The New Well: CSA Summer ’13 ” Week #18

The new well!

During last year’s drought we applied for an emergency high-capacity well permit.  While we were able to keep our fields irrigated in 2012 using our house well (which has a booster pump), it meant endless cycles of irrigation, and barely, just barely keeping up. When we found out the state was streamlining the application process for high-cap wells (defined as pumping more than 70 gallons per minute), we decided to take advantage of it.  Having another well, especially high capacity, will allow us to irrigate much larger areas at a time.  And with our original house well still operable, we can feasibly run two irrigation systems at a time.

We were granted permission for the well last fall, but due to the high demand for new well building (again because of the drought), ours was not dug until this winter. Getting it online has been a long process, and we are happy to say that we now have a new well up and running.  There were many moving parts to the project!  We positioned the well out in the fields to be more central.  This required a new electrical service to reach the well. We also decided to trench and bury water mains, so that we could move water to different areas of the farm underground and just hook on to risers to hit the various fields. This way we won’t have irrigation lay-flat hosing running all over the fields (the ‘blue snakes’ as Zea calls them), with their constant leaks and bursts.

This project was 2013’s major investment in the farm. Thanks to each of you, who helped make this possible through CSA membership!!!  We are so thankful that we will be even better equipped to deal with future dry spells and droughts.

Next year’s major investment – solar power to run our coolers and other electrical needs, including pumping water. (More on that later). In the meantime, I’ve included some photos of the new well infrastructure during its construction phase for you to get a better idea of what I’m writing about. Thanks and enjoy your veggies!

Above ground, lay-flat hose is how we have moved water around the farm from our house well.

The trench to house the water pipes.

Underground water main.

The new risers, where we will connect to the underground mains. (Next to the brussels sprouts)

A water main trench, covered. Leading back to the new electrical service.

• Carrots
• Sweet Potatoes

Final EO-B box on October 23rd.

Summer Week #18: Wednesday, October 9th” Group B EOs