The Well Strikes Back

It was a great relief to realize a few days ago that we’d finished processing everything from the well. Although we’d closed it on one day, the buckets of soil everywhere had to be water-screened, insuring that the processing lingered on for several days afterward. We did our water-screening over the water-sieve, which basically means that we put a bunch of dirt on a screen and sprayed it with a hose so that all the soil piled up in the tank of the water-sieve. Initially, we were pretty good about cleaning out that soil. It was perfect for making mud bricks to go into Guy Sander’s pottery kiln.



But that was the first day when we were conscientious about removing the superfine silt. The second day? Not so much.

Apparently, the one water tank filled up with soil, then the second water tank did so, then the same in all the tubing business, and then, finally, the sieve just couldn’t take it anymore.

It exploded.

Guy (our director) and Thanos Webb (the bone dude), while innocently trying to clean out the machine for more mud bricks, got hit by a geyser of sludge that shot up, hit the underside of the umbrella, and rained back down upon them. I’m told they even tried to run away, but the volcano of mire actually followed them as they fled.

Boy. I’m glad I was safely in the trench where the well was adequately subdued. Although, it was 102 degrees this week, so playing in a sprinkler might have been nice.