Well Drilling Mysteries and Miracles

Oh boy, what a roller coaster the last 2-3 weeks have been.  Remember this post where I talked about our well getting drilled?  Well, we still don't have a well, yet.  It has been a very rough go of it.

This week has been the third week of drilling.  The man who is drilling our well has called it a "mind game well".  Basically what has happened is that everything he was expecting to find while drilling this well has not happened, and nothing has gone as planned.  He has become very frustrated with the fact that we tapped into a water vein about 60 feet down, but that water vein was not sufficient, or secure enough to put a well screen and pump into.  So he has had to continue drilling down 5 to 10 feet a time, stopping to pull up the material at that point, and to see whether the water and material were secure enough to set a pump into.

I have had to learn a lot about well drilling in the last couple of weeks, and all the problems that can be encountered when drilling for a well.  Our well is being cable drilled or pounded, which is a very old method of drilling for a well, and while it takes a lot longer than rotary drilling, many times a better well is able to be put in because of the way the well is drilled. 

Here is the cable drilling rig.  The driller has to stand behind the rig and hold the cable as it pounds down into the ground.  They can tell by the feel of the cable what is going on below.  It is very intriguing to watch it take place.  

As the cable pounds into the ground, after a time, it is brought back up with the drilling pipe, and the driller runs his hand up and down the pipe to feel the type of material that the pipe is bringing back up, which lets him know what kind of material is down in the ground.  One thing I didn't realize was that many times the water is mixed with sand, gravel, and other materials.  Apparently sand is the preferred material to have your water mixed with.  

The problem with our well drilling is that the material that was mixed in with the water was very, very fine, and almost impossible to screen or filter out.  If you look at the next picture what you see is basically mud.  

Mud is not what you want to see when drilling for a well! 

Each time he drills down 5 feet or so, he drops a baling pipe down into the well and draws up the water and material that is there to see what it consists of.  The pipe then drains this water into a big hole that we have dug.  I took the above picture, just as the pipe was spilling out the material from 205 feet down in the ground, and it was thick mud.  Not good!  

On Wednesday, the situation was looking very discouraging.  I went over to talk to the well drilling man (my husband is out of town) and heard the discouraging news along with a few choice words that he had about the situation.  He was beyond frustrated because the water was there, but the material the water was in was so fine that it could not be filtered, and would just clog up the pump.  Things looked very dismal.  

However, as he was telling me all discouraging news, as I listened to it,  I began to feel hope and excitement build in my heart.  I cannot explain this except to say that it was faith given to me from on HIGH that all was well.  I looked at the well man and asked him if he believed in prayer, and he affirmed that he did.  I then asked him if we could pray about the situation.  He looked at me kind of funny and then shrugged his shoulders and said that was fine.  

So, I prayed and asked the Lord to open our understanding about what the problem was down below us, as we couldn't see it, and to mix and move material as necessary, and to open up the well to a place where we could have fresh clean and clear water.  I also asked the Lord to bless the man who is drilling our well.  (He had told me earlier that he hasn't slept for the past two nights because he was so worried about the problems with this well).  

After we prayed, he had to leave as he said he was so frustrated that he couldn't stand to be out there any longer dealing with the difficult situation.  As we were leaving, I looked back at the well, and for reasons that only the Lord knows, I began to feel such great faith and peace and in my heart I heard the Lord whisper to me "You need a well, but John needs a Savior."

It was at that moment, I knew that perhaps the Lord was using the difficulty of our situation to allow the miraculous to take place.  I left on Wednesday afternoon filled with such joy and excitement, and it was not even to be understood.  I didn't know what the Lord had planned, but instead of feeling despair over the situation, I was just feeling great peace and joy. 

On Thursday, we received a call from John saying that something very unusual was going on.  I hurried over to the property to see what it was.  He told me that today nothing had changed as far as the fine muddy material the water was in, but that he had struck something very unusual, and never seen before in all his 30 years of well drilling.  It was black pieces of "something"  - not rock, because it floated on water!  It was very strange.  We pulled quite a bit of this black material out of the water, and had a good laugh about it.  Oil residual was considered, but unlikely.  Another option was that it could have been a fossilized burnt tree? So strange.  It was found at 205 feet down into the ground.  I joked and asked him if he thought maybe we had hit oil... lol.  He told me that would not be a good thing as the EPA would shut it all down if it was.

So, John collected some of the black material to take to a geologist to have it studied. I brought a couple of small pieces home.  After bringing them home and washing them, I set them on the countertop to dry and to show them to my family.  I went about the house doing some things and then went back into the kitchen, and noticed the rocks were missing.  Roger just came from the kitchen and had a guilty look.  Whatever that material was - he ATE IT!  I couldn't believe it!  What kind of material could it be that Roger would jump on the countertop to eat?  I don't know.  It is still a mystery!  Hopefully we will get an answer from the geologist within a week or so.  And hopefully Roger doesn't suffer any complications from eating *whatever* this is!

John continued to bale water on Thursday after the black rock material find, and things suddenly began to look up.  Just as I was getting ready to leave, he began to get excited and said he had hit something hard, which meant something had changed down below.  I had to leave for the day, and so did he.

So I went back out there today, and things were looking much, much better.  I saw the water as it was coming out of the baler, and it was looking much cleaner and there were bigger pieces of sand and gravel mixed in with it.  I have not seen John so excited since he started drilling.

John had the biggest smile on his face when he showed me this handful of what looks like mud to the untrained eye - but if you look closely, you can see bigger pieces of grainy sand particles which apparently, are a well man's best friend!  Good news it was! Yes! Amen!  It was great news! John tells me that all is not well until the screen/filter is set down below, and the pump installed, but in my heart, I know ALL IS WELL!  (No pun intended)... well (maybe!) !!!

So right now, things are progressing ahead, and the flow of water appears to be satisfactory, and there appears to be a solid table of granite below the 210 foot area where the pipe is at, and John is currently working on stabilizing the pipe in a casing, and then setting the screen/filter.  It will be at that point we will find out how many gallons of water a minute our well will have.

I am continuing to believe for big and marvelous things ahead -  not just the fact that we will have a well of wonderful precious water, but I also pray that the only true eternal water of the SPIRIT of the Lord will find its way into John's life as well.  Will you pray with me that the Lord works a miracle in John's heart as well?

Thank you for praying!  I pray too that the eternal well from the Spirit of the Lord will spring up in  your soul today full of wonderful and precious blessings from on High!