New Well Pump

 We weren't having any trouble but the old one was 18 years old and we didn't want it to fail on December 26 during an ice storm when no one could get up the hill so we proactively replaced it. Well is 430'. Hull's did the work as they did the first one.  

The water was cloudy for 2 days but we are set for another 18 years now.

Water problem

Have to drink beer and can't do any light laundry.  The well had a mud problem on Saturday that made our water look like week-old toilet water.  Luckily it didn't smell. It's slowly clearing now.

Geothermal

Drillers have found the water line and all 4 wells have hoses in them.  They will probably use the shale drill filings form a base for the hoses in the trenches.  They brought washed filing to put down the wells--washed filings do not clump up as they get shoveled down the wells and that makes for much better contact to the hoses.

They are now drilling holes into the basement wall for the various geothermal hoses and water line to enter the basement and get connected to the water and heat pump distribution manifolds. There are 2 holes for each well plus one for the water.  If the holes had been moved over just inches they would have missed drilling through rebar. 

Adrian was hard at work on the ducting in the basement.  We will have 2 air exchangers that will exit the front wall--laundry, stove, and powder room vents will be out back, so there was concern about the exchangers taking in air that had just be exhausted to the outside if they were all positioned in the back of the house.  We'll see if we can get the air exchange vents (4" x 4") in metal and painted the same as the siding to make them blend in.

It's easier to see the wave now that we have 3 panels installed.

Wells complete

Well drillers made repairs to the rig and started drilling the first well at 0930. It was noisy and dusty at the Barony today.  Lots of gray pulverized rock in the drilling tailings.  It's finely ground shale that looks like concrete dust and packs as firmly when wet. They will move the tailings and will use our tractor to pick it up.  Tomorrow they put the geothermal hoses down into the 4 200' wells.  

Jonas is applying the final finish coat to the treads in the shed. They will set up over the weekend and be ready for  installation next week.

Jeff put a vent out of the upstairs bathroom.
The wall hangers are taping off the edges where the wall board meets the timbers.

 John and Doug are trimming out the front door and windows with the HardiePlank trim pieces.

But, our water is a horrible dirty brown now. There's no smell. I hope it clears soon.

Jonas delivered the first baluster section with the walnut balusters and the curved copper tubing running through the balusters. Wow! The copper has been lacquered so it will stay shiny.  Walnut, copper and maple hand railing with the hemlock posts and pine floor: it can't get any better than that. He and Bill will continue assembling the rest of the baluster sections as they have all the parts and pieces cut and ready to be put together. He also put on the initial finish coat on the maple treads for all the stairs. He set up outside but the winds yesterday were blowing hard and dusty, so he moved his paint shop down to the shed which provided shelter from the wind and dust. We could have had a problem last night because we left the shed door open and it rained; luckily the storm was very short and had no wind.

Doug, John, and Cody have most of the master bedroom flooring installed. They put down cardboard to protect the flooring in the great room.  I stood in the hall between the master bed and bath when the windows  were open: we may not need a fan in there.  What a difference the west (or down hill) windows make in ventilation.
Adrian has extended the HVAC ducting down in the basement. James and Nick continued to hang dry wall, finishing on the main floor and moving into the breezeway. After the breezeway they will work on the basement.  They say they'll have the scraps for Freecycling this weekend.
Kohl's delivered some of the exterior siding and it is stacked in front of the house. Chris painted the soffit pieces since it's the only HardiePlank that didn't come with factory paint. It might have been closer if stacked along the side the house, but we need access there for the geothermal well driller's rig which arrived today. I thought it was supposed to be the size of a Hummer: not exactly but they promise they can get around back.

Eastern tent caterpillars are chewing on the cherry trees and ticks are evading the chickens. And, I picked some garlic mustard on our walk yesterday as I was hacking fallen branches and roses along the trail.

Psycho: the movie

Remember when the walls of the shower were covered in dripping blood? Well, I didn't see blood, but it took me a minute to realize what I did see. I stepped into the shower, heard a "thunk" and the lights flashed. A moment later as I was about to dunk my head, a gray mudball splashed out of the showerhead onto the wall. I smelled mud, too. It took a couple of minutes for the water to become almost clear, but since I didn't know what was going on, I quickly rinsed off in pale gray chunky water and got out. Crisis? dry well? Of course! This was at 0600 so I went to work with visions of worst case 'no water for days' dancing in my head, and waited till 0800 to call Hull's Well Drilling. Keith came out, drained the storage tank which ran crystal clear, and decided that, Yep, it was a mudball. Fork over $50 please. (Better than $5000 for a new well.) It may have affected the hot water heater; I was only getting luke-cool dish washing water. That'll be another bummer for the morning shower.