Tanks for the Memories...

My1934 Ford 1-ton  truck has carried a wide variety of goods during my tenure as its owner (1971-present), when its doors bore the "Demon Hauling" business name and a variety of painted-over phone number testifying to my frequent changes of residence). Before I acquired the truck in 1971 I think it spent most of its life hauling boxed prunes and apricots around one of the many orchards around Almaden California (in the then lush Santa Clara Valley). All the stuff I hauled and all the places I went in this truck is another tale altogether. In this post, I'm focusing on a specific type of cargo: water storage tanks.
From the mid-1980s into the early 1990s, I lived in Mariposa, California with Edna and our kids (Aischa, Gabriel, Nicolas). As part of my "Carpentry Etc." business I did occasional work for Sylvia Schaefer (not sure of the spelling of her last name) who owned a local and free "penny-saver" paper (with her husband Jim) that competed for a while with the historic Mariposa Gazette. The Schaefers lived on a hilltop near town and their land had water problems; that is, they had drilled several wells over time to find a reliable water source and none of them produced much water. This lack was complicated by the fact that Sylvia liked to garden. So I created for them a complicated  plumbing and electrical system that linked all the wells and turned each one on when there was water available. The system worked well enough that the Schaefers decided they wanted a larger storage tank to capture the output. They found a used one that was for sale in Catheys Valley by Rita and Tony Kidd. My job was to haul it and install it. Thus, the photo below, taken by Sylvia as I struggled to get the heavy steel tank off my truck and avoid any loss of control could have sent that tank charging downhill uncontrollably - to the detriment of the tank and my reputation. So, I used a lot of ropes and proceeded with extreme caution. And, eventually the tank was landed safely on its bed of gravel and railroad ties.

Fast forward to 2015 (!) and the place Melina and I live on Triangle Road in Mariposa. Last year we installed a 2500 gallon tank as a water/fire-fighting reserve. This tank draws from our main well and, through a booster pump, feeds the house and Melina's gardens. Because of the drought we have experienced here for the last couple of years, we both have thought a lot about ways to save rain water, reuse gray water, and possibly pump water from an old, shallow well on the property. We haven't gotten very far on the plans and details, but when I saw a 1500 gallon tank for sale over in Ponderosa Basin (on the fb SWAP Mariposa page) we knew we had to get it.  As you might guess in this dry region, tanks are in big demand these days and used ones don't come up for sale very often. So I immediately agreed to the selling price and committed to pick it up ASAP. Saturday morning (3/21/15) found us rambling down Triangle Road in the very same Demon Hauling truck. At the place, a young man came out of the house to watch us load it. He volunteered that we might want to turn it on its side and roll it onto the truck bed. But, I wanted to load it right side up (and have it sitting flat on its bottom for more stable travel) and so we pushed and winched it up three 4x4 skids on the back of the bed, only to find, with the tank half on and half off, that the tank's diameter was a few inches larger that the distance between the stake sides of the truck. Just a bit embarrassed, I volunteered that he was right. And so,we let it slide back down, tipped it on its side, and rolled it up and onto the bed. We then spent about a half and hour strapping it down. The photo below shows it at our place, near the house and gardens. FYI, unloading a plastic tank is a lot easier than unloading a big steel tank; Melina and I handled it easily. Just where it will eventually be installed and how we will use it and supply it remain to be discovered. The adventure has just begun!