I was so anxious to get to the oasis this afternoon, and had a mental list of all I wanted to do. But the wind was raging and I hate wind, so got practically nothing accomplished. The stucco tank was down to 24½" from the 30½" when I left Saturday, so that's about 1½" per day. Pretty normal for that tank (when it hasn't sprung a big leak), but I hope to seal it better this winter. So I'm relieved that I should have enough water stored now to make it through to next rainy season.
Took a couple hummer photos before I headed for the house, which is earth-sheltered. When you're inside, you can not tell it's windy outside. Works for me.
Here is one I think might be a juvenile Allen's. If not that, then it's a Rufous.
Hopefully, I'll see some good birds tomorrow and get some nice photos, in between watering the trees.
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Originally the tank was excavated out of a small arroyo that ran into the main arroyo. My late husband dug out all that he could get out of the hard packed impervious caliche and rock. Some of the boulders were so big we couldn't load them on a dump truck so we piled them nearby and I covered them with colored concrete to make a man-made grotto etc. Then we blocked up the low end with some of the caliche and rock to enclose the tank, and wall it off from the arroyo. That's where I have the problems. Nothing else leaks as far as I can tell. There's no sandy bottom. The boulders were basically clay that had turned to rock because of the heat and pressure millions of years ago, I think. I always call it mudrock.
At another location I used 4' of Bentonite to
line a cienega (wetland) that I wanted, but I didn't want it without vegetation growing in it and Bentonite won't seal if vegetation is present, so I ended up abandoning that project. If you look at some of the old photos on this blog (upper right hand corner where the pages are listed by year) you may get a better idea of what all I'm talking about. Even though the tank currently is leaking little more than an inch a day, that's a lot of water. Caliche is pretty much like Bentonite, I think. It's clay, but not as fine as Bentonite.
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