Geting inside of a hole that deep without a trench box is extremely dangerous. Every year people die on construction sites because of this when they neglect safety precautions.
Thought the same, especially when he said "sandy rocky soil" here in Texas is not so bad with all the limestone but we still use trench boxes or "step excavation" to minimize cave in or sluff off in our trenches. Glad it all worked out but still scary. Now, with that said, he doesn't have the name "wreckless Riley" for nothing 😂 Love you guys, living the dream is awesome and glad we get to see it.
@beebop4333 it is a large metal fixture placed inside the trench or hole you are working in to protect you in case the walls of the trench collapse. For an image, you can google... I'd put an image here, but YT won't let me. You can also look up trench collapse/cave in during construction and see a whole lot of people get close to being buried and some actual buried. Scary situation
Great job guys! I would caution you though about getting into excavations. Coming from my own career field in the water and sewer business, you need to look into trenching and shoring requirements. It doesn't take a deep excavation to collapse and put a very small amount of dirt on you to kill you. Please be careful! 1 cubic foot of soil weighs over 100 lbs, and if thats on your chest then you can't breathe
Agreed. Reckless Riley has a reputation for doing “dangerous” things, but this was the first time I was seriously concerned for his safety. Trench collapse is no joke.
My husband also was in sewer and water excavation, in fact in charge of safety and management, you sir would’ve had your butt kicked! And you would’ve cost the company thousands in hefty fines. Shoring boxes in your situation very tough I understand but keep in mind you’re a family man now. Still think you’re amazing though 🥰🇨🇦👵🐶🤗
In regards to water processing - you'll want to get it tested and make sure it doesn't have heavy metals in it or something like that. It will probably be hard water, so you'll want to do a combination of filters and then a water softener. We use a single filter here, but our water is so dirty that we end up replacing the $120 filter every 3 months or so. Then the water softener uses (for 2 people) about one 40lb bag of salt every two weeks. If your water has biological stuff in it, or if you're going to store it in an IBC tote, you might want to consider a UV light filter. I wouldn't bother with a reverse osmosis system, as those tend to throw away a ton of water as 'waste'. I really hope you're able to produce a decent amount consistently!! Might still need to get water in the winter, but with the road in place you should be able to do that a lot easier!
Remember they have a tank that is surpossed to be big enough to last from end of summer to spring, but if any doubt about sufficiency supplementing with rain water would be sensible and reduce amount of water around the house in mud system. Riley had not wanted to collect rainwater because he did not want to mess with filters, but the reality is any water source is going to require filters (even the atmospheric machine had the filters) although the water they had in the road excavation looked really clean.
Question......... Is there a way you could "split" your house to potable like kitchen sink for drink and cooking and use the accumulator for that, and then the rest of the plumbing use water from the well for bathrooms and all other water needs.
@@andrew6446 As long as you have water storage inside the Garage. And a consistent flow the REVERSE OSMOSIS is exactly what is needed. Makes your water consumable
Here in northern British Columbia all the shallow wells are four feet in diameter with the filter cloth rapped around and the drain rock on the outside, for 2 reasons= #1 large reserve of water can sit at the bottom of the well accumulating while you sleep and not freeze using an insulated lid and maybe a heat lamp when really cold. Yo will have to move your cistern inside or burry it. Heat tape can be your best friend if you got power #2 over a long period the well will accumulate micro fine mud, silt and debris that need to be cleaned out or the well will shallow and your pump will pump it throughout your system. Most times it can be pumped out using a sewage truck or heavy duty trash pump but being able to go down the well with a ladder to really clean it out is best. Filters work for a while then they clog up fast 23 years later and I’m still learning the tricks to northern living
Your biggest challenge could have the simplest of solutions and much more economical. Just make sure it's uphill (and 75' or so, check with your local health regulation) of your septic leach field. Congrats!
Attach a rope or chain to the pump before lowering. If you have to pull it out of the pipe, do not put any load on the production pipe or the power cable. Good luck!
Don’t use galvanized wire or metal in drinking water wells - over a long period of time the galvanizing chemicals will eventually end up in your useable supply.
Yeah! Very exciting! Our concrete place also sells 3 foot diameter 2 foot tall rings that slip on to each other for the purpose of shallow wells. I'm sure they can be found close to you as well. It would allow all the water that is in your drain rock to be available to pump. If this simply isn't enough water in the culvert this is an option to increase your water. Love your idea Riley! Again yeah! I saw another comment about shoring in an excavation. In my past life I'm a retired firefighter/emt. I had this call where a guy was in a trench and it collapsed. He was only buried up between his abdomen and chest. It took hours to get him out safely and he was having a tough time breathing due to the weight of the dirt pressing in on his diaphragm. Please don't go in a hole without someone around and a shoring box would be best. I know you are reckless Riley and by all accounts should have a giant S plastered on your chest. Cause you are amazing. Maybe a harness and a rope so they could pull you out if necessary. I too used to be invincible until one day I came off a roof on to frozen ground and ended up with a open book fracture of my pelvis. Deb and I love you guys and we haven't even met you so we want you around for a very long time.
Amen to that! Safety first is no joke. We are far less invincible than we realize. And Just so you guys Know I am VERY near your guys, so if you ever just need a hand let me know, I am a Veteran, Father and Husband and would be there to offer a hand if ever needed especially with Safety!
@AmbitionStrikes My wife and I have been fighting the similar battle of finding water as well. We actually have a water company running water through our land but refuse to let us connect to it. Its been over a year of stressing. We had even hired an attorney but still no success. I watched this and became inspired and looked for the lowest spot on our property to dig a shallow well and actually found remnants of an old well! Now the struggle is getting and excavator through all the trees, lol. Thanks for the upload, its been very helpful
I would definitely mark that area a no parking spot. And please be careful climbing in to open pits like that. Lil Oliver needs both parents around.❤❤❤
A well head is needed anyway to keep debris and critters from contaminating the well. Slope the dirt on top away in all directions to keep run off from contaminating it too.
