Well Water .... boil, filter or purify?

Now that we are settling in we need to address a few of our basic needs, especially drinking water.

We have an old, bored well which has not been used in at least three years.  There is no septic system so we aren't concerned regarding possible contamination.  But, wells that just sit idle do grow bacteria and we don't need to be ingesting any of those miniscule varmints.

We will be replacing the pump and tank, but in the meantime we use a clean container at the end of a long rope to retrieve well water.

When it was just the two of us we could easily get by with a couple gallons of purchased water daily.  But, now that the livestock is here they use about 5 gallons a day which means the water bill is increasing.

After carefully researching using our available, free, water I have found that making certain our water is pure is as simple as boiling it for 1 minute.  Basically, all pathogens are killed at about 140 degrees F, so by the time the water gets to boiling (212F) they have all been killed and the water is safe to ingest.

Although the pathogens are killed during the boiling, their "bodies" remain in the water and it should be filtered before drinking.  The boiled water can be filtered through coffee filters, or other fine filter.

The only problem I have found is that, believe it or not, water doesn't keep well and should be used within 24 hours.  On the other hand, it is okay to process in mason jars just as we would process food, then it will keep and remain safe to use, indefinitely.   This will come in handy for our emergency stockpile.

Thank goodness for huge stock pots!  I have no problem in putting large pots on a fire to boil everyday.... at least until we get the water system up and running.  The house will be fitted with water filters on faucets, as well as a filter at the well before the water even enters the house.

The plan is to run water pipes from the well to the inside of the home, as well as running water pipes in trenches to hydrant at the animal shelters and also the garden area.

Fortunately, the water "pipes" (the red and blue flexible hoses) are already installed in the bath and kitchen, and the "pipes" for the hydrants are also already installed at the well.

If, for some reason, there is no way to boil the water, such as during a state of emergency and a stove or fire is unavailable, water can be purified by using bleach, without color or scent. It takes only about 6 drops of fresh chlorine bleach to each gallon of water and let it sit for 30 minutes.

For more information on disinfecting drinking water follow this link:  Safe to Drink