We live in rural Northern California, and in places like this there are no municipal utilities such as water, sewer, gas, or roads. It is up to area residents to provide their own systems to make up for this; we have a septic system, we use bulk propane, and our water comes from a well. For our roads, we have a local road cooperative.

Our well has been giving us trouble lately. Ground water has been seeping past the well casing, and whenever it rains our water turns brown from sediment. Needless to say, neither my wife nor I are thrilled about this. Because of the muddy water, we decided to have a new well drilled. We found a driller to do the job, and they started on it last Thursday.

Our existing well is only 120 feet deep, but it provides plenty of water for our household, approximately 16 gallons per minute. Because of the apparently abundant water in the area, we expected the new well to be of a similar depth. The driller planned to shoot for 200 to 250 feet.

The driller charges by the foot - $16 per foot, to be precise.

Well, after drilling all day Thursday, all day Friday, and all day today, we have a 580 foot hole in the ground that produces 1 pint of water per minute. We'll give it another 300 or 400 feet, but this is beginning to get expensive. There goes my Christmas bonus.

UPDATE: We're now at 740 feet, with no water to speak of, and the drilling rig can't go any deeper. My wife and I are the proud owners of the world's deepest and most expensive one-holer.

Maybe we can rent it out to store nuclear waste or something.

Damn...