A bit motivated

I decided I'm going to work as much as possible at patching the stucco tank this winter to ensure it doesn't leak next monsoon season. It's going to be a long slow process due to my age. Today I did a little on the dry end, but was disgusted with myself that before I last left here I had turned on the faucet from the 11,000 gallon round above ground tank to empty it into the stucco tank. Forgetting I had done that, I came down this morning motivated to start work in the tank. So disappointing that there was too much water in it for me to do what I want. Now I have to wait up to a month before enough water is used up so I can finish the job. I could have worked around the edges of the mud, but not with so much water on it. So after the water is used, I have to let the mud dry for about a month. During that time I do a laborious process of watering the trees from the other tank, which is way slower and means dragging long hoses all over the place.

At some point, when the water is gone and the mud is dried out enough, I'll likely need to enlist help to carry the silt out of the tank. Days of me doing it alone are done unless I was here full time and just did a couple of buckets a day.

Birding is still so bleak that I get excited to see almost any bird. Here are a couple that may be overwintering here.

Female Cardinal

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

Here's the new agave stalk my son installed last weekend. It was straight when he put it up, but now I see it's leaning. Probably still somewhat green.  I'll see if I can do anything about that tomorrow.