I pulled into my driveway Monday to find this sitting there, along with five other vehicles and seven men milling around. I actually had to park in the road because I couldn't get in my driveway.
The appearance of this behemoth caused quiet an increase in the traffic by my house and my truck being out there didn't help the flow at all. Luckily it was quickly moved into the back yard and I had room to park in my own yard.
This contraption is in reality a well drilling rig and it was there to put down the wells for my geothermal system. I wasn't expecting it for a couple of days so needless to say it was unexpectedly exciting at my house. Caused quiet a stir in the neighborhood too. I actually had neighbors out on their porches down the road watching the commotion. Nothing like being the center of attention.
So in quick order they drillers placed the machine in my back yard, raised the drill and went to work. Hole #1 went in directly east of the driveway. They hit water at 50 feet down which is truely amazing in this area and stayed in water the rest of the way down the 200 feet required for the well. Isn't that typical? When you want a dry well you get water, but if we had been looking for water it probably would have been dry.
So an hour and a half, two drill bits and 200 feet later, Hole#1 was done. I could not believe how fast they were.....and how loud. I was stuffing cotton in my ears and I still got a headache.
In the meantime, the builders were steadily putting on my porch roof. They had the best view of operations.
After finishing Hole#1, the drillers moved the rig 20 feet to the north and started in on Hole#2. Wouldn't you know it. Dry as a bone. Lots of limestone, with a start of sandstone and a small pocket of coal to make things interesting.
Another hour and a half and two more drill bits and they were done. They were pulling out of the drive by 2:30. It was amazing. Course they would have left sooner if they hadn't gotten the rig stuck in all the mud that had unfrozen while they were working.
It was a free for all at that point, with loads of gravel, broken cement blocks and logs and pieces of scrap wood all being used to give traction. Nothing like grown men playing in the mud with large engines. But it worked and in the end, it finally lumbered its way down my driveway and out of sight, leaving me with a pile of limestone dust and some unbelievably large ruts in my yard.
The pipes had been lowered into the holes, the holes were back filled and now it is just a matter of connecting the pipes to the unit that was put in the house last week. Maybe I'll have heat soon in spite of everything.
And through all the commotion and noise, a porch roof was added to the house. It's really looking awesome and that porch is going to be my favorite hangout spot weather permitting.
Yesterday, the decking on the roof was finished and the weatherproofing was laid down. Today we start on the west side.
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