BORING FOR WATER
The water supply was the next problem. I determined to have an abundant
and convenient supply of running water in the house, the barns, and the
feeding grounds, and also on the lawn and gardens. I would have no
carrying or hauling of water, and no lack of it. There were four wells
on the place, two of them near the houses and two stock wells in the
lower grounds. Near the well at the large house was a windmill that
pumped water into a small tank, from which it was piped to the barn-yard
and the lower story of the house. The supply was inadequate and not at
all to my liking.
My plan involved not only finding, raising, and distributing water, but
also the care of waste water and sewage. Inquiring among those who had
deep wells in the village, I found that good water was usually reached
at from 180 to 210 feet. As my well-site was high, I expected to have to
bore deep. I contracted with a well man of good repute for a six-inch
well of 250 feet (or less), piped and finished to the surface, for $2 a
foot; any greater depth to be subject to further agreement.
It took nearly three months to finish the water system, but it has
proved wonderfully convenient and satisfactory. During seven years I
have not spent more than $50 for changes and repairs. We struck bed-rock
at 197 feet, drilled 27 feet into this rock, and found water which rose
to within 50 feet of the surface and which could not be materially
lowered by the constant use of a three-inch power-pump. The water was
milky white for three days, in spite of much pumping; and then, and ever
after, it ran clear and sweet, with a temperature of 54° F. Well and
water being satisfactory, I cheerfully paid the well man $448 for the
job.
Meantime I contracted for a tank twelve by twelve feet, to be raised
thirty feet above the well on eight timbers, each ten inches square,
well bolted and braced, for $430,--I to put in the foundation. This
consisted of eight concrete piers, each five feet deep in the clay,
three feet square, and capped at the level of the ground with a
limestone two feet square and eight inches thick. These piers were set
in octagon form around the well, with their centres seven feet from the
middle of the bore, making the spread of the framework fourteen feet at
the ground and ten at the platform. The foundation cost $32. A Rider
eight-inch, hot-air, wood-burning, pumping engine (with a two-inch pipe
leading to the tank, and a four-inch pipe from it), filled the tank
quickly; and it was surprising to see how little fuel it consumed. It
cost $215.
I have now to confess to a small extravagance. I contracted with a
carpenter to build an ornamental tower, fifty-five feet high, twenty
feet across at the base, and fifteen feet at the top, sheeted and
shingled, with a series of small windows in spiral and a narrow stairway
leading to a balcony that surrounded the tower on a level with the top
of the tank. This tower cost $425; but it was not all extravagance,
because a third of the expense would have been incurred in protecting
the engine and making the tank frost-proof.
To distribute the water, I had three lines of four-inch pipe leading
from the tank's out-flow pipe. One of these went 250 feet to the house,
with one-inch branches for the gardens and lawn; another led east 375
feet, past the proposed sites of the cottage, the farm-house, the dairy,
and other buildings in that direction; while the third, about 400 feet
long, led to the horse barn and the other projected buildings. From near
the end of this west pipe a 1-1/2-inch pipe was carried due north
through the centre of the five-acre lot set apart for the hennery, and
into the fields beyond. This pipe was about 700 feet long. Altogether I
used 1100 feet of four-inch, and about 2200 feet of smaller pipe, at a
total cost of $803. All water pipes were placed 4-1/2 feet in the ground
to be out of the reach of frost, and to this day they have received no
further attention.
The trenches for the pipes were opened by a party of five Italians whom
a railroad friend found for me. These men boarded themselves, slept in
the barn, and did the work for seventy-five cents a rod, the job costing
me $169.
Opening the sewer trenches cost a little more, for they were as deep as
those for the water, and a little wider. Eight hundred feet of main
sewer, a three-hundred-foot branch to the house, and short branches from
barns, pens, and farm-houses, made in all about fourteen hundred feet,
which cost $83 to open. The sewer ended in the stable yard back of the
horse barn, in a ten-foot catch-basin near the manure pit. A few feet
from this catch-basin was a second, and beyond this a third, all of the
same size, with drain-pipes connecting them about two feet below the
ground. These basins were closely covered at all times, and in winter
they were protected from frost by a thick layer of coarse manure. They
were placed near the site of the manure pit for convenience in cleaning,
which had to be done every three months for the first one, once in six
months for the second and rarely for the third; indeed, the water
flowing from the third was always clear. This waste water was run
through a drain-pipe diagonally across the northwest corner of the big
orchard to an open ditch in the north lane. Opening this drain of forty
rods cost $30. Later I carried this closed drain to the creek, at an
additional expense of $67. The connecting of the water pipes and the
laying of the sewer was done by a local plumber for $50; the drain-pipe
and sewer-pipe cost $112; and the three catch-basins, bricked up and
covered with two-inch plank, cost $63. The filling in of all these
trenches was done by my own men with teams and scrapers, and should not
be figured into this expense account. It must be borne in mind that
while this elaborate water system was being installed, no buildings were
completed and but few were even begun; the big house was not finished
for more than a year. The sites of all the buildings had been decided
on, and the farm-house and the cottage had been moved and remodelled, by
the middle of October, at which date the water plant was completed. An
abundant supply of good water is essential to the comfort of man and
beast, and the money invested in securing it will pay a good interest in
the long run. My water plant cost me a lot of money, $2758; but it
hasn't cost me $10 a year since it was finished.