Water, water... not everywhere

It is the end of the dry season and there have been decent rains recently, however, they are very localized.  Often, I can see the rains off in the distance, but they don't make it here.  I live to the north of the city and this side has more water than most anywhere around.  Still, it is a scarce commodity and the prices of water trucks, pipas, have gone up $150 pesos from $500 to $650 ($26 US to $34).  These trucks hold ten thousand liters.  This house has a rain collection system which gets me through most of the year, but I ended up needing three pipas just to keep the gardens and me alive.  My supply is very close and when they delivered yesterday, the driver said they only had enough for two pipas a day.  That's very little and means the aquifers are low.  The rains will help alleviate this in a month or so. So water is very precious and I had big problems of my own as I was losing lots.

The reason I needed the third pipa was that I had a leak in the system and was losing water from the tank on the roof.  It took me a couple of days to notice the problem.  Then a day or two to figure out where the leak was.  I had to dig up the concrete to get to the pipe and then had to figure out a temporary fix until I can cap off the problem pipe.  But hey, this is Mexico and there is always a solution, which normally uses duct tape or a paper clip, but in this case it was a whittled down piece of broom handle and half a plastic clothes pin.  I like the four leaf clover on the pin.

The plumber is coming on Monday, but this is working for now.