The well

Back again! A lot has happened since about a month ago, although not as much as we might have hoped.

Water:

Our contractor for digging the water well called and said he would be able to come out the following week. In anticipation I cleared out the area designated for the drilling; nothing major, just got rid of a few small trees and brush so the drilling rig could could have access to the area. We also had to get some stone to build up the soft area where the 16,000 pound rig would need to cross over the ditch where the electrical conduit had been installed. My neighbor Chris was kind enough to come over with his tractor and drop a bucket or two of stone to take care of this. We used the stone from the "quarry" we used for our road construction.

Here's what the drilling rig looks like....


The rig made a lot of noise and took quite a few hours, but in the end they hit water somewhere around 250 feet down (I think). Once they hit water they checked to see if we would have adequate water flow - we ended up around 4-5 gallons per minute. It was fun to see when they let some water come up to give us an example of the water flow. We also got to put our heads over the well and listen to the water gurgling deep down below; Sharon was really tickled by that....





The well driller will be back to make the connection to the house once construction progresses far enough to allow this. And speaking of progress (or lack of it).....

The Power Company Saga Continues..

Our excavator also installed the conduit and pull rope for the electric line underground. Once this was done it was up to me to take care of the details of prepping the area for electrical service. This entailed two parts: (1) Installing the pad / base that the new transformer would go on and (2) digging up to the transformer at my neighbor's place so the power company can make the connection. The electrical contractor for Wayne Homes came out and installed a pole and wiring to get temporary power to the homesite. With a lot of assistance from my neighbor Gary (since I know nothing about this stuff) we got the pad I had picked up from the power company installed according to their specs. I had previously done a good bit of digging by hand to extend the ditch up to the edge of the transformer at my neighbor's place. After sending some pictures to the power company guy, I was told that I needed to dig around to the other side of the transformer so the connection could be made. This was extremely frustrating since I really know nothing about electricity, connections, etc, and the power company guy was throwing out terms like "stubbing out" as if I should know what that is.

I had to go away on a work trip, so Sharon had to take care of calling the PA One Call service so that they could come out and mark where the existing power lines were. When I got back, my neighbor and I did some additional
digging so the line could be installed in the correct place. We received a sizable downpour during this time. This is what I looked like after spending a few hours in a muddy ditch...




After finishing up the digging it was time for me to leave again for another work trip. After looking at the pictures we sent, the power company guy said we had to do a little more digging and tweaking to get things right. Luckily my neighbor Gary was able to make the changes, take more pictures and get them to Sharon to send to the power company guy. Gary has been an absolute godsend for us.

I then emailed the power company guy (hereafter known as "PCG")after a few days away to see what our status was. He said he needed some information from us regarding our property in order to square things away concerning the right of way for the power line. Sharon was able to dig up the info and get it to me so I could send it along. After waiting a few days for that info to marinate, I sent a followup email to the PCG to see if anything else was needed. I got an auto-reply that said he would be out of the office for a few days. I waited until after he was to be back in the office and followed up with another email. I got ANOTHER auto-email that said he was taking the Labor Day weekend off (including Friday) - so he was in the office for maybe 2 days it seems between his two absences.

In the meantime our Wayne Homes Field Manager said they were moving our dig date from mid-August to early September to allow time for the temporary power to get hooked up. My next task is to call and email the PCG daily until some action is taken....

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