Drying time not optional

The best I could determine, the patching should have 90 days to set but dries in a matter of minutes and the coating dries in 3-5 hours but should have up to 90 days to dry out. Not options for me. I patched and coated the leaky area early this AM, then let the coating dry for a couple of hours, then started slowly adding water to the end I didn't patch. My instinct tells me it'll be fine. Then about an hour later I started the big pump.

On this top photo you can see a small dark spot of patching on the bottom left of the white Drylok. It was too close to the water for me to coat but I'm confident that I patched it good and there can be no pinhole leaks in it.

My husband called while I was out working and left a message on the answering machine, "Are you winning?" He still doesn't get that not winning isn't an option for me.

I was excited taking this next photo until I realized it was a moth and not a Giant-Skipper butterfly. The bad news is that I took nearly 90 photos of it. The good news is that I realized it was a moth before I sent it to Brian. I've never seen a Giant-Skipper of any species but I keep hoping.

As I tended the pumps I kept watching for that Tramea dragonfly (Antillean or Striped Saddlebags) to return to the perch I saw it on yesterday so I could get better photos, and positive ID. Finally, at around 3 PM, I glanced at the perch and exultantly thought it was back. As I photographed it, it became apparent it was a different individual, maybe a different species. Not as much black on the tip of the tail, for one thing.

So I posted it to my odonate group and it's a Red Saddlebags. Boy, do I have a lot to learn. It so didn't look like one to me. Red Saddlebags are everywhere at the oasis. You'd think that would be one species I'd get right.

At least I ID'd this one by myself. It's a Blue-eyed Darner.

It was a good day in that I got all the water from the dirt tank transferred to the stucco tank. That project is done. I feel pretty certain it's not leaking. Last night I didn't want it to rain before I could get the leak totally coated today. Today I wish it would rain and fill up the tank so I didn't have to pump. There wasn't enough water left in the dirt tank by today to totally fill the stucco tank (lacks 18"), but I'm sure we'll get more rain this year. It's been two weeks since that big rain.

It was scary to watch the big pump surging water against my new patching work like a giant washing machine. I took video of it that I was going to post but it'll have to wait until tomorrow. This computer doesn't recognize video from my Lumix camera. Here's a still shot of it for now.

The next shot was taken shortly before dark.

I didn't finish pumping until 10:30 PM. For the last hour I sat out there to be sure the pump didn't pump dry. Mosquitoes were bad. Elf Owls and shooting stars were good though.

In the morning I'll check to see if the water went down overnight then head to town to catch up my work there. Plus I've got tons of apples and peaches waiting to be dried. Then life should relax a bit. It never does, but I need to hold on to that fantasy. I so bad want to go look for odes at Lajitas. Surely next week.