Homestead mailing list

[bob ford <bobford79 AT yahoo.com>]

Yes it does;  Thank's for taking the time to explain.  If you could engineer 
a way to pump the cold air from 40 feet fown you could cool your house as 
well as the produce.  I don't know if it could be done.

Any in case you have a really neat set-up.  I am sure that a well such as 
yours with visible live water running 40 feet beneath is not often seen.  If 
you ever post pictures of the well on the web, please advise.  Thank's 
again...bobford

--- On Tue, 6/24/08, eureka AT hctc.net <eureka AT hctc.net> wrote:

> From: eureka AT hctc.net <eureka AT hctc.net>
> Subject: Re: [Homestead] Does this idea stink?
> To: bobford79 AT yahoo.com, homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
> Date: Tuesday, June 24, 2008, 4:14 PM
> Our place used to be the town's blacksmith shop in
> 1860's. 
> That structure was presumably torn down and the post 
> office was built on the same location in the 40's which
> is 
> now our house now. The well is chiseled through solid 
> limestone, karst, and limestone conglomerate and is a neat 
> rectangular shaft about 3' x 4' or 4' x 5'
> wide. The six 
> feet or so of the shaft nearer to the top has concrete 
> sides, I suppose to keep dirt out. The rock shaft sort of 
> ends about 40 feet down and there's some kind of hollow
> 
> pocket or cave beneath it where the water flows 
> horizontally, like a river or spring. One nearby pioneer 
> well like mine still has the wooden beams to pull the 
> water up with a bucket and rope. My guess is the 
> blacksmith dug it.
> 
> Town wells in the 1900's around here are two-story
> above 
> ground concrete boxes, a door to the spring house and the 
> water in a tank above. Some of the old timers told me this 
> is how they kept their produce cool in the old days.
> It's 
> possible we could build something over ours attached to 
> the well house. Maybe the cool from down in the well would 
> would suffice. Or we could try to do a spring house with 
> the water above. Does this help to visualize?
> 
> --Sage
> 
> On Tue, 24 Jun 2008 13:12:13 -0700 (PDT)
>   bob ford <bobford79 AT yahoo.com> wrote:
> > This sounds like a fantsastic place; but I am
> confused. 
> > Did the man with the pick axe dig a forty foot deep 
> >hole? what are the other approx. dimensions? And, what
> is 
> >holding up the sides of the hole?  I can't quite 
> >visualize what you are describing  .  ...bobford
> > 
> > 
> > --- On Tue, 6/24/08, eureka AT hctc.net
> <eureka AT hctc.net> 
> >wrote:
> > 
> >> From: eureka AT hctc.net <eureka AT hctc.net>
> >> Subject: Re: [Homestead] Does this idea stink?
> >> To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
> >> Date: Tuesday, June 24, 2008, 2:04 PM
> >> No, I'm deathly allergic to fish and
> shellfish. We live 
> >> five minues from a crystal clear river..if I
> should ever 
> >> overcome the problem and be starving to death,
> I'd get
> >> my 
> >> fish from there. (I actually enjoy fly fishing).
> >> 
> >> We'd like a place to store winter squash,
> potatoes, 
> >> onions, our home canning jars, etc. Most of the
> pioneer 
> >> homes around here had 'spring houses' for
> >> this...square 
> >> above ground concrete rooms with the top
> "floor"
> >> being a 
> >> container for the water pumped from the well. Our 
> >>pioneer 
> >> well is outside the pump house with a large ground
> level 
> >> metal plate covering it weighted in place with
> some 
> >>large 
> >> stones. The hole is rectangular, about the size it
> would 
> >> take a man with a pick axe to carve, and about 40
> feet 
> >> deep with water flowing like a river in a sheet
> across a 
> >> deeper pool on the bottom of it. So there is also
> the 
> >> consideration of building something over the well
> for 
> >>cool 
> >> storage, maybe attached to the well house like an 
> >> addition. The water comes out of the ground here
> at 65 
> >> degrees. Would this be a better solution?
> >> 
> >> --Sage
> >> 
> >> On Tue, 24 Jun 2008 14:37:08 -0500
> >>   Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com> wrote:
> >> > 
> >> > On Jun 24, 2008, at 2:34 PM,
> <eureka AT hctc.net>
> >> wrote:
> >> > 
> >> >> This thing was custom poured, not prefab,
> probably
> >> when
> >> >> the house was built. The opening is
> roughly a 3
> >> foot
> >> >> square lid about two feet away from the
> house and
> >> about
> >> >> six feet from the kitchen door. It's
> at least
> >> six feet
> >> >> deep, maybe a 10 foot square. The wall
> away from
> >> the 
> >> >>house
> >> >> is perpendicular to the ground, but the
> wall
> >> opposite it
> >> >> slopes to somewhere under the house. The
> field
> >> line that
> >> >> once drained it's former function was
> clay
> >> pipe that
> >> >> collapsed (thus, the problem). As a
> container it
> >> appears
> >> >> relatively water tight (maybe good for a
> septic,
> >> not 
> >> >>good
> >> >> for a cellar?). If it leaks, it is
> minimal as we
> >> tested
> >> >> our well when all this came to light and
> they told
> >> us
> >> >> there was not enough nitrogen in the
> sample to
> >> have been
> >> >> contaminated by the septic tank.
> >> > 
> >> > Do you like to eat fish?
> >> > 
> >> >
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