My late grandfather who is born in 1900. Talked about developing springs when I was a boy. There was a seep and in the spring there would be water coming out of the ground. This was on a hill and we made a pond with a pipe that we could take water out of a type of gravity, feed, set up. As the years went by, we got more and more water now the spring free flows water year-round it seems to be cleaning out itself of a lot of sediment as more and more water comes out of the ground. Probably would be a good idea to put a drain at the top of your culvert pipe for springtime overflow
Dig even deeper if possible (say 5' deeper than water level for some reserve capacity) and stack concrete culvert sections up vertically to 3' higher than surface level then back fill around the culvert with gravel. Put a membrane (like on your road) over the gravel and cover with soil.
Normally I'd agree with you but they hit rock so they couldn't go any deeper. That's why they broke out the big drill to try to get the pump lower. The area forms a rock bowl and they dug the hole pretty much in the middle of the bowl, so hopefully near the lowest point.
@@LesNewellagreed, the next step would be blasting the rock out to make to collection bowl deeper but that’s probably not worth it and do we want Riley playing with explosives? In spring they will have excess water to store in that atmospheric unit tank and if that’s not enough they have the totes
We are building a 4000 square foot shop building in northeast Texas. With that much roof, 1" of rain will produce about 3000 gallons of water. We bought four 3000 gallon rain water catch tanks. Our filtration will be 100 micron, 50 micron, 20 micron, and 5 micron sediment filters. Then an activated charcoal filter, and lastly a UV light to kill any biological content. We have a air presurized holding tank and a pressure activated pump.
Congrats! You Sherlocked this one! Observation and logic win the day! Since you believe your water is likely seasonal, which makes perfect sense, have you considered a large storage tank? Pump the storage full during the spring, when you've got plenty, and use it as a reserve for when the flow rate drops below your needs later in the year - add a couple solar-powered, UV LEDs to the tank, to prevent pathogen contamination. It'll take a few years to figure it all out, but you've made the most important part of it all happen, already - finding a source. Everything else is just planning and logistics. Given the water source, it should be very clean and safe, once the dirt/sediments finish washing out, but testing is always a good idea. As for the notion of an RO system, it's a good idea, just in case of future issues and to reduce mineral load, and can be done without wasting your precious water. The RO can provide you with excellent drinking/cooking water, while the "waste" from it can be collected in a separate tank for use in toilets, showers, watering plants, etc. You could even use it for a small, lined, fish pond - a source of protein, and mental health breaks. I use an RO on my houseboat, filtering lake water for drinking/cooking. If you look on Amazon for "iSpring UVF8 LED UV Water Filter", you'll find a very long life, 12vdc-24vdc, UV sanitizer, for use with RO filters - it comes with an AC/DC wall wart. I have one on the intake side of my RO, and another in the line leading from the RO/tank, to the tap. I skipped the wall wart, and ran connections directly to my solar system's battery bank. Testing has shown the water to be very close to distilled pure. No pathogens, of any sort, and minimal mineral solids. The only filtration that occurs before the RO is a sediment filter, in line, on the intake side of my shallow well pump. At worst, I'd expect your water to be equal to our lake's water, so all the above should work well for you. Regardless, figuring out what to do with, and how best to use your newly found water, is a fantastic problem to have.
Wow, what a stroke of good fortune. You will likely have an excess beyond your dreams when it is wet. Might have to drain off the excess in the spring during snow melt.🙏
The one thing that you should have done was to test for gold at the bottom of your well . All the signs are there for the potential for a small gold mine.
Yeeahh Free Water!!, Remember in the winter, Snow falls from the sky!! Snow is water falling into a cold zone turning into Snow, so you could save some snow in a tote, that will turn to water. if you run short. Have you secretly got a big building you are gonna build? as there seems to be a lot of Wood piles around the property.!! Good luck with the make shift well hope it works, Thanks for the video Love from UK. x x
Love the progress on the well. Just wish you would shore up when you go below grade. Would hate for it to collapse on you. It’s already done, just food for thought on future projects. Keep safe “reckless” ;)
if you dig furrows across the drain field, the this will slow down any rain water coming off the hill and enabling it to sink in rather than run off, bonus, slows erosion. Also, could you dig and put in wells at other locations...you know, to increase yield or find deeper pockets.
I think it is fantastic that you found water and got away without the sides of the hole falling in on you while you did the fine touches. doing your hole in a step like manner may have been a tiny bit safer so the banks arn't as steep... but in the end it worked out for you.... which is cool..... on the other hand Riley mentioned that just down the road is a wet spot that never dries up even in the summer ! a spring ! why not develop it or another one like it closer to the house I expect you have springs all over the place on your property.... walk around in the summer time when it is dry and see if you can find small trickles of water.... we had a spring on our property when I was a kid that we developed, we cleared out the dirt,rocks and brush and got down about 5' onto the bedrock where the water was just pouring out...in 2 spots ! so we build a concrete box around that area and then closed off the drain... this was a big box, about 8' wide and 12' long and 4' high at the far end by the pond.... yes that was alot of dirt to move by hand with a shovel, but we did it.... we poured the concrete by hand into forms we made on the spot...no rebar...that was too expensive!... when we closed off the drain for it to fill up the first time we thought it would take 3 or 4 days to fill, as it was it took under 24 hours to fill !...that spring lasted for the time we lived there over 40 years and never went dry... we did have to clean it every year... and cut the vines out of the cracks in the rocks as they restricted the flow of water. best water on the planet too! if you have a spring on your property Please for your sakes make that your water source it's far better than a well !
