the water divining man came to visit ....

Stevie saw it with his own eyes but still doesn't believe it .........Water Divining .. or Water Witching as they call it around these parts......

It seems we have copious amounts of the stuff pouring in through the roof recently but this week we tried something different and we had people out to find a water source in our garden. Currently we are on 'borrowed' water and need to find our own source.  Now being so remote, tucked away down a country lane, the local water authority do not serve us and the mains water terminates up in the village. So we need to install, in the next 6 months, our own water.

"How do you have a bath?"  I was asked the other day.

"Same as you do" I replied " turn the tap on and fill the bath up"

It seems apparent that to 'Townies' the mere thought of not being connected to mains water is simply unthinkable.  The person who asked the question had visions of us hauling water in an old wooden bucket from a well in the field.  But no it comes through the tap just like every other house around.  Ours however is provided free from the farmer up the lane.  He has a well, a modern one, and our water gets pumped from his house down blue alkathane pipes to our house.

However, we do need to become self sufficient.  We need to get our own water supply for the future. So we are investing in a bore hole.  It its exactly what it sounds like, a hole bored deep into the ground, down to the water table.  This is where the water witching comes into play.

So in the agricultural papers we found some advertisements, and called in a couple of companies to talk to us about bore holes.  A nice man came to see us the other day  and spoke about the types of filters and pumps and pipework that would be required.  We then took him out onto site and from the back pocket of his trousers he produced 2 long pieces of wire rod bent into an L shape  and a Y shaped piece of wood.  He then began pacing up and down the garden.  He was holding the metal rods, one in each hand, when suddenly the two rods turned to face each other and made an X.  The water is here he said.   He stopped, and took the wooden Y out of his pocket and then held that. He held it in front of him, with the tail of the Y pointing ahead of him  and began retracing his foot steps...suddenly the wooden Y which was pointing horizontally slammed down and pointed at the ground.   He then bent down touched the grass by his boot , touched his chest, then touched his head and began counting "71 feet down"  
"pardon?  said I in total amazement
"If we drill here we will find water at 71 feet deep"
I was totally enthralled....

But Stevie said he had simply looked at geology maps of our postcode before he visited us...Stevie has a long way to go before becoming Cornish!


Jo xx