Farm Journal

Thoughts and images from life at Foster Road

Entry: January 27, 2010

Journal Entries

Water Sign

Today, a strange discovery. The guys pulled up the floor in the old kitchen addition and found a wooden cover and a lead pipe under the joists. There's an old well right under what once was the kitchen! It must have been really convenient in 1850, but today it’s a little disconcerting.

I can imagine the hand pump there in the kitchen. Washing dishes in a big basin. Enjoying a draught of clear, cool water. I can also imagine standing over it in my slippers next year, knowing there's a deep hole full of dark water right under me. Under the skin of what we see, so much more going on.

I was excited at the possibility of using it as a source for a geothermal heat pump system. Heck, there’s the well we just capped a few feet from the back of the house and now this one under the floor, maybe draw from one, discharge in the other?

Nice thought, turns out to be very expensive and not in our timeline. (Did you catch the joke: timeline, very funny.) So the well’s been recapped and will be waiting for the next major renovation, probably in another century. Sleep tight.