A matter of math

Some birders at the oasis today were asking about the water situation and the new tank. So it's like this. The stucco tank holds 96 inches of water. If evaporation was ½" every day, the minimum it could possibly be, and no leakage, the water from monsoon season (Jul-Sep) would last 6 months. Of course, that's providing I never watered anything with it.That takes it, under best of circumstances, to March. Then it would be empty. But because I filled the new tank from it last fall, I now have 65,000 gallons of water I wouldn't have had. That's equivalent to 5 feet in the stucco tank. I plan to not touch that reserve unless we get a drought. And in a drought, without that reserve, the oasis would go away, because buying and hauling water is no longer an option for various reasons. Until rainy season I have water in the big tank that should get me through. I seriously doubt that you'll ever hear me whine about lack of water again.

Big Bend National Park by Gabrielle Rohr

I watered my trees today and had to come back to town. Planted some of the tomato plants, and am exhausted. Tomorrow I have to accompany my husband to Odessa to the eye doctor in case the dilation causes him not to be able to drive. He's close to cataract surgery.

Then I hope to address this peach tree. When we left the sprinkler on it for two consecutive nights the ice built up on it so thick that some limbs broke. I hope to be able to mend this one. The sprinkler needs to be turned off after everything is iced over, but neither of us could bring ourselves to go out there at 2 AM and do it. I would have been wide awake for the rest of the night. And I've been puny for weeks now. Plus, if you turn the sprinkler off in the night, then it freezes up and you can't turn it on the following night, if needed, which it obviously was. But this damage could have been prevented with more diligence on our part.