George Hughes

Yeah, Mark that's exactly what I did, bought two, and I did have to replace it at one year old, after the second time it got covered in sand I think I tried to use the pump to get the sand out instead of pulling up the pump and laboriously removing the sand with the bucket. I was going to take the pump apart and clean it and see if I could get it running again, but... This second pump has been going strong for a year now too, and has survived one minor sand event no problem. Hopefully your sand is just in the soil and you will hit good rock for your water, but I think you can check well logs at the county to see average depths and strata info. Some counties may keep more detailed records than others, but most new wells should be in the county records. Here the geology varies a lot and being on a steep hill some are deep and some are shallow. If you are able to do the lowering and lifting of the pump yourself, which at 70' would be pretty easy assuming you hang it on plastic pipe, then for the cost of one of these little pumps you can hardly go wrong.

Thanks all for your ideas. I'm going to play it safe and not use splitting wedges as my first metalurgy attempt! Especially since I work alone and don't have medical insurance. I think it may just be inferior metal quality anyway, so no guarantee that heating would work.

Could I heat treat them myself in a wood stove? With like maple coals and blowing on the coals through a pipe? And I can't remember if quenching them in cold water immediately is the good thing to do or the bad thing.... I guess I could google that, but if anyone knows or has experience that would be nice.

Hi again. I want to recommend a well pump that I use in my low-flow well. Amarine-made 24V Stainless Shell Submersible 3.2GPM 4" Deep Well Water DC Pump (available on Amazon) It operates on DC, so can run off solar panels. For now I'm running it on grid power with an AC/DC inverter because I want to run it in early morning and evening when the sun is not directly shining. The pump is also quite sand-hardy. I have fine sand and mud in the water bearing layer and this little pump can handle the occasional bout of sand that gets lifted up off the bottom when I pump too much water out at once. The pump even has its own no-water shut off switch built in. It pumps 1.33 gpm at the depth of 200 feet in my well. I also wrote an article about how I got enough sand out of my well to be able to hang the pump. http://www.village4health.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Improving-a-sandy-well.pdf

Hi guys, I live over in Idaho and I recently started using some new metal splitting wedges for splitting large logs. I bought them at the local "Do it Best" hardware store, and boy, do the metal shards fly when I hit them with the big maul. Lesson learned -- always wear safety glasses when using unfamiliar tools. The old wedges I have were apparently a much tougher metal as I have used them for years without ever getting metal shards flying around. I guess maybe the new ones are made of recycled or inferior metal, or were not properly tempered.

Hi Jonathan,

Here is a link to my post about what I am doing here. I know it's across the country but sounds really similar to what you want. I sure have a lot of experiences to share about trying to get established on the land. Good thing you like hard work. I don't have domestic animals here but there is plenty of wildlife. I would like to talk to you, email or phone, especially as winter comes on it gets lonely here. I hope you find some good land and people, and if you want to come out here, just let me know.

Best, George

Hi Deb, I'm not very concerned about age or looks in a potential romantic partner. Children are very welcome here, and I love teaching and children, but there are no other children within 5 miles. It is mostly retirees on this road and we do get snowed in most winters, so I would be concerned about social isolation for children. Animals would need to be useful and not hinder the garden. We had chickens for a while, but they were the digging type (bantams). I'm interested in chickens, rabbits and goats, but working on ideas for homegrown food for them. In the mean time I'm learning to bow hunt. Pictures I prefer to do by PM and actually I play guitar and piano! But a fiddler or banjo player would be really fun to round out the band.

George

From what I have asked around all fridge/freezers need a battery to even out the power, but there is a well pump that can run straight off solar panels. Even says no charge controller needed: https://smile.amazon.com/Amarine-made-Stainless-Submersible-Alternative-SPX-24-12/dp/B06Y1X7QKX/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1502251576&sr=8-1&keywords=24+volt+well+pump

Could you use solar to create hydrogen and use hydrogen to run a propane fridge/freezer (these are expensive items).

Anyone use solar produced hydrogen for cooking?

Come share my Garden of Eatin'! I'm a community minded homesteader living on our 5 beautiful, productive acres of forest and garden with two tiny houses I built. I'm seeking male or female friends for short term camping or long term partners (romance or LTR possible with a woman). Shared values are important to me. I don't drink or smoke or use chemicals or fragrances of any kind and I have a strong work ethic. I have a sense of humor and enjoy hiking, skiing, gardening, cooking, and music, especially bluegrass. (Any banjo pickin' gals out there?). I'm very liberal politically, but I'm not very active politically. I really want to help move society away from money based to life based mindset. I love living rural, but I want to help with urban transformation and youth education as well. Global warming awareness and natural carbon sequestration are very important to me. I'm over half way to food sustainability, could reach 90% soon. I grow seeds for a local seed coop. It is a small income so far, but with growth potential. Mature fruit trees and berries. I love propagating plants. Would love to create homesteads for newbies. I guess that's enough to get started with. Am open to short term visitors as well.

George

I agree with the definition of drought that says around 20% less precip than normal for several months. About soil types, yes roots may grow slower in clay soil, but clay with good humus content stores an amazing quantity of water.

About drought resistance --don't under estimate soil pH. The proper pH is key to a plant's ability to use the water in the soil. Locally adapted seed strains are much hardier because of this. Saving our own seed year after year has been key to drought resistance as the strains adapt to our soil conditions. I suspect many nurseries or seed co's call things drought resistant if they will survive 2 weeks without water. That is the Eastern US definition of a drought for ag purposes.