A little more rain

Every little bit helps. Two days after I got back to town after watering, I had recovered enough to go birding at Balmorhea. Of course, I overdid myself there and arrived in Alpine totally spent. Shortly thereafter, my sister called and told me I had gotten nearly half an inch of rain at the oasis, and there was some runoff. So I went tearing down there in the middle of the night and started pumping out the settling pond. It loses its water the fastest.

I tried to get the gas pump going in the upper dirt tank but needed light to mess with it when it wouldn't pick up the water. So at daylight I began an hours-long struggle to get it going, in and out of the muddy water countless times. Immediately, a connection in the line blew out, so I turned off the pump to fix it. Then didn't have the stamina to repair the line, after birding and no sleep the night before. Hey, rain wasn't forecast so I didn't see a need to save my energy. Finally, my sisters came and helped me get the pump going again, but it stopped shortly thereafter, so I just gave up.

I think I had estimated from the previous rain that my storage capacity was around 70% full. So with what I got out of the settling pond, I'd say now around 72%. But 72% is better in August than in June, when it's farther from the next year's rainy season. (I estimate my storage capacity to be around 300,000 gallons. I lose half to leakage and evaporation, which leaves me about 150,00 gallons per year. I do fine with that much. All estimates very rough!)

Anyway, the day I watered, a photographer was there. He's an awesome photographer and said I could share some of his photos here. Thank you Russ Rogers!

Juvenile male Lucifer Hummingbird

I just love juvenile Lucifers. It makes me happy to know that I've helped their nesting success.

Varied Bunting (male)

Bear photo taken in Big Bend National Park by Russ after leaving the oasis. Thankfully, it wasn't at the oasis.

 

Today my son was able to go to the oasis and fix the broken water line. He was in Colorado when the rain event happened so couldn't go sooner. Somehow he managed to get the pump going. There wasn't much water left in the tank by then. He probably got out less than 5,000 gallons. Every little bit helps.