The last month has flown by.  What’s been happening with the properties this month?

We’ve done nothing at either the ranch or the store.  There were plans for the San Antonio house, but they were overcome by events.

I’ve been doing yard work at the Central Texas house. I find that by trimming the crepe myrtles during the winter when they are dormant, they are much easier to deal with during their growing season.  As a result, I’m trimming branches and clearing growth from around their bases.  We have about sixteen of these trees forming a windbreak on the north and west side of the property.  There are another six or seven that must be maintained at less than three feet in height because they are on the corner. These get cut way back during the winter.  The big trees just get cleaned up.  I have some leaves to rake from around their bases (instead of being a single trunked tree, these are really a stand of trunks that grow out of the ground.  Okay. Fine, they’re overgrown bushes.), and a lot of suckers to cut off.  Once I finish the crepe myrtles, I have the ligustrums on the west side of the house and the “island” out front to do . I’ve also been digging some weeds, and I’ve mowed twice.

Mr. L has been working on insulating the big door over at the shop.  He has weatherstripping installed on both sides.  His next area of focus is along the top of the door.  Lastly, he’ll tackle the bottom.  This has been a large source of cold air entering the shop in the winter and an equally large source of hot air in the summer.  The shop is unheated, so our goal is to get it to a more constant temperature year round.  It has remained at about 50-55 this winter and if we can keep it below 90 in the summer, we’re pretty pleased.  The new roof we put on a couple of years ago has made a huge difference in keeping the temperature constant.  We have quite a bit of window work to do — for now, we have plastic over the offending panes.  The results of his drainage project are positive — no water leaking into the building at the roof line, so it must be draining through the new drain pipe just fine. Oh, and he finished his tool cage.  He can lock tools in the cage to make it just a little more challenging if someone breaks into the shop with any desire to steal anything.