I spent the last two days rewiring the switch and control boxes. That turned out fine, but the well pump is still only responding in bits. I believe it to be the well pump itself. So, on Monday I’ll be getting the pump folks out here.

Meanwhile, we initiated operation pasture-water-to-garden-system. Well, that might not have the best mission title, we did successfully tap into an irrigation line we weren’t using anymore and use it to push water to our garden watering systems. This will make our watering tasks much simplified again (and by “our” I mean Ann’s).

Here’s the manifold I built today. This irrigation junction used to water a portion of the pasture with unground sprinklers, but we removed that line of sprinklers in favor of a pod watering system, which we like.

Here is where the hoses are going:

And, as you can see, all that work is worth while, because Ann gets to use her Country Jacuzzi (aka a cattle trough). Losing the water hasn’t all bad

Oh joy of joys! Yesterday our well pump stopped working. I called the pump service folks to diagnose the issue, but they couldn’t get me on the schedule until Tuesday. Ugh.

So, instead of working the FC, or anything else, I have been taking crash courses in learning how the our well pump system works (thank YouTube) at the wiring/capacitor/relay/switch level. After exploring the box with my voltmeter, in the pump control box I diagnosed a bad capacitor, so that was progress, but couldn’t readily locate one near me for sale, so I ended up buying a new pump control box and rewiring it in place. That went well (unintended pun). The pump started, but doesn’t continue running (starting the pump differs from running the pump amperage wise).

My next idea was to check out the box below the pump. It contained two switches, controlled by different mechanisms, that turns on and off the electricity to the pump control box. It’s a box I’ve never opened (never needed to open). I was pretty shocked at the condition of the connectors; the leads are corroded and/or bad (see closeup). It may be the case that the corrosion is effecting the ability to feed the pump with enough amperage. So, Friday morning’s task is to locate new switches, then redo the wiring in the box. Fingers crossed this works!

Thankfully, we have access to the neighbor’s well, via multiple hoses, so we can fill pots with water, keep our cows watered, and water the garden.

Upper right box is the new one (cover off). Lower left box is the next project.

Yikes!