What is your weather like ... today

[JBtheExplorer]

More snow today - I bet we are up to about 14 or 16 inches of total snow cover. It just keeps coming!

Our news station said 11.9", but that's in Milwaukee and they've had less than I have. We're probably around 15" over the last 8 days.

 

[CountryEscape]

I had to look up -31C ... -23F! Yikes @MitchM! No thanks ... although we did have -12F for a day or two, and night time temps in the negative numbers F for about a week or two but not all at the same time. This has been a cold winter for us in south central IL.
JB, my 3 sisters all live in southern WI (Wauwatosa, Pewaukee, and Delafield) and it seems like they have snow, but not over 10" in the last week or so. I'd say you are well above them in numbers.
Got a thin sheet of ice covering everything last night. Thank goodness not hanging on the trees, etc. It just came down as a mist and covered everything. Very hard to walk to the barn to feed the animals, even the grass was very slick! Glad I don't have to drive today, cloudy and only 30 for a high, or tomorrow (Lincoln's Birthday - he was born in IL, so we get that extra holiday being a State worker - Woohoo!!!), so hopefully the roads will be good to go on Tuesday.
I love having my bog running, with shallow water available for the birds. They are all enjoying it, and the starlings are famous for taking baths in February in my pond bogs! Yes, starlings are ugly birds, I hate them actually, but where I live with no woods nearby, I have 2 types of birds in my yard in the winter - sparrows and starlings. Sad, I know. There are small and larger hawks, too, and if they want to come feed at my feeder, they are welcome in winter! In the summer I get barn swallows, which I LOVE! I make sure I don't have any round bales of hay under where their nests are, so the barn cats cannot get to them. They eat tons of bugs, so they are most welcome! I have cattails on my pasture pond, so I have red-winged blackbirds, which are also good bug eaters. I get mourning doves, chipping sparrows and song sparrows. Every now and then I see a gold finch in the yard, usually eating cone flower seeds. So, it's a lonely yard for bird watching, so having the bald eagles close to watch is a real treat for me! And, I don't have to drive far to find other beautiful birds ... just anyone's house with trees nearby! I'm working on getting good trees for them, but the good hardwoods take a while to grow.

 

[j.w]

Frost and 29f but more great sunshine w/it!

 

[sissy]

66 degrees out and sun was out for an hour but then the wind picked up and it is a warm wind .Took lawnmowers out of the basement and ran them for awhile to make sure batteries do not go dead

 

[HARO]

Need I say more?
John

 

[sissy]

Not sure how far he would make it .But good luck

 

[JamieB]

Sigh, trying a third pump. First two it turns out the guys selling it didn’t know crap about well systems, not compatible wiring, it was a three wire and a ground system, we have a two and a ground system. So I bought the kind we needed, dropped it down, nothing. Either a problem with the pipe or in the well itself. Dropped a bottle weighed down with rocks on a fishing line, got clean water up, but when we tried to drop a weight on the line, it snagged on something. So may need a new casing. Luckily it wasn’t as cold as Mitch’s temps or I’d have said it can wait another month or two! Had about an inch of ice on the pond, still having to pull water from that to flush toilets.

 

[CountryEscape]

Wow, what a frustrating situation you have going on there, @JamieB! I think I'd be hiring someone to replace it for you. Might be a good time to see about putting in a different type of pump, or maybe this is the first time you've had trouble, and it's a reliable. I had trouble with my well pump that was on top of the well concrete lid, when freezing temps came. Either I forgot to turn on the heat lamp soon enough, or the bulb burned out, or it just go so cold with the old housing that the heat lamp didn't help enough. Now I have a new housing where the ground temp can help keep out the air temps, I have a thermostat plug in where TWO heat lamps are plugged into. This way, if one bulb burns out, the other one will still be working ... I hope! I check it periodically. Now my only problem is leaving the water tank hose on ... and running the well dry. So far the pump (3rd one before I learned my lesson!) running for 24 hours before I noticed it has not harmed it ... knock on wood. LOL

 

[JamieB]