Lol, Riley, Your as crazy as a bag of cats, The funny part is you guys actually pull it off, congratulations, with the rain and the snow melt you got it made, I"m sure your going to mode it out with a well pump and cap,,
Very good idea that seems to have worked. Congratulations. Please don’t take unnecessary risks like climbing down in holes again. I know you have been scolded by everyone watching already. But you have a family that needs you.
you should have it samples to make sure that it is drinkable😮 no contaminated water😊 But it is exciting to know that you have water that mother nature provided for you good job guys😂❤❤
It makes sense that there is water there as your house is in a very low part of the terrain so all that rain water would accumulate there. Great job, you guys are so resourceful. Can't wait to see the completed project.
You can increase the height of the water table and therefore the water production of the well by building ditches above the well that catch water runoff from snowmelt and rain and slow it down and allow it to soak into the ground. Do some research on groundwater recharge and you might be able to get even more water out
You should take a look at "red poppy ranch", they built an insulated cistern system, looks like you could store a years worth of water if you wanted to. With your solar excess of energy you could probably look at distilling your drinking water and just filter for septic and washing.
Oliver is a cute young man and why not he has great looking parents, now Riley you can't be reckless anymore you have two people that depend on you ❤ love you guys
A few years back I lived in an old country cabin with a shallow well dug in the basement. I was pretty happy with it until the day I found a drowned mouse floating in it! You not only need to filter the water for particulates, but you need to take precautions to prevent ANY animals (or even bugs) from crawling into the pipe and getting into your water. You should probably have it tested to be certain there's no natural contaminants in the water. Good job!
3 weeks ago I had the flu and I stumbled upon your channel. I watched "We Bought an Abandoned Homestead" video and I enjoyed it so much. I then went to your channel and went back to your first video and started watching them in order. I've just finished and I can't wait for your next video. Are you going to get the abandoned trucks running? What are you going to do with the cabins?
Fantastic! Hopefully it ends up being a great solution. You might want to keep the equipment and vehicles away from the well. Always little drips and leaks which will take no time to contaminate your shallow well. Have a great week!
I live on the north coast of California which is an area with lots of hand dug wells. When I was younger I used to clean and service them. One cool thing I learned was that on a clear day, looking up from the bottom of a 20 foot deep well you can see the stars during the daytime. I'd say that you did pretty darn good with the excavator! Thanks for the video!
This might just work!? You two are so holding your breath and if course, happy with what has happened so far. I'm glad someone came by and is able to give you a hand. I'll be ready to enjoy another episode of this exciting adventure. Hi dear baby!
I’m sure you guys already have a plan for water filtration and such, but if you don’t, I would check out “red poppy ranch” and his setup. He’s in SE Idaho and is working with a shallow well also. I think he only has to service his filtration system once or maybe twice a year. So I think it’s somewhat cost effective. Congrats on the well, your work ethic pays off!
If you're doing away with the atmospheric water generator, I'd reuse the holding tank you put in for long term storage. A couple thousand gallons buffer should help you get through months of severe drought. The water coming out of your dug well is likely to have a high clay content -- at least initially. I'd put it through a 5 micron and a 0.5 micron filter to pull the solids out. Use standard 10" filters you can buy cheap from the farm/irrigation supply rather than anything proprietary. If you plan on drinking it, I'd also plan on UV light at the very least but possibly also RO depending on what your water test results look like.
Hello from the Netherlands. Congratulations good news that you have found water in your diy waterwell. I hope for your sake that this well yields enough water for you thanks for the video Courtney and Riley . Sincerely Hollandduck
You might want to put some kind of cover over the area like clay, to keep contaminated water from seeping in from all your equipment. Equipment leaks and you never know if someday you'll have some kind of accident that will dump a few gallons of diesel or oil or gas or whatever. There is a city called Albion Michigan that has a natural spring in the park that people would collect gallons of water from on a daily basis. A local company was using pesticides, or some other kind of chemicals and the spring was contaminated for many years from seepage
Oh awesome! You can put a huge tank up on the hill above the property to store water in the wet season and have gravity pressurized water to the house. I'm excited for you guys!
You might consider a cistern for your next project. It would have the added benefit of storage space for any runoff you might want to collect in the future, in addition to what the well produces.
Sometimes the kiss principle truly works. We know that the technology in the Water Reclamation plant was a great idea but it's just not ready yet for your application. But when you think about it, you dig a hole in the ground, add some water pipe to it plus a few other bits, and pieces. It can't be more simple. congratulations! Thank you for sharing, Best regards? Bob from Virginia USA
One of the best things about this style of well is that it just gets better over time as the water has now a place to travel and will increase..... just how much and how fast is only a guess. I like the fact that if no contamination is in the water from where ever its coming from, then its good drinking water... mine went from about ten gallons a day to over five hundred gallons a day and would do a average of five gallons a minute at times. I was living at that time in a town called Beaver washington.... just outside of Forks washington.
I lived in a house with a similar shallow well in northern CA. In the summer it would almost dry up, but in the winter the water level would be nearly ground level and you essentially have unlimited water in the wet season. The house had a 5000 gallon storage tank and pressure pump. I didn’t drink the water due to concerns over contamination and water quality, but it covered all other water needs (showers, laundry, washing dishes, watering plants)
Yes a cistern is needed when using a small diameter pipe because not much water is stored in the pipe. More common with deep wells due to the small diameter drill casing. Most shallow wells are large diameter like 4 feet. I had a well that kept drying up in the summer so I went down on a ladder and dug the bottom out a couple feet and solved the problem.
