It's Always Something 101 ~ We needed a higher guage wire for the new well, a submersible pump draws more energy than a jet pump and we want to keep both wells active. The current wiring from the house was not in a conduit, so we couldn't simply pull new wire. We really didn't want to trench across the existing waterlines, french drain, septic tight line or PG&E gas lines. Looking for an alternative Simon, our eletrical guru, suggested we to drop a line from the PG&E pole on the east end of our property (closer to the well than the house) to a new pole nearby and then run conduit underground to the wells.
Seemed like a great idea until we met with the PG&E representative. It was going to cost $5,000 ($2,000 due immediately) for all their departments to get involved assessing and surveying scenarios. Oh and by the way the process would take at least 8-12 weeks. Say what? Totally unreasonable. It's not good to let a newly drilled well sit for a long period of time without pumping water and we all felt the cost was excessive. So it was back to square one. Simon gave us a great bid for trenching, conduit, wiring and (as long as we're in there) new waterlines from house to the wells.
Some wise soul once said timing is everything and Well Week was no exception. In between "heavy rains, high wind, and deluge" days, the work got done. A few hitches along the way: water lines where we didn't expect them, the septic tight line a little to the left of the site drawings, but breaches expertly repaired.
Cliff from Weeks tied up the project last week. The old well is dedicated to our large vegetable and flower garden, the new one gives us options for house and/or gardens. Rod went out to fill up the bird baths in back of my studio this morning and came back in with a big grin on his face. One turn of the faucet and the stream reached our blue spruce which is about 25 feet from the patio. Ah, simple pleasures!
Going to blow this picture up, print it and mark a road map of what goes where on it before we wrap the pipes and/or forget what he told us.
New well, electrics and water lines $18K ~ Customer Service Priceless!
Be sure to get those exposed pipes covered before it freezes. Congratulations on the completion of the "well project"!
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