The basics of drilling, like the basics of writing, don't change much. Drillers poke a hole in the ground, and useful things come out—water, energy or minerals. Likewise, writers put fingers to keyboard (or pen to paper) and, hopefully, useful things come out. Those basic mechanics remain relatively constant, and have since people have sunk wells in the ground or attempted to write the next great novel.
In the ’70s our sons, Bess and myself were building dune buggies as a hobby in south Georgia. We were known locally as the dune buggy builders of Adel.
Someone approached us one day and asked if we would be interested in buying an Amphicar. There were only 3,000 of these boat/cars manufactured in Germany in the ’60s, and I had always wanted one but thought the possibility was out of the question. But, here it was.
George Hutchings was on a plane returning from water-drilling camp at Living Waters International when inspiration struck. Hutchings, whose humanitarian efforts had included facilitating medical procedures and delivering supplies to Kenya, decided on that day he could do something more.
In the late 60s, we attended the Florida Water Well Exposition in Orlando, Fla. We were living in Adel, Ga., at the time. There wasn’t much room for the four of us in our 1967 Ford F-100 single cab pickup, as it had two factory installed Mustang bucket seats. We had just purchased a microwave oven and went by the appliance store to pick it up. While there, we saw a big refrigerator cardboard box and the appliance dealer said we could have it.
I don’t know about your neck of the woods, but in mine, it’s open house season in the groundwater business. Many of the groundwater product distributors hold dealer open houses at this time of year to thank their contractor customers for their business and give them an opportunity to purchase products and supplies for the upcoming busy season.
My
recent trip to Las Vegas for the National Ground Water Association Expo-my
first big industry show-left me with a great first impression of the industry
and a lot to think about.
Thanks to new equipment, the U.S. Army National Guard’s 257th Engineer Team drilled four water test wells in different locations in the republic of Djibouti, a small country in northeast Africa.