Water Witch

The Local Rag had an interesting story today about <a href="http://www.billingsgazette.com//index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2004/09/03/build/state/40-dowser.inc">dowsers</a>. It made for very interesting reading. I have been told my great-granddad was very good at this and my dad claims that he can do it but I never actually seen him perform this trick. What it really reminded me of though was drilling a couple of new wells last summer and the luck I had finding water.<br />n<!–more–><br />nDue to the prolonged drought the natural water I had where I shipped, and then later wintered, my cows had gotten so thin that I was no longer able to water them efficiently so I finally decided to drill a couple of wells so my cattle would have enough water. I hired a guy that I had used before to come in and drill the wells and when we got here we went out to drill the first well. I took him to a spot and told him I wanted the well "here." He asked me if there was water there and I told him I thought there was, it just felt right to me. He got out his dowsing rods and commenced to look for water in the area. Sure enough right where I told him to drill there was water. He drilled the well and in 50 feet got 25 GPM of water.<br />n<br />nWe then moved up country where I wanted the other well at. He asked me where I wanted the well and I told him the exact spot I wanted it. He again asked if there was water there. This time I told him yes, I knew there was water there. He witched it and was skeptical, he said there was water there but he wasn't happy with the vein. I told him there was water there and to drill. He drilled down about 40 feet and hit water running at 4 GPM. He told me "there is your water, I told you it wasn't a good vein." He started witching around for better water and I considered for a bit, and finally told him I knew there was more water than that in the hole and to go deeper. He told me "okay, it's your money" and started drilling deeper. Just as we hit 100 feet deep a big gush of water came up and started flowing out. The well driller looked over at me, looked down at the water coming up, looked back at me and just shook his head. I walked over and said "told you there was more water in that hole." Ended up we got over 60 GPM from this well. More than enough to water cattle.<br />n<br />nThose two wells have really worked out good and I am glad to have them but I'll never forget the look of astonishment on the well drillers face when he hit all that water on the second well when he was sure that it wasn't there. I really don't think he could believe that I had picked two such good spots without dowsing or nothing. I just walked around, studied the situation, and put them where it "felt" right to me. Maybe I dowsed in a way too, just didn't realize it.<br />n<br />n<b>When drinking water, think of its source. Chinese proverb</b>