The August heat is still bearing down with no rain in sight. Here’s what we’ve been getting done since we last checked.

San Antonio House: Mr. L had to go down for a medical appointment. While there, he got a very little watering done on the yard.

The Ranch: My game camera acted up and didn’t record my census session for the month, but at least the feeder worked, so I met supplemental feeding requirements. I have one more census to gather at a minimum for a year, and I was already planning to do that in October.

The Store: We found a nearly new riding TroyBilt mower at the swap meet at the end of July. It has no more than a few hours on it (no hour meter in this one, so it’s a guessing game). It was missing the headlight covers and the center cap for the steering wheel. It only came with one key. I ordered those items and installed them, so the mower is complete. It works great, and the store has been mowed.

The Shop: Mr. L has been working on his frame rotator for the ’46 Mercurys. He anticipates finishing it this week. It’s on wheels, so he can slide his frame out of the way when it’s not being worked on, and the frame can be rotated easily to better reach areas where it needs attention either for sand blasting, welding, or painting.

We’re preparing to set up at the Giddings swap meet at the end of the month, so we’ll be loading items for sale and the canopies and frames into two trailers and heading that way soon.

The Central Texas House: After being bumped lower on the priority scale for getting our new upstairs heat pump installed because our system was working, that changed Friday before last when the front unit’s compressor froze up, killing the unit. Our priority has been raised, and the new unit installation should be complete by tomorrow. In the interim, Mr. L found a working small window unit at the shop and installed it in the front bedroom window. This keeps the front bedroom cool and eased the load on the upstairs back system enough to keep the upstairs comfortably cool.

Mr. L has gotten more pain scraped from the front center of the upstairs west wall. He has one coat of primer and putty on 2/3 of that area. For the last week, it’s been too darn hot to get up on the scaffolding to work, so he’s worked on other projects.