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My dream has been to build a little retreat cabin in the middle of nowhere. I’d prefer access only by canoe, snowmobile, and maybe hummer.
Haven’t found my land yet (hard to find this within a few hours of NJ)
But I’ve got lots of sketches of my fantasy three room, wood heated, can find me cabin.
I’ve seen pictures of pitcher style hand pumps on kitchen counters in old pictures. The only pitcher style hand pumps I know of use a couple of diaphrams to create a vacuum and pull water out of a cistern or very shallow well.
If I want a deeper, drinkable well, is there such a hand operated pump that will work?
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Hey Ryan-
I know of one in use ourside at a cabin. I'm not sure how deep the well is. I'm sure the owner doesn't know either. I'll be up this fall and can check it out then.
Care to share any of your plans...I've been toying with them too. I'm looking at doing the same thing in north central PA, and would love to see your ideas.
*Go to Border's, look in the periodicals section where they have the Home magazines and find yourself a copy of the catalog that they sell... damn, I can't remember the name of the company, starts with a C, I think.Can't miss it though, because it will be the only catalog they sell in that section.Culbertson, or Culver or something...The company name is like Carver City General Store.They sell things like coal-fired kitchen stoves, and hand pumps and galvanized wash tubs, etc. Everything a person needs on their trip back to the 1800's!Good luck on your project and don't write any kind of over long manifesto or mailing bombs to anyone.I know that I will think of that companie's name later today. I just saw it last night when I was at Borders and thought how sincere the company seemed (these things may be used by many as decoration, but the company seems pretty honestly geared towards Amish and the like).
*Ryan,Bison Pumps http://www.bisonprod.com/ makes a deep well hand pump.My only question is how are you going to drill a deep well in the middle of no where? Hand digging is impractical and 25 feet or so is just about it for driving.A cistern is something you should consider. The roof of a small cabin will collect a lot of water in a year's time. For example, if you get 50 inches of rain each square foot of roof will collect 31+ gallons (50 x 144 = 7,200 over 231 = 31.2) Depending on how much storage capacity you have and how often you use the cabin this should be enough. If you have surface water nearby you can use that for hygene and reserve the rain water for drinking and cooking.You could build a cistern on site with cement and native sand and stone but if it was me I would check out the poly tanks they sell at farm centers. A tank of substantial capacity is still light enough to be handled by a couple of men and if your access is by canoe you can float it in.As a practical note, what you are considering is a very physical and time consuming project (which may be a good reason to do it and then again maybe not). No matter how simple a structure you build getting it up and habitable is going to be much harder than you anticipate. Any construction project is demanding. When you add factors like hauling or floating materials in, working without electricity, etc you really set yourself up for burnout. My cabin in the Ozarks has a deep well, electricity, in door plumbing and all of the solitude I desire. At my age I appriciate heat in the winter, cool in the summer, hot showers, cold drinks, and an occasional meal in town. And then, of course, I was an Infantryman in the Army and that pretty much used up all of my tollerance for roughing it.
*As for drilling: My father once bought one of those drilling rigs that is just a lawnmower engine on a track. You can drill in 5' "lifts" using a 5' piece of iron pipe to drive your drill bit. Then you uncouple the pipe, lift the motor, and add another pipe. We drilled a 65' irrigation well for some greenhouses with it, put in a 4" casing and he's been using it for about 10 years. I figured I'd take this up with me and use it to drill a well.I'm not opposed to a cistern but don't know anything about them. How do you keep the water from getting tainted. I really don't want to pump chunks of algea and the occasional insect into my glass.
*Harbor Freight has the old fashioned cast iron "pitcher pumps" at $26, I didn't look very closely at them, so I assume they work rather than just being for show, but I don't know. You can just do a search on "pump" at their website: http://www.harborfreight.com/ One place that lists somewhat higher tech hand water pumps ishttp://www.jademountain.com/waterProducts/water_pumps/pump.html If you start feeling a little lazy, you may want to check out the solar electric or wind powered water pumps at places like:http://www.mrsolar.com/sureflo.htmhttp://www.sierrasolar.com/ssstore/store.htmhttp://www.windsun.com/navigation.htmThe solar route is not cheap, the cheapest I found was a Surflo pump at MrSolar for $520 and then you need solar panels and a controller. Thus to get somewhere between one and two gallons per minute when the sun is at its peak, you are looking at over $1000. I understand that these low end solar pumps are diaphragm pumps that need to be rebuilt periodically (every year or two). Around here (North Central Oregon) a 1300 gallon poly water storage tank runs about $600 with no fittings supplied. I plan on getting a larger one for water storage for fire protection.The old homesteads around here used cisterns for many years. Most were just concrete or masonry tanks with a roof and screens to keep the bugs out of the ventilation openings. There is an article on cisterns at:http://www.uaf.edu/coop-ext/publications/freepubs/HCM-01557.html
*Forgot to add that, for reference, there is a listing on the Internet for cistern tanks at:http://www.deanbennett.com/cistern.htmThe prices on the tanks look pretty good, but the freight bill will kill you if you don't live near Denver...
*I think the cistern idea is great - lots of water, and a lot easier to get than from a well. But it tastes like crap. Maybe you could use cistern water for cooking/bathing, and haul drinking water up with you ?
*Messi, do a search on West Realestate. They usually have add in the Sun. Pgh paper for vacation and hunting lands. They cover most of the state. Jeff