When Sonya and I were in the process of making Montana our summer home (we were living in Tucson the rest of the year), we needed to have a well drilled. We had some friends who suggested that we have someone “witch” our property for a favorable place to drill the well. Now, I do not have anything against “dowsing” for a well location, but we just were not comfortable going in that direction. Now, you say, what’s the big deal about finding a good spot to drill our well? Well (no pun intended), most of the adjacent property owners had to go several hundred feet (like up to 800+’) to hit water. After all, well drilling can be pretty expensive.
With that in mind, we decided to take a different approach. We decided to pray about the location. As the summer drew to a close in 2003, it came time to choose a spot for the well. We had a pretty good idea where a good area was for it since there was a spring on the property next to us that provided enough water for cattle that were in the area (it was open range, so there was a herd that foraged over the entire neighborhood). Remember this is Montana!
As I was about to drive a post in the ground marking the spot, Sonya said that it was too close to the property line. So, I moved about 20 feet away from the line and lo and behold, I discovered (could it have been God helping me discover?) a depression in the ground with the remains of an old-time hand pump. I might add that our property was homesteaded in the early 1900’s meaning that there were people living on it long before we came on the scene.
Now to get to the end of the story. I drove a post in the depression and placed the pump on top of it indicating that is where the well was to be drilled. The next summer, we arrived on the very day that it was being drilled. Water was found at the 300-foot level with an output of 25 gallons a minute. Our friends who first mentioned the “witching” method had a well that produced 2 and 1/2 gallons a minute at 850 feet. Needless to say, we were very happy!
A year later, it dawned on me that not only did we find water at a very good depth with great volume, but that the additional blessing from God was the ‘peace of mind’ that resulted from depending on Him for the location. There was never a day during that year of waiting to drill the well that we worried or stressed about it.
