Poked around for water today

[Silver]

with this little devil. We tried several sites, I had high hopes for this site because I saw a seismic drill hit water here about 8 or 10 years ago. We found a trickle here and cased it, but it's not very good. Maybe when the water table comes back :???:
The other sites we tried came up dust. I guess the best way is the old way, dig a hole and let the snow melt fill it up :? .

This really isn't a water well drilling machine, but can auger down to 116' at any diameter you like. Today we dug 24" holes because I happened to have some 20" culvert laying around that I could use for well casing.

I guess tomorrow will be spent on the cat digging holes the old way.

 

[Faster horses]

This is a whole new subject, Silver, but have you ever had anyone witch
a well for you?

Mr. FH can do it, but our neighbor in SW Montana could really do well
witching. I can't, but she could put her hand on me and then the
willow would work for me too. :shock:
She had to have a pretty good sized willow so the branches coming from
the fork would fit under her left arm, as she had lost her hand on that
side. :shock: She would hold on so tight you could hear the bark
screech. Thing is, she could tell how many feet deep the water
was and a few other things. She was in great demand around the country
and she never charged a cent.

That kind of stuff is pretty amazing.

 

[DejaVu]

I had to have a water well drilled this summer. The drilling truck cost $22 a foot. First two holes were dry. That was literally $2,100 down the hole. So, I had a different guy witch for me. It was really interesting to watch. He had two willow branches. The first one he used was forked. He held onto the forks and started walking. When he found water,you couldn't have kept that willow
from dropping. He walked the area from several directions until he pinpointed the width of the vein. Then, the other willow stick was used. It was long and thin, at least 6 ft long. He got down on his knees, wedged his elbows into his stomach and held the stick,with both hands,over the location. That stick started to quiver, then it bobbed up and down, something like 22 times then it started quivering again, then quit. He got up from his knees and told me we'd drill to 125 ft but not to go any deeper than that. We hit water at 90 and went to 115. I've got a well that flows 5.5 gallons a minute on a solar pump. I can't do it. I could touch his shoulder and the willow would quit. Bummer.

 

[Silver]

I've tried divining using rods, and have had the divining rods cross while I was trying for all I was worth to prevent them from doing so. It's a strange deal. Stranger yet is I've never found water at these places :?
Maybe I'm divining gold? :lol:
I've seen it done, and done by folks who claimed to have had excellent success, but it hasn't worked with any regularity in this area. Perhaps because ground water is pretty scarce. Seems like if you're going to find water here it will likely be a very small gravel seam pretty close to the surface (20 feet or so). I suppose these are what feed the occasional springs we have along the hill sides.
I guess all signs of water fail in the desert :wink:
I did drill for water at the house when we were building. Hit water at 110 feet and stayed in it to 322 feet where we quit. Never hit any rock or gravel, it was just water and river silt. The water actually ran out around the outside of the well casing at the rate of 5 gallons a minute for nearly a year before it eventually silted off. I never tried to develop this well because I knew I wouldn't be able to clean it up, and the silt would have it plugged off in short order.

 

[Denny]

I was taught how to witch water 25 years ago have'nt tried it in years but it worked then.

 

[eatbeef]

hey dejavu,

what kind of solar system did you put in??

i just had a well drilled to. same luck as you, first one nothing, then hit a little bit, 3 gallon a minute, it will get us by.

 

[canadian angus]

Got coffee and gas will be there. As deep as 375 feet in the drought.

CA

 

[leanin' H]

I've tried divining using rods, and have had the divining rods cross while I was trying for all I was worth to prevent them from doing so. It's a strange deal. Stranger yet is I've never found water at these places :?
Maybe I'm divining gold? :lol:
I've seen it done, and done by folks who claimed to have had excellent success, but it hasn't worked with any regularity in this area. Perhaps because ground water is pretty scarce. Seems like if you're going to find water here it will likely be a very small gravel seam pretty close to the surface (20 feet or so). I suppose these are what feed the occasional springs we have along the hill sides.
I guess all signs of water fail in the desert :wink:
I did drill for water at the house when we were building. Hit water at 110 feet and stayed in it to 322 feet where we quit. Never hit any rock or gravel, it was just water and river silt. The water actually ran out around the outside of the well casing at the rate of 5 gallons a minute for nearly a year before it eventually silted off. I never tried to develop this well because I knew I wouldn't be able to clean it up, and the silt would have it plugged off in short order.

We gotta get you to an actual desert so you can spot the difference! :shock: :lol: :lol: Chasing H2o isn't fun and i feel your pain. Hope ya'll get a wet winter and refill the aquifer to over flowing again.

 

[Silver]

I've tried divining using rods, and have had the divining rods cross while I was trying for all I was worth to prevent them from doing so. It's a strange deal. Stranger yet is I've never found water at these places :?
Maybe I'm divining gold? :lol:
I've seen it done, and done by folks who claimed to have had excellent success, but it hasn't worked with any regularity in this area. Perhaps because ground water is pretty scarce. Seems like if you're going to find water here it will likely be a very small gravel seam pretty close to the surface (20 feet or so). I suppose these are what feed the occasional springs we have along the hill sides.
I guess all signs of water fail in the desert :wink:
I did drill for water at the house when we were building. Hit water at 110 feet and stayed in it to 322 feet where we quit. Never hit any rock or gravel, it was just water and river silt. The water actually ran out around the outside of the well casing at the rate of 5 gallons a minute for nearly a year before it eventually silted off. I never tried to develop this well because I knew I wouldn't be able to clean it up, and the silt would have it plugged off in short order.

We gotta get you to an actual desert so you can spot the difference! :shock: :lol: :lol: Chasing H2o isn't fun and i feel your pain. Hope ya'll get a wet winter and refill the aquifer to over flowing again.

Y'know 'H, if we weren't frozen solid here for 8 months of the year this actually would be a full fledged desert! So far since the snow left we've accumulated just less than 5" all told, and only 6/10" since July. I'm not sure how much anual precip it takes to be classed as a desert, but we haven't got near 16" including snow for years.
Today Dad and I went and pumped out a spring we had dug a little hole in years ago to see if it was making water. Looks like it's coming in somewhere around 10 gallons a minute, so we might try digging in a crib and feeding a water trough with it.