Alarm Clock Wars: 90 feet of pipe

We got very little accomplished on the well project on Monday. The friends who have the equipment for well pipe extraction are farmers, and are behind in their farming. John took most of Monday off work to help them get caught up on their farming projects, so they could come help us on Tuesday.

Hello? Remember me? I'm your well! I've been torturing you for days with no water! Ha ha!

But, never fear! Roy to the rescue! Roy brought his big backhoe over on Tuesday morning, and then the fun really started...

Roy also brought Cecil, who cracks me up. It was entertaining, if nothing else.

The guys are hatching a plan... This makes me nervous...

They maneuvered the backhoe into position over our well, and lifted this giant steel A-frame high up into the air. They attached two pulleys to the tip of the A-frame, and this is what they will use to pull the pipes out of the well.

John jumped down in the hole, and tied the ropes from the first pulley to the pipes.

Then he cut the line that goes into the house...

...and made a big mess.

Cecil is helping make sure everything is set up right...

...and off we go!

And up...

So here's the trick. We only have about 20 feet of clearance between the top of the well and the top of the A-frame. Twenty feet into the pipe-lifting extravaganza, there was no end in sight. So John tied the second pulley (good thing it was there!) to the pipe just above the well, and cut the pipe just above the knots (so the pipes didn't fall down into the well, never to be seen again). Roy took the first 20 feet of pipe over to the lawn, and I pulled up the second set. Repeat as needed.

Here are 80 of the 90 feet of pipe that was in the well. Now it is on the lawn.

(By the way, the car in the picture is for sale. Her name is Janice. Anyone interested? We'll cut you a good deal!)

Ninety feet down in the well, we found this. This is the broken part. I don't know what it is called, other than "that damn broken thing!" I'm not even exactly sure what this piece is supposed to do, but I do know that it wasn't doing its job. At all. And it made me grumpy.