In late July, our water pressure went way down, to the point where it was challenging to get basic tasks done- like watering the garden or washing the dishes. Jeff and I had a fear creep up- was our well running low? That was a stressful thought! Luckily, we discovered the water level wasn’t the problem. {Sigh of relief!}
Before we knew that, we were looking for the issue, and checking everything over. We saw that the capacitor needed to be replaced in our control box. We bought a new control box altogether, but that didn’t fix the problem. So we directed our attention to the well pump. We figured we would do some of the work ourselves and hire someone for part of it too. We knew the more detective work we could do beforehand, the better it would be when someone came out all this way- they could bring what they would need to do the job, reducing trips back and forth.
What we discovered though, was that the people we paid to install our well pump previously did a poor job. Ropes spliced together. (Ropes that were not even adequate to hold that amount of weight.) Poly pipe used on a well much too deep for it. (Much too deep for it, by a lot.) Well, upon hoisting the whole thing up, the ropes snapped, the poly pipe pulled apart.. and it all fell down the well. Can you say stressful?
All this while we were in the heat of summer… with an entire garden needing daily watering, and animals to keep hydrated on those warm days, along with all the other daily tasks requiring water. Now in the winter time we are prepared for power outages (which I’ve written about here on the blog many times before), which equals no running water. Winter is our stormy season, and being at the end of the line we are sometimes among the last to get our electricity back on when the power goes out. To prepare for that, we have lanterns, and a generator, and we place buckets strategically to collect rain water. Winter is our rainy season here, so it makes it easy to collect water. (And when we have plenty of rain water on hand, we can justify using it for things like flushing toilets.) We also keep a stash of emergency water on hand, so we’re no strangers to preparing for power outages and no running water.
But let me tell you, having no water in the middle of summer is an entirely different scenario! We went through our stash of emergency/backup water in no time, and it barely scratched the surface of our water needs. Here in the coastal range of Oregon, we experience an abundance of water. It was such a humbling experience to suddenly have to source our water elsewhere, and savor every single drop like it was our last. We drove down to the river near our house and filled water there, watering the garden jub by jug. We were grateful for our friends in town who let us fill up water containers at their house, and for our neighbors who let us come by a few times to do the same.
We ended up being without water for five and a half days. Those were some really long days. The entire experience was exhausting, overwhelming, stressful, and humbling. It was also a really good learning experience, and deepened our gratitude for water (and for the help of others) in a major way! We went to bed completely worn out at the end of every day. Keeping up with daily life around here on a regular basis is a lot as it is, but when you add hauling water for everything on top of it, it made for some tiring days. We were in survival mode, taking it day by day. Yet, we found humor and joy each day as we cracked jokes while we headed to the woods to go to the bathroom, or went wading in the river to fill up another jug. What else can you do but make the best of whatever situation you find yourself in?
We ended up finding someone who specialized in wells, and they were able to pull everything out of the well (thank goodness!) and install a new set up. They did a great job, (and in the future we will stick with those who have a lot of experience to do the job well.) Our family wanted to cry with joy when we could water the garden straight from the hose, fill up all the water buckets for the animals easily, wash all the dishes right in the kitchen sink, run a load of laundry, take a shower, and fill up a glass of cool, refreshing water to drink. How grateful we are for water!
We had family visit right after the whole water fiasco, and were feeling really grateful it was all fixed before they came. We were also grateful the garden was able to pull through all right. I couldn’t begin to convey the amount of time and energy spent in the garden this year- nurturing everything from seed and caring for it each and every day… and then watching it withering in the intense heat. That was stressful for all of us, especially for Jeff who lives and breathes the garden this time of year.
After that whole experience, I would love to encourage others to have emergency/backup water on hand, and felt inspired to say so in this post. Some of the backup water we were going through, I had labeled 2016. I filled up water other years too, of course, but I thanked my 2016 self for taking the time to do that!
I once went to a natural disaster preparedness class with a friend that had a main focus on earthquakes. The gal teaching the class told everyone to have a minimum of one gallon of water per person per day. That’s just for drinking water. Also extra water for pets, brushing teeth, etc. She recommended having at least a few weeks of water on hand.
There were some pretty radical storms a couple hours from here a few years back and I heard of people without electricity and running water for 2 weeks. Whatever the reason for needing water might be, it’s always a good idea to have backup water on hand! Right now we are preparing for a major heat wave in our area and you can guess one of the first things Jeff started doing- filling up more backup water!
Friends, I hope you will learn from our experience and start filling up some containers with extra water today! If you ever need it, you’ll sure be grateful you did.