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| Lower dirt tank brimful |
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| Broken tank |
More accurately, deluge or drought. This afternoon, it deluged again. The good news is that everything is full of water. No need to pump... or water. The bad news, other than that the big broken tank won't hold water for long, is that my best gas pump that was at the upper dirt tank got inundated. I used to drag it well away from the tank so that couldn't happen, but these days I'm not able to do that. It's been years since it was necessary, but if a big surge of water rushes over the spillway, it can happen. Due to my vigilence, this is the first time that has happened while the pump was vulnerable. A surge of water over the spillway doesn't last long, but long enough. You can tell from this photo, the water had been much higher. (All photos by Ricky Green)
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Tomorrow I'm going to go down, and with help loading, bring the pump to town. My one son is in Colorado, but my other son reluctantly agreed to try to salvage it. It will need lots of drying and cleaning. New gas, oil, clean the plug, etc. and hope for the best.
Maintaining the place has become too much for me, but I just can't bring myself to let it go. I'll fight till the end. Fortunately, I don't seem to be any worse for the wear after those last three days of pumping. Of course, had I known nature was going to fill everything I could have saved myself the torture. Such is my life! I wouldn't trade it for any other, although I'd sure make myself younger if I could! LOL
My deepest gratitude to Ricky Green for his invaluable help in my time of need! And to the continued support of all the wonderful birders out there!
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2 comments:
That's a Honda pump - they are the BEST and very much worth your time to resurrect. Have you considered lining the broken earthen tank with a bentonite ? like the ranchers do over near the Rawls Ranch ? ...Happy to see you got rain (FINALLY) Thanx for the update 💕
We'll resurrect it if possible. As for bentonite, it wouldn't stay on the steep sides of the tank at all. Even concrete eroded over time with the water action. The options for fixing it are prohibitively expensive. If I was much, much younger, it might be worth doing, but at my age, it wouldn't pay. I don't expect the oasis to survive me. If I knew 50 years ago what I know now, I would have bought land and created the habitat in a better location.
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