CISTERN "A-BORNING"

As I read old family letters, I find it especially interesting when I come across firsthand information relating to some aspect of life as I know it now. In a letter to my dad dated January 3, 1937, his sister, Ethel, wrote the following from the farm:

“You’ll rejoice to know the rainwater cistern is a-borning – it is now down to 7’ in depth and is 8’ across. The digging is very hard, for it is now frozen hardpan, but it won’t have to go a great deal deeper. It’s going to be a real boon, for it will more than cut this awful chore of hauling water in half. E.G. [her husband, Ernest] is planning to put a timber cribbing around the top on the outside of the bricks to bring the well top to the same level as the porch. Then we can just walk right to the pump from the porch with no steps to climb up and down. ‘I can’t hardly wait until Saturday night to try it.’”

We still use that rainwater cistern at the back door. In the early 1960s, my dad replaced the cribbing with a concrete top. In our renovation project, a heavy concrete lid was constructed and an electric pump and pipes installed so that we have more efficient use of the water. Run-off from the roof is captured through the eaves troughs but there’s also some seepage of ground water during the wetter parts of the year. We’ve found we have plenty of irrigation water from this source until August. Mike judges the level of water in the cistern by the level of the water in the pond.