Gains and setbacks

Yesterday, and the afternoon before yesterday, my son pumped the water to where it needs to be. I went down this morning to service the hummingbird feeders. They were pretty much empty so it was good that I did. 

Of course I checked the stucco tank for leakage and was shocked to see it is leaking bad. It must have sprung a new leak because I had sealed it good. Now the water needs to be removed, the tank patched, and the water put back in. But just doing the chores I did there this morning left me sickish and with a headache. My son already got way behind on his obligations in town. I'm going to monitor the level one more time to be sure, then somehow try to get some help to do it. It's a two-day (minimum) killer job. I think what happens is when a big monsoonal rain comes into the tank, it gets behind the wall of the tank first with water pressure and causes a hole in the weakest part of the wall.

On a lighter note, here's a drawing of me by John Owen, posted with his permission. I really think it captures the essence of me. It takes a true artist to do that. Thank you, John. You brightened my day!

UPDATE: My son went down this afternoon (May 6) prepared to get the pumps set up for me so I could pump out the stucco tank, patch it and refill it. But upon measuring how much water it lost since I was there yesterday morning, we decided a loss of 3" per day wasn't enough to justify the work it would take. It loses one inch per day in evaporation, and likely even after doing the 2-3 day task, it would still lose an additional inch per day (above evaporation). So not worth a potential gain of one inch per day. I know that means the tank could be empty in 3 months. Therefore we're going to have to get more rain this summer. Then next winter we're determined to coat the tank with some type of elastomeric product so this won't happen again. It was a scary decision.