The Walden Effect: Farming, simple living, permaculture, and invention.

Cleaning a hand dug well

how to get oil out of a well


Our Rigid well pump came apart yesterday and somehow leaked a small amount of an unknown lubricant which floated to the surface.
submersible pump close up Rigid
We tried soaking some of it up with a towel tied to a rope, but what worked best was the half gallon plastic pitcher we build Avian Aqua Misers with.

I think the failure was due to suspending this type of pump instead of letting it rest on the bottom. I was trying to avoid as much sediment as possible, but now can see how the constant pressure of gravity was pulling at the case and working against the original designer's intention.



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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.



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