Credit to Joni Mitchell for the title to this posting. It has been a very difficult weekend here at Rancho La Luz. On Saturday afternoon we noticed that the pump in the water well had been running almost non-stop for several hours. This is highly unusual so I opened up the access doors to the cistern and found that we were not getting much water from the well.
On Sunday this problem continued and our plumber came out to investigate. It seems that either our pump has failed or the aquifer level has dropped below the level of our well. Neither of these situations is good, but replacing the pump will of course be easier and quicker to repair.
What makes this extremely upsetting to me is that we are a week or so to finishing all of the landscaping at the rancho. Although almost all of the plants used are native and are very draught tolerant, however they need to be watered a lot during the first two or three years after planting so that they can get well established. My stress level is over board and I have been a very difficult person to live with this weekend (sorry Jo Ann).
Both Jo Ann and I are very eco-conscience, using organic fertilizers, composting and drip irrigation, but without water there is nothing that you can do. I only hope that we can solve this problem quickly and not have any permanent or lasting damage to the plants.
Today the plumber is coming out with someone who works exclusively with pozos so hopefully we can get our problem solved. If not, we will start buying water from a private source and using extensive conservation techniques that we learned living in Marin County during some of the draughts there. I hope to have some better news for everyone later today. Hasta pronto.
1 comment:
Do you have an answer on the water situation yet?
If it is the water table you might try some of the tactics that the Rio Laja conservation people are using including semi damning up the arroyos in the rainy season to slow the water so more of it will seep back into the ground. They feel they have had good results over around Alta Pena and maybe other places too but I've been with them Laja group over to see Alta Pena.
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