I have been watching and I have been in the position where I have done things that were pushing the boundaries of safe so we could continue farming. My husband has a tendency to take more chances than I would so I understand how Riley's actions make you a little nervous. We used 4 foot cement tile laid vertically to make a well to water animals. Worked great for us. Looks a lot like your black pipe idea. Hope you have as good of luck with your water idea. Keep us informed
That's kind of interesting setup for a well. I would probably have made some concrete rings on top of each other in that hole, then lid on top of that, maybe some pieces of stair inside for safety, typical way, but I guess you thought this out further than I did. It's great you start getting your water troubles fixed, well done!
Hello Courtney , Ollie , & Riley... Great job ...Once you figure out the gals or parts of gals per minute you can pump it would be prudent to set up a couple IBC Totes inside ur shop to pump full for daily use & have ur well pump set up to keep them topped off so ur ahead of any usage u might have with no waiting ( lag ) time ..., plus you'd have an easily accessable filter station & ability to add whatever ultraviolet lights & or chemicals to keep ur water safe for drinking , dishes , & bathing ... Great Job Guys ... Just keep us all posted along the way how the water production advances throughout each season , especially the Rainy season & the next DRY Season ..... 👍👍👍👍🤗🤗👋👋👋
Wow, that is fantastic news and this should help with the liquefaction in the spring and dewater the whole area and if your demands increase you may be able to expand with french drains to increase the surface area. You three are amazing.
A lot of times the spring liquefaction is caused by melt water and surface soil sitting on frozen ground below with nowhere to drain. Drain rock right to the surface would solve this.
ok you said that about 130 gallon for 24 hours That is 5.4 gallon per hours range about 5- 15 gallon per If you had a 1 foot or 2 feet round well you may get more gallon per hour . that is better then 3.75 gallon 90 /24 hour Now get test see what is in the. Then you know what type water filter you will need
Totes are for fresh water. I think the grey water is sent out to a leach field. I don’t recall seeing how they did that. To prevent algae take the containers out of the wire cage by cutting the top bars off, spray paint them black and set them back in the cage.
@@bigdog2024 similar to painting the IBCs is to simply cover them with a dark fabric like a tarp. I use a old pool liner to keep my rain water IBC covered. I use the collected roof water for my gardens
@@mattsilver8842 A tarp would be a large pain to keep wrapped over the top and probably too bulky to get the container back in the tote. Here in TX the UV destroys tarps in a year or two as well.
@bigdog2024 I cut and fitted the cover from an old pool liner. It's been in place 6 years year round and doing well, in Canada, just across the river from Buffalo NY. But I do like the idea of the black paint
💦We still can't believe Riley's crazy idea worked! What should we do with all of this water?!
no deep well
A nice garden or a green house maybe
Artifical Pond with fish
It was good decductive reasoning. Solid infernce and you were correct. You trusted your gut with and it worked. Good job.
Add some storage; get it analyized, and coubt your blessings.
Getting down in that hole with no shoring is probably the single most dangerous thing you’ve ever done. Please be careful.
100% correct!
I was thinking the same thing.
Gave me the heebies every single time. Young uns dont know what to really fear...
My first thought too. made me cringe every time some dirt fell in the hole
couldnt agree more with this, cave ins happen so fast and with no warning, there would literally be nothing that could be done to save him
Not in a 100yrs would I climb into an unshored hole. Glad you got water.
Geting inside of a hole that deep without a trench box is extremely dangerous. Every year people die on construction sites because of this when they neglect safety precautions.
My thinking as well.
Thought the same, especially when he said "sandy rocky soil" here in Texas is not so bad with all the limestone but we still use trench boxes or "step excavation" to minimize cave in or sluff off in our trenches. Glad it all worked out but still scary. Now, with that said, he doesn't have the name "wreckless Riley" for nothing 😂
Love you guys, living the dream is awesome and glad we get to see it.
Forgot to.say congrats on getting water that close to the house. Very cool find and what a relief.
Never fear the Camera man never gets it.
@beebop4333 it is a large metal fixture placed inside the trench or hole you are working in to protect you in case the walls of the trench collapse. For an image, you can google... I'd put an image here, but YT won't let me. You can also look up trench collapse/cave in during construction and see a whole lot of people get close to being buried and some actual buried. Scary situation
Great job guys! I would caution you though about getting into excavations. Coming from my own career field in the water and sewer business, you need to look into trenching and shoring requirements. It doesn't take a deep excavation to collapse and put a very small amount of dirt on you to kill you. Please be careful! 1 cubic foot of soil weighs over 100 lbs, and if thats on your chest then you can't breathe
Safety officer Courtney should have been yelling the hell out to get out of there without shoring.
Agreed. Reckless Riley has a reputation for doing “dangerous” things, but this was the first time I was seriously concerned for his safety. Trench collapse is no joke.
I agree 💯. That was sketchy.
My husband also was in sewer and water excavation, in fact in charge of safety and management, you sir would’ve had your butt kicked! And you would’ve cost the company thousands in hefty fines. Shoring boxes in your situation very tough I understand but keep in mind you’re a family man now. Still think you’re amazing though 🥰🇨🇦👵🐶🤗
Yes! Then when he brought the Jackhammer in there, I thought he was going to cause a slough for sure with him under it!! 😱
Glad he survived it.
In regards to water processing - you'll want to get it tested and make sure it doesn't have heavy metals in it or something like that. It will probably be hard water, so you'll want to do a combination of filters and then a water softener. We use a single filter here, but our water is so dirty that we end up replacing the $120 filter every 3 months or so. Then the water softener uses (for 2 people) about one 40lb bag of salt every two weeks. If your water has biological stuff in it, or if you're going to store it in an IBC tote, you might want to consider a UV light filter. I wouldn't bother with a reverse osmosis system, as those tend to throw away a ton of water as 'waste'.
