Progress being made

My sons worked hard all day and we got a lot done on the necessary landscaping to divert water from around the tank and make the parking area more usable. Had planned to finish tomorrow while my Austin son was still here but my Alpine son decided he needed his tractor in town so took it to town with him.

We put a berm and barrier between the tank and the parking area. (Can't take a chance of a car accidentally hitting the tank.) Then after leveling the parking area as best as the little tractor could do we started taking sand out of the arroyo and spreading it on the clay surface of the parking area.

As the sand/gravel was spread with the tractor we raked the rocks and gravel out of it and put them around the tank. Have the black weathershade almost totally covered with gravel and rock. Only got about a third of the parking area covered but by the time we get the whole thing done there will be plenty of rock and gravel around the tank perimeter, so things are looking good. And you can't tell we took hardly anything out of the arroyo. It seems to be an endless supply.

 A huge Black Bear is hanging around the area. Tore down my seed feeder and my sister saw it at her place. I had engineered the feeder so I can raise it out of reach of the bear (I think), so I did that today after repairing the feeder (just minor damage).

Also was amazed to learn that a birder visiting yesterday saw and photographed a male Lucifer Hummingbird. Definitely a late record for CMO.

Yes, we took a little break to go eat a turkey feast with family at my sister's place.