OK--here's the deal---
.............in our last episode..............
(forgive me; this is beginning to feel like a soap-opera)
I had "tried" to get my 'usual' well-man (initials SP) from near Dahlonega, GA, (about an hour's drive from me) who was the curmudgeon of all curmudgeons, who wouldn't even give me a "definite day/time he'd come, but finally condescended to call the house while I had a man out from the original electricians who were working there when the pump went out. He voice-guided the electrician through the specific sequence one uses to check the "capacitor" (that's what he called it--the "Franklin Electric" box that has the (I guess you call it) "relays" or connections between the pump wire and the pressure-switch). What the guy found had SP pronouncing the problem being either the pump itself or the wire coming from the pump--but said it would be necessary to open the pump-head to check it. And he was so vague about when he could come check that that it was obvious he did NOT want to come at all.
So I go looking again, and find MD, who had a relatively close pump drilling / service business out of Cumming, GA. He at first tried to claim it was too far to come as well, until I pointed out that at the insurance office where I work my boss LIVES in Cumming and drives here every day to work--about a 30-minute drive. So then he agreed to come. He also, like the electrician, checked the pressure-switch wires and the Franklin Electric box wires--but quickly, very quickly--hurrying through it--and absolutely refused to check my breaker box. Instead, he went out to look at the well-head. He had a limp, so he had his Hispanic helper (who I could tell understood very little English) start trying to take bolts off the hand-pump to pull it off the top so he could see the wires. After a fruitless attempt, he said he could only check if the pump was bad by bringing in a boom truck to do so.
The next day, he did (this was 2 days after a heavy rain), bringing a 4-wheel truck he'd borrowed from another well company. (Ironically, it was a company called Bolton Well Services that I had called earlier and which had said "we don't go out that far"--and now here they were with THEIR truck at my property in spite of that, but in someone else's hands). However, despite our telling him NOT to run the truck into certain areas of my yard that I KNEW always became marshy mudholes when it rained, he did it anyway and got the truck so stuck he almost never got it out. It took the combined efforts of his helper, my son, and myself to find enough plywood to put under the tires -- and then he just kept racing the motor so his tires were simply spinning on the plywood until they and the wood was smoking. I kept yelling at him to stop, and when he finally did I put some old asphalt shingles on top of the plywood, which then gave him enough traction to get moving and get the tires / truck out again.
He left, saying he couldn't come back until the yard was dry enough to drive in. Fair enough. But then a few days later, he contacted me to say he had "positive" news--he had borrowed a smaller boom truck "from a competitor" and wanted to come back, but only if we let him try coming in from a different direction, up my front driveway and through my FRONT yard. I had suggested that we could "consider" that, but that I only wanted him to "look" at it first, as the front yard was even steeper than the back, plus you had to maneuver around more trees and bushes and had less room to get up speed to make it up the hill and even sharper turns than coming the other way. But he was COMPLETELY INSISTENT that he was sure he could make it if he came through the FRONT yard, with this other truck. I then had to explain that I couldn't do it before the end of the week at earliest, as one of my bosses (who got married a year ago) was going out of country on a second honeymoon with his wife and had asked me to work full-schedule this week to cover the office while he was gone. (I have two bosses, brothers who are sons of the man who started the company). So anyway, I told him I couldn't be at home when he came till maybe the end of the week, and he snapped, "Well who says YOU have to BE there?!?"
I was a little taken aback, and tried to explain that my son was unfamiliar with how everything was laid out as far as the pipes / electrical / well system, whereas I've had to take care of everything around this house (that I grew up in) since my Daddy died when I was 17, and so my son didn't want to be left alone with having to be responsible for this because if the man had any questions my son wouldn't be able to answer them---but I never got that far, as this Mr. M.D. became VERY irate that I felt I needed to be home while he worked (inside and outside the home), both upstairs and in the basement).
Now he had earlier sent me an estimate, because he was very sure (even though he still had not yet checked the pump wires) that it was the pump that was the problem, and so I asked him at this point again about checking the well-head by digging down a bit to see if we could find the wires and check them directly. He point-blank refused to try to dig around with a shovel ("I ain't gonna do that!") so then I asked him what would happen if he replaced the pump and all parts and hooked it up and it STILL didn't work because the problem was somewhere else (electrical) and not the pump at all---after I'd spent nearly $3K to have a new pump put in (per his estimate).
He BLEW. UP. Starting talking about me not trusting his expertise (this when he'd told me himself he COULDN'T verify it was the pump UNTIL he could test the wires from it at the well-head) and that "you want to have everything your own way!" I couldn't help but think of the girl in True Grit (the original version) who said, "When I've bought and paid for something, I'll have it my own way!" but I bit my tongue and just tried to calm him down, but he only got snappier and ruder. At this point, I was thinking, "I don't want this man anywhere near my well pump!" so I just put him off with repeating that I couldn't have him come until at least the end of the week due to having to work.
