This is our journal of what we pray is our sojourn of life (Hebrews 11:8-10) along the narrow way (Matthew 7:14), even the old paths (Jeremiah 6:16), submitting to the Bible as a light unto both (Psalms 119:105). It is our prayer that these documented moments in our earthly time benefit whom God might choose to edify, but ultimately that God glorifies Himself through them.

Category: well

Pesky 2nd Law of Thermodynamics: Outside Wood Boxes Refurbish Time

As built into the natural order, things decay over time. I believe this is a type or a picture of death, which entered the world through sin:

Rom 6:23 – “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

And so, we can learn to see God’s hand in all things, and be reminded of sin and what its due is — death: physical, spiritual and eternal, and then be reminded of Christ Jesus, the only savior from spiritual and eternal death! Thank the Lord for so great a gift! And for designing these things in the physical realm to teach us spiritual realities!

We see lots of decaying things around here, and some end up being beneficial, as in a compost pile. But other things aren’t as helpful as that, and one of those are wood-structures. Through time, they start to fall apart, and recently I went through and refurbished several items around the homestead…

Well Box

We actually did have a well dug on our place not long after arriving. It actually still does push out water, although we need a generator to use it, and it has a lot of, I believe, nitrates or nitrites in it. And so, we stick to our catch water systems.

In order to try to keep the well hose that comes out of the well head from freezing, I built an insulated box to put over it. Well, it’s been a while, and here is where we were with it:

Decayed Well Box Covered with Blanket

Cats would come and go through the blanket holes; chickens would get in there sometimes too. And so, it was time to reconstruct the box.

Here it is uncovered:

Decayed Well Box

And then disassembled:

Disassembled Old Well Box

Here’s what was underneath. Remember about the chickens? 🙂 (Actually, this is a re-stage of the eggs, because I forgot to take a picture initially, but it was basically like this.)

Eggs in Well Box Area
Well Box Area

And then cleaned up, ready for the new box:

Well Box Area Cleaned

Here’s the well box frame. Last time, I had different heights on the ends to allow for water runoff, but with enough of a slant on the ground, I decided to just make it square this time. Also, I shorted dimensions to allow for overlapping the plywood siding at the corners, and also to have the top overlap the side plywood pieces:

New Well Box Frame

I also decided to tack on what was left of the old footer to the new footer to let that rot on the ground instead of the new footer, hopefully buying us a little more time with the new box:

New Well Box with Old Footer

Then, it was caulk the frame before putting on the plywood siding:

New Well Box Frame with Caulking

And then add the siding:

New Well Box with Siding On

And the insulation:

New Well Box Insulated

Put the box in place, ready to lower down:

New Well Box in Place Ready to Lower

And then set it in place over the well head, and caulk the corners, ready for painting:

New Well Box in Place

And then paint it, and then it’s done and ready for hopefully another 10 or 12 years!

New Well Box Painted

Well Hose End Box

Most of the well hose I buried way back when, but we of course needed part of it to stick out of the ground to attach a normal hose for the actual use of it. For that, I also built an insulated box, only just a mini version.

Here is what was left (this is a re-stage too, but it was basically like this, although not quite as cleaned out as here):

Decayed Well Hose Box

And so, here’s little brother — basically the same design:

New Well Hose Box

And painted, and in place:

New Well Hose Box in Place

Generator Box

Once again, here’s what was left:

Old Generator Box
More of Old Generator Box

And the new box. I decided to forego the flat-board insulation I had used last time, to try to help sound proof it. Most if it was gone because the chickens like to peck at it :), and we really don’t need the sound proofing:

New Generator Box

Here’s the lid:

New Generator Box Lid

And the new box and lid ready to go!

New Generator Box in Place

We thank the Lord for granting the resources and know-how to do these types of things! Again, may we learn to see and contemplate God and spiritual things from all the temporal things around us!

— David

Storing Rain III

We have already discussed two water sources which we had hoped to have here on the land: catch water systems and ponds (tanks). The third we had hoped for was to be able to have a well on the land, which is retrieving water that is stored underground, which is referred to as ground water.

Before moving down, we had purchased a do-it-yourself well driller; and after much travail, came up empty. And so I believe it was later 2006 we hired a local driller to come try to drill a well for us.

The drillers came out and asked where we would like to drill down. I had picked a spot that was somewhat between where we had planned to put a house and where we planned to put a barn, near the south fence of our fields. Those were the criteria, which obviously wasn’t much in the way of improving the possibility of hitting water, especially when the drillers still charge a per foot drilling fee regardless of if you hit water or not. But we didn’t really know of any other options, and so we proceeded.

Here is a picture of the drillers drilling:

Now, apparently hitting water out here, and hitting good water, is quite iffy. First, from what we’ve heard, there isn’t a lot of ground water available, and we are not located on any aquifers. Plus, with all of the salt water pumped into the ground during oil drilling processing of the past, the water could be unusable.

Well, as God would have it according to His graces, mercies and provisions, the drill hit water somewhere around 140 feet, and the fellow running the drill was able to taste a little and said it was pretty good water! They drilled down a little further and cased the well. Later, we were able to put a pump down it powered by a diesel generator, and thusly the Lord most graciously had granted us a working well on the land. We have since also purchased a deep well hand pump to be used if we are unable or unwilling in the future to run the generator or get a replacement pump if either fails.

At first, the well seemed to pump out an unlimited amount of water, and we got used to having that much available. It seemed we started to become a little complacent in our thankfulness for the water. Eventually though, the amount started to be limited, and I began to worry about having enough water. However, at some point, Sue, the wonderful help-meet the Lord has granted me, stated that apparently the amount of water the Lord granted from the well on a given day is exactly the amount He has provisioned for us for that day. This certainly rang true with me, and through Sue He has helped me trust Him more in regards to water from the well. We have since seen several times where the amount of water we thought we needed for the day for animals and the like was just about the exact amount that did come out of the well, and there have been times when what we thought we needed didn’t come out. Either way, now we try with God’s help to make sure we are continuingly grateful for and content with the water resources of the well that He has granted.

And as I mentioned in the first Storing Rain, we are also very thankful to the Lord Jesus for the spiritual water of life that comes from Him.

— David