Water pump Plans and Pump Information

My apologies for not reposting this information sooner.

Some advice based upon e-mailed questions. You should know the information
about your well before sending me any further questions. This included depth to water, depth of well, diameter of the well casing and recovery rate of the well. You can determine a few of these things with a good, strong piece of string and a small adjustable wrench. Lower the wrench that is securely tied to the string into the well and lower it until you hear it splash into the water. Tie a knot in the string at the top of the casing. Continue to lower the wrench until the string goes slack. This is the bottom or your well. Tie another knot. Pull the mess out and measure it.
If you've never run out of water then you have a good recovery rate and shouldn't worry about pumping your well dry with my pump...your arm will wear out long before you water ran out.

PLEASE CONTACT ME AT: jsjuczak@gisco.net for further information!

My pump set-up fits best into a casing that is 6" in diameter. It has pumped with the piston part of the kit at 140' depth and a static water depth of around 40'. I used a 1" PVC drop pipe for testing and get around 1 cup of water per stroke. Coulde I have changed things to get more water per stroke...probably, but I wnated the pump to function easily enough for a young child or older person to operate it. The effort needed at the end of the handle isn't any more than 15 pounds, or so.

I have both plans sets and kits available for a deep well hand pump.
The plans are 16 pages and give step-by-step instructions on how to build
one of my pumps. You should have access to skilled use of simple hand
and power tools; i.e. power miter saws, routers, etc. to build one on your own.

My kits include all of the parts and instructions for assembling the PVC and
stainless steel version of the pump. A stainless steel and brass pump will
be available in the future. The plans are $20 including postage. The PVC/
stainless steel kit will be $250 + postage and the Stainless/Brass version will be
$450. I include the upper part of the pump which is a cast iron pitcher pump that
has been modified to attach to a 6" well cap (also included) and it operates
a stainless steel cable that attaches to the piston pump in the well. I include all
of the parts needed to build the 'in well" portion of the pump: PVC cylinder, modified
foot valve that slides inside the cylinder, all fittings, fasteners, hardware and springs.
The only things not included are the stainless steel cable and sections of drop pipe.
These are not included because of two factors: I don't know the depth of your well
and they are bulky to ship. Both the cable and pipe are commonly available at
any lumber yard with a plumbing section. Please feel free to continue to ask questions.

Thank you for your interest. Have a great day! -Jim-

Papercrete and hand powered water pumps

I've been a bit of a recluse of late. My wife and kid have been away for almost a month- they are chaperoning 10 high school kids on an exchange trip to Emden, Germany. While they are away I've been doing a serious attempt at kinning my "honey do" list.

For those of you that are searching for all of the information on my deep well hand pump plans set and kits my sincere apologies. I don't know what happened, but all of my archived stuff isn't there when I go to check the woodhenge website. I will work on getting that problem fixed. Please e-mail me at jsjuczak@gisco.net for further information. I will have the details summarized again and send them directly to you.

Those interested in the information I presented on a recent edition of CBS's Sunday Morning Show about papercrete or paper enhanced mortar can also reach me at jsjuczak@gisco.net.

Thank you and have a great day! -Jim-

Camping was wonderfully...wet!

We're back from a camping trip to our favorite island in the middle of an Adirondack lake. Eight days out of which we had rein on 6 of them. I vowed to write when the weather was bad...that was a good goal. I got somewhere near 100 pages of a recycled marble covered notebook filled with my notes and writings on building a homestead water system. This book is intended for someone that is interested in where their water comes from and how to take control of it, especially if they are building or rebuilding a place to live. I cover wells and how to build/hire one built, how to get the water from the well, water pumps (electric, solar, hand, wind, deep well hand pumps, pitcher pumps, centrifical pumps, human/bike powered pumps, well buckets, filtering, general primer on plumbing, wind powered water pumps, water storage, rain catchement and more).

I've already passed on my scrawlings to an "eager for spending money while she travels in Germany with my wife" high school senior. I will endeavor to have the bulk of the book ready for printing by the end of August. I hope to sell them at the Natural Builder's Colloquium at Thunder Mountain Sanctuary in Bath, NY and at the Pennsylvania Sustainable Living and Renewable Energy Fair. More on these events in a future blog.

I don't usually answer comments, but...

Hi to the two recent people that made some comments on my website and activities.

