Well size? 6" or 8"

[Homesteader]

We don't have a well. Our drinking water comes from a spring 5 miles away. Our garden and lawn water is from a pond. Our house water (showers, washing clothes, dishes, etc) is a rain water cistern.

Some day I would like to put in a well, but I'm not a gambler and I refuse to take out a loan. Wells in our area run 600 feet (we're on a mountain) and that deep is $$$$$$

[Lurker]

We don't have a well. Our drinking water comes from a spring 5 miles away. Our garden and lawn water is from a pond. Our house water (showers, washing clothes, dishes, etc) is a rain water cistern.

Some day I would like to put in a well, but I'm not a gambler and I refuse to take out a loan. Wells in our area run 600 feet (we're on a mountain) and that deep is $$$$$$

VERY interesting. We've batted around the idea of a cistern for some of the water. Gray water for the orchard, etc. Doable, eh? It's the drinking water that's the crux of the plan.

[Homesteader]

We've been doing this for twenty years.

When you separate out your house water, you really don't use that much cooking and drinking water. Our family of five goes through about 15-20 gallons per week. We have several of the Aquatainers plastic jugs so we only need to fill up once a month.

We live in the wettest part of Idaho. We have three 1,200 gallon cisterns. That gets us from spring rains to fall rains and then through the winter.

Of course, I have lots of ways to purify water from our 14 acre pond if things go downhill.

Plus, our neighbor has a spring we could use in an emergency.

If I had $30,000 to $40,000 cash, I would put in a well tomorrow. I'm just not willing to go into debt to do it.

[Millwright]

500-800ft wells....that's just crazy deep. Hard for me to even wrap my poor little flatlander brain around the mechanics of drilling one.

I guess there is a trade-off for every habitable location.

Hurricanes, earthquakes, no water, too much water, hot, cold, Yankees, Californians, I guess there is a downside to every region.

[Homesteader]

A friend of mine lives in the valley below my mountain and her well is 25 feet.

I love my mountains, though.

[Lurker]

Thanks for the feedback guys, gives me good stuff to think about.