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Sunday, May 20, 2012

On my last leg


A couple of weeks ago two springs broke on the new water trailer, and today the other two broke. I had only used it for one of those two weeks because of a small shower (.2") I got. That same storm dumped 6 inches not far away, at Chalk Draw adjacent to Terlingua Ranch. If I had gotten one-tenth that amount my tanks would be full. My husband said this is the last time he's going to fix the trailer, so if it breaks again in a week or two, it better rain, or the oasis may be history. Meanwhile, I'm off to Ft. Stockton in the morning for new springs.


East and West Corazone peaks. (East Corazone is the jagged edges peaking out from behind the hills).


6 comments:

  1. Maybe you need one of them military surplus trailers....it would hold up up to anything you could load it with....just a thought...

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  2. That sounds like a good idea to me. I'll check into it. Thanks.

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  3. Sandy/Odessa and AlpineMay 21, 2012 at 6:29 PM

    I'm thinking you got a lemon. You may not get a thing out of it but you should contact Big Tex and tell them about all your problems.....as long as you weren't exceeding the wt limit on the trailer....and I'm not going to ask if you were doing that!

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  4. I carry 250 gallons, way less than the load limit, and go an average of 15 mph. The trailer came with cheap springs, probably made in China. We put heavy duty springs on front when they broke, but not on the back. Now we're going to put heavy duty ones on the back too. We should have done all 4 springs at once I guess, but the work is grueling for our very bad backs and if it had rained recently that wouldn't have been necessary. The road is really rough in places and I think the bouncing causes metal fatigue. If I can just hang in there a couple more weeks it will surely rain. I guess if worse comes to worst I'll carry 100 gallons in the back of my pickup and make 10 trips a day. In that case, I would just water about half the trees and let the cottonwood die, and the native stuff hopefully survive (like soapberry, hackberry, etc) without supplemental water. I'd basically just water my pinyons and oaks. The weather is supposed to get real hot this week, so we'll just have to see.

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  5. Sandy/Odessa and AlpineMay 22, 2012 at 8:41 AM

    I guess they were making better trailers back when I bought mine. Of course, I don't have to use the kinds of roads you do. I continue to marvel at your ability to just keep doing this backbreaking work day after day. I know how horrible it is to watch your trees die, despite all your efforts. I'm hoping for a break in the weather for you and some rain!

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  6. We got the trailer fixed and I'm going to haul water today. Maybe breakdowns are over and maybe it'll rain soon.

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