I've heard that a ring of stone, metal, or even of boards laid up, was placed on the ground and the wall was begun on that. The earth was slowly dug out from under the base, and the wall settled down into the well, and the wall continued from the top. I don't know if this has ever been verified, but it seems workable, provided I'm not the one down the hole. I'm claustrophobic.

hello everyone tonight

Thanks DL and Dave

These insights into some more of yester years methods and customs needed to find good drinking water are very interesting I am sure to everyone looking in

Dave your method of digging from underneath a form is very logical and was used, this I know from personal experience

When I was about 6 years old my father built a new barn, and of course we needed a water supply--my father being very ingenuative used that very method to go down the first 16 feet, he built 2 circular forms about 8 feet in diameter and 8 feet high and proceeded to remove the material from underneath which of course let the form drop, at the depth of the 2 forms he stopped and proceeded to drill further using a home made outfit , that included a 2" steel sharpened axle from a land roller and lengths of 6" inch steam pipe

He rigged up a method using a pulley attached to one wheel of the tractor-now the tractor was up off the ground so he could brake one wheel making the other one with the pulley only able to turn

He used horse fork rope and one man could methodically tighten and loosen the rope on the pulley, this in turn lifted and let fall the sharpened axle inside the pipe

Every once in a while as needed the weight of the axle was used to pound the pipe further into the ground

Using this method he went down another 40 feet and eventually found water in sufficient quantity for the livestock

I might add that every once in a while a stone was encountered and interfered with the drilling process, and dad would prepare a stick of dynamite lower it beside the rock and blow it to pieces

I might say father was sure ingenious and had a lot of solutions up his sleeve--you might say I got my education out behind the barn--more on this subject next time

You might say what has all this got to do with timber framing well I might say this--it is all a part of expanding ones knowledge of everyday living--keeping your family warm and fed during times of need, knowing how to build was one part of that knowledge, using new ideas was never frowned on but added to the knowledge base to be used as needed

Thanks everyone for dropping by

NH

Do you see something here that answers your questions Richard?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hFcrt0aprw

Fracking?

Don

hello everyone tonight

Thanks don for that wonderful documentary film on well digging, I know of no other, and it really sheds a wonderful light on a specific method to show how a well is dug

Really enjoyed it!!!!!!

NH

That's a wonderful video Don, very informative and shows great detail how this method works.

I liked the pump too. You see a lot of springs in the Alps set up with similar wooden contraptions.

Only bad part is, his Bavarian dialect is a bit hard for me. So I wasn't always quite sure what he was talking about.

hello everyone tonight

hello everyone tonight

Just sitting here reminiscing to myself about times gone by and thought maybe it was time to brush off the old photo album full of those old memories stored in that old technology known as photos, it seems to me that we really have not gained much ground in this realm, now a photo has very little value and we probably will not know where any of the thousands of family gatherings in digital form are, I expect that until reality steps in a couple of generations of remembrances will disappear

The first page in the album contained a photo of my dad and me (I was about 14 years old) standing on the dry bottom of the St Lawrence river right where the Long Sault rapids were located

The river was diverted with a great deal of difficulty to allow the installation of the power house and dam that would eventually hold back and form a 27 mile lake to feed the massive turbines that the 70 foot head of water would power.

Right where we are standing were massive stone blocks, and many wells or round holes drilled into the stone bottom of the river. The engineers say that the swirling water spun stones around that eventually wore round holes before they disappeared

I don't know if this happened in other places, but it did here
The river in about 1 mile fell 30 feet and caused a natural block to river traffic up going upstream

The rising water of lake St Lawrence flooded the front areas of farm land for the length of the lake and unfortunately also towns containing the earliest churches, graveyards and very importantly the earliest buildings that were yet standing--this was in 1956--to 1961, the time it took to complete the seaway, and make it ready for oceangoing vessels to travel unimpeaded right up to the head of the great lakes

of course we were promised cheap power, which never happened, and during the construction many farm families were forcefuloly removed from century farms in the name of progress

well it did produce opportunities for many, my dad for one, who being able to work with old timbers and frames, and understood older technology was soon put in charge of moving many of the log and timber structures that are contained in the historic site of UCV

Examples of all types of building styles were rescued as well as buildings that were part of the battle of Crysler Farm-- the house and the barn containing yet the scars of the battle which raged between the American and British forces

well enough for tonight

more to come
enjoy
NH

For you Richard because I know you have done this work.

http://www.folkstreams.net/film,187

You just have to copy that text (Address) and paste it in the address space.

hello everyone tonight

Thanks Don for the lead to that site, really something, watched a quite a few of the ones that interest me--hope that others followed suit.

Well to continue in the dusty old album, there was another picture of me standing by the house mover, quite a machine indeed, could straddle a good sized 2 storey house, and hook up cables to previously laid I-beams, it slowly raised the building up off the foundation, keeping it perfectly level and as it moved forward continued to keep it level no matter what the framework of the mover encountered , humps, hollows, ditches, slanted surfaces

it was powered by a 500 hp engine which drove two gigantic drive wheels, 9 feet in height at the front, and the rear part was supported by another pair of equal size

The people in the homes rode to their new locations seated at their tables having lunch in many cases, not even spilling the tea cups, or water glasses

The whole unit was built like a giant U shaped fork, and could straddle the homes easily

It looked a little weird a smallish man sitting up in the control area pulling and turning small controls which in turn did tremendous work, it must have seemed very unusual to have that much authority

upon reaching the newly created foundation it gently would back in and lower the house down, the I beams lowering into pockets left in the new foundation walls, which were then withdrawn and moved immediately to another home

it was though limited to only frame homes with light brick veneer walls, heavier stone homes used another method

well got to go

enjoy

Richard
NH

hello everyone tonight

to continue:

my father was involved with the moving of the Louck's house, it was a stone walled home with walls 36 inches thick and 2 stories, along with a 3 fireplaces and an attached summer kitchen

The way it was done was as follows: the moving waited until the middle of the winter, and the home was elevated using 50 ton jacks, high enough to enable the placement of multiple units of steel dollies

The steel dollies were placed on mats of planks that were moved along as the house inched forward for the 2 mile trip from its original location on the shore of the st Lawrence to the new site of ucv

The motive power was 3 very large wreckers, actually army equipment, and a HD 21 cat to add some muscle especially to get the move started

Things went well, just a few cracks here and there, which were mended eventually after arrival on site

moving the buildings did not go without problems, the buildings moved along on the old #2 highway that followed the river somewhat, and had some very bad curves and slopes in spots, it was in one of these areas that one of the homes slid sideways and ended up in the old canal, about 30 feet down

there is a good film produced that shows the coffer dam being built and the eventual demolition of it using many tons of tnt in a massive explosion

it took about 3 days for the lake to fill, and even the engineers were nervous because evidently no one seemed to know exactly where the lakes level would end

enjoy

NH