(Day 186) Necessity of life

When we moved into our current home, we were warned about an open well situated about 30m/100' from the house. We had been shown it prior to buying the home, but had forgotten exactly where it was. Once I had time to look after we were settled in, I found it in a field of 2m/6' tall weeds - basically an open hole in the ground with a few boards thrown haphazardly over it. Eventually we turned the field of weeds into part of the lawn and I built a stone wall around the well using stones from the foundation of the old homestead.

This well isn't used anymore - a new one was drilled about 10 years ago. However, when the pioneers settled here one of the first tasks was to dig a well. About 3 years ago we had a dry spell over a period of a couple of months - and the well dried up, right to the bottom. We put the extension ladder down it and took turns climbing to the bottom - 5m/16'. We discovered that the well was hand-hewn from rock - all the way to the bottom! While we enjoyed the only time this well had been dry during our 7-year tenure, can you imagine what it would have been like for the pioneers when one of the necessities of life wasn't readily available! Today we take it quite for granted that there will be water when we turn on the tap.

(18-55mm  f4.5  1/2 sec  ISO800)