the old well

One of the first things we saw to tackle at the new place was the old well.  It's quite literally a stack of cinderblocks surrounding a 50-foot hole in the ground.  Yikes!  And looming over that, a very old dilapidated well house with a bent metal roof.  Double yikes!!

There's some charm with this thing, including an old bucket and chain and pulley used to pull up buckets of water.  And some horse shoes and molds nearby.  Very cool, but also totally in the way of the driveway for all practical purposes.  And totally unsafe for our littles.

While we wait to get the new well up and running, an obvious next step was to take down the old well house to make more space in this area.  Before we move in, the cinderblocks and the well itself will be abandoned and properly sealed so we can use the space more full. 

Even though the well house was falling down already, it was still a big project to tear down given the size and roofing on the structure.  (Old school forged nails in there, you guys.)  Kevin and his dad were actually pretty excited to have a reason to pull out a 60-foot logging chain on the back of the Honda Pilot and literally pull the thing down by tow hitch.  

They did it!  The whole thing demolished and cleaned up in less than two hours on a very fun family workday.  Way to go, fellas.

Kevin and I came out a week later to bridge the fence posts where the well house had been.  A simple job that in the past we never would have attempted.  But we did it!  See how much space is opened up now?  It will be even better when the old well is abandoned and we can really make better use of that spot.  For now, we are super satisfied with ourselves for digging in and tackling this big project as a family.  Mending fences is good for the soul.