0023

OK, here's that fresh new day; time to operate on the pump cylinder. Of course, I don't really know what I'm doing here. Maybe that galvanized thing I see in the 8-inch gap below the housing base is the cylinder, or maybe the cylinder is up inside the housing, and the galvanized thing is just a pipe. Anyway, it's time for me to do something.

I wedge a 2x4 between the spigot and pump house wall, get a good purchase on the cylinder/pipe with my 24-inch pipe wrench, and crank with all my strength. No movement; need more leverage. I find a 48-inch length of 2-inch pipe, slip it over the pipe wrench handle, and try again, easing my whole weight into it. There - the joint breaks free. Good. Take the extension off, now I can loosen more with just the pipe wrench. Excellent.

Now, of course, I don't want to drop the cylinder into the well, so I stop loosening. I find a U-bolt slightly larger than the cylinder, 1¾", I guess. I tighten that onto the cylinder, and, with 2x4 sleepers under the U-bolt, I jack the whole thing up and remove the blocks under the housing base. Now everything is resting on the U-bolt connection, which also provides resistance to prevent the cylinder from turning, as I simply rotate the pump housing until I can feel that it is completely loose. Standing up on blocks, I carefully lift the cast iron housing up and over the loose connection, and carry it off out of the way. As I do so, I'm thinking it's heavy, but not as heavy as I had anticipated. So, there's some serious weight in the cylinder/pipe portion, too. I look inside the housing as I put it down - nothing like a cylinder inside.

I turn back to the cylinder/pipe. Now that I can see it clearly, it doesn't look like anything special. It looks just like a galvanized pipe sticking up out of the well, with a threaded rod running down inside it. How far down does this pipe extend, and where is the cylinder that Willie was talking about? I don't really know how this well works.

As I stand there scratching my head, the U-bolt slips without warning, and the whole pipe vanishes down inside the casing with a sickeningly distant ploosh!

Other than a quick gasp, I am paralyzed, too numb to even curse. I stand there looking dumbly down at what used to be my well, and slowly realize that I feel very weary. I absentmindedly place a bucket upside-down over the open end of the casing (maybe I should write "R.I.P." on the bucket, and bid good-bye to my well), and go inside to lie down. Not to think, not to pray, just lie down, in the middle of the morning.

Eventually, I rouse myself enough to go back and assess the ruin. I look down into the casing. Total blackness. I run my 25-foot tape measure down. At 18 feet, it hits something solid - the top of the dropped pipe, I suppose. I jiggle it past and extend it further. At 20 feet, I hear it hit water. So the pipe is 18 feet from my reach, inside a 3-inch casing. It is irretrievable. And so, my well is no more. Maybe my short-lived adventure is no more, too. I certainly can't afford to have a new well drilled. And without my own water, how would I continue?

I listlessly putter in the garden for awhile. Mid-afternoon I walk down to the mailbox. Wayne is doing something out by his garage. I walk over.

"Hi, Wayne, how's everything?"

"Oh, hi, Jerry. Can't complain. How about you?"

"Oh, I could complain, if I thought it would do any good." I tell him about dropping my well pipe without hope of retrieval.

"You should talk to old Arnold S____. I hear he's pulled dropped pipes out of deeper wells than yours."

"Really? I don't see how that's possible."

Wayne shrugs. "All I'm saying is, that's what I've heard. Old Arnold has been around a lot longer than Willie, and he knows lots of tricks. I guess he's got some kind of gizmo that can grab that pipe and get it back up. Anyway, it's worth a shot, I'd say."

"Boy, that would be a life saver."

Wayne gives me directions to Arnold's place. It's right on the way to town. I thank Wayne, get my mail, and walk back, wondering if such a miracle might really be possible.