A big surprise

When I finally got the gas pump pumping into the new tank I climbed the ladder to see how good it was coming in, etc. To my shock, the tank was already over half full!

Water going into the tank

That means I hadn't squandered all that water like I had thought I had. I had been frugal with it. But how could I have been so wrong? The water was crystal clear (before I added dirty water to it) and somehow it had tricked me. Also, I had regularly felt the sides of the tank, hot in the sun, to where the cool water would make the sides cool and that had been about a foot from the bottom. I'm mystified. But at least now I know that tank holds a far better supply of water than I had thought. With being careful with water I shouldn't have to worry about water ever again.

But that poses another dilemma. I had planned on putting the water from the stucco tank into the new tank and doing it fast enough that leaks would show up as trickles back into the stucco tank. Now that can't happen. After filling the new tank the stucco tank was only 15" down. So famine, then feast. My dirt tanks are full, settling pond full, arroyo full, and no place to pump the water to. I'm going to see how much the stucco tank goes down overnight and maybe top it off in the morning. I hate seeing all that precious water just soak into the ground, but at least it didn't run to the ocean.

I still can't get into the arroyo to show the soapberry thicket but you can see some of it in the center of this photo.

And lots of dragonflies are already appearing. Especially gliders. Both Wandering and Spot-winged Gliders. Here are a couple of Spot-wingeds.

Dragonfly pond

I have a couple of amazing sisters living next to me down here. One is working on a unique carport. It's not finished yet but I couldn't resist sharing a photo of it in the meantime. Made out of rock, sotol, and discarded trampoline framing. If it was plastered it would make an interesting "wattle and daub" house.

More and more these days my life is a comedy of errors. Today was no exception. First I gassed up the pump only to discover that when I drained the carburetor last winter I hadn't replaced the drain screw. So that was a mess. And then when the electric company showed up I hurried to the house to show him where the breaker boxes were. Then rushed back down to check the tank and it was running out the overflow big time. Another mess to fix.

Tomorrow's another day! Grateful to be alive and have water though. The electricity to the house is now temporarily fixed until I buy a new breaker. Otherwise, the same thing will happen when we have another power outage.