A most frustrating day

Got up at dawn to see how much the stucco tank went down in an 8 hour period. One inch. That means it's losing 3" a day. On top of that misery, I went to pump the lower dirt tank into the stucco tank and the installed 3" pump wouldn't draw in the water. So I got my sister to come help me swap the pump for a different one, and it wouldn't either. So it seemed the problem is in the intake line. She went underwater to check it and it was clear. And once it did draw water for a few minutes, but the pump died and wouldn't download water again. It's the same pump I used for 12 hours yesterday in the upper dirt tank and it worked fine. Not a single glitch. So frustrating. By then I didn't have enough time left to move a 2" pump over there and pump it out. And for what? It'll all go away in a couple of weeks anyway. Really demoralizing. Hopefully, we'll get another monsoon and I'll have more time and be fresher. The last two days were hard and wore me down. Had things I needed to do in town and tomorrow have to go to Odessa with my husband to help drive when they dilate his eyes. Next week he'll get his cataract surgery. Sure hope he has a good outcome.

No time to look for odes. I hear Cassin's Sparrows skylarking outside the oasis a lot, but never see them. So I was surprised to see this one at the oasis today.

I'm concerned about the upper dirt tank. Every time it fills with water a sand bar encroaches farther toward my intake line. It's really close. So today I tried to elevate the line so when I go to pump next time, the intake won't be mired in mud. The oasis infrastructure is deteriorating, but I'm hanging in there. Not giving up yet. Today was just a temporary hiccup. Down but not out. I'll be back at it in a couple of days.

It's the first time to my memory that I gave up on my mission before it was accomplished. I tell myself if I hadn't got that fluke rain I wouldn't have had any water to pump. No one around the oasis got as much as I did. Still, I really let myself down. I hope it's not a harbinger of things to come.

My unsupportive husband never misses a chance to tell me that I'm too old to take care of the place and it's just going to get worse. He only makes me more determined, if that's possible. LOL

A plan coming together

Got the pump going at 8 AM just like I had hoped. Sometime late this afternoon the stucco tank should be full, and this dirt tank empty. It had gone down more than a foot since the rain but there'll still be enough water to fill the stucco tank, even if I have to take water out of the lower dirt tank that filled when this tank overflowed. The lower tank only loses about 3" a day, so I use that water last.

Upper dirt tank

Lower dirt tank

I'm ready for more rain now. It can fill the dirt tanks, settling ponds, and arroyo. Prefer not too big a rain that would damage the road more than it already is.

I knew our Rock Squirrels (or is it Ground Squirrels?) loved my seed feeder. Since I put up wire instead of the rope they chewed up, I haven't seen them on it. Maybe they've developed a taste for sotol seeds.

The dragonfly pond is getting exciting.

Here's a Twelve-spotted Skimmer in the same shot as a Common Green Darner. It would probably be harder to get a shot without a darner in it. LOL

Later: After 8 hours of pumping the stucco tank is only half full. I think those valves that we installed last fall impede the flow, but I have to have those valves. I'm too old and weak to be down in the lower dirt tank swapping out heavy 3" lines anymore. But it looks like I'll be pumping until midnight. Oh, well, I can nap in between gassing up the pump every two hours.

Looking in the arroyo by my soapberry thicket I saw this tiny black butterfly and thought it might be a Mexican Sootywing, but Brian says it's a Saltbush Sootywing. A Mexican Sootywing would be a lifer for me. But, hey, at least I saw a butterfly today. Kidding. I actually saw a couple other real common ones. And the dragonflies I'm seeing are common ones too, but there are sure a lot of them already. I thought I'd have to wait until mosquitoes returned. This late in the year mosquitoes shouldn't be much of an annoyance.

 6 PM: Still pumping and probably 4-6 hours to go. Whew!

8 PM: It took 12 hours of pumping to empty the upper dirt tank. The stucco tank lacks 2½' from being full. I'm exhausted and it's lightning and sprinkling outside, so I quit for the night. At 8 AM I'll measure and see how much the tank went down. Then I'll do my best to fix some bad leaks in the line and pump out the lower dirt tank. Normally I pump the upper dirt tank right after it fills. By waiting a day and a half, I didn't have enough water left in it to fill the stucco tank. But it was worth it. I'll end up water ahead if the stucco tank leaks less. And if it doesn't, it doesn't matter anyway.

Aftermath

After the big monsoonal rain yesterday afternoon, it drizzled half the night. Today it's sprinkling off and on. We could very well get another deluge this afternoon. Meanwhile...

