January cold front

It got down to 18° here in Alpine this morning. Having the water feature here is saving me from worse cabin fever than I already have, while reliving the recent fun of Balmorhea... in my mind. LOL

I don't care for pansies, but they're better than no flowers. It's all we could find that withstands the cold.

Meanwhile, my son, Lee (living part time at the house near the oasis), is working on conserving as much water as possible. He put a metal tank into the empty stucco tank that he plans to fill from the above ground 60,000 gallon reserve tank, and then pump out of it to water the trees. It's still a work in progress. The pump in it is the one plumbed into the stucco tank. This way we won't have to put water directly into the stucco tank where much of it evaporates. The main problem I see so far is monitoring the level in the metal tank, and what will happen if a deluge fills the stucco tank. I think that keeping the metal tank full will keep it from floating, etc. during a flooding rain. It's not if, but when, that happens.

As for monitoring the level in the metal tank, the plan is to have it full before watering (and then refill after watering), and not use more than 1000 gallons for each watering. It's a 1500 gallon tank. We'll see. It's just not acceptable to dump precious water into the stucco tank. Hopefully, we can get it cleaned out and patched soon. It'll be hard for me to confine watering to 1000 gallons. Getting down into the tank to check isn't an option for me. Of course, when the pump stops putting out water, I'll know, but that could ruin the pump. Not to worry, we'll win!

There's a good chance of some snow later in the week. I'll take moisture however I can get it!