Water

One of the problems that we had at the Lansdale farm was in getting enough water. There was a small stream in the pasture that was enough for the livestock but it was inconvenient for them in the cold weather. Water for cooking and washing we had to haul from the springhouse. After several years we had a pipeline put in from the old well in the pasture to the house and barn. A pump with a small gasoline motor was used to push the water, and had to be installed five feet below ground level in the well to prevent freezing. This system was only partly successful as we had no tank to hold the water, and we had to go down to the well in the field every day. Later, we persuaded the landlord to drill a new well for us near the house. They found some water at seventy feet but it was only about three quarts a minute and so they decided to drill for more. They went down more than four hundred feet and still no more. So they stopped drilling and put in a deep well pump using the depth of the well as a reserve. This worked all right as long as we did not need much water at one time.