You won't believe how little water our well gives us -- one quart a minute. That's 440 gallons a day, which is enough if we don't want to water the lawn with it. We have a 1500-gallon tank (these things are surprisingly affordable and lightweight black plastic affairs that a single person can roll off a trailer and into place), so we have plenty of water, until we run out.

We didn't run out, but it started smelling bad. This is the other bad thing about wells in Oregon's Coast Range -- sulfur in the water, and the sulfur-loving bacteria that go with it. Not a health hazard, but unaesthetic.

So we mixed a jug of bleach with a bucket of water and poured it down the well, and followed it with some vinegar. Recirculate lightly every half hour (the pump is on a timer), wait 24 hours, and pump the well dry. It's called shock chlorination. If you have a well, you probably know all about it.

Yuck! Not only did we get the usual greenish-brownish gunk, but some reddish stuff as well. That's too many colors for something that's supposed to be crystal clear!

No doubt everything will return to normal again. It always has. I'd fire my water company, except it's me.