WINDMILLS, WELLS & WATER

Well #1

I found five wells on Rancho Arbole Grande’s ten acres. Some of these were good and some bad. Some were abandoned and one was lost! I doubt that you could find any others now. (In fact, you wont be able to find the five mentioned in this story.)

Stories still reach the news of children falling down old wells, pits and septic tanks. One of the first things I had to do was restore rotted and missing well covers.

There is no municipal sewer or water supply across the miles of rural counties. Each parcel of land must have its own water source and its own waste disposal system.

With new development and the arrival of public utilities, come the abandonment of thousands of derelicts, unknown hazards, hidden in the tall weeds and accumulated trash.

Within a mile of the ranch was a large uncovered, hole down to water, some fifteen feet. Floating bits of wood proved that children had been playing there! The diameter was large enough to drop in a V.W, Bug! I felt the danger and stepped back from the edge. (This was in sight of the 215)

Four of my wells were dug in nearly a straight line, from the South to North property lines. The surface fell away to the North by less than sixty feet. The line of wells, dug to water, was deepest on the high ground and less deep at the bottom of the slope.

This means that the underground stream is running nearly level to-words Sun City. (I believe that the underground water flows much like the natural shape of the surface. Mirroring the flow of surface water. Expecting that the earth’s strata lie parallel and bend up and down together as the earth moves. - Cline and anticline-)

Samples of water were tested from each well. One well was contaminated. (The same water flowed into each well but the hole itself was infected.) Good only for irrigation. I think that it had been a potable well, ruined by a dwelling being located too close to it. I tried to cleanse this well with a treatment of bleach and sealing and packing it like the story of the forgotten well. I used it to demonstrate an old Peerless Pump. I restored it to pump again. It was designed to replace a windmill pump. It had three cylinders. One lifted the water on the up stroke; another pressurized the water on the down stroke. A third added air to the tank. Sealing the old four-foot diameter, dug well, reduced it to a ten-inch well casing, positioned by a cement slab. –One less hazard-

The third well didn’t serve any purpose. Its flow was no better than the others. It was in a poor location, for use or sanitation. I used it for pump experiments (explained elsewhere.) I decided to abandon it rather than try to develop it as a domestic well.

Its diameter was just small enough that my tractor tires could straddle the opening. About half of each tire hung over the edge. I back filled the hole with the same kind of dirt that had been dug from it. With the big blade behind the tractor, I pulled dirt to spill into the hole. I drove over the hole with each blade full. The dirt turned into mud and filled in all the voids tightly. When the fill was several feet from the top, I broke up the cement curb and pushed it in to be buried below the surface. (The surface never settled to reveal a fill.)

Now we have forgotten just where it was, why it was dug. And who needed the water?

Electric motor, belt driven,

Peerless pump & Check valve

DIGGING THE DUG WELL

HOW IT WAS DUG

You don’t just dig a well, close to the house, or for convenience. If it is to be pumped by the wind, the proper site becomes more complicated. Some compromise must be made between wind and water!

Fixing the site is part knowledge of the land’s geology. Part the experience of other ranches in the area and part superstition. If not superstition, this is what must be believed: Somewhere, at unknown depths under our feet, unseen streams move through varying strata creating by friction, magnetic indications that a water-witch can detect as he (I have never seen a female do this,) holds a green switch or copper wands in his two hands.

(There is some mystique about the green, living stick pointing to water.) He walks over the site in two directions or more and recites the depth of the water and its expected flow rate. I have seen this done repeatedly and for money! Present day ranchers still invest thousands of dollars on the advise of Witches.

When I drove over to visit Harold, I was asked by two witchers, “ please move your car! ”(As if the metal of my car would make a difference, a half-acre away. I don’t think that they wanted me to watch. This is to say why my wells were dug where I found them.

The diameter of the dug well is determined by how much room the digger needs to work a short handled Shovel and Pick. Usually it is about four or five feet across the hole. Three adults could fall down the dug well, at one time! The depth of the well is determined by the standing-depth of the water. Wells dug to water in the dry season will be likely to yield all year round.

