I went to the oasis early this morning, planning to stay overnight. But when I got there I discovered the water heater in the kitchen was leaking. House water is in really short supply without a well and with this record drought, so my priority was to get the water turned off. Took a couple of hours. There are three valves between the tank and the water heater but one doesn't shut off and the other two were frozen. Finally, with a hammer and kleins, I got the water off. My back hurts all the time and even more so contorting my body to get to the valves, which were both in hard to get places. I ended up breaking the handle of one of them.
By then, I didn't have it in me to do any watering, so I tackled the drip that hasn't worked for awhile. I made it much harder than it would have needed to be. All I needed to do was take off one connection and clean it, but I had it in my head the skinny line would always be a problem plugging up with silt so I took everything out and put in a garden hose. But once I got that installed I couldn't stand the looks of it, and couldn't hide it, so went back to the original line. When I took off the reducer in it, there was algae plugging it. No silt in the line. In the future, I'll know to just clean that fitting.
As soon as I had it running two Anna's Hummingbirds jumped in to bathe. Just reinforced how wonderful a drip is. Worth all the trouble for sure.
The oasis is so dry and dead looking and so bird-less that I don't enjoy being at it right now. I would have needed to build a fire in the house, and I would have pushed myself to get more work done, so I retreated back to town with its warm house.
I bought a new water heater that my son will install this weekend. Meanwhile, it's so hard to wash your hands or brush your teeth without a faucet. I can do it, but didn't see the point.
2 comments:
I am happy to see that at least one of your labors paid off. I sm thinking you need some crowd funding here. Or some grant writing. I've done a bit of the latter, but don't have a clue about the former. Labor needs to be done. And you are getting older. Surely some of those avid birders could chip in a little something. OK. Just a thought.
It's difficult since I don't know when I'll need help and for how long. For now, my son can handle most of it. If something big comes along I'll either hire it done with donation money, or ask for help. Thanks to the birding community I have that lovely new tank, without which the oasis wouldn't have made it last year. So far we're managing. If that changes, then I'll come up with a new plan. Thanks for your input. Always good hearing from you.
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