We had a full day to roll it out, so there was no rush.
During the time we were working on extending the driveway. One of the drillers from Northern Superior showed up. He marked where the water well would be drilled.
We called drillers once we had the driveway done and they came over 2 days later. They were very quick, knowing that we were leaving for NY in 10 days.
They arrived at about 9 am and started setting up the drilling rig. The process that they used was called drilling while casing. Each piece of pipe was 20 ft long and then lift the next pipe up. Then they would stick weld the different sections together.
At 77 feet down they reached nice clear water. We were anticipating having to go down 100-120 feet, so this was a pleasent surprise. This meant instead of spending 8-9K we only had to spend $5,400. This still doesn't include the water pump or trenching the well line to connect with the house. Since we were strapped on time we decided that next summer we will get that done.