I really hope you're able to produce a decent amount consistently!! Might still need to get water in the winter, but with the road in place you should be able to do that a lot easier!
Knowing Reilly, the filtering portion of the project has already been spec'd out and purchased 😂!
Remember they have a tank that is surpossed to be big enough to last from end of summer to spring, but if any doubt about sufficiency supplementing with rain water would be sensible and reduce amount of water around the house in mud system.
Riley had not wanted to collect rainwater because he did not want to mess with filters, but the reality is any water source is going to require filters (even the atmospheric machine had the filters)
although the water they had in the road excavation looked really clean.
@BillCarlson Good to know about the reverse osmosis filter, thanks
Question......... Is there a way you could "split" your house to potable like kitchen sink for drink and cooking and use the accumulator for that, and then the rest of the plumbing use water from the well for bathrooms and all other water needs.
@@andrew6446 As long as you have water storage inside the Garage. And a consistent flow the REVERSE OSMOSIS is exactly what is needed. Makes your water consumable
Here in northern British Columbia all the shallow wells are four feet in diameter with the filter cloth rapped around and the drain rock on the outside, for 2 reasons= #1 large reserve of water can sit at the bottom of the well accumulating while you sleep and not freeze using an insulated lid and maybe a heat lamp when really cold. Yo will have to move your cistern inside or burry it. Heat tape can be your best friend if you got power #2 over a long period the well will accumulate micro fine mud, silt and debris that need to be cleaned out or the well will shallow and your pump will pump it throughout your system. Most times it can be pumped out using a sewage truck or heavy duty trash pump but being able to go down the well with a ladder to really clean it out is best. Filters work for a while then they clog up fast
23 years later and I’m still learning the tricks to northern living
The googly eyes on the excavator are fantastic!
This is the comment they "love" but not all the ones telling him how he risked his life like a fool getting into that hole.
Your biggest challenge could have the simplest of solutions and much more economical. Just make sure it's uphill (and 75' or so, check with your local health regulation) of your septic leach field. Congrats!
Attach a rope or chain to the pump before lowering. If you have to pull it out of the pipe, do not put any load on the production pipe or the power cable. Good luck!
Don’t use galvanized wire or metal in drinking water wells - over a long period of time the galvanizing chemicals will eventually end up in your useable supply.
What a cute little boy!!
Yeah! Very exciting! Our concrete place also sells 3 foot diameter 2 foot tall rings that slip on to each other for the purpose of shallow wells. I'm sure they can be found close to you as well. It would allow all the water that is in your drain rock to be available to pump. If this simply isn't enough water in the culvert this is an option to increase your water. Love your idea Riley! Again yeah! I saw another comment about shoring in an excavation. In my past life I'm a retired firefighter/emt. I had this call where a guy was in a trench and it collapsed. He was only buried up between his abdomen and chest. It took hours to get him out safely and he was having a tough time breathing due to the weight of the dirt pressing in on his diaphragm. Please don't go in a hole without someone around and a shoring box would be best. I know you are reckless Riley and by all accounts should have a giant S plastered on your chest. Cause you are amazing. Maybe a harness and a rope so they could pull you out if necessary. I too used to be invincible until one day I came off a roof on to frozen ground and ended up with a open book fracture of my pelvis. Deb and I love you guys and we haven't even met you so we want you around for a very long time.
Yup
Thanks for the that. I love them too❤
Amen to that! Safety first is no joke. We are far less invincible than we realize.
And Just so you guys Know I am VERY near your guys, so if you ever just need a hand let me know, I am a Veteran, Father and Husband and would be there to offer a hand if ever needed especially with Safety!
@AmbitionStrikes
My wife and I have been fighting the similar battle of finding water as well. We actually have a water company running water through our land but refuse to let us connect to it. Its been over a year of stressing. We had even hired an attorney but still no success.
I watched this and became inspired and looked for the lowest spot on our property to dig a shallow well and actually found remnants of an old well! Now the struggle is getting and excavator through all the trees, lol.
Thanks for the upload, its been very helpful
Sending you some of our luck, and hoping you hit water!! 🤞🤞🤞
I would definitely mark that area a no parking spot. And please be careful climbing in to open pits like that. Lil Oliver needs both parents around.❤❤❤
So very cool. Make sure to cap it somehow when Oli starts crawling.
A well head is needed anyway to keep debris and critters from contaminating the well. Slope the dirt on top away in all directions to keep run off from contaminating it too.
That's a ton of lumber stacked up next to the storage shed, I bet something new is planned! Can't wait! BTW, we need more dogs!
Cats! Maine Coon?
I noticed that too. Was my first thought. Lol
It’s for their cabin build.
I'm glad they are using their GoPros for what they where designed for... To be beat on.
Oliver’s facial expression there at the end is so cute!
just loving the googlie eye on the beak!
Nothing beats that cute little baby as an addition to this homestead
Great work. Make sure to read to Oliver every day. Keep up the Great work!
My late grandfather who is born in 1900. Talked about developing springs when I was a boy. There was a seep and in the spring there would be water coming out of the ground. This was on a hill and we made
a pond with a pipe that we could take water out of a type of gravity, feed, set up. As the years went by, we got more and more water now the spring free flows water year-round it seems to be cleaning out itself of a lot of sediment as more and more water comes out of the ground. Probably would be a good idea to put a drain at the top of your culvert pipe for springtime overflow
A shed over the well is a good way to protect the well , keeps it from freezing in winter , can lock it up to keep the children and pets safe .👍🇨🇦
This winter would love to see content on an excavator rebuild.