The settling pond above the upper dam went down nearly a foot overnight, so I'm pumping that water into the dragonfly pond, which had room for more water and only went down an inch or so in the night.

More importantly, I patched, then applied two coats of Drylok on the bad area of the stucco tank.

I'll let it dry overnight and if it doesn't rain and fill it up tonight, I'll pump it full tomorrow. I was amazed at how many dragonflies showed up this afternoon. Dozens of Common Green Darners are mating all over the place already. I'm going to OD on dragonflying.

Today was a hard day, but not a killer day. If the pumps behave tomorrow, it should be an easier day.

Dragonfly pond late afternoon

First summer monsoonal rain! YAY!

9 AM: Waiting in town for the oil to get changed in my pickup so I can head south to water my trees, I photographed a lovely female Two-tailed Swallowtail. It's the only butterfly I've seen in Alpine for many days.

1 PM: Got to the oasis about the same time as a visitor arrived that is into dragonflies. That's a rare occurrence so I couldn't bring myself to water trees. Hung out with him instead.

4:30 PM: Visitor left and I went up to the house. Too tired to work. Chasing odes isn't easy. Five minutes later it unexpectedly started to pour rain. I got .84." It worked out good because water backed up to the spillway of the stucco tank but didn't overrun the spillway. With the water behind the tank wall, it began going through the wall into the tank. This helped me see where the leaks were. So now I plan on patching them tomorrow, and filling the tank the next day. Hopefully, it won't leak too bad.

That'll be a killer two days for my back and shoulder, but it has to be done. A couple of hours after the rain stopped, it started drizzling, and hasn't let up yet at nearly 11 PM.

Thanks to my visitor, Todd Fitzgerald, I saw my first Autumn Meadowhawk of the year.

And even though I see oodles of Red Saddlebags, I like this shot of a female.

I really look forwarding to oding at my dragonfly pond for the next month or so. It caught a lot of water and tomorrow I'll pump out the settling pond into it. Mexican Amberwings should show up and who knows what else. (The tank filled after I snapped this photo.) 

Jerry Chen took this fascinating shot of the oasis with his drone. I've always known the oasis was the center of my world, so this illustrates my viewpoint nicely.

Prospects for rain

I've always maintained that I get my monsoons when there are hurricanes in the Pacific. Most of the time the Gulf of Mexico hurricanes seem to be blocked by mountains from affecting the oasis enough to cause the flash flooding that I need to fill my tanks. So I pay attention to Pacific hurricane activity.

This year, above normal activity and number of hurricanes were predicted based mainly on this being an El Niño year with warmer sea surface temperatures. When we got good rains in June, I was really optimistic about the summer monsoon season. So what happened?

Well, for the first time since records were being reliably kept (1971), this year is the latest-starting  Pacific hurricane season. Additionally, no hurricanes formed in August for the first time since 1973. However, the season doesn't end until November 30, so I'm still hopeful.

Gulf of Mexico activity has resulted in a few good rains all around me, but very scant rainfall at the oasis, which is what I've learned to expect. Now we have a decent chance of rain next week. Except the oasis is in the "rain shadow."

A rain shadow is a dry area on the leeward side of a mountainous area. The mountains block the passage of rain-producing weather systems and cast a "shadow" of dryness behind them.

This summer, we've endured record heat, and I've had to water twice a week all summer long.* I don't remember a time when there were so few butterflies at the oasis, but admittedly I haven't always paid as much attention to their numbers as I have the last several years.

I'm certainly grateful for that June rainfall that filled my tanks, so at least I don't have to worry about water for quite some time. And really grateful for the new tank that is full just in case the worst happens.

Speaking of the new tank, the big Lubber Grasshoppers have totally stripped the leaves off most of the Tree Tobacco around the tank. It'll seed itself and hopefully do better next year. If I was there all the time I could pick them off, but when I'm gone they prevail.

* I was amused by a visitor several days ago. I was complaining about the lack of summer rain and he said there must be some good sub-surface water for the oasis to be so lush looking. Don't I wish! The mechanics of the oasis seem to be hard for most visitors to comprehend. I guess that's what makes it special.

Vinegaroon

When Mac was visiting he wanted to photograph a vinegaroon so bad and we couldn't find one. Today after I watered at the oasis and did some patching in the stucco tank, I came to town. I was just sitting in a chair, watching TV, minding my own business, when I spotted a huge vinegaroon 2" from my foot.

Such is life!