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Saturday, July 15, 2017

Earning my water

Whew! I pumped all night long but removed very little water from the dirt tank. Less volume is being pumped out than usual. By then I was almost out of gasoline so made a rush trip to Study Butte for what I thought was sure to be enough gas (in my sleep deprived state). En route was the only glimpse of sun I got today.


Next I got my sister to help me uninstall the one big gas pump at the upper dirt tank and replace it with my other big gas pump from the lower dirt tank. A gargantuan task for us. No change. There has to be a blockage somewhere. Either residue from that rat's nest I had back in early June, or mud around the suction hose inside the tank. But the water is over my head so I have to pump it down before I can check that out. What I thought would be an 8 hr job has been 24 hrs and counting.


And another sleep-deprived night to anticipate. While I was working at the tank I observed this strange cloud formation over my mountain. Looks like a tiny funnel cloud reaching out and touching the mountain, but I doubt it was.



4 comments:

  1. This may sound like a dumb question, but is your suction hose lying on the bottom of the tank all the time? I used to tie an empty clorox bottle to the end of the hose so it would float and not be in the gunk.

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    1. Not a dumb question at all. Normally I clean below the suction screen and place it in a metal box, then weight it down so it doesn't float. The second it floats I lose my prime. It sucks in air. But what happened is around June 2nd the tank filled and I pumped it out and what with having company and dealing with that line clogged by a rat's nest and a bunch of other stuff, I forgot to clear out around the suction screen. So this big deluge stuck the thing in the mud. Easy fix, just have to stay attentive. I have to wait for it to dry out to fix it and sometimes it takes a long time and I forget. It helps if the tank doesn't have a lot of silt on the bottom. My husband is going to come down and clean out the tank after rainy season. It's been way too long since we cleaned it out.

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  2. Argh. Work and more work everywhere. I don't see how you do it.

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  3. I don't either. Sometimes it's overwhelming. I know I won't be able to do it forever. Things that used to be easy are so difficult now. Like sitting on the ground and then getting back up. I used to do it so automatically I didn't know I was doing it. Now it's a painful, slow maneuver. LOL

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