Man, some people are such LIARS!

Okay, so my parents and I decided to sell the four acres I grew up on that we've held on to all these years. For years I'd planned on at some point moving back there and building a house... but my life is totally different now, and my desires are different. It's not that I don't still love the land - I do, ticks, giant spiders and all... but I'm not particularly fond of the neighbors.

Anyway, so, love my parents though I do, they're not very good at breaking personal inertia (I can sympathize) so I introduced them to my realtor (If anybody wants to buy or sell a house around here, I gotta say Kathy Reardon has MORE than earned her commission with the house we're buying - she's a great sweetie) and basically held their hands through most of the proceedings... and there were interested buyers willing to pay full price. Woohoo! So they had an inspector go up to check on the well and septic tank that's already out there.

Let me tell you the history on this well. When my parents first moved to this land, they couldn't afford to have a well drilled. Mom was 7 months pregnant at the time. Their neighbors said that when THEY moved in, they had a similar problem, and THEIR neighbors let them run a hose to the house until they could save up to dig their own well, and that they were willing to pass it forward, so to speak. My parents very gratefully said thank you, and took them up on their offer. However, when I was about 4 months old, right before christmas, the water suddenly stopped. When dad went over to check to see what was wrong, he discovered that the couple had evidently been having marital problems, and one or the other or both of them had left, and nobody had paid the electricity bill for a while - so, no power, no water from an electric well. So I'm 4 months old; mom's doing cloth diapers, it's almost Christmas, and they have no water - she starts going down the list of well drillers in the phone book. Everybody says "Sure, we can do it.. in six months." When mom calls Mr. Cox, he took pity on her, and said that they were planning on taking christmas week off, but that they could come out and get a well drilled for my parents. He and his 19 year old son came out during their vacation... so dad cashed in his army life insurance policy, and the family had a well. (Best tasting water ever, too. I miss that water.)

So this well was put in 30 years ago this Christmas. After hurricane Kate knocked 3 trees down on the trailer up there in 85, we moved into town, and the place has been vacant ever since. J & I had been up a few times, and we'd checked the well - still worked, amazingly enough. Well, whomever the buyers had go out there to look at the well said that it had collapsed in, and quoted them $10,500 to take off the old tank & pump and get them a new well. So I called Mr. Cox's son, who was now running his father's business (his father having passed away). Not only did he remember us, he said he'd be more than happy to come out the next day and take a look at it. He explained that the reason for the high estimate was because to close up the old well, they'd have to pull out the pump, and then pump concrete down the hole to seal it off, etc (new regulation) and that most well drillers now use a rotary drill, like they do for oil drilling, only slightly modified. They charge a flat rate down to 150 ft or so, and then $12 each additional foot. Because oil drills were designed to seal off surface water above oil pockets, rotary drills for water frequently don't register any shallow water that they find, and frequently have to go as deep as 350 ft. He said they go fast; they can do that much in a day, but the way he does wells - by punching - that distance would take him 4 or 5 days. However, because of the way he punches wells, he's aware of what's happening inch by inch, and frequently doesn't have to go as deep. My parents' well was only 165 ft deep, for example.

This morning we met Mr. Cox out at the property. I think it was kind of an emotional reunion for mom, so I was glad she was there. I wish dad hadn't been feeling so poorly, I think it would have made his day too. Mr. Cox fiddled with the wires a bit, and within about 5 minutes had water gushing out. (Caved in well my aunt patootie.) He said that the wiring needed to be redone, and that the pump MIGHT need to be replaced, particularly with a slightly more powerful one, but that the well looked fine otherwise. WOOHOO! I can't wait to send his written report to the guy that the buyers had run out there & check - I think his name is Mills. He's either incompetent or dishonest - he said that he'd checked this well 4 years ago. I told the realtor that the guy was on crack or the wrong road, because nobody's been living there for forever, and certainly nobody asked to have the well checked 4 years ago! Mom joked that we should tell them if they actually WERE out there checking the well 4 years ago that she'll have them arrested for trespassing.