Well

Pay attention.

To have a garden or cows and chickens or drinking water you need a well. The happy thing about our town, Big Sandy, there is an ocean of water about 25 feet below the ground (depending on hill or valley.) Thus, using a simple air driven tool it is possible to hand drill a well and get abundant water.

This project starts with a drilling tool made from a Harbor Freight Die Grinder, PVC pipe, flexible air hose and a welded star with carbide teeth. I used a post hole digger to start a 6 inch diameter hole. Filled the hole with water and kept it full of water until finished. Connected the drill to an air compressor and lowered the spinning tool into the hole. The air exhaust from the die grinder air jetted water and mud out of the hole. Down I went.

I know what you are thinking, this piece of monkey machinery is not going to drill a well. Let me assure you that I have two wells, one 71 feet deep, one 81 feet deep. Drilled them myself. Cased the holes with 6 inch PVC pipe, dropped a deep well pump in the cased hole, hooked up the electric and out came water, lots of water, plenty of water, needed a regulator to control the water.

Here is the well head showing the well casing coming out of the ground for the 81 foot deep well, black pipe from the deep pump feeding into the above ground storage. The white pipe is from the 71 foot deep well off thru the woods. The wiring on the top right is for water level sensors that prevent the system from over load when there is too much or too little water.

The weld control panel is also home made. Bottom white PVC pipe is conduit for AC power, sensors and pump power. Left center is an AC circuit breaker; just above that is a distribution block to distribute 220 volt AC, 110 volt AC, 12 VDC power. The two lighted terminals at the top are a thermostat control to add heat to the above ground components to prevent freezing and a timing circuit to regulate AC to the three pumps in the system: 81 ft well pump, 71 ft well pump and above ground water delivery pump. At the right side are the 3 controlled relays which swith AC power to the 3 pumps.

This is the above ground water delivery pump. It pressurizes the blue bladder tank in the upper inage, which maintains a constant 40 lb pressure in the plumbing ststem.

From this well system there are pipes going everywhere underground to the house, barn, garden, chickens, cows and even to the pond. Excess water is piped to the pond to keep the system running slow and steady all year long.

I know this is not pretty but this is one of my best projects, and, yes, I did drill a hole 81 feet deep, 6 inches in diameter, into a pool of water, capped it, controlled it and used it. By myself.

Pets

Over the years we have had several pets at Jubilee. Here are the first ones we moved here with.

This is Worthmore, a Cockatiel we found in the bushes at Sandra's school. His name comes from the saying, "A bird in the hand is Worthmore........."

This is Ivan, a beautiful Dalmation that loved to run around the pasture and roll in cow poop. And was terrified of baths. 

Our sweet little Shih Tzu, Su Ling, out for a walk without her bows and decorations. When people asked what kind of dog she was, and us being surrounded by hill billies I avoided the words Shih Tzu and just said, "A little Chinese dog"

And this is Minnie, our tailess, climbing, bird hunting Manx cat. Minnie hates visitors and we might not see her for days after having company.

the Name Jubilee

We chose Jubilee as the name for our farm after we retired, bought this place and moved here from Garland. In the Bible the Hebrews had a periodic retirement. See Leviticus 25:8-13. Slaves were set free, the land allowed to rest, debts forgiven and a general return to the beginning. So, we being set free from work, debts, obligations, used the name Jubilee for our new beginning.

Set free from work? Hardly. Let the work begin.

Jack Daniels

Jack Daniels is my staggering drunk tractor.

His actual name is: 1946 Farmall Super A. The 1946 is Jack's year of birth which makes him 6 years younger than me. Farmall is the brand name of International Harvester. The Super means he has hydraulics and can lift and lower tools, for example the underbelly mower he carries. The A means model design. Or maybe it means Can't Drive Straight.

My wife bought Jack for me. It was like this. The previous property owner would not sell me Jack and I would not buy the farm without him. Sandra, reading the deed, pointed out some discrepancies and told the seller, "Just give him the tractor and we will forget about this error". So, I got Jack.

Jack is actually a pretty good mower, except that there is no power steering and it takes an acre to turn and start the next row, along with staggering. There is a two-brake system meaning you can lock one wheel and sort of spin Jack around but let me suggest that you don't want to do that in our sandy soil. Big Hole. Check out that belly mower. Grass be gone.

 I have driven Jack in the Pritchett Community Christmas Parade for 18 years. It is no small feat to stagger along the 3/4 mile parade route with no flat tires, out of gas, out of radiator water, missing parts, injured pesdestrians or falling in a ditch. Almost, but we survived every time.

Jack was built when Rust was a Designer Color. People ask me why I don't get a fresh coat of paint for Jack but I say Jack won't put up with it. I'm the same. Somedays I just don't want to wash up when I come in.

Here is Jack staring down his factory-mate who is remodeled and bragging about it. My good friend Eddie Turner; a bit too proud of his bright red bucket-of- bolts.

Here is Jack all gussied up for the Christmas Parade. Ain't he pretty.

Kids love to drive Jack around the Farm.

As I said, the "kids" like to drive Jack Daniels. (don't run into my fence Pat)

Take a Hike

Jubilee is a beautiful place to take a slow walk within the 12 acres. There is color all year long. Here are some photos which I have tried to place by date but arranging photos does not work well for Blogger. 

