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Wednesday, August 23, 2023

Saga of rescuing and being rescued

I arrived at the oasis around 7 AM. Rain gauge said 2.33," but it was a slow soaking rain, almost no runoff. There was a little in the upper settling pond and the upper dirt tank was full. I'm not able to wrestle with the big gas pump in the dirt tank, so hoping for more rain soon to fill the tanks. Meanwhile. I set up an electric pump in the settling pond to at least get that. Took about an hour.


While it was pumping I went to my quarters to eat brunch. Soon a birder came up to the door, informing me he had gotten stuck on Snake Road and walked in. I found out later that he had called his wife (from my wifi) and told her their car was stuck near the oasis.


As I was loading a chain into my pickup to go pull him out, I noticed I had a tire that was almost flat. Couldn't get the air compressor to work and my little portable one from my pickup didn't work either. The birder said he had one in his car. So, with 7 lbs of air pressure in my tire, we drove the two miles to his car. After airing up my tire, I easily pulled him out. (I'm ordering a new compressor today.)



No more I could do at the oasis, other than watch birds, so I decided to go back to town. Everywhere is an oasis right now, and you know what that means... dispersed birds, not concentrated at the oasis.


In town I just got unpacked when my sister called. Seems that when the stuck birder's wife couldn't reach him, she called the sheriff, who went to the oasis looking for him. Finding no one there, the sheriff stopped at my sister's to make inquiries. She knew nothing, but figured I might know. So she put the sheriff on the phone and hopefully we got things cleared up. Apparently birder's phone pinged off a tower in Mexico. Not my area of expertise, but I know that he followed me to Alpine, so there you have it. 


4 comments:

  1. Glad it all worked out. Rain so welcome!

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  2. So glad you got some rain, and really sorry I missed you on Friday. I was looking forward to a short visit in between camera time. LOL. I did manage to get some good Lucifer shots as well as a lifer for me the lark bunting. If it would be ok, I would like to send you some of my pics but not sure how to post them.

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    Replies
    1. You can send them to me and I'll post them, or go directly to my Facebook group Christmas Mountains Oasis and post them there.

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  3. Never a dull moment for you. I’m sure the birder was happy to see you were at the Oasis. Glad you got rain also. I’d love to get some here in Port Arthur.

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