So I take it you did not go to town to get a ball valve shut-off....?....
How's your day been?
- Thread starter Kevin
- Start date
No, should have clarified that earlier. The extra pipe coming out of the house only feeds the hydrant right next to the house.
This hydrant predates the house and is closer to the well than the house. What I think they did is split the line from the pump at the well head leaving the lines to the existing two hydrants and added the line to the house.
I don't know if this quick little sketch on an aerial photo helps or not. The little green square is the well, the yellow are the hydrants. The red lines are where I think the water lines run. The one that is leaking is the one just to the left of the well. For scale, it's ~45 yards from the well to the house.
Looks like your well was a barn well and the house was added on later. Animals came first at our place, but we had a spring so no pumps to deal with. The pipe was 500 yards uphill from the barn. One time the water stopped and dad went for a walk. Found a dead skunk blocking the water feed line. Later years they added a step screen so it was a bit harder to block. To shut the water off, you pulled the step screen and added a pipe extention. The spring would rise a bit and go out the overflow. Simpler times.
The original house was about 50ft north of where the well is and had 2 cisterns next to the house and a windmill by the eastern hydrant. There was a barn to the east of the machine shed. The well was drilled when Mom and Dad bought the place.
When we moved there, it was all corn field just to the west of the problem hydrant. We lived one winter in the old house that had wood shingle siding, lath and horsehair plaster finish and was all put together with square nails. When the wind blew hard, it could cause a candle's flame to flicker inside.
When they dug the basement for the current house, came back the next day and the hole was half full of water, had hit a little spring even though it sits on "high ground". Had to pump it dry and backfill several feet. The house sits 3-4 feet higher than it was supposed to.
We've got lots of little "seeps" on hillsides around here, but nothing that would supply enough flow to rely on for livestock, or household use.
When we moved there, it was all corn field just to the west of the problem hydrant. We lived one winter in the old house that had wood shingle siding, lath and horsehair plaster finish and was all put together with square nails. When the wind blew hard, it could cause a candle's flame to flicker inside.
When they dug the basement for the current house, came back the next day and the hole was half full of water, had hit a little spring even though it sits on "high ground". Had to pump it dry and backfill several feet. The house sits 3-4 feet higher than it was supposed to.
We've got lots of little "seeps" on hillsides around here, but nothing that would supply enough flow to rely on for livestock, or household use.