Cleaning the well on the coffee land

After three years of much higher rainfall than usual, the well on the coffee land had silted up pretty badly.

When we built the well we kept the wall of the well as low as possible, to make it easier to get the water out by bucket. But the high rainfall flooded the area around the well on a regular basis and allowed silt to seep in.

During the past month we started building the wall of the well higher. It still needs to be plastered inside and out, and sealed up with a waterproofing compound. Meantime, the well needed cleaning.

It is not a deep well, so with the help of a 6 foot step ladder it was easy enough to bucket the water and silt out, one bucket load at a time. It took just a little over an hour to do the job.

Hopefully, by tomorrow the well will have filled again, with nice clear water.

Here are some photos of the process. And we put a few short video clips on youtube. They are at:
Well cleaning #1 ; Well cleaning #2 ; Well cleaning #3 .