Dig even deeper if possible (say 5' deeper than water level for some reserve capacity) and stack concrete culvert sections up vertically to 3' higher than surface level then back fill around the culvert with gravel. Put a membrane (like on your road) over the gravel and cover with soil.
Interesting I have just said almost the same thing before I saw your comment. Seems you are familiar with how wells work.
Normally I'd agree with you but they hit rock so they couldn't go any deeper. That's why they broke out the big drill to try to get the pump lower. The area forms a rock bowl and they dug the hole pretty much in the middle of the bowl, so hopefully near the lowest point.
@@LesNewellagreed, the next step would be blasting the rock out to make to collection bowl deeper but that’s probably not worth it and do we want Riley playing with explosives? In spring they will have excess water to store in that atmospheric unit tank and if that’s not enough they have the totes
Should the bottom level (10-15feet high) of culvert sections be perforated with holes in the sides..?
@greggb1416 I have never seen them perforated. There is plenty of circumference at bottom for water to get in.
We are building a 4000 square foot shop building in northeast Texas. With that much roof, 1" of rain will produce about 3000 gallons of water.
We bought four 3000 gallon rain water catch tanks. Our filtration will be 100 micron, 50 micron, 20 micron, and 5 micron sediment filters.
Then an activated charcoal filter, and lastly a UV light to kill any biological content. We have a air presurized holding tank and a pressure activated pump.
Those googley eyes were money well spent...love following the progress you guys have made.
Congratulations on finding what looks like a usable amount of water.
Great news.
I'm happy that you have found water. I'm very happy that you have filled the hole. That was very dangerous.
Congrats! You Sherlocked this one! Observation and logic win the day!
Since you believe your water is likely seasonal, which makes perfect sense, have you considered a large storage tank? Pump the storage full during the spring, when you've got plenty, and use it as a reserve for when the flow rate drops below your needs later in the year - add a couple solar-powered, UV LEDs to the tank, to prevent pathogen contamination. It'll take a few years to figure it all out, but you've made the most important part of it all happen, already - finding a source. Everything else is just planning and logistics.
Given the water source, it should be very clean and safe, once the dirt/sediments finish washing out, but testing is always a good idea. As for the notion of an RO system, it's a good idea, just in case of future issues and to reduce mineral load, and can be done without wasting your precious water. The RO can provide you with excellent drinking/cooking water, while the "waste" from it can be collected in a separate tank for use in toilets, showers, watering plants, etc. You could even use it for a small, lined, fish pond - a source of protein, and mental health breaks.
I use an RO on my houseboat, filtering lake water for drinking/cooking. If you look on Amazon for "iSpring UVF8 LED UV Water Filter", you'll find a very long life, 12vdc-24vdc, UV sanitizer, for use with RO filters - it comes with an AC/DC wall wart. I have one on the intake side of my RO, and another in the line leading from the RO/tank, to the tap. I skipped the wall wart, and ran connections directly to my solar system's battery bank. Testing has shown the water to be very close to distilled pure. No pathogens, of any sort, and minimal mineral solids. The only filtration that occurs before the RO is a sediment filter, in line, on the intake side of my shallow well pump.
At worst, I'd expect your water to be equal to our lake's water, so all the above should work well for you. Regardless, figuring out what to do with, and how best to use your newly found water, is a fantastic problem to have.
You should do a test pan of that sand and rounded cobble material, and see if there's any placer gold.
Wow, what a stroke of good fortune. You will likely have an excess beyond your dreams when it is wet. Might have to drain off the excess in the spring during snow melt.🙏
The one thing that you should have done was to test for gold at the bottom of your well .
All the signs are there for the potential for a small gold mine.
That’s what I said!!
absolutely. ancient river bed and bet its got gold in there... question is how much?
The whole video I was saying two things. “Why is he in that hole?!” And “Why doesn’t he have a gold pan in that hole?!”
He did find gold, water!
no doubt for them that was gold enough :)@@evil17
Yeeahh Free Water!!, Remember in the winter, Snow falls from the sky!! Snow is water falling into a cold zone turning into Snow, so you could save some snow in a tote, that will turn to water. if you run short. Have you secretly got a big building you are gonna build? as there seems to be a lot of Wood piles around the property.!! Good luck with the make shift well hope it works, Thanks for the video Love from UK. x x
I love the goggly eye on the claw. Too funny.
Excellent job on that shallow well - On another note, that is the CUTEST baby! ;)
Love the progress on the well. Just wish you would shore up when you go below grade. Would hate for it to collapse on you. It’s already done, just food for thought on future projects. Keep safe “reckless” ;)
Grab a gold pan and do a few pans of that ancient river bed.
aside from the modern tools "excavator" this is how it is still being done all around the world
if you dig furrows across the drain field, the this will slow down any rain water coming off the hill and enabling it to sink in rather than run off, bonus, slows erosion. Also, could you dig and put in wells at other locations...you know, to increase yield or find deeper pockets.
I always get a giggle with the googlie eyes lol ❤😊
I think it is fantastic that you found water and got away without the sides of the hole falling in on you while you did the fine touches. doing your hole in a step like manner may have been a tiny bit safer so the banks arn't as steep... but in the end it worked out for you.... which is cool.....
on the other hand Riley mentioned that just down the road is a wet spot that never dries up even in the summer ! a spring ! why not develop it or another one like it closer to the house
I expect you have springs all over the place on your property.... walk around in the summer time when it is dry and see if you can find small trickles of water.... we had a spring on our property when I was a kid that we developed, we cleared out the dirt,rocks and brush and got down about 5' onto the bedrock where the water was just pouring out...in 2 spots !
so we build a concrete box around that area and then closed off the drain... this was a big box, about 8' wide and 12' long and 4' high at the far end by the pond.... yes that was alot of dirt to move by hand with a shovel, but we did it.... we poured the concrete by hand into forms we made on the spot...no rebar...that was too expensive!... when we closed off the drain for it to fill up the first time we thought it would take 3 or 4 days to fill, as it was it took under 24 hours to fill !...that spring lasted for the time we lived there over 40 years
and never went dry... we did have to clean it every year... and cut the vines out of the cracks in the rocks as they restricted the flow of water. best water on the planet too!
if you have a spring on your property Please for your sakes make that your water source
it's far better than a well !
