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DIY: Your Very Own Freshwater Well

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Our friends at Backwoods Home Magazine provide today's DIY.

Some of us don't have immediate access to undertake this kind of project…but it's still AWESOME nonetheless!

I'm interested in hearing from some of you folks who have had success using a “dowser”. Surprisingly, I've had many conversations with folks who have had success with dowsers. Maybe I can make start a new career? How does one “become” a dowser?

In any event, click on the image below or Click HERE to visit today's DIY.

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6 Responses to DIY: Your Very Own Freshwater Well

  1. Forrest July 7, 2013 at 7:53 am #

    i USED TO DRILL THESE ALL OVER lONG ISLAND IN THE 60’S. EASY TO DO AND DON’T NEED POWER TO RUN. i HAVE A TRICK FOR USING A AUTOMOBILE TO POWER A RAM TO DRILL THE PIPE. aLL YOU NEED IS A TRIPOD, A STEEL WEIGHT A PULLEY AND SOME ROPE. JACK UP THE CAR, REMOVE ONE WHEEL, BOLT ON A SMOOTH WHEEL WITH NO TIRE ON IT, WRAP THE LOOSE END OF THE ROPE AROUND THE WHEEL AND USE IT TO POUND THE WEIGHT ON THE PIPE THAT IS HANGING FROM THE PULLEY AT THE TOP OF THE TRIPOD.

  2. Pat July 7, 2013 at 8:36 am #

    Years ago, my husband and I built a house in Michigan. We used a dowser and had great success. The water was where he said and at the depth he said. I’m a believer.

    • beth July 15, 2013 at 5:25 am #

      We built our house in the 70’s and my husband used the well driller he had worked for. The man used a Dowsing rod to locate our area for the well…..never went dry EVER…is like a river and 65 feet down…others around who have wells are 235 feet or more…..and are dirty.

  3. samnjoeysgrama July 15, 2013 at 12:00 pm #

    In the Midwest, we call it “water witching”. I don’t believe in it, it makes no scientific sense…BUT, I can do it. It works, I don’t know why or how. My brother has always believed in water witching, but he can’t do it. I don’t think it is something you can learn. You either can do it or you can’t.
    I use two heavy wires about 30 inches long, bent so they make an L with about 5 inches on the short “leg”, Brass works well, but clothes hangers, opened up into an L shape will work. Hold the short part of each wire in each fist. Let them hang to the outside, (I usually make the angle a little less than 90 so the long end hangs down slightly rather than sticking straight out). Walk around the area and, if there is water at some point the wires will swing around and cross. I have no idea how people do it with a willow branch. The problem is, I can’t choose the thing I find. I can witch and show you exactly where the water line is buried or where the electric line is buried. I had one time when I kept getting the wires crossed and it was an overhead power line. People have been doing it for centuries. I even hired a guy who did it professionally to witch my well in the mountains, because I wasn’t confident I was really doing it right. He got the same spots I did.
    If you can do it, I predict you won’t believe it the first few times. I thought I must be swinging the wires around to cross somehow. But I have drilled two wells where I witched them and they were good. I also think it hits on underground springs. It works and is actually fun, but I still have trouble believing it.

    • samnjoeysgrama July 15, 2013 at 12:03 pm #

      I forgot to say that you hold your arms straight out in front of you with the wires in each hand.

  4. rick October 25, 2013 at 9:38 am #

    never witched for water, but have done it often to locate underground pipes there’s a magnetic field which causes the wires to cross when you walk over the pipe.

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