Well... Well... Well...

Actually this post should read Motherf***ing#^$%^$#%$#!$#^$& well!

Sigh. Living in the country is not without it's challenges. Most people in this country take for granted turning on the tap and having water come out. Living outside of almost any urban centre means you have a well. Now, here's where growing up in the country (as a kid/teenager) and living in the country divert down very different paths. Rarely did things like the well running dry really have much impact on my life (short showers maybe, but that's it), since it was never my responsibly to have to do anything about it (besides, we had an Artesian well growing up, so even if the pump lost it's prime, within 20 mins things were back up and running. Now however, there's a family behind me who can't drink, shower or flush the damn toilet! (do you smell something?). This segues nicely into a favourite topic of mine... conservation. Now, this is not the first time we've run into a problem here, so I've got some insight into the subject, however this time I was caught off guard. The first summer we moved to this house was blazingly hot and there was a period through July/August where it didn't rain for almost 6 weeks. We never really thought much about the well all summer, as we always had water and though we didn't waste it, we really didn't look out for it much either. Then, when I was away and my darling wife was at home alone, poof, the well went dry. I also learned that our well wasn't very deep either, I had thought it drilled (this is what the real estate info had said), but lo and behold, the well was dug and only 27ft deep. Of course, there are pros and cons to both, types of wells, just as there are about 1/2 a dozen other options for a potable water source for the home, but I digress (for now). Suffice to say, despite the fact that we are careful about the water we use, and are always after the kids to not waste any (my daughter loves to leave the blasted tap running all the time) and we've replaced the washing machine and dishwasher this year with models that conserve water (the washer had the lowest water consumption of all other models on the market) and the fact that it has rained a lot this year, and I checked the damn well only a few weeks ago and we had plenty of water we still ran out. So where'd it all go? Good fraking question. OK, end of rant... for now, suffice to say, water will be a hot topic of a future blog, to be sure, as I want a better system for ensuring the tap doesn't run dry, with global warming, and unpredictable weather, one can't be too prepared...