When two men work together, they can take turns in the hole or pulling up the filled bucket. Imagine standing under the ascending bucket, being showered, head, face and shoulders, with debris as it spins on the slender rope in the hands of your helper.

If it falls, there is no escape as you dodge about in your gritty prison. When the digging is hard the sides of the hole will be stable, when the digging is easy the shifting sides must be shored up with stone. Some wells have been abandoned when the bottom reached solid rock instead of water. Smaller rocks can be dislodged, pushed aside or broken.

Here the strata below a shallow overcast of soil, is a tightly, packed decomposed granite with some random rock. Some days the two men sank the hole readily. Other days they managed only a few feet. As the hole deepened, they had to rig some way of getting in and out and it took longer to empty the bucket each time. They used a simple wooden windless on wood bearings with a wooden crank. (Some times this was left in place after the well was finished. It was either pull the rope up hand over hand, or crank the windless. This way you could stop to rest by holding the crank. Weeks later, they were down about twenty-seven feet, when they noticed damp soil on the shovel. Chunks of clay stuck to the pick. Excited, they dug rapidly and soon there was water seeping in through the bottom! “What if- water rushes into the hole? - Will I drown? - Will the sides cave in?” Soon he was standing in a foot of muddy water. To the man on top, “Standby to lift me out!” He could only muck out a few feet more from the bottom.

“Cleaning out the well” was done seasonally. Stuff sloughs off the sides plastering the bottom with mud. Some times the well is deepened in this manner.

HOW IT FEELS TO WORK THE DEEPENING HOLE

The dig is like spading a small garden plot, except that you dig in one place and keep hauling the dirt away. At first, you can see all around you. The sky is a blue dome. Knee deep, waist deep, head deep, now your perspective changes! Your world has become a small round room of dirt. Your sky is flat, only a few feet wide.

When you reach up you can still touch the rim. One or two feet deeper and you can no longer jump out! From here on, you need a helper, one you can trust with your life!

The more successful you are, the more isolated you become! There is less and less light. The sun will only shine on you twice a year. Your eyes accommodate to the darkness, when you look up, you can see the stars, in the daytime!

(My grandmother quoted an old ‘saying’, ”the stars shine in the daytime and the sun sinks before it sets.”) Of course, the stars shine all the time. If a person shields his eye with a three-foot tube, his eye will adjust and he can see the stars without climbing into a hole! (Should you look down a well into quiet water, you can see two or three stars reflected off the water! They will be bright spots on the dark surface.) If the stars bounce around, it means that the water is moving! That is a good sign! You have tapped into a stream!

Ranchers carry a small hand mirror in their trucks or toolboxes. This is used to reflect sunlight on to the water. This is then reflected up to the surface. They can see the water level and inspect the well casing. They often measure the water depth. (A small block of wood, tied to a string, floats on the water. They can see the water ripple when the block touches the water surface. The string is measured in feet.

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“While I was working on the #3 well, I dropped a four-foot steel pry bar. It bounced over the rim and down some 25 feet. I could see it sticking up out of the water, partly buried in the mud. I opened my extension ladder, tied the sections together, placed it down the hole and secured the top at the surface. As I climbed down below the root zone, I realized that all wells, fence posts and foundations point to the center of the earth. Climate changes. One feels cooler than the afternoon and warmer than the night. The air is dead still and smells of wet soil and uncovered roots. Sounds are muted. Splashes were heard when I brushed the wall or a root and bits of grit fell away.

“I grabbed the iron bar in one hand and held the ladder with the other. On the way up and out a sharp tool in my belt anchored itself into the wall. I was jerked to a stop between rungs. I felt the belt tighten as though a hand had grabbed me---------------------

I was all-alone! (It is lonely down there!) It was easy to back off and clear my tools and I reached the surface with out trouble. With a ‘start’, my head and shoulders were in the sunny afternoon! The world was alive! Sounds and movement were everywhere.

