ORLAND – The Tardif family is one of hundreds in Maine who have been coping with dry wells for months.

“It seems like it’s been forever,” said Jeanette Tardif.

The dug well at the family’s Back Ridge Road home in Hancock County went dry in September, and the Tardifs have been lugging water and relying on friends for showers for so long it’s almost become routine.

They also have been on a well driller’s waiting list almost as long as they’ve been without water.

Living with a dug well that went dry 25 years ago and whose flow has slowed during dry summers, the Tardifs always have been careful about their water use. When their well went dry in September, they assumed it would replenish itself once the rains came.

“Like most people we thought it would come back. We were riding out the storm so to speak until the fall rains came around,” said Phil Tardif. “Only thing is, they never did.”

As a result, the Bucksport schoolteachers and their daughter, Kate, a high school sophomore, have been roughing it. The family fills jugs with water from a neighbor’s well. They rigged up a portable shower used by campers and heat their water on the stove. They also have a sun shower above the kitchen sink and use that to store water for washing dishes and washing their hair.

“Our neighbors have been very, very good,” Phil Tardif said. “Believe it or not, we can get by on 15 to 20 gallons of water. We’ve always been keenly aware of how precious the water is, but we’ve got a system down and we can survive. … It makes getting ready for school a little different and more hectic. We’re just kind of getting by.”

Tardif said that just by looking at Toddy Pond it is easy to understand how the groundwater has been affected by the drought. He said the pond is as low as he has seen it in 30 years.

Tardif said he is on the lists of two well drillers but is still waiting to hear when or if they plan to schedule the job. He said he was told the wait would be at least two months.

“It’s frustrating. We don’t know where we are and we don’t know if we’ll have any water this winter,” he said. “We’re just hoping that Mother Nature will help us. She always has.”