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My dilemma is how to pump it if the power goes out. No electricity, no water.

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Our power was out 2 weeks after Irma. Doesn’t take much of a generator to run just the well pumps and a light or two and a fan or two. Sure was miserable with no AC the first week. By the second week, our bodies had adjusted to the heat to the point where we’d FREEZE just walking into a convenience store. I had always wondered how my ancestors could possibly survive in south FL without AC. Now I know

We are attached to the well but also have city water that is capped off. My husband said all we have to do is put a pipe and a faucet on the city water line and use that in an emergency. We signed up when they ran the line out here because it was cheaper to do that but we stayed on the well. My daughter and SIL are hooked up to our city water but they will come off of it when their new house is built. We are giving them 10 acres for a house. They are going to dig a well. As it is right now, if the power goes off I have to drag a cart and buckets back to the farm pond to get water for flushing the toilet, etc.

We have a big generator, but my husband isn’t in good enough shape to use it. If the SIL is home, we can use it.

I know what you mean about the heat. Our house is a 70-year old farm house that was built before AC was available. Back then they built houses so that they have a natural draft if both doors on each end of the house are open. The kitchen, diningroom, and livingroom are all on one side separated by two bars that are open. All four bedrooms are on the other side. The house has huge windows that they put in old farm houses back then. I replaced them with the Low-e windows and when they are opened and both doors are open, you get quite a good draft. Ceiling fans help too.

I grew up in S.FL until we moved to TN when I started high school so I know about heat. LOL We didn’t have AC either.

Our power was out 2 weeks after Irma. Doesn’t take much of a generator to run just the well pumps and a light or two and a fan or two. Sure was miserable with no AC the first week. By the second week, our bodies had adjusted to the heat to the point where we’d FREEZE just walking into a convenience store. I had always wondered how my ancestors could possibly survive in south FL without AC. Now I know

We’ve used a gasoline generator for years, an 8000 watt unit we plug into into its own circuit at the back of the house that runs everything but the AC. But any day now, our solar system will be connected and operational! Ironically, the only thing in the house that the backup batteries we had installed won’t power is our tankless water heater, which will have to occasionally borrow electricity from FPL. My husband is affected so negatively by the prospect of no hot water in the rare eventuality that the power grid goes down (and it’s a cloudy day) that he insisted on getting a small tank unit just for emergencies. I figure if that happened, it would more than likely be in after a hurricane in the summer when the “cold” tap water is at least 77 degrees anyway... but he loves his hot showers at any time of the year!