We have thirty-five acres in southern Colorado, which we bought a couple of years ago. Some of the photos we have posted here on the site are from that land. It is absolutely beautiful and is where we plan to spend free time once we have finished building the homestead in southeastern NM.
The acreage in Colorado has a trout stream running through one corner of the property, so water was available already. However, when we bought the land, the previous owner had already applied for and been granted a homestead well permit for the property. We decided to go ahead and make use of the permit and get a well dug and capped for future building.
Obviously, we are not currently in urgent need of the well, so we told the well-digger to put us on his schedule when it worked best for him and sort of put it to the back of our minds.
This morning he called and told us the great news: We have a well!
Originally, when we talked to him about the job, he told us that other wells in the general area were drilled from 100-180 feet in depth to get a good supply of water, so we had prepared ourselves for that cost (hoping it wouldn’t go much more than 100 feet). At $36/foot for the drilling cost (not including a pump or any accessories — just the digging and capping) in the area, we were expecting a hefty bill to be due.
We got a wonderful surprise… the well only needed to be drilled to 40 feet in depth. He said the water level is only 8-10 feet below the surface, so we are very happy. Instead of a potential cost of $6480, we think the cost will be about $1440.
(with all the bulldozer purchases, we need all the savings we can get!)
With only 40 feet in depth, we have a lot more options available to us on the type of pump we use. Even a hand pump (like the photo) would work for this well. We have a wide range of choices… manual pump ($99 – $1000, depending on quality and features — the Bison pumps are pricey), solar pump and tank (investigation still needed). We don’t plan to have the pump left on-site when we aren’t there for the time being. Too much temptation for a would-be pump thief.
40 feet is amazingly shallow.
Tell Jack the aquifers aren’t all dry yet. 😉
After talking with the well driller, he told us that sometimes there are layers of clay that hold the water above it and provide pockets of water. Apparently, this is what he was lucky enough to find on our land.
We can spare ourselves the guilt of drawing water from the deep aquifers that don’t replenish quickly…