Two weeks ago today

Well, in the past two weeks I've put 18 gallons of coating in the tank. I figure I'm about one-fourth done, so 6 more weeks to go. I have to do the whole thing or I won't know if leakage is because I didn't do it all, or something else. I'll try. It's a killer. Just worked on the floor (gray) today. I hope that stuff works. Everything I read says it has to be mixed exactly per instructions, which is impossible. Just have to use my own judgement. Most people are worried it won't cure before it rains. No one understands with zero humidity, there's no way to get a gallon applied before it dries too thick to brush if you don't add water. Oh, and it says not to mix it by hand or you won't get a good mix. The Drylok I ordered is in so I'm not going to use anymore of the gray Thoroseal. I hope to coat that with Drylok when the whole tank is done, just to be on the safe side. It's in an area that isn't prone to leak, though, I think.

And on a somewhat more positive note, if the cracks in the tank haven't gotten huge or caved in before now, with weight of water and pressure, I don't see why they would now. Something underground is preventing that from happening. My oasis is on an alluvial fan deposit and that arroyo that we put this tank in was unusual in that it had caliche in it. Totally unexpected. Maybe a fault or something. But there must be something underground that keeps the floor of the tank from collapsing, so I have to be optimistic that it's somehow wedged in there. Everywhere else there's rhyolite underground. The surrounding mountains are solid rhyolite. The arroyo that feeds this tank has a solid rhyolite floor.

I think I'll be lucky if I don't spend over $2000 on coating the tank. Good that I don't have to pay labor costs. Yet. It's either coat the tank or let it go. Losing 3 to 5 thousand gallons of water a day isn't acceptable, especially during a drought.

If there's a good part to this, it's that the bottom doesn't have as much dirt to haul out as it usually does. Every little bit helps. I jokingly tell myself that the silt got sucked out the leaks. (I think I'm joking anyway.)

I was so exhausted yesterday that I went to bed at 9:30. Always a mistake. I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't get back to sleep. So I slept late this morning. It worked out OK though because the weather never got too hot to work in the tank.  I want to go to bed even earlier tonight, but don't dare.