Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire About the Well

I like the way y'all think.

The cover at this point seems solid enough to hold up a dog, but not a kid or an adult. I think what I'm going to do is put a sign up first.

Would I want water out of it? It's 90 feet lower than the house, so it would be a bit of a haul I could fill it in with surrounding clay and still be able to pound a pipe down in the future. What future would that be? Heck if I know. I get all my water from rain catchment and I'm only utilizing less than half the roof space. I also have the option now of hooking up to city water. As long as the S doesn't HTF, I've got more water than I'll ever need. This well is probably contemporary to the 1850's farmhouse, whose foundation is about 300 yards from our place, the 1902 house. That must have been a hard life: schlepping water up 90 feet of vertical across 200 yards of hilly pasture. Yikes! So much for the good ol' days.

I think the sign ought to do for now. I'm moving out there full time in a couple of years and adding on the place. When I have a bulldozer handy for digging the cellar, I'll send him down to fill in the hole. That is probably the cheapest and most permanent. fix.

16’ cattle/goat panels-$22 each (x4)

6’ t-posts- $4 each (x8)

Galvanized wire-$10

With 30 minutes, and a t-post driver, you can have it enclosed.

For cryin out loud, this^, or at least a few T post driven in the ground around the perimeter & paint 'em fluorescent. Takes maybe 20 bucks & 20 minutes.

Might keep a forgetful person on & ATV or a stranger from dying. A better lid, even a truck hood could keep larger critters from falling in it.

Otherwise, the airmchair prepper in me says keep the well. It could come in handy.

'...I think the sign ought to do for now...'

Attorney: 'so you put up a sign'

Ans: 'yes'

Attorney: 'so, knowing there was a problem, all you did was put up a sign'????

Ans: 'yes'

Attorney: 'can the sign be seen from all directions, what about people that cannot read'?????


As others have opined, fill it in, or make a no-chitt cover that forces someone to WANT to get in............

IMHO!

Put a new cover on it plus a warning sign

If someone falls in, they'll have no problem proving that you knew about it and didn't remove all possibility of them doing something to earn a Darwin. A lawyer will have a big payday at your expense. You need to protect yourself as noted above.

I'm coming up on the 20th Anniversary of owning the farm-- 200 acres to the SE of Cincinnati.

Before closing on the place, the owner took me down into a hollow and showed me a spot. "There's a well here," he said, pointing to a spot on the ground. I realized there was a cover over it, buried in the leaves. "Nobody has touched it for 80 years," he said. "I'm pointing it out to you, because you need to warn people not to go near it." The cover was rotten. I threw a stone through a hole in cover. It took a while for the splash to happen.

After that, I made sure everyone in the family knew not to go down there. It's an easy place to point out. It's easy to avoid. I've maybe walked past there 3 times. I invited #1 granddaughter down with me, and she refused to go. Her Dad and uncle had already told her. We have folks coming to camp. We always point the spot out, and no one goes on the property without first getting a briefing about the well.

Q: What should I do with that well? Options:

1) Do nothing. I warn everyone that comes on the property with my permission.
2) Put up a warning sign
3) Fill it in.
4) Put a new cover over it.

I see all 4 having possible upsides and down sides.