I have stated that drilling is 80 percent knowledge and 20 percent luck. Bad luck happens when a driller encounters a loss zone, thus preventing the driller from finishing the hole.

For much of the drilling industry, continuing education is nothing more than a requirement that is more dreaded than anticipated and more boring than fun.

In my travels I find that many businesses today are owned by a person or persons that know nothing about the business they own. Some own several businesses and in many cases these people attempt to micromanage a business that they know nothing about.

Got a call from a driller I had met on Facebook, and we had discussed jobs for quite a while. He said he had an irrigation well that was pumping sand, and had been doing it for a while.

As I wrote in my last column, the pitless adapter is a rather simple but important device used to complete a modern well. All of these have a way of keeping pumped water below the freezing point or frost line.

Before I finally get to the subject of pitless adapters, I must report another loss for our industry.

Bess, Piglet and I recently formed a non-profit business, Ground Water International Solutions, to generate funds to purchase equipment, refurbish it and send it with the expertise to teach people in developing countries to drill water wells properly.

For many years, I traveled the world teaching water well drilling and now our son Chris (known as “Piglet”) continues in my footsteps.