The drillers came and did what they do best and put a 140′ hole in the ground for our new well. They said it was good for 90 gallons/minute. William is just giddy about having water.

William is holding sand that came up like it's gold. He's going to bottle it. (not kidding)

The picture above was early in the morning. The picture below was what was left after they did their magic. They were pumping air down the hole to bring up water ’til it ran clear. So we had a 6ft fountain in our hay field.

Next time you see William congratulate him on his new well. I think he would pass out cigars if he had any. Below is the video we made for his blog.

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Work the Plan

After reading Purdue’s article on disaster preparedness for farms, I got to thinking about how prepared we are for an emergency on our farm. Although Mr. Cain has some great suggestions, he leaves out significant items necessary for almost every farm emergency.

I liked the idea of  creating a plan to discover potential problems that we might not have thought of occurring. With everyone getting involved I can see some coming up with scenarios that others may overlook.

Crop insurance is pretty much a given. When I think of disaster, I think of dealing with the fall-out immediately afterwards as in a tornado, ice storm, or fire. Crop insurance covers loss of yield from drought, flood, green snap, ect. These usually occur over days to months. They’re not what I consider emergencies.

Keeping important files and papers offsite is fundamental. We have files in a security box at the bank and backup files online regularly. Walking through the a pre-planned exercise would be wise in order for everyone on the farm to know what is expected and what to expect.

The one thing that is not mentioned that I believe is vital is a generator. We have had many winters where ice had knocked out the electricity for more than a few days. Having a generator as a backup energy source was crucial for getting through that time period. Not only for the house but the livestock are dependent on us for their water supply. We have a tractor pto hook up for one site of the farm and a Honda 6500 gas generator for the other.

Have you had a farm emergency at your place? How did you handle the situation?