Big things are happening in the next two weeks:
We will have our well dug. Our house is not located in good water country. The soil is clay-based, and beneath it lies sulfur. Lots of it. The question for the past two months has been; Drill or Dig? The benefits of a drilled well are cleaner water, and a more stable supply. However, being on a bed of clay, makes drilling very costly. Because you pay by the foot, to drill past the clay in search of water can break the bank. What's more, once you get to water, it WILL carry the signatuir sulfiric egg smell that, untreated will blanket our beautiful home in an unwanted odour. To treat sulfure is an added cost, that we truly hoped to avoid.
Digging is the method we have settled on, but it comes with it's own set of problems. A shallow well is at the mercy of the water table's monthly fluctuations. During hot months, when the water table drops, the contents of our well will too. Practically, this means that we will have to live conservationally during the summer. Part of me thinks, no problem, we can do it. But part of me thinks about the string of visitors we hope to have during the summer, all wanting showers. And the gradens I had hoped to have that will require watering. And the predicted warming of the climate. Hey, our lives and our water are in God's hands.
Contamination is another possible problem with a dug well. Ground water runoff from the road and farmers fields seeps down into earth and makes it into a shallow well without much difficulty. This really concerned me. We are surrounded by farm fields that are likely sprayed with chemicals, and it doesn;t help that I just recently watched a horrifying documentary on U.S. Agribusiness and cancer rates. We were assured that, with proper filtration, we would have nothing to worry about. Once again, our lives and our water are in God's hands.
Our floor will be poured. Big step, since not much else can be done until that is in place. Most of you know that we decided to put inground heating into the first two floors of the house. This means that coils are laid down, and cement poured over. Because we have other things to spend on, we've decided to keep the floors cement for the first year until we can afford to put hardwood down. Sounds bleak and industrial looking, but Karin and I went to a restaurant last night with cement flouring. It was tinted dark brown and buffed. Very nice...
Recently, we aquired a new phone number! I got a call last week from a mystery number, and when I picked it up, Aidan said; "Guess where I'm calling from?" We also discovered an internet provider for our area who will be able to set us up in the near future. We were worried for awhile because the provider we thought was our only option is currently backed up until October!
Crazy days, these are. What a rush.
