Old Homesteader Well

So it's been nearly a month since we had any rain. Coupled with weeks of temps often hitting the triple digit mark, this drought has really thrown a wrench in the works. The pastures are fried, and the creek that we pump our water out is dry. Even the swimming hole that isn't supposed to go dry is parched. So what to do, what to do. Well, there's an old homesteader well at the back corner of our pasture. I've avoided using it in the past, as a crazy old hermit who owns 4 acres in the middle of our property claimed that it was his side, even though when I bought the property I was told the creek was the boundary, and the well's on my side of the creek. In fact, my fenceline is like 10 ft behind the well.So the hermit guy died a couple of months back, I've never seen a survey to prove otherwise, and my animals need water. So I'm going off what I was told when I bought the property and this evening I went and checked the well out. Here it is (I'm standing in the dry creek bed).

So here's the well. There was water around 8 ft down. The well is really neat. I've never looked at it up close (it used to be covered with quite the pile of brush), but it's made out of river rock and mortar the entire way down. The family that homesteaded the holler really worked hard on this well. I couldn't see the bottom, when I pump water out, I'll measure how deep it is.