Flashback: Well, how about that?

If you'll recall from my previous post on our sprinkler system, we had almost finished it up until we realized there was another very important step we needed to take...something we had neglected to research, being the naive first-time homebuyers we were.

As it turns out, most homes in the area we live have their own wells in their yard to access the large water table that's below this part of town. Some have their well hooked up to their whole house, and some only have it hooked up to their outside faucets and sprinkler systems. After talking to several neighbors, we found out that having a well would be a big money-saver in the long run, even though it's a large cost upfront. After all, once you pay for the installation, the water is essentially free after that. We decided to get ours hooked up to our sprinkler system, since we knew we'd be using a lot of H20 once we installed our sod.

Drilling a well is obviously not a DIY project. We got some recommendations for a local drilling company, and set up a time for them to come drill. When the day came, we both took off work to come oversee the process. It was a good thing we hadn't laid sod or built our fence yet, because they had to back their big honker of a rig right up into our backyard.

The whole process was pretty interesting... and a little frightening at times. See for yourself:

When they started the drilling process, this is what spewed up from the bowels of the earth (ok, so maybe it was only from a few feet down):

 

 Eventually, we had our own little lake in our backyard. Lovely, no?

Fifty feet later (at $16/foot), they were ready to install the casing for the well (the long white tube).

After back-filling the rest of the hole around the casing with sand, they installed the actual pump mechanism.

Finally, after some water testing, it was all over. Our very own well! Actually, the whole thing took less than two hours. We also learned a lot from the process. For instance, have you ever seen brown or even black stains on sidewalks or driveways? Here's a couple pictures from the sidewalks down our street:

Turns out this is caused by the iron content from the groundwater. It's hit-or-miss, and some houses get it worse than others depending on their location. We've experienced it ourselves too (the picture below is what the edge of our driveway looks like now), but there's not much you can do about it. Plus, you get used to it when you see it everywhere else.

Once the well was finished, we were able to get it hooked up to the sprinkler system and finish that part, too. And so ends another [painfully long] chapter of the saga of our lawn. Next step? Getting some GREEN!