Let the pumping begin

The water level didn't seem to have gone down enough during the night to warrant draining the tank and looking for leaks so, with much trepidation, I cranked up the pumps. Roaring engines in stereo. First, started pumping from the upper dirt tank to the lower dirt tank. Then simultaneously from the lower to the stucco tank. You can see my two patches in this photo.

Here it is six hours later. I hope to get done by dark, but probably won't.

I'll have to gas up the pump every two hours in the dark. I hate doing that. Not only watching out for snakes, but I can't see what I'm doing. Hard to pour gas and hold a flashlight at the same time. But I always manage. Here's a close-up of the action. Those frogs are clinging to a near-vertical wall.

Tomorrow at daylight will be the moment of truth. When I check to see how much the water level went down in the night. Scary!

The wildlife pond is happy. I treated it to the water backed up behind the upper dam in the arroyo. It doesn't hold there long, but gives the vegetation along the arroyo a good soaking. It had it for two days, so now the vegetation along the wildlife pond can enjoy it.

I feel so fortunate to have all this water. It could so easily be that Sunday's rain fell somewhere else, and I'd be in a dire drought here.

UPDATE: I turned the pump off at 9 PM. I think there's still enough water in the dirt tank that I can get the pump primed in the morning. The stucco tank is still down about 3 feet, meaning I'd be up until 2 or 3 AM. Getting too old. Can't do it.