Did I find a....well pump? Can I use it?

We were outside working on putting up chicken fence, and my husband spotted this behind the snow-flattened blackberry bramble. I went fetched it. What is it? How do I use it?

That appears to be not a well pump but a standpipe. The handle stays above ground, and it operates a valve which is down at the bottom of the pipe which stays below ground. The valve has a little weep hole in it so when someone is done getting water from the standpipe in wintertime, the water in the pipe drains out so it doesn't freeze and burst or become unusable until the next thaw. It's meant to be plumbed into an underground water line out in a yard or field.

Ah! So if I laid underground piping and hooked this up to it, it'd be a faucet I could use all year round? Cool!

I forgot to reply to the other question in your post. It might be useable. Does the lever work? if it does, it may as simple as replacing the rubber o-rings/washers in the valve to make it functional again.

Nicole Alderman wrote:Ah! So if I laid underground piping and hooked this up to it, it'd be a faucet I could use all year round? Cool!

Yes! (if the underground piping is below the frost line)

James Freyr wrote:I forgot to reply to the other question in your post. It might be useable. Does the lever work? if it does, it may as simple as replacing the rubber o-rings/washers in the valve to make it functional again.

Lever didn't move (it's been sitting under a hemlock tree for at least almost 7 years, which is when we bought the place.) I'll try replacing the washers and o-rings!

Nicole Alderman wrote:.....I'll try replacing the washers and o-rings!

You should be able to find parts and information online as well as Ace Hardware or similar.....maybe call around locally to see who else in your area sells Campbell hydrants.  If you need to replace the inner plunger rod, make sure to get the same size rod as the one presently in it.  Lots of YouTube videos on installation when the time comes.....

https://www.acehardware.com/departments/plumbing/valves/rough-faucets-and-hose-bibbs/4510483

Nice find nicole!

Get a little penetrating oil on things and make sure you can move the lever and disassemble to get access to those washers and o-rings before you buy replacements.  There might be a reason it was discarded, and then again it might be quite serviceable!  Good find!

My question would be whether it was just thrown over there or if there is already some sort of underground piping it used to be attached to, and it just fell over?

I'm pretty sure it wasn't installed, or at least not there. It was down at the very bottom of our property, just resting against a big cedar stump that a hemlock was growing out of. He's left a lot of big flexible pipes and weird things under trees. And, I can't see why he'd be trying to put a water line down there, as it was so close to the road and far from everything. Maybe he was planning on installing it, and then decided it wasn't worth the hassle and just put it down? Maybe there's a bunch of pipe or other goodies buried under the nearby blackberries? As far as I know, there are NO waterpipes on the property other than the one that brings water to the house from the well house. We have, literally, one outdoor faucet, and it's connected to the backside of the house.

But, I wouldn't have put it past him to have poorly installed a water pipe and then gave up on it. Maybe one day we'll be digging and find it. This is the guy that, when he broke the pipe that leads from the septic system to the sandpit, DUCT-TAPED the pipe back together, and in another place, just left the section of pipe missing and filled it in with gravel, as if to think that the sewage would pump UPHILL though gravel to get to the other pipe and then to the sand pit. I really wonder what's hiding in the bramble on this place. I've found old wire, pipes, chains, a cap to the septic drainfield and random old lumber hidden in the bushes. I honestly wonder if he made a bunker somewhere, and if we'll ever find it. Though, if we did, we probably wouldn't want to explore it, considering how shabbily he built everything else!

Nicole Alderman wrote: I honestly wonder if he made a bunker somewhere, and if we'll ever find it.

Maybe he's been hiding in there this whole time

Nicole Alderman wrote:....He's left a lot of big flexible pipes and weird things under trees. And, I can't see why he'd be trying to put a water line down there, as it was so close to the road and far from everything. Maybe he was planning on installing it, and then decided it wasn't worth the hassle and just put it down?

That would be my guess.  Our well is 12 ft from the house:  The water comes into the pressure tank in the basement, then splits in two----one line running the house water and the other line exiting the house for the outbuildings.  Those outbuildings are over 100 ft. away from the house....so there are underground water lines (6 ft underground to be below frost line) that run that distance and carry the water pressure from the well out to those buildings.  One hydrant (similar to what you show in the photos but about double the length) is now dead and needs replacing, but the other hydrant in a separate building is working fine.  But the flexible tubing is pretty standard for water lines of this kind, so it could have been that he was thinking of locating a pasture and/or buildings around there and never got to it.   Or the tree'd area was just where he like to toss things out of the way while considering the projects on the property.