Well drilling and water dowsing for survival. A message thread.
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On 12/28/01 2:36 PM, "mlistman" wrote:
> You get to the water table by drilling or hand digging a well.
> Deciding where to put the well is another matter.
>
> With 700+ people on this list, surely we have someone here who has
> drilled or knows someone who drills wells and can tell us how they
> decide where to drill.
>
> When we were looking for our 'survival' property, real estate agents
> knew quite a bit about well drilling and how far down they typically
> have to drill in the area.
>
> Water witching is as old as dirt and anybody can do it. Just take a
> wire coat hanger and cut it into 2 "L"s and hold one in each hand
> like this ¬ ¬
> (in a text window or editor, hold down the ALT key and type 0172 to
> recreate these characters if they don't show up for you here.)
>
> Hold your arms at your sides with your forearms parallel to the
> ground. Hold the wire firmly enough so it doesn't droop, but loose
> enough so it can move freely from side to side. Point the long ends
> of the wire straight out away from your body and start walking around.
>
> When you stand over water, the ends will turn into the middle towards
> each other. Play around with it! Walk all over the place and see if
> the wire reacts the same when returning to a location where it
> previously indicated water. (Now stop playing around and get back in
> the house, it's freezing cold outside! ;-)
>
> Some witchers can tell you how deep down the water is, but I haven't
> figured that one out yet!
>
> Michael Listman
>
From: "B Taft"
Subject: water wells
I have a hand-held DeepRock rotary outfit that we used to make our wells here over twenty years ago.. The DeepRock was basically a gas-driven post hole digger that had been converted to well drilling. Workd great. I hear them advertised today on radio. Recently on a jesus show on TV I saw a great little two-wheeled rotary being used down in Africa that was a great improvement, pulled behind a pickup.
The outfit Louis talks about is a sandpoint, which doesn't work too well in rocky soil such as we have in the mountain west. I do have one and in some places near a creek they can still be used here.
Best regards,.
Bob Taft
The Taft Ranch
(307) 332-2352
Message: 10
Date: Wed, 09 Jan 2002 16:00:13 -0500
From: Louis
Subject: Re: Re: Water
I drove quite a few wells while growing up...we used a well driver, which is
basically a large steel pipe, half-inch thick walls, about 6-inches in
diameter, with a solid-steel handle through the top, and concrete- or
preferably steel-filled in the top portion, which not only holds the handle
in place, but acts as your ³hammer², with the rest of the 3- or 4-foot long
device acting as a ³guide² for the well pipe.
The most important part of this whole thing is the well point! This is the
part that will end up in the water table. We would usually go past the first
2 water tables, opting for the deeper table, which would have cleaner water.
(You may not have this luxury in the aftertimes, but it¹s worth mentioning.)
You put the well point on, and preferably insert into a hole that has
already been dug 3-4 feet deep with a post hole digger: i.e., you have gone
past the tougher upper-soil, making the going easier for the well point. The
well point is available at any decent plumbing supply, or they can special
order you one. (They¹re obviously easier to find in rural areas, with even
some decent hardware stores having them!) The well point is threaded (sorry,
it¹s been WAY too many years, so I don¹t remember what size, though I
believe you can buy various diameters, depending upon your need.), so you
simply thread-on your first section of pipe (preferably galvanized steel!),
and then to that, a small thread section of pipe that is your ³driver². I
usually used a double-threaded piece for the driver, so I could put a cap on
the top that will be ³slammed² repeatedly by the driver ³hammer². It just
keeps the end from getting all messed-up. (NOTE: you¹ll probably want to get
a point that uses the same diameter pipe as your pump head, to avoid messing
around with adapters, etc.)
Once you have driven the ³driver² section to within a few inches of the
ground, use a pipe wrench to take it off, and thread on the next section of
well pipe, putting the ³driver² piece on top of this new pipe. Repeat this
procedure until you hit a water table, whether you choose the first, second,
third, etc., will depend on your preference, or maybe on how much pipe you
have on-hand.
As far as the pump itself goes, we always used ³Pitcher Pump² heads, i.e.,
you had to pump them by hand. In the aftertimes, this is probably what you
will want! Simply prime your new pump by pouring a few gallons of water down
its throat, and then PUMP AWAY! :-)
Some pump heads are better than others: I suggest staying away from the
³el-cheapo² models with rubber gaskets: go for the more expensive models
that use leather. That way, when they eventually wear out, you can use
home-made leather (from the pelts of the animals you will inevitably be
eating) to replace them.
I hope this helps!
--Louis
From: "B Taft"
Subject: witching with "L" rods
I've used coat hangers. The correct total length of the "L" is one cubit I think it's called. I prefer brass brazing rod. As long as you don't allow your "mind" to get involved - just do it - you're OK. You hold the rods straight out and push HARD on the rod by your thumbs on your index fingers. Really try to keep them from turning. As you walk slowly across an area the rods will turn in and cross on themselves. Swivel them around to get the proper alignment. When you are right on, it's like the rods are down in a groove and you can feel the groove as you move the rods away or towards your body.
I've seen this done by laying a mill bastard (big file) on one's thumb, but never tried that.
For depth, take the end of the rod and hold it over your spot and count its dips, by ones, tens or whatever.
The one thing you don't do is say "oh god, I can't do this" for then you can't. God is very obliging.
Best regards,.
Bob Taft
The Taft Ranch
(307) 332-2352
From: Louis
Subject: Re: Water witching
You can usually find out from the county how deep water tables are in your
area. This will tell you how many linear feet of pipe you will need to buy!
;-)
--Louis
From: "Carolyn M. Woods"
Subject: Water Witching (Dowsing) Instructions
American Society of Dowsers
http://dowsers.new-hampshire.net/
See their links page for other dowsing sites, including international
ones
From: "V"
Subject: Re: Re: witching with "L" rods
A good book on how to do the dowsing is called "Supersensonics" by
Christopher Hills It gives all the detail and theory behind how it all warks
and anybody can do it once armed with this information. Another way to do
the depth finding is by triangulation. Tip..( you keep your back to the sun
when you do it)
V
Email: bobcolee@yahoo.com