After I hung up, I was almost in despair. I knew of no one else to call. The man who first put in the original well, and who then replaced the pump for me with the one currently in it, Mr. John Marvin Hamilton, I learned had passed away two years ago--in 2022. I was racking my brains and praying about it, and happened to remember one other group that had worked on it that was very professional--Ward Well Drilling. Though the company was no longer in business, I had the number of the former owner in my phone and on a chance called it. This was about 10 pm Sunday night. To my surprise, he answered.
Mr. Ward told me he'd just finished a 9-hour drive in the heavy rain that night to Mississippi (I think to some sort of well-drillers conference) and that his company couldn't help me, but after hearing what I'd been through he agreed that most "small" well-drillers were more the fly-by-night type who defaulted to "you need a new pump" every time a problem comes up and recommended me to a company in Athens (or rather, Watkinsville) GA that he said had the highest reputation for both integrity and excellence of service. I left a message, left it in the Lord's hands, and went to bed (Saturday night).
This company called me the next day (even though it was Sunday) and the man had me do several tests to check things. It comforted me that he suggested several of the things that some on this thread have suggested, such as turning off all the breakers and then back on, or turning off just the breaker to the pump for 10 minutes and back on. He even asked me if, when I threw the breaker back on, if I heard any sort of sound--even a quiet 'click'--from the capacitor box. He said he'd have someone call me first thing Monday from the office, and they did and sent someone that same day. The VERY nice and respectable YOUNG man (about mid-30's--the other well-men I knew were all in their 60's-80's) checked everything out, then went out to the well. He also attempted to pull the hand-pump but couldn't, but then went and got a shovel and began carefully digging. About a foot down he found (as I had vaguely remembered) a hole cut in the stand-pipe where the wires came out of the well, and was able to pull /cut those wires for testing. THAT, FINALLY, answered our questions. I could see his meter from where I was standing, and saw the very low readings, and knew as soon as he raised a sad face to look at me what the answer was, and said, "It's dead, Jim---right?"
They planned it out with me to come toward the end of the week, since the weather for the past couple of days has been sunny and VERY warm for March. They set their coming for Thursday, since it's supposed to be clear and near 80. He walked over the field with me that they'll have to drive up, and saw the truck gate at our side yard and the culvert that spans a large drainage ditch, and didn't seem to think they'd have any trouble by then. (PRAY that they WON'T!)
In the meanwhile, I worked out getting a load of gravel (# 4 rocks) delivered, so my hubby and son and I could spread it over where the truck is supposed to drive. The man at first wanted, for 6 cubic yard of gravel, hauled in two loads, and spread, $1200! I told him I was thinking HALF that price. I asked how much if he just brings / dumps it, without using his spreading machine---he said he thought he could bring 5 cu ft in one load for $480. I asked didn't he tell us we'd need six cu yds for the job and thought he meant he was still bringing two loads (he was Hispanic so we had a bit of a language barrier) and he said yes, two loads. But then when he came (Tuesday) only my husband was at home (I was at work) and told my husband we'd agreed on just the 5 cu yds for that price. I was so mad. But when we asked him about the 6 cu yds and two loads he threatened to just take the load he had brought back. So since we were over a barrel we paid his highway robbery and hubby, son, and I have spent the last two days/evenings creating two "tracks" of gravel over the yard and up the hill where their truck will have to drive. They said it's a 16,000 pound truck (I hope they are exaggerating) but Lord willing the combination of the dryer soil and the gravel (if he gets up a good head of steam - in first gear -- before he leaves the paved road to start coming thru our truck-gate and up the hill) he will make it up to where the well-pump is -- and we'll be in business.
So please PRAY that 1. the truck-driver avoids the area where our (Infiltrator!) septic tank line chambers are, and 2. that he doesn't get mired down and makes it up to the pump. If just THAT can be accomplished, I think all will be ok.
By the way--this second company is higher than the M.D. quote was--a good bit--but they only use American-made parts, they have a 5-year warranty (10 years on the pump itself), they send out a whole team, not just one or two guys, and they have very high ratings both online and with the BBB. So I feel better about them than any of the others I've consulted yet.
So yes--please keep praying that ALL goes well tomorrow (today, now) and that we'll be all fixed again by the end of the day. If not----we're in trouble, as HEAVY rain is predicted again for Friday.
SO don't stop praying!
Thank you ALL!
Love,
Countrymouse