Our well water

Living on a farm we have well water, like most farms do. We have an outdoor pump like the one pictured on the left that normally has a hose attached to it, since the girls use that to water and bathe their horses. It actually has an attachment so we can have 2 hoses coming off, because the other one is attached to a bowl with a float in it so our farm cats always have drinking water available (yes, they are spoiled).

Our water is VERY hard and loaded with iron. Did you know that Iowa is an area known for having extremely hard water. Anywhere shown in green on the map is extremely hard water areas. Learn something new every day when you come here don't ya?



Anyhow, we have had a very nice treatment system attached to the pipes that run through the house. It gets rid of all the iron and other "crap" in the water and then sends it to the water softener for um...softening, I guess, and then to our tap. With everything it does to treat the water, we don't necessarily trust it for drinking, so we have reverse osmosis system in the kitchen to get drinking water from. Anyhow, it works very well and has made it so we don't have dingy or orange clothing, or orange hair. The Bozo look doesn't work well for us, so that's a good thing.

About a month ago we started getting this gross film on our dishes. Our glasses looked so nasty - just like the glass pictured here. Long story short, our softener died (hum "TAPs" here). A lady came out to test our water. Anything over 10.2 (of what I don't know) is listed to be very hard water. Ours was 40.6. Just a little high. LOL She said "It's no wonder your dishes come out dirtier than when they go in."

She started going through all the details on what a softener can do for us and what kind we should get, and how it works. Honestly, I could care less about that stuff. I just want my dishes and my clothes clean. That's it. I don't care what kind of wratchet system thingy it should have or when it regenerates itself. Just give me one that works and I'll be happy. Then she gave me some very sad news....she has to order our new system and it won't be in for a week. A WEEK???? We've already dealt with this for a month. Please, for the love of all you hold dear, please tell me you forgot that you actually have one out there in your van that you forgot about.

So, one more week of not wearing anything light colored (for fear it won't come out the same color). One more week of eating off of paper plates and with plastic silverware. One more week of taking very short showers because it grosses me out to think what is running over me.

On a positive note, our dogs are dancing because that means one more week they won't have to have a bath.