Wow, what a frustrating situation you have going on there, @JamieB! I think I'd be hiring someone to replace it for you. Might be a good time to see about putting in a different type of pump, or maybe this is the first time you've had trouble, and it's a reliable. I had trouble with my well pump that was on top of the well concrete lid, when freezing temps came. Either I forgot to turn on the heat lamp soon enough, or the bulb burned out, or it just go so cold with the old housing that the heat lamp didn't help enough. Now I have a new housing where the ground temp can help keep out the air temps, I have a thermostat plug in where TWO heat lamps are plugged into. This way, if one bulb burns out, the other one will still be working ... I hope! I check it periodically. Now my only problem is leaving the water tank hose on ... and running the well dry. So far the pump (3rd one before I learned my lesson!) running for 24 hours before I noticed it has not harmed it ... knock on wood. LOL

First big problem, going to test the old pump tomorrow and see if it burned out or not. If it didn’t, we will try replacing the pipe, and if still no water, then may need a new casing. That well is over 10 yrs old, probably much older, and who knows how old the casing is. I know the people before dad n step mom bought the place didn’t know squat about basic repairs, so if it’s not good, fair chance they did something wrong. Or used cheap supplies if they ever did anything with it. The original pump that was in it lasted at least 10 years. So we are down to it’s either the pipe, or the casing. Pipe would be an easy fix, casing will be more expensive and labor intensive.

 

[addy1]

Now my only problem is leaving the water tank hose on ... and running the well dry.

Get a timer! fixes that problem. I top off the pond with our well, but on a timer, ow it would run forever. I would forget it.

 

[JamieB]

I need a hot tub! And running water. I’d love to soak the aches of all the hard work away!

 

[JamieB]

Get a timer! fixes that problem. I top off the pond with our well, but on a timer, ow it would run forever. I would forget it.

What timer did you get, how much, and where? I’m looking at getting one!

 

[CountryEscape]

Get a timer! fixes that problem. I top off the pond with our well, but on a timer, ow it would run forever. I would forget it.

I have a time ... two of them, actually! But, when the temps went below zero F, I took it off, afraid it would not work properly with those cold temps. But, my brain works even worse! I've left that hydrant on at least 3 times in the last year. Good grief, that's telling on myself, huh?!? The worst part is having to reprime the pump, which takes me about 30 minutes to accomplish. What a pain! If I was having to buy a new pump each time I guess I would learn my lesson quicker ... but this last pump has been phenomenal! But ... thanks for the warning/suggestion ... AGAIN! I know Sissy keeps telling me the same thing. LOL

 

[CountryEscape]

I got a timer from Menards, I think it was less than $10, but it's made of plastic, and I worry about using it in the winter, water getting left in there, freezing, and then it doesn't work. Maybe I just don't understand how they work. LOL Or, maybe I'm buying cheap timers. The first one I bought quit working within 6 months. I was using that on the house hose bib for filing the ponds. @addy1, do you have a suggestion for a certain brand that works well, lasts, and is reliable in winter (or do you even have to add water in the winter?)? My house well would run a very long time before it ran out, and even if I ran that well dry (I've done that twice, once while filling my koi pond, the other time left water on all day while I was at work), that well fills really fast, so within 30 minutes I had water again. Must be self-priming, because I never have to prime it. I guess that means the house well pump is down in the well maybe?

 

[MitchM]

Sigh, trying a third pump. First two it turns out the guys selling it didn’t know crap about well systems, not compatible wiring, it was a three wire and a ground system, we have a two and a ground system. So I bought the kind we needed, dropped it down, nothing. Either a problem with the pipe or in the well itself. Dropped a bottle weighed down with rocks on a fishing line, got clean water up, but when we tried to drop a weight on the line, it snagged on something. So may need a new casing. Luckily it wasn’t as cold as Mitch’s temps or I’d have said it can wait another month or two! Had about an inch of ice on the pond, still having to pull water from that to flush toilets.

Have you made sure you have power to the well pump wires?
A basic voltmeter will help you with that. (If you have one or could borrow one)
It sounds like you have a 120v well pump, the 3 wire pumps are 240v.
If you're not comfortable around electricity though, find a friend who is. Checking you have power is a pretty basic task.

Your fishing line could have caught on a pitless adapter. That's the adapter that runs underground and attaches your house water line to the well casing. I'm assuming your house water line runs underground.