[flutemandolin]

Where do you get it? I'm just curious as to what sources people use. We have our own well but without a heated, insulated pump house we can't use it in winter. We mostly get our water from dh's or my workplace, or a local laundromat. I see others coming in to the laundromat filling gallon jugs fairly often.

 

[Cabin Fever]

I use this well all winter long, even when it's 20 below.

 

[flutemandolin]

I had a bunch of questions typed up about whether it was outside, electric, etc...then I scrolled down and realized I hadn't waited for the picture to load. We had an electric pump and pressure tank, and were hoping to get by with just good insulation but the pump froze with the first zero degree weather last fall. We're off the grid, run a generator intermittently so heat tape wouldn't work. Had a cheap hand pump before that, but I think the leathers froze or wore out. That one doesn't look cheap though.

The red plaid wool jacket looks very Minnesotan! Bemidji Woolen Mills?

 

[Jena]

Our water works here in town has a water thing. You drive up with your tank (the big ones), put quarters in and out comes the water. It's like $1 for 100 gallons or something like that. I haven't used it since the county water came through.

Jena

 

[Guest]

I have a few friends that get their water from my well. They fill plastic 55 gal barrels in a small trailer and haul them home. Another friend fills gallon jugs at the truck stop.

 

[Guest]

We have public wells here. People buy water trailers, and a "water certificate" entitling them to use the well. Water certificates are fairly expensive, about a thousand or so, and the water company limits the number of sold because wells here tend to be fairly limited and they can only pump so much. So sometimes if you need a water certificate you've got to buy one on the open market ...

They haul the water home, and typically have an underground tank with a pressure pump. I've seen some very very nice homes with hauled water, simply because it's cheaper to haul it than to drill 600 feet to water.

You can also havethe water delivered for about $50/1000 gallons, last I heard.

Leva

 

[Alex]

We use our shallow well (20 feet deep) in 50 below F all winter. The water is underground, not ground, and it does not freeze at about 15 feet below the surface.

We have a concrete lid, a piece of 8" white styrofoam on top, then a loose piece of plywood, with a rock on top. I put a 100 watt light bulb in it the first year, but it burnt out when I was gone for two months in the winter. It didn't freeze. We do usually get up to two feet of snow, and Schnooks melt it right down to nothing sometimes, and then it drops back to 50 below, still doesn’t freeze.

20' Deep Well, 3' Diameter Metal Pipe - With Holes We "Cut" With A Sharp Pick Ax, 3 Double Loads Of Drain Rock - All Around The Outside - At The Bottom - A Big Water Storage Area - And More Infiltration Area With Lots Of Rock, Concrete Lid

At the left is the styrofoam, at the right is the big rock we put on top

Good luck.

Alex

btw Our pipes that go from the well to the cabin are about 10' deep and do not freeze.

 

[Guest]

Our well house is underground, dont know if something like that would work for you.

 

[Thumper/inOkla.]

we only haul drinking water because I don't like to drink the thingies that grow in the above ground tank, hubby fills jugs up at work. There are a few days in winter when the water spigot on the big tank (1500 gal) freezes and I can't turn the handle, on those days I chop ice from the stock tank and melt it in the house for the animals. And we have two 50gal. barrels in the house for washing etc, that we fill about once a month.

 

[Alex]

Thumper,

I can't see your photos. I get a screen asking me to sign up for photoisland. Should I do that first, then what? Or can you give a more direct link?

Alex

 

[Thumper/inOkla.]

Thumper,

I can't see your photos. I get a screen asking me to sign up for photoisland. Should I do that first, then what? Or can you give a more direct link?

Alex

1st click the link for photoisland at the end of my post and when the site opens type in my email [email protected] in the username box on the left side of the screen, and then type homestead pic into the password box, it needs the space before pic, it should open my photo page.

 

[Alex]

Thanks that was fun.

I liked the making electric power - good way to go!

The big city shed, is that your new house, or is the house that you show pictures of the small house? And what is the pole barn for?

Have fun, it looks like you are.

Alex