A most frustrating day

Got up at dawn to see how much the stucco tank went down in an 8 hour period. One inch. That means it's losing 3" a day. On top of that misery, I went to pump the lower dirt tank into the stucco tank and the installed 3" pump wouldn't draw in the water. So I got my sister to come help me swap the pump for a different one, and it wouldn't either. So it seemed the problem is in the intake line. She went underwater to check it and it was clear. And once it did draw water for a few minutes, but the pump died and wouldn't download water again. It's the same pump I used for 12 hours yesterday in the upper dirt tank and it worked fine. Not a single glitch. So frustrating. By then I didn't have enough time left to move a 2" pump over there and pump it out. And for what? It'll all go away in a couple of weeks anyway. Really demoralizing. Hopefully, we'll get another monsoon and I'll have more time and be fresher. The last two days were hard and wore me down. Had things I needed to do in town and tomorrow have to go to Odessa with my husband to help drive when they dilate his eyes. Next week he'll get his cataract surgery. Sure hope he has a good outcome.

No time to look for odes. I hear Cassin's Sparrows skylarking outside the oasis a lot, but never see them. So I was surprised to see this one at the oasis today.

I'm concerned about the upper dirt tank. Every time it fills with water a sand bar encroaches farther toward my intake line. It's really close. So today I tried to elevate the line so when I go to pump next time, the intake won't be mired in mud. The oasis infrastructure is deteriorating, but I'm hanging in there. Not giving up yet. Today was just a temporary hiccup. Down but not out. I'll be back at it in a couple of days.

It's the first time to my memory that I gave up on my mission before it was accomplished. I tell myself if I hadn't got that fluke rain I wouldn't have had any water to pump. No one around the oasis got as much as I did. Still, I really let myself down. I hope it's not a harbinger of things to come.

My unsupportive husband never misses a chance to tell me that I'm too old to take care of the place and it's just going to get worse. He only makes me more determined, if that's possible. LOL