Well ... Well ... Well...

Grrrr ...

This weekend we had quite the surprise

We knew we were having issues getting a good fill on the water tank ...

Oh, for those that don't know how a well system for water works -- you no longer have to get buckets from a hole in the ground ... Now there is an electric pump which pulls up the water and stores gallons and gallons of it in a tank.  From the tank it gets distributed around the farm ... The house, greenhouse, fields, chicken coop all depend on a working well system.

So, we knew there were issues ...

Not unusual really ... We've had to replace the pipe once because of a hole that worked its wY into the draw pipe allowing stones up into the tank/filter system ... Once we thought we had a similar issue but turned out to be a small stone blocking the shut-off valve which allowed the water to flow back down into the well causing a vicious cycle of fill/empty - had we known we could have fixed it by banging on the pipe instead of paying to have the Well Guy to come pull up the pipe ... As long as he had it up, we replaced the piping.

Well, we've been having troubles with the well filling up several times while it's being used ... Not in between uses so we figured it wasn't an issue with the valve ... Hubby drained the tNk and refilled it this fall and that seemed to fix it ... For a while ...

This weekend though ...

Wash machine was going in the basement ... Filling as normal.  Hubby wanted a glass of ice water so son #2 went to get it from the fridge door -- yes we have one of those fancy things that give ice/water from the door -- when NOTHING came out ... Hmmmm

So he switched to the faucet on the sink ... tap water - hubby hates it ... Again NOTHING!

Oh oh!

This could be a major issue!

But the washer was still getting water - just no where else.

Crap!

Our first thought?  Filter issues

When the filter gets overly clogged -- when we forget to change it every other month or soner - our water pressure drops.

Hubby was too tired to do it Sunday night ... So we would have to wIt for Monday night ...

He came home and decided that he would add air to the tNk as well ...

Changed the filter ... Dirty but not too bad for being two months ...

Air is added to the tank so that ... Well, you have to understand how a water tank is built.

We have a tank from the 70s but I can't imagine that things have changed that much ...

There is an outside wall - ours is metal, but there is PVC types as well - in side that is a bag to hold the water ... When the pump draws, the water fills that bag and then pressure is built by compressing the air surrounding the outside of the bag (I think) - this pressure pushes the water though the pipes.

Well when there isn't enough air, or if the air has been used up, there isn't enough pressure to push through.

Well it seems to be working now ...

Of course ...

I haven't done anymore laundry since Sunday night ...  We will have to see what happens.