It was expected to be 30' deep in a 4' × 4' hole. The expected dig time was 1 year. I had many mixed response when I expressed my interest in digging a well by hand; that's a deep grave, I would not even lift a shovel, that's awesome.... ect. With mixed responses I proceded with the project. The idea was to build a wooden structure that would protect me from cave in. The structure or "cribbing" would slid down the 4'×4' hole and wood would be fastened at the top as progress continued. The structure was had four 4×4 post (2 laminated 2×4) and 2x10 side paneling was screwed to the outside of the 4x4 post. The bottom 3ish feet on the perimeter was left open for digging and sculpting the walls. The initial 6 feet were quite fast since dirt removal was easy. Minimal rocks but lots of wet clay. Since the project started in the spring water was a continuous issue. After a couple of weeks a kind friend lent me his sump pump for water removal. This exponentially sped up the process. During a day of digging I would fill a five gallon pail with water/clay, Lift it out of the well, jump out dump the pail in a wheel barrow and repeat. At around 5 feet I awkwardly inserted the cribbing. The deeper I got the more difficult clay removal became as you can imagin. Also the use of a long handled shovel became impossible. I then devised a post and beam style overhead structure to attach a pully system. With the pully system clay removal became easier but more time consuming. Between 8-10 feet I ran into my biggest rock. Possibly between 500-800 pounds, I found it extremely difficult to move. Once I created a rope basket that was fit to carry the rock I attempted to pull it out. Pulling it out was very difficult even with the pully system. I had my feet braced on the cribbing and was close to being slightly inverted. After a large fight with a slippery mucky rope, I succeeded in lifting the rock to max hight. Regretfully that was not high enough to remove the rock. Defeated I returned it to its resting place. With the help of my wife some tampering and another struggle the rock was removed. Then I returned to regular digging with some improvements; the pump had to be switched out to a more powerful one. I used a small pallet to remove two pails at the same time, some additional horizontal bracing, a built in ladder at a corner for quick exit and entrance. When winter arrived and the ground froze the cribbing got stuck preventing me from having the appearance of safety. Due to this I halted production at around 12 feet. In the spring when I returned to work the water run off did some serious erosion and the well was now closer to 8 feet deep full of muck. I hosted a small well digging party and after 6 hours we had it at around 13 feet deep. Then for the rest of the summer slowly picked away at it when I had time to spare. Progress was slow because of the inefficient manner in which the clay was removed. Around 15' I was having increasing difficulty removing the water further hindering the progress. Another upgrade was needed for the water pump. I don't recall the exact number but the pump was removing around 12 gallons a min at a hight of 15 feet. At this point fall was approaching and I called is some help. At 18 feet the pump could no longer keep up and the power went out due to some construction and we called it finnished. I had purchased a 20' deep 36 inch diameter tube and with use of trees and pullys it was gently dropped into place. Then we back filled with pea gravel to the max height of the water and filled the rest with clay. We used two jackalls to pull the wood out as we back filled. The total dig time was just over 2 summers weekend warrior style. I do not recommend attempting this with little help or if you have a full time job. The water has yet to be tested, so my labors may have been in vain.