Adventures in Off-Grid Construction

Well, the water project has turned out to be a much bigger effort than anyone anticipated. The well was drilled in the beginning of August, and instead of the predicted 250 feet or so, it turned out to be 515 feet deep.

Two weeks ago, the Randy Todd, excavator extraordinaire arrived and started working on the trenches and tanks. Of course, we are built on solid rock. That might sound great when you think about houses sliding or settling, etc, but when you think about digging trenches, it is a little trickier. We knew that, of course, but we thought that the rock would only be near the ridge. Once he started digging, it quickly became apparent that it is rock nearly everywhere. Randy has a big backhoe, which he pounded away with and got the holes for the cistern and septic tanks dug. But when he was digging the trenches that actually go to the house and the bathhouse, he hit rock so solid he couldn't bust through it with the backhoe. So we rented an excavator and he pounded away with that.

It did manage to get through the rock and get the trenches deep enough, but it took all day to get it done.

When he was done digging the whole yard was torn up into piles of broken rock and there were five or six feet deep trenches everywhere. We put planks across some of them to get access to the storage shed and outhouse. It made getting around quite exciting for a week or so.

Then the cistern and septic tanks had to be delivered by a 30-foot long rail truck with only two wheel drive. The day they were supposed to be delivered was the ONLY day in the last two weeks when it poured down rain in torrents until the road was so muddy and slick that even four-wheel-drive vehicles like ours had trouble getting through. So the delivery was postponed for a week. When the new day came, the road was dry and in good shape, so after lots of backing and maneuvering the truck got through and managed to back down our driveway around all the trees and things and installed the septic tank. It was quite impressive watching the driver manage the whole thing. On the way out, he scraped up a couple of trees, but we were so happy to have the tanks in, we didn't mind.

While we had the trenches open, we decided to install piping for propane. The local propane company brought up a 500 gallon tank and installed it, but they wouldn't hook it up to the bathhouse because the on-demand water heater isn't vented. So now we'll put a vent on it so they can hook it up, and then we'll have enough propane for the whole year without having to wrestle those 170 pound cylinders around. They can only get here to fill the tank in the summer, so we're going to keep the cylinders just in case 500 gallons isn't enough for the winter. But we don't anticipate having to use them.

When Randy was done with the water lines and the tanks had been set in place and buried, he put in the drain field where all those lovely lupines were blooming last summer. Sigh. Well, we'll seed it with a native grass seed and hope that the lupines come back on their own. He also wiped out all but three of the wild roses that were growing along the entry path. Fortunately, there were no solid rocks near where the drainfield went so it was easy to dig and the drainfield perked well and will work properly. When Randy was done, the trenches were all filled in and he smoothed everything out, and now I have a nice place to build a garden (it will need high, strong fences to keep out the deer and elk and will have to have raised beds because the clay-on-rock that is there now won't be great for growing). I saved as many rosehips as I could find, so I am hoping to reseed the roses. Randy claims they come back after being disturbed, but I'm skeptical. It will be nice to have less buckbrush right behind the house, though. And he cleared out all the downed trees and stumps and took out a few trees to make room for the drain field which opened up a little bit of a view of the next ridge over from the back porch. So once the vegetation comes back, everything will be as nice as ever.

After Randy was done, Hank, the pump installer, came and installed a fancy German solar pump in the well. Then he spent a day with Tom and me pouring concrete in a big hole that Randy had dug for him in the rock on the ridge - all to install a pipe for the new solar panels to be mounted on.

These solar panels will be dedicated to running the pump. The pump will fill the cistern when the sun is shining, and we will use the little pumps that Doug and Nancy used to move water as booster pumps (in addition to a pressure tank we'll install in the bathhouse) to supply pressure to the bathhouse and main house plumbing. Once the concrete we poured yesterday is cured, Hank will install the solar panels and the float switch in the cistern to turn the pump on and off. Then, to clean out the well of whatever is left from the drilling, we'll run water for awhile from a frostproof standpipe we had Randy install near the house. Once the water is clean, we'll plumb up the bathhouse. We are hoping that will be done by the end of the week. Then we'll have running water that doesn't have to be hauled in. At last.

Only the bathhouse will be plumbed this winter, because time is running short before winter. But that will be fine for this year. Next summer we'll add permanent plumbing for the kitchen sink and build a little half-bath upstairs between the master bedroom and the guestroom/loft. But I'm getting ahead of myself. For now, the water project is still going, but the end is in sight. And every step of the way took twice as long as planned and cost twice as much as hoped. When we finally have water, we'll have to really, really appreciate it. We'll be taking showers in liquid gold.