This is the pipe that was lost in the well. After 2+ hours of fishing, aided by my home-made camera rig, we snagged the pipe. It was extremely tough pulling so we sent the camera down again and saw that our fishing spear had gone past the head- we figured we'd snagged the outside of a joint past the bad part. In other words, the fishing spear never went down the pipe but snagged the _outside_ of the pipe. Amazingly, we were able to pull the entire pipe up w/out losing that grip. It was tense at first because the pipe refused to budge and I was afraid we'd break the lifting cable and lose the whole thing, but we got it moving (it was probably snagged on a joint gap- watch the video and you can see them). We ended up pulling 6 20' joints of pipe to clean the hole. I am SO relieved to have gotten this pipe. Next step was to re-pipe the hole with PVC and put a solar-capable pump down. This cost about $5000 and I'll have to run it with a generator until we can afford to put the solar panels in, but at least we're spending $$$ toward solar. Otherwise, I'd have to sink at least that, probably more, in repairing the windmill and pipe.After pulling the pipe and installing an electric well, we dismantled the old windmill head. It has some issues that made it next to useless and the best solution was to just get it down. This, obviously, is MUCH easier when the right equipment is at hand.
Windmills are HEAVY
Dismantling the mill
WATER!!!!
Here's my next Well Challenge. The "East Slater" mill sits in a "hole" about 3/4 mi from the Bent Pipe Well. It's a rough road down into the hole and the road washes out every time we get a big rain. The mill head developed some problems- worn bearings, worn holes, etc, and it sits on an old bolt-together tower. About 6 years ago, it stopped pumping and since the road was washed out, I just shut it off. With the other well in danger of being lost, I decided to try to revive the East Slater well. After dismantling the mill head, we discovered that the well was "sanded-in". We barely recovered the pipe and then the sand collapsed and plugged the well hole. My mission- should I choose to accept it, and I probably will since I have nothing to lose and a well to gain- is to unplug the plug. I have a water trailer, a generator, and a portable air compressor, so I'm going to try flooding the hole with water and then using a homemade PVC tool to blow air thru that tool, creating suction and lifting the sandy water (watery sand?) to the surface. If I can get the plug opened, we can re-line the casing with PVC to hold the sand at bay and and install a solar pump. I don't think the the sand goes down very far and I highly suspect it came in thru the top during a heavy flooding rain (like one that washed the water tub into my neighbor's pasture).
David:
We are still awaiting some sort of word on what caused his seizure. An autopsy had to be done and they discovered that all his organs were grossly swollen and that his brain was nearly jelly. The pathologist said he'd never seen anything like it and all of his tests came up negative. So, tissues samples have been shipped to the CDC for analysis. We heard from David's doctor and he said he was having a hard time dealing with the fact that David is suddenly gone. This is the doctor who said he'd wake up at 3 in the morning, thinking about David and how to heal him. On the last visit, he and David spent 10-15 minutes talking about rockets as the doctor was a big fan of them. So, this week, I picked out a picture of David with one of his rockets, printed and framed it, and we sent that to the doctor with a little note. We may never find out definitely what the issue was and I guess it doesn't matter, unless it helps someone else avoid the same thing.
David and rocket
The dynamics of the family have certainly changed a lot, esp with Brianna getting ready to leave for college in a month. We're going very quickly from 3 kids at home to 1. It's quieter, cleaner, and there is less fussing going on. I guess this is what The Next Stage of Life is going to be like. For me, the worst times are the quiet times when I'm in my shop. That's when the busyness gets shut out, I have time to think, and I miss David the most then. When that happens, I go back and re-read my own blog, remind myself of the things I wrote then, and look thru the pictures of him when he was declining. I feel better then and I look forward to the hope of reuniting with a healthy, vibrant David.
The other thing that made me feel better was when we stopped by the cemetery to visit his grave for the first time. This is a cemetery about the size of a postage stamp, serving a community currently pop 22, and I was absolutely floored at the number of children's graves there. I think that 1/3 of them are children under 10. Oddly, it made me feel better to know that we're certainly not the only ones to lose a child.
Georgia and Derek at the grave
We're going to get a headstone for the grave after I've put some thought into what it should say. I kind of like the verse we used at the memorial service:
Zechariah 8:5 NKJV The streets of the city Shall be full of boys and girls Playing in its streets.'
Well (ha!), that's it for now. Over and out, from the High Plains.
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