I now have plenty of water to top off the stucco tank. The big "concrete" tank, which only lacked a few inches of being full, got topped off last night by a small spate of hard rain.
My plan was to finish pumping the water from the upper dirt tank to the lower dirt tank, then from there to the stucco tank, as I posted yesterday. However, the rain replaced what I had pumped out of the upper tank yesterday, giving me a bigger water supply. All day today I've been pumping out that tank and it should be done by dark. The glitch came when the pump moving the water from the lower dirt tank to the stucco tank quit pumping. The lower tank will hold all the water from the upper tank but it was already half full from yesterday's pumping so I needed to get it moving. Finally, at 5 PM, as the lower tank was getting brimful, I found a spark plug and replaced the one on the pump and got it started. I'm so exhausted from working on pumps today. The one in the settling pond quit too. I took the plug out of it and put it into a spare pump that wouldn't run either and like a miracle it took off on the first pull of the rope.
When I'm done, sometime tomorrow, I'll still have water left in the lower dirt tank that the stucco tank won't hold. Since that dirt tank holds water really well, unlike the others, I'll still be able to top off the stucco tank again in a few weeks. So things are looking good. Of course, if it rains tonight and fills everything up, my day's slavery will have been for naught. A chance I have to take. I even had to go to Study Butte and spend $50 on gas for the pumps. Water isn't cheap no matter how you get it. But I love gas pumps when they work like they're supposed to. They move water ten times faster than the electric pumps. Just in case, though, I set up my biggest electric pump today. Moving any water is better than moving no water. This pipe is 1-1/2" in diameter. The gas pump puts out a 3" diameter stream of water, and with a lot more pressure.
The good thing about the electric pumps is that I can leave them run all night long, whereas the gas pumps need refueling every 2 hours. Also the electric pumps are blessedly quiet.
That darned sapsucker is destroying all the bark from the locust tree. In desperation, I wrapped cloth around the trunk. Hope it helps.
Tank almost topped off finally...
I manage to squeeze the last bit of daylight out of every day. Actually, I'll be topping this tank off by flashlight tonight. If I didn't have loss to evaporation or leakage I would have an awesome abundance of water at my disposal. Still this tank hopefully won't get empty before next May. Then I'll start pumping out of the other bigger tank.
It'll all be worth it when I get photos of wonderful birds. Like maybe a Worm-eating Warbler, or a Black-capped Vireo building a nest..... well, I can dream, can't I!
2 comments:
As always, amazed at the amt of hard work you're capable of, plus your mechanical know-how. Last 2 pictures are stunning.
Thanks, Sandy. I don't feel very capable but I know if I don't do it, it won't get done and there won't be this beautiful oasis that so many people enjoy, myself especially. I'm having to learn how to do a lot of things that I've always had a man to do before.
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