I was back.---------------- No one had missed me!”

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“How quickly will the well fill? How deep will the water stand? How many gallons a minute can we pump without exhausting the well? Using their five-gallon bucket, they could bail out one bucket per minute. Lots of water! The first bucket of muddy water was poured over his dirt streaked, head! The more they bailed the faster the water flowed in. Soon the water became clear and clean. They were washing the new well with its own water! A rope and a bucket becomes a drink for you and your horse. There, is the well and you are thirsty. Here, is the full bucket and you are refreshed! “Life on a few feet of rope.”

This is to be a stock well and the plan is to install a windmill and a stock tank large enough for a large circle of steers to drink at the same time.

(Still others would have to wait their turn. Horns would decide when the turn would come.) The tank will store water between times of no wind.

“Thirsty, bellowing, stock smelled the water and bunched around the circular tank. The men had set up the tank just down slope from the well. Until the mill could be erected, the men had the extra chore of keeping the tank filled. The pump could be in place and worked by hand while a short pipe or open flume led pumped water to the tank. Each steer can drink ten gallons and still think that he is thirsty. A steer can stand with his head in the water and still kick up a cloud of dust. Miles away, you can see the dust plume from a busy stock tank.”

WIND AND THE WINDMILL

PUTTING IT TOGETHER

My cousin Calvin, as a young man, worked for a Porterville Hardware store. His job was to erect the windmills sold locally. He tried two different ways to put the mills together. Each had merit and trade offs. Two men worked together as if working a giant Erector Set. They could put it all together, flat on the ground and erect it over the well as one piece. Or they would build it vertically, piece by piece. In either case, the heavy mill itself would have to end up on the top of the tower. The mechanical work had to be done well. When in place the pump rod had to hang down to center in the well. The four tower legs had to be evenly spaced over the hole so that the tower was plumb and centered. The tower had a secure footing at each corner. (It helped to fasten the bolts loosely until each section was in place, and then to tighten them securely.)

One leg of the tower has metal steps attached so that when climbing, one foot is on each side of the corner. Each one is a special bolt, long enough to hold a man’s boot. The end is turned up to keep the instep from slipping off. Near the top is a small wooden platform just below the fan. One corner is cut off the wooden square where the stepped leg reaches it. You must remember that missing corner. When the wind shifts, you walk around as the mill moves. Be ready to take a big step when the platform disappears. Climbing onto the platform is the hardest part of the climb. Care must be taken if the fan is turning or starts to turn while you are up there.

Most often, the reason for the climb is to remove the rain hat and add or change oil in the gearbox. Next, after storm damage, most mills are ruined, by loosing the rain hat. (This is the, tin, box cover over the gearbox. This is held in place by one wing nut at the top. When rain can enter the gearbox, it drops to the bottom and shoulders out the oil,

over, the rim. Now, with water for oil, the gears rust and freeze in place.

I found the Arbole Grande mill in just this condition. It was ruined. We never could make the gears turn again.

The view from the top is 360 degrees around and miles into the countryside. Off in the distance is a smudge of Ranch house smoke and a neighbor’s windmill is turning in the breeze.

HOW THE MILL IS MADE & HOW IT WORKS

The mill tower usually is about twenty feet high. This allows for the tower to be used to place the pump and the lengths of pipe to connect it. This too will elevate the fan to catch a faint breeze. There is a drag of wind against the ground. Our pump was set at sixty feet. The three twenty-foot, pipe sections supported the pump cylinder. This three- inch pipe carried the lifted water to the surface and into the tank.

Inside were equal lengths, of sucker rod. This connected the mill to the piston in the pump. Original sucker rod was made of wood with ends of threaded metal. These were screwed together in matching lengths to the water pipe. (This was done so that connections could be made more convenient.) In our case, the rod was really, three, lengths of ½ inch pipe.

