Remembering time gone by in this month's column.

Reminiscences from his boyhood.

"In 1889, my granddad was in the Oklahoma Land Rush for his farm near Covington, Okla. ..."

In the 1950s, at the age of 16, I was drilling water wells in Oklahoma. Our well casing for screened wells was commercially made from 22-gauge galvanized tin.

In the last several months, I have visited several states in the northeastern part of the United States and have found the economy seemingly down everywhere, yet I observed many freight trucks traveling in all directions.

I receive calls and e-mails almost daily from people out of water.

Master ground water contractor Porky Cutter offers his insight into using drilling hammers, various types of bits and specialty equipment.

Have you recently purchased anything that was made in America? Almost everything is outsourced to other countries.

I am finding that due to the lack of new construction, water well drilling is slow. Many of the drillers are diversifying into the abandonment of oil wells, and/or they are getting into geothermal loop installations.