My first though is did you try panning the dirt for Gold?? :D
It's not too late, they have the fill set aside for another project.
Lol, Riley, Your as crazy as a bag of cats, The funny part is you guys actually pull it off, congratulations, with the rain and the snow melt you got it made, I"m sure your going to mode it out with a well pump and cap,,
Cool, and its the dry hot time of year. Add your storage and boom.
Very good idea that seems to have worked. Congratulations. Please don’t take unnecessary risks like climbing down in holes again. I know you have been scolded by everyone watching already. But you have a family that needs you.
you should have it samples to make sure that it is drinkable😮 no contaminated water😊
But it is exciting to know that you have water that mother nature provided for you good job guys😂❤❤
Looks like you may have a winner !
It makes sense that there is water there as your house is in a very low part of the terrain so all that rain water would accumulate there. Great job, you guys are so resourceful. Can't wait to see the completed project.
You guys are magic together. You believe in each other even when the other might be hairbrained. I for one. your dynamic is strong and reassuring
You might have a gold mine. You got round rock sand deposit, if you find black sand and quartz, you definitely should pan for gold
There’s gold in them there hills
You can increase the height of the water table and therefore the water production of the well by building ditches above the well that catch water runoff from snowmelt and rain and slow it down and allow it to soak into the ground. Do some research on groundwater recharge and you might be able to get even more water out
You should take a look at "red poppy ranch", they built an insulated cistern system, looks like you could store a years worth of water if you wanted to. With your solar excess of energy you could probably look at distilling your drinking water and just filter for septic and washing.
Heath and Cedar are awesome!
Oliver is a cute young man and why not he has great looking parents, now Riley you can't be reckless anymore you have two people that depend on you ❤ love you guys
A few years back I lived in an old country cabin with a shallow well dug in the basement. I was pretty happy with it until the day I found a drowned mouse floating in it! You not only need to filter the water for particulates, but you need to take precautions to prevent ANY animals (or even bugs) from crawling into the pipe and getting into your water. You should probably have it tested to be certain there's no natural contaminants in the water. Good job!
3 weeks ago I had the flu and I stumbled upon your channel. I watched "We Bought an Abandoned Homestead" video and I enjoyed it so much. I then went to your channel and went back to your first video and started watching them in order. I've just finished and I can't wait for your next video.
Are you going to get the abandoned trucks running?
What are you going to do with the cabins?
I like the eye ball on the excavator.
Fantastic! Hopefully it ends up being a great solution. You might want to keep the equipment and vehicles away from the well. Always little drips and leaks which will take no time to contaminate your shallow well. Have a great week!
16:17 - Ahhww that little smile. It remembers me of my kids when they were in that lifetime. Some little tears were scrolling down from my eyes.
I enjoy your videos so much that I always want more because they are over way too fast.
I live on the north coast of California which is an area with lots of hand dug wells. When I was younger I used to clean and service them. One cool thing I learned was that on a clear day, looking up from the bottom of a 20 foot deep well you can see the stars during the daytime. I'd say that you did pretty darn good with the excavator! Thanks for the video!
Great progress on the well. Oliver is adorable with his smirk style smile :)
OMG the googly eyes are so much fun to watch
Oliver is definitely a Happy Camper! Take Care You All! Tom
Not sure why but this is my favorite video by far. How exciting to find water!!
This might just work!? You two are so holding your breath and if course, happy with what has happened so far. I'm glad someone came by and is able to give you a hand. I'll be ready to enjoy another episode of this exciting adventure. Hi dear baby!
Congrats on WATER. Thanks for the video, I always look forward to you next "adventure'
I’m sure you guys already have a plan for water filtration and such, but if you don’t, I would check out “red poppy ranch” and his setup. He’s in SE Idaho and is working with a shallow well also. I think he only has to service his filtration system once or maybe twice a year. So I think it’s somewhat cost effective. Congrats on the well, your work ethic pays off!
Congratulations! The dry time will be late winter when the world is frozen. Cistern the production for a long backup, as I am sure you have realized.
If you're doing away with the atmospheric water generator, I'd reuse the holding tank you put in for long term storage. A couple thousand gallons buffer should help you get through months of severe drought. The water coming out of your dug well is likely to have a high clay content -- at least initially. I'd put it through a 5 micron and a 0.5 micron filter to pull the solids out. Use standard 10" filters you can buy cheap from the farm/irrigation supply rather than anything proprietary. If you plan on drinking it, I'd also plan on UV light at the very least but possibly also RO depending on what your water test results look like.
Hello from the Netherlands.
Congratulations good news that you have found water in your diy waterwell.
I hope for your sake that this well yields enough water for you
thanks for the video Courtney and Riley .
Sincerely Hollandduck
I like the googly eyes on the excavator bucket. Courtney, could you put a big shaggy feather on the back of the bucket to give it hair.
You might want to put some kind of cover over the area like clay, to keep contaminated water from seeping in from all your equipment. Equipment leaks and you never know if someday you'll have some kind of accident that will dump a few gallons of diesel or oil or gas or whatever. There is a city called Albion Michigan that has a natural spring in the park that people would collect gallons of water from on a daily basis. A local company was using pesticides, or some other kind of chemicals and the spring was contaminated for many years from seepage
Congrats guys !!! You have the best channel on UA-cam by far !!
