Bit of a bore part 1 - water water everywhere!

Well despite all the rain recently we need to prepare for our future summer droughts and we've finally got round to having a bore-hole installed. It's been on our 'to do' list since we came here as although we have loads of water though the winter, we have to be very very careful with our water when the summer months come.
The arrival of our borehole license (7 months after applying) brought the engineer who carried out an in-depth survey - well not quite-  it was a guy with a twangy bit of metal who wandered about in a strange slow zigzag with many 'hmmm's and ahhhhh's'. They decided where they wanted to drill and turned up with all their kit (taking out the odd pine tree, olive and terrace wall in the process).

We both found this apsolutely fascinating- i guess when you've seen one bore-hole drilled you've seen them all- but for us- it was a monumental day at Velagota and we were glued to the spot- waiting expectantly for the huge gush of water which our neighbours had promised us!

Drilling starts

The installation of all the gear and the drilling took two days in total.
They have the truck close with all the core-bits (i like to call them 'Ronnies'- Ronnie Corbett- oh never mind!)- these core-bits are 3metres long which can give us an idea of how deep they are going- (and how much its going to cost us -roughly €75 every time they load a new one on-gulp!)
First the soil layer, then things get very dusty when they hit rock, and then after what seemed like forever they hit water! (at around 60-70metres)

 (and yes we weren't disappointed it really did whoosh out- filling the air with spray! although i think most of it was pressure releasing from the drilling machine!)

When they eventually got to a depth that everyone was happy with (they continued to 136 metres in the end)- they put in the rigid blue pipe.

Then they packed up all their gear- and we were left with a big mess, but big smiles on our faces!
Paul will be carrying out stage two of the process (watch this space!) with the installation of the pumps and the plumbing etc, and hopefully soon we will have our very own water supply to the house and we will be able to drink straight from the tap.
No more having to go out on a rainy Sunday evening to get drinking water from the village spring, and we can use our current well for irrigating the land and garden (yes I'm already designing the next planting areas!).
So overall a big investment, but a good one hopefully for the future of our house and quinta!