First off,
I didn't completely 'jump ship' on my teaching career. My wife, Krista, is also an employee of the same district I used to work for. I'm 'vested' in the NY State Teachers' Retirement System and will get around 50% of my final average salary when I'm 55. My wife has continued to maintain our family's health insurance and since she's taught there for 20+ years we're vested in that after her retirement. I also continue to contribute to the NYS Ret. Sys. by teaching adult ed. classes at our local community college. I've also been offered a position as "Director of Energy Resources" for that college; basically writing my own job description- developing a 2-year program for renewable energy system design and installation, coordinating the various campus programs to support that, developing the specific classes for hands on installation of the materials, working with the various certification agencies, improving the campus' use of renewables and energy conservation program, recruiting students for the degree program, coordinating efforts between 2 & 4 year colleges so we can 'feed' 4- year programs with students interested in persuing a 4-year degree, and more. However, the position is tentative based upon the receipt of a 3-year federal grant. I'm not worried.

To the gentleman from Florida. If I ever come to Florida I will look you up and come and give a talk, if you are still interested. Contact me for further information at jsjuczak@gisco.net. My parents live in Sun City Center, FL, and I do actually get to visit them there every few years.

Camping attitude and a website makeover...

We will be taking a week off from things here at Woodhenge to go on a canoe/camping trip. This is an annual event and always leaves us charged up for the work of the Sumemr ahead. One of the topics we'll be discussing on the trip is how to redo our website. We wish to divide it up into several areas so that you can track the different projects around here more easily. Solar projects, water projects, housing projects, gardening projects will get separate categories that you can view without having to read every blog. Pictures will be included at this point.

See you in a week! -Jim-

Aeromotor Water Pumping Wind Mill Found! Yahoo!

My friend Richard Douglass (the one I traveled with recently to get his flour mill from N Carolina) called yesterday to say that he had read an ad in a local paper that somebody was selling a water pumping wind turbine. He knew I was looking to get one to add to our own version of homeland security here at Woodhenge. The price was quoted in the ad as $500. As the ones I had priced out as new for an 8' diameter Aeromotor with a 30' tower were well over $6000 by the time I added shipping and all of the little bits I told him to go ahead, if it was in fair shape, and buy it for me. He called a few hours later and said that it had a few small missing parts (a return spring) and that a couple of pieces were bent, but overall it was in fine shape and as a bonus it didn't have a 30' tower, but a 50' tower!

Since I'm also in the process of writing a book on water systems for the homesteader this is a perfect opportunity to practice what I'm preaching. The book: "Water, Water Everywhere...How to Get a Drink?" will cover the basics of how to get potable water both with and without available electric power. Hand pumps (suction and deep well), piston pumps, solar pumps, digging your own well, basic plumbing, and wind powered water pumps will all be included.

We're leaving on a week long camping trip tomorrow and I have a job list a mile long to get done before we leave...I still might try to get the machine home before we leave...just to think about rebuilding it while I admire the scenery in our Adirondac campsite.

If you are interested in learning first hand how these wind turbines function you are welcome to come and lend a hand with it reconstruction and erection! Contact me at jsjuczak@gisco.net
or 315 771-7333.

Farm failures and successes

We're new to growing things on the scale we tried this Spring. In offering shares of our farm in a modified CSA (community supported agriculture project) through a local health food store (Green Thyme in Adams Center, NY). There are presently 14 subscribers to our joint venture. We sold "Boxes of Health" in small, medium and large boxes. The boxes include fresh veggies from our 3000' of row crops, veggies and 'certified natural meat & eggs' from my friend Steve Winkler's Lucki7 Farm and Livestock and products from Kelly Widrick's store. Typically, customers get two big bags of greens (cooking and salad), some herbs, garnishes and maybe some rhubarb from us at Woodhenge, a half chicken, a dozen eggs and a pound of some kind of ground meat from Lucki7, and a pound of steel cut oats (or something similar), a bag of organic snack chips from Green Thyme. Pick up is on Friday afternoons. Prices start at $30 per week for the small box.

We have some crops that are growing like crazy- broccoli, cauliflower, greens, onions, cabbage, carrotts, potatoes, sweet potatoes are all doing well...it is the viney stuff that is giving us trouble...wimpy cukes, non-existant mellons, and so-so squashes. I've been buying extra produce from Grindstone Farms in Pulaski to fill out the boxes, we want to keep our customers happy as we learn some of the more complex 'how tos' of the art of farming.

Feel free to contact me at jsjuczak@gisco.net for any questions or comments. Thanks, -Jim-

To the Survivalblog Readers interested in my pump...

Hi fellow survival nuts and preparers!

I'm terrible at replying to questions on my website postings. You are much better off asking me questions by sending them to my e-mail address at jsjuczak@gisco.net. If you are in the Adams Center, NY area feel free to stop in for a tour. The pump plans, my book, and a sample pump are here for your viewing and for purchase. Thanks.