Down here in the South we're in the grip of a nasty drought.  The area we live in is designated to be in exceptional drought, which is pretty much as bad as it gets.  We haven't had significant rainfall in quite a while; our lakes and rivers are turning into cracked mud beds.  Last I heard we're about 16" below usual; some places in the state only have 80 days of water left in their municipal supplies.

And Mr. C and I are supplied all our water by a well.  What fun!  So, we've been very careful to conserve as much water as we can, and I've been kind of obsessing over some neighbors who have shockingly green grass; you just KNOW they're watering the heck out of their lawn, and we're all on the same aquifer so MY drinking water is going to keep THEIR lawn looking lush. 

So I'm about 10 minutes away from leaving for work last Thursday when Mr. C comes out of the shower and tells me we have a water problem; the pressure has gone down.  Not much longer after that, we have NO water.  He can't work at home and I can, so off he goes while I page the home warranty folks.

No answer.  I page again.  No answer.  I call the office as SOON as they open and am assured someone will call me soon.  I get a call literally 2 minutes before I'm planning to call and bug them again (I planned on calling every hour on the hour until I got a response).  The rather rude guy who handles the warranty service says he'll call someone.  When I don't hear anything for another 90 minutes I call back.  He didn't want to call them again until I asked if I could call them; then he agreed to call them and hung up on me.

Yeah.  I'm going to deal with that later.

So, here I am freaking out worrying that our well has run dry.  We don't have $10k sitting around to dig a new well. And how long would it take?  And what if they couldn't find water on our property; we can't even sell at that point!  I don't seem to handle stress very well now that I'm pregnant; I was NOT in a good place.

Mr. C stopped by the grocery store and picked up water for me at lunch, so I'd at least have something to drink.  He's such a treasure!

The plumbers arrived a little after 1 p.m., three hours earlier than they were scheduled (the plumbing company absolutely rocked, btw; too bad they were associated with our evil home warranty company).  They quickly determined that either (a) the well had run dry (not likely, they said, according to the way the water had been acting) or (b) the pump had gone bad. 

At this point they called the warranty company to get instructions, and the warranty company said they weren't going to cover anything.  And there it is in our contract: they only cover ABOVEGROUND well pumps.  Those of you who know anything about well pumps know those aren't used in wells that are younger than, say, 30 years.  The submerged pump is standard and has been for many moons.

So, the plumber gives me an estimate for pulling the pump and replacing the parts.  Painful, especially at Christmas, but what can I do?  We have to have water.  So, they get started.  They ended up replacing the pump and the electrical line, and we're now poorer but have water. :>  It sure was nice hearing water hit the pipes in the house again!

Good news is that our well is fine.  Our static water line (the point where the water rises to naturally) is 40 feet down from the top; from what I hear, that's a wonderful number, especially in this drought. 

We're going to hopefully have the funds to punch a second well (a much deeper one) next year.  Even if the first one never runs dry, I'll feel SO much better if we have a backup water supply.  If nothing else, we can use it on the garden and lawn.