Breaking in a new Well
My very loyal readers are painfully aware of the difficulty in finding my website BreakingWell.com. This little oasis of pointless opinions mixed perfectly with irrelevant topics is not the number one website I dreamed it would be. To demonstrate my understanding of your frustration, I did a little experiment. This experiment did not involve a Bunsen burner or a test tube because my memories of grade nine Science class experiments always ended with the classic scientific question, “Where is the fire extinguisher? “
No this experiment was fire proof. I went to a random search engine and tried to find my site. Typing in my website’s name directed me immediately to The Manderson Well Drilling Ltd. in PEI. I thought I would drill a little deeper into this website fearing they were in direct competition with me. After seconds of research it became very apparent that these fine people at Manderson are not my biggest rivals for readership. It seems they are much more interested in the health of your drilled water wells, than they are in my bewildering blogs. This only got me more curious in what they had to say because I firmly believe what interests me, will undoubtedly interest the rest of the world.
First, my immediate assumption was that Prince Edward Island and its rich red sand would be a very drill friendly place. I could not have been more wrong, unless my assumption was PEI was part of Hawaiian Islands. There are not degrees of wrong, or more accurately said: When you are wrong, you are just wrong. As I absorbed their well digging information, it became clear to me that I might be able to help those who were planning to dig a well this weekend, with some solid advice from this impressive company’s literature.
A common problem that plagues new wells is sediment in the water. Now that might not seem important to you, but that is because you are not a well drilling expert like I am now.
A more pressing problem that seems to occur frequently with your well is “rust on the well casing” that causes discolouration with your drinking water. If you are thinking that is a pretty bad problem, you would be wrong again as there are going to be much bigger issues with you and your well. As I navigated through this very well constructed website there were two topics that leaped off the page.
The two sections “Coliform Bacteria” and “Earwigs in your Well” really got my attention. On the off chance you are so excited by the prospect having your own well on your property, yet have no intention of visiting this superior informative website, let me share some rather important information before you start enthusiastically digging deep holes in your back yard.
Coliform Bacteria: The very good news it that it seems coliform bacteria is relatively harmless to human beings. The bad news, and I mean very bad news, is that if harmless coliform bacteria lives in your well, and feeling kind of lonely, it often invites its friend E-coli over for a visit. That, my friends, is a very bad thing to have in your well. Hyenas and wolverines are also very bad things to have in your well, but I am sure if you dig your new well deep enough, those nasty animals will never get out. E-coli is hard to see, making Earwig infestation a much more visible problem to address.
Before I get to the little Earwig issue, let me remind you that some wells could be magically transformed into wishing wells for the kids to play with, if renting a bouncy castle is not within your budget this year. If you choose to toss a penny into your well, all of your problems might be solved. Now pennies aren’t easy to find these days so act quickly if your are one of those annoying well wishers. Dimes will work, but a much riskier investment if you aren’t a true believer in the ROI of your wishing well. Wishing away your problems, is never a responsible approach but recent studies have shown this achieves slightly better results than blowing out birthday candles.
Earwigs in Your Well: The first clue that you might have earwigs in your well could be the presence of coliform bacteria (see above). Don’t be too alarmed as there is a very practical way to confirm this problem. Those little earwigs will be easy to spot as they like to hang on the inside of your well cap. The irony is that when you loosen the well cap to detect them, they all run down your well because of their inherent distrust of humans.
Firearms might help here, but shooting earwigs in a well might cause more damage to your well, and with all the impending background checking for guns these days let’s just agree to make that option two.
There are detailed instructions for an environmentally friendly approach using well disinfection solutions but that seemed kind of a boring resolution. Well not boring at first, but after I read about the compressed air option I dismissed the disinfection idea.
Imagine the fun you could have using compressed air in your new well that would cause these little earwigs to dance in the air above your well. This is not only fiendishly entertaining, but it also makes the little creatures a much easier target, if you are still committed to using your gun as part of your well cleaning strategy.
There is a high probability you have learned more about breaking in a new well than you even imagined possible today. I suppose some of you may have stopped reading this very technical instructive offering, as the temptation to rush to your tool shed to find your shovel and start digging a well hole happened many paragraphs ago.
All’s well that ends well, except most of my blogs. So rather than trying to make an important conclusion to breaking in a new well, and because I am a bit of a renaissance man, I decided to take a little time to reflect on what I have learned. Sometimes introspection can be as inspirational as digging new wells.
Suddenly it became obvious to me that we all got a little smarter today. This might be the ultimate shared learning article for future educators to review as they struggle to develop new models for adult learning. You have all learned about breaking in new wells, but I learned something far more valuable. It is rare indeed when an author learns more than the reader, but miraculously, that is what happened today.
When creating your own website do extensive research on potential competitive threats. Though clearly it is too late for me to learn from my mistakes, it is not too late for you. BreakingWell.com will never replace Google or Yahoo, but I will sleep better tonight just knowing we helped each other with rare mutual learning today. Well I might sleep better tonight unless I have that recurring nightmare where Earwigs take over the New York Stock Exchange and the price of copper and penny stocks surge as brokers wish they had seen this coming.
Cue the Blong. Madness… I have been called worse.
Breaking Well 