When I first looked into the #1 well I saw two ½ inch pipes wedged into the water pipe. Some one had disconnected the sucker pipe and a length had fallen so as to jam the pump. Keep in mind now that connected to the mill is the combined weight of the water being pumped and the sucker rod and the piston below. At each stroke of the pump, it adds some 14inches of water to the column. An automatic check valve prevents water escaping except at the discharge at the surface.

Stroke by stroke gulps of water are added to the column. At last, water spills out the discharge into the stock tank or delivery pipe. Note: the mill must lift the column of water each time a stroke is made. Perhaps some dozen strokes have lifted all the water twelve times just to usefully pump that from a single stroke!

This mill carried the name CHAMPION On its tail vane. The wind wheel turned a shaft in the gearbox. Here gears had a ratio that let the fan (wind wheel) revolve several times for each stroke of the piston. (Back-geared) This allowed the fan to approach the wind speed. The speed made up for the slower stroke. There is a speed that may thresh the water causing an inefficient, turbulence. Back gearing also lets a slower wind move the mill fan.

It is very important for the fan to face directly into the wind. The mill uses ball bearings on the turntable that allows the fan to turn into the wind. The less weight added here, the more easily the table can swing to the wind. (I helped balance out the weight added to the mill, except for the water pumped. If overcompensated, the connecting rod would buckle. The mill cannot push at any time!

The tail, (vane), is mounted several inches out of line with the fan shaft. The vane is articulated and spring loaded. Adjustment is made to the let the vane turn the fan out of line of the wind when more speed would damage the mill. This mill has a small spring- loaded hammer that translates little shifts of the tail in to taps that help move it into slight breezes. As the wind speed increases, the mill turns away from the force. This becomes a speed controlling, governor.

Also the vane can be pulled, to set the fan at a right angle to the wind. (This is the cable brought to the brake handle at the tower base.) Our mill also had a brake band to stop the fan.

Our fan was mounted with its concave/convex blades presenting the convex side to the wind. I was told that this was done in areas with very strong winds. Fans can windup to where they self-destruct. Windstorms can take down the mill and its tower, twisting the metal into useless heaps.

We let the mill run all the time. It pumped with the morning and evening breeze. Just before sun up, the warming air pushes across the valley. At dusk, the cooling of the land generates another refreshing breeze. Our mill, like a giant sunflower facing into the light, reversed itself to end each day. There is a rhythm to the wind, the sun and the animals. Unknowingly we all adjusted our lives to this same cycle, the daylight and the dark, the cold and the hot, the storms of rain and the drought.

Our tank was an old cast iron bathtub. I connected the overflow to a little metal flume. Later, I found a little frog living in a wet place by the tub. I was amazed. In this desert place! Where did he come from and how far? How long had he waited for me to set up the mill? He enjoyed the insects that were drawn to the water. Larger animals stopped by. Even the tenant in #3! She jumped in, hat, clothes and all!

WATER IN THE DESERT changes things!

When the wind pumped, the tub filled. The fill pipe directs the cool, fresh water to spill into the tub. Here, one can drink from this pulsing stream, without a cup and with dirty hands. The overflow trickled down the hill. Hooves made deep marks in the mud, which filled with water and cow chips. In a cameo way, the desert bloomed. Yellow flowers lined the little part time stream. “If there is a flower, there is an insect. If there is an insect, there is a bird etc.” In a short, time there was a small community of life crowded along this short disappearing stream. Water bugs, mice, elusive kangaroo, rats, even coyotes check in often. Between breezes, birds perched on the tips of the fan blades. I have seen them ride the vane even when the wind changed direction. Birds became bold enough to set on the rim while the animals drank. There was plant and animal life in the tub too.

Note: This mill pump is over the #1 well. We have set two pumps here. Tenants can water horses here when the electricity fails. There is a hand pump over the #4 well for the same reason. I also favor water troughs over the automatic ‘nose’-cups for horses,