Our Awareness of Water Deepens

Next to heating systems, renovations and gardening, water is one of the most-talked-about subjects here in rural Nova Scotia.

The well cap was reshingled this week.

We have an enormous dug well on our land. It is 7′ x 9′ and 18 feet deep. The first 10′ is concrete and the rest is built from large, cut granite slabs. It is always full to the brim and is spring fed. However, we’ve had the water tested twice, months apart, and it has coliform bacteria in it. Not e-coli. It could be from decomposing leaves and or insects and it may not be a big deal. After all, the previous owner who lived here from 1933 is still going strong, has fantastic recall, and is turning 101 this month. We may even have the fountain of youth on the property.

Larry holds the end of the water pumping device.

Still, as city folks, the failed tests are something to worry about. After surveying 1/2 of Bear River, Larry decided to take action and clean the well. Our friend Robbie coached Larry through the project.

The steps were:

1. rent a pump and pump all the well water into the empty pond.

The pumping and cleaning stirred up lots of clay and iron.

2. put 2 big ladders down the well.

Look at the clay footprints on the ladder!

3. climb into the well and spray the walls with bleach.

4. rent a sprayer and blast away the built up organisms on the well walls using water from the second, seldom-used well.

The sprayer depended on water from a second, shallow well.

The original, second well is a thing of beauty inside.

5. pump the bleached water out of the well.

6. shovel several buckets of sludge out of the well.

The mystery question is: did someone put clay into the bottom of the well as a strainer, or is that 'sludge' from years and years of decomposing insects and water organisms?

7. spray more water.

8. remove ladders.

9. pump out last of water.

The old metal pipe has a new plastic pipe fed into it that actually hovers about 3 feet above the bottom of the well.

10. cross fingers and hope the water comes back.

They say that renovations can cause a lot of stress in a relationship. It’s right up there with moving and changing jobs. The fellow who built our fireplace dropped by a couple of days ago to admire the progress and even he said “I was worried for you both that the renovation could split you guys up.” I hadn’t noticed any dark clouds in our relationship at all – that is until we hit the water wall.

During this concern-about-the-bacterial-count, we’ve had generous friends sharing their well water with us. Larry shleps gallons of containers home. I wondered to myself why they all had perfect readings and we didn’t. Well guess what? NOBODY TESTS their water! Well, that isn’t entirely true. All the friends have tested their well water at one time or another, but after a couple of passes, why bother? I mean, why spend $25 and have the hassle of another trip up the valley to the lab? In fact, the friend whose well we are sourcing the most told me that the only problem he’s had with his well is that usually every spring he has to fish a snake or two out of it. Mmmmm. Another friend told us he picked up what he thought was a pile of rags out of the bottom of his well. It turned out to be some wriggling snakes and he decided to hurl them out of the well. Unfortunately he missed and they came back down, landing on his head. His wife said he let out the most blood-curdling scream she’d ever heard.

The clay in the bottom of the well helped to seal the bottom of our dug pond. However, 4 days later it was almost empty again.

It’s been 48 hours since the well was emptied and it’s only 1/3 full. I just put the kettle on for tea and this is the part where the stress comes in. Since day 1 I’ve been using our well water in the kettle and for cooking. My official reasoning is that “I boiled it, it must be safe” and my unofficial reasoning is “does it really matter anyway?” Larry insisted I use the donated well water. “You mean you want me to make tea with the snake water?”

A simple glass of water just took on a whole new meaning.