My worsening situation

I have a leaky tank that needs the water removed asap. My two portable 2-inch pumps won't work so my husband took them to town to get fixed. The guy that fixes them is out of town until next week. So my husband said he'd order me a new electric pump. That will take time to get here. Meanwhile I'm losing about 500 gallons per hour. To put it in perspective, that's a week's supply in winter, or a 3 day supply in summer that I'm losing every hour. In hot weather evaporation can take up to an inch per day so I need to have way more in the tank than I'll actually need.

As I write this, I've got a 1-inch electric pump running  that, between it and leakage, is lowering the water level  in the tank about half an inch per hour. With 6 foot of water still left in the tank to remove, that will take 6 days. So I've got to get a bigger pump asap, or get the ones I have fixed. It seems everything hits at once. I thought I had a tank that didn't leak and 2 working pumps. I finally prevailed upon my son to come down here tomorrow to help me hook up one of the 3" pumps that are permanently installed at the dirt tanks to empty them rapidly. Those pumps are too heavy for me to move, and it'll be a pain to uninstall one of them and cobble up fittings to make it do what we need it to do, but I think it's the best option right now. I tried to get my husband to do that when he came to pick up the non-working pumps, but he wouldn't. He had things he needed to do in Alpine.

The dirt tank is holding water better than the stucco tank is right now so once I get the water there it's better off up to a point. The fuller the dirt tank is, the faster it loses water too. There's way more surface area as it backs up the arroyo and there's more water pressure forcing it out as it gets fuller. So it's just an emergency option until I locate and patch the leak.

Lots of Wilson's Warblers at the oasis today. The oasis is gorgeous right now too.

This male was foraging for insects in an Alligator Juniper tree.