Summer

It's been busy around here. As summer comes in properly, the list of must-do items lengthens, while the weather gives fewer excuses. Among other tasks, I got the old fence around barn side of the North Paddock torn down, and ordered new "official" farm gates instead of old home-made ones. Aimee rebuilt two items of furniture, the coffee table from the porch, much-chewed by dogs, and a sideboard for which she has ordered a granite top, intending to make a surface for baking bread and rolling pie crust.

I would like to state for the record that I am quite definitely in favor of bread and pie.

The garden got weeded fully once and is in the process of getting weeded again. The truck and Aimee's Matrix passed their state inspections. I replaced the old doors in the kitchen with new, energy-efficient ones, which Aimee promptly painted "Colorado Dawn," AKA pastel orange for the rest of us.

The Land Rover got a second rear seal, which also leaked, prompting me to call a Land Rover mechanic I know for advice, which turned out to be wrong, and then I figured it out on my own and am now just waiting for parts. As a general result, I can now remove a Land Rover engine in only two hours, and it takes only three for me to refit one. Practice makes perfect, he said, glass half full.

Here's where the seal goes, right next to the rear main bearing journal. However, it goes on the outside of the pressure plates, not the inside. 

And this is the result of putting it on the inside.

I finally figured out where it goes Sunday, after a