Oh awesome! You can put a huge tank up on the hill above the property to store water in the wet season and have gravity pressurized water to the house. I'm excited for you guys!
Round cobble in sand layer, sounds like the beginning of a Gold Rush!
You might consider a cistern for your next project. It would have the added benefit of storage space for any runoff you might want to collect in the future, in addition to what the well produces.
They already have one from the failed water condenser.
Sweet……H2O!!!!!! Proud of y’all!
Yay!!! Congrats ! And this opens up the creation of all kinds of videos for water sourcing/processing at the Riley and Courtney ranch!
Great video so fun to watch. Thank you. I'm really bummed the atmospheric water collector didn't work.
Me, too
@17:10 I am a grumpy old man with no kids who lives alone, and even I think that baby is super cute!
Sometimes the kiss principle truly works. We know that the technology in the Water Reclamation plant was a great idea but it's just not ready yet for your application. But when you think about it, you dig a hole in the ground, add some water pipe to it plus a few other bits, and pieces. It can't be more simple. congratulations! Thank you for sharing,
Best regards? Bob from Virginia USA
Way Cool Results!
We still can't really believe it! 🤯
Good programming you guys might want to try to do a little gold panning
One of the best things about this style of well is that it just gets better over time as the water has now a place to travel and will increase..... just how much and how fast is only a guess. I like the fact that if no contamination is in the water from where ever its coming from, then its good drinking water... mine went from about ten gallons a day to over five hundred gallons a day and would do a average of five gallons a minute at times. I was living at that time in a town called Beaver washington.... just outside of Forks washington.
👍positive attitude wins the day!👍
I lived in a house with a similar shallow well in northern CA. In the summer it would almost dry up, but in the winter the water level would be nearly ground level and you essentially have unlimited water in the wet season. The house had a 5000 gallon storage tank and pressure pump. I didn’t drink the water due to concerns over contamination and water quality, but it covered all other water needs (showers, laundry, washing dishes, watering plants)
Yes a cistern is needed when using a small diameter pipe because not much water is stored in the pipe. More common with deep wells due to the small diameter drill casing. Most shallow wells are large diameter like 4 feet. I had a well that kept drying up in the summer so I went down on a ladder and dug the bottom out a couple feet and solved the problem.
I have been watching and I have been in the position where I have done things that were pushing the boundaries of safe so we could continue farming. My husband has a tendency to take more chances than I would so I understand how Riley's actions make you a little nervous. We used 4 foot cement tile laid vertically to make a well to water animals. Worked great for us. Looks a lot like your black pipe idea. Hope you have as good of luck with your water idea. Keep us informed
That's kind of interesting setup for a well. I would probably have made some concrete rings on top of each other in that hole, then lid on top of that, maybe some pieces of stair inside for safety, typical way, but I guess you thought this out further than I did. It's great you start getting your water troubles fixed, well done!
Hello Courtney , Ollie , & Riley... Great job ...Once you figure out the gals or parts of gals per minute you can pump it would be prudent to set up a couple IBC Totes inside ur shop to pump full for daily use & have ur well pump set up to keep them topped off so ur ahead of any usage u might have with no waiting ( lag ) time ..., plus you'd have an easily accessable filter station & ability to add whatever ultraviolet lights & or chemicals to keep ur water safe for drinking , dishes , & bathing ... Great Job Guys ... Just keep us all posted along the way how the water production advances throughout each season , especially the Rainy season & the next DRY Season ..... 👍👍👍👍🤗🤗👋👋👋
That is great news. Looks very murky but may work for irrigation water. Letting it settle in the tote will be interesting, too. "Liquid gold! Eureka!"
they should have used a separate tote . now after a day they should switch to a new tote to see how clean it is.
Riley is a genius!
Hi Susan where are you from?
Wow, that is fantastic news and this should help with the liquefaction in the spring and dewater the whole area and if your demands increase you may be able to expand with french drains to increase the surface area. You three are amazing.
A lot of times the spring liquefaction is caused by melt water and surface soil sitting on frozen ground below with nowhere to drain. Drain rock right to the surface would solve this.
That takes courage to develop and idea and implement it
ok you said that about 130 gallon for 24 hours That is 5.4 gallon per hours range about 5- 15 gallon per If you had a 1 foot or 2 feet round well you may get more gallon per hour . that is better then 3.75 gallon 90 /24 hour Now get test see what is in the. Then you know what type water filter you will need
OMG the googly eyes on the excavator was the best decision ever!
Congratulations you two, water is so precious on the homestead.
Thats so awesome guys i love watching your channel and learning new things.
Keep it up and thank you.
Also you should be using black water storage containers, because you're soon going to have algae build up inside those white ibc totes
Totes are for fresh water. I think the grey water is sent out to a leach field. I don’t recall seeing how they did that. To prevent algae take the containers out of the wire cage by cutting the top bars off, spray paint them black and set them back in the cage.
@@bigdog2024 similar to painting the IBCs is to simply cover them with a dark fabric like a tarp. I use a old pool liner to keep my rain water IBC covered. I use the collected roof water for my gardens
@@mattsilver8842 A tarp would be a large pain to keep wrapped over the top and probably too bulky to get the container back in the tote. Here in TX the UV destroys tarps in a year or two as well.
@bigdog2024 I cut and fitted the cover from an old pool liner. It's been in place 6 years year round and doing well, in Canada, just across the river from Buffalo NY. But I do like the idea of the black paint
Congrats Guy's, on finding water in the hole. Hope the wizard way u put the pipe will work for u'all.
You might want to check the dirt at the bottom of the hole for Gold