Peach tree. This is a variety which produces multi  color blooms but no peaches.

Daisies

Daffodils. We have about 6 varieties of early blooming bulbs: Paper Whites, Coral Bells, King Alfred, White Daffodils, Yellow Daffodils and Green Double Blosoms.

More Daffodils. Don't know the name. They are everywhere, in the trees, along the driveway and beside the fences.

This is a native Pear Tree. Does not produce fruit but they are everywhere out in the woods, along with Mexican Plum.

A Crabapple Tree. Beautiful, long lasting blooms but a bit drought intolerant. They need some water so they must be kept close to the house.

Bluebonnets. My Aunt told me that we had to have Bluebonnets at Jubilee or people might think we were Yankees. She did not realize how difficult it is to grow Bluebonnets in Sandy, Acid Soil. Never-the-less we have persisted to the point that we have a small, annual patch of Bluebonnets.

Cactus is native to our area, but in decline due to weed eradication. We kept 2 small patches in an out of the way place. Also Spanish Bayonett. But, you must watch either one because they can spread and take over.

One of the Azeleas left by the original owners. I have planted plenty of new Azeleas that do not grow so I wonder how the first owners did it.

My favorite Dogwood. We have a few dozen of them but the drought has been hard on Dogwoods and Texas Red Maple, both shy, shade loving trees.

Standing Cypress. These guys just show up at odd times and odd places. I guess they are odd seeds in a general flower seed mix.

Brazillian Spider Lily. I dug up this sample near the river bottoms of Lake Hawkins.

The Wildflowers around the apron of the pond. I do not let the cows graze here so the flowers last all Summer and regenerate in the Spring.

Along with cactus we have a tiny patch of Palmetto which is native to our area but in decline because pasture development. There is no blossom that I know of but it is just as welcome at Jubilee as the bold bloomers.

One of the larger wild Pear with a Red Bud Tree trying to open in the background. We have lots of small Red Buds; they grow up everywere, very drought tolerant and eventually grow to size to bloom early in the Spring.

Blue Phlox.

Wildflowers down by Dam Pond. Lots of Drummond Phlox; Scatlet, Pink, White and variegated. In fact there are 4 different types of Phlox; some shade loving, some full sun.

There is a walking trail that goes around the property; in the woods, along the driveway and out in small openings. It is a pleasant walk, up hill and down, with benches along the way.

 And, just around the next turn is something like this.

Varmints

Varmints: we got em. Or they got us.

We have seen Red Fox, Bobcat, Skunk, Racoon, Possum, Squirrel, White Tail Deer, Coyote and a Black Panther - but no photos. Our varmints are rather shy, I guess.

But, we did get a phone camera shot of 3 deer from 600 feet. Yes, there are 3 deer in the photo. Out of focus but what do you expect from 600 feet?

Here is the photo of the Black Panther, the next morning, in the daylight. I was not going to go out in the woods, at night, in the dark, with no protection but a flash camera just to get you an out of focus picture of a wild, savage, man-eating monster with my hands trembling. In the dark. Alone. But we saw it in the headlights of the car while coming home, for 5 seconds.

Looking for supper, it was.

Here is my favorite varmint to show to visitors. They don't stay for supper. The visitors, that is. 

Little varmint, a  Chicken Snake , is but 5 1/2 feet long.

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Solar

One of our early troubles at Jubilee was the constant failure of electrical service. You might expect such in a rural, heavily wooded area; winds get up, trees start swaying, limbs breaking, power line down. Also, squirrels had a "death wish" and played across the terminals of the transformer; pop, squirrels flying thru the air, no electric service.

We are addicted to internet and TV, plus we have multiple freezers full of beef, chicken, pork, vegetables and precooked meals. We did not want to loose electric power, so I assembled a solar electric service. We have 18 panels on the roof, a power regulator, an AC distributor and a bank of serious, deep cycle, batteries.

The solar panels on the roof, tilted for good mid-day sun exposure.

Home-made regulator system. Solar panel input top right, DC to AC converter center  left, power meters center right (to monitor system status), DC battery input-output buss bottom right, AC output to house bottom center with insertable DC lamp on a cable. Also included is a thermostatic fan to remove heat on hot days.

 

The back screened porch stoop where the batteries are stored. Lots of DC power storage capacity. Room for more.

Inside the house is grey wiring and black duplex outlets to distribute AC power to important needs; kitchen, TV cabinet, freezer, etc.

After all that work to design, buy parts, assemble and make it work the electric company did a major line clean-up thus electric fails went from once a week to once a month. Overall, we never missed a TV show, did without internet or lost any freezer food.

Three things I would explain to people who get starry eyed about solar power: 1. If you use it all day everyday, you have nothing in storage for a 4 day emergency. 2. The more you attach to your electrical wiring the bigger your solar needs become. Best to not run every appliance at the same time. 3. There is no solar capacity at night, during a cloudy day or in Boston. Just don't assume that a thousand dollars of solar gadgets will cover your air-conditioning bill. Americans are being sold a load of bull-"chips" about solar power capacity. Reread the sentence about Boston.