Stressing here

I won't know until in the morning how much the stucco tank is still leaking. Two of the pinholes were still seeping and I couldn't plug them but I just couldn't endure leaving the water in the dirt tank any longer. It was going down 5" a day and since it has a huge surface, that's a lot of water. There won't be enough left to fill the stucco tank now. I have it half full and will pump the rest of the water out of the dirt tank in the morning. I estimate I can get another 2 foot of water out of the dirt tank, so that'll leave the stucco tank down 2 feet. I can live with that. It should last until Feb or March, unless I didn't slow the leaks down. Surely I did though.

I thought about going to town for some underwater hydraulic patch but couldn't spend another day without getting the water out. When I started this project the stucco tank was down 2 feet and the dirt tank was half full. Now the dirt tank is half full and the stucco tank is down 4 feet, so I lost 2 feet of water plus what was left in the dirt tank, which I estimate was about 2 feet. I figured I'd never get every single seep plugged anyway, so it was time to get the water back in. Normally, I like the stucco tank to last until May. Then I know I'll have enough water to make it through to summer rains. It takes a lot to water things in the hot dry months of April, May, and June. Rains usually start in July. Winter doesn't take as much water so the stucco tank usually  is adequate. Who knows, maybe we'll get more rain.

A couple of lovely birders from E Texas visited this afternoon. Unfortunately, it was pretty hot and not birdy that time of day, plus we had to endure the loud gas pump the whole while. I hated that. But I enjoyed birding with them, and they got a few lifers. (Cassin's Kingbird, Green-tailed Towhee, and Lucifer Hummingbird, I think)

The oasis was delightful and we did get a few interesting birds, besides the aforementioned. The Lucifer was interesting in that it's a juvenile male with new gorget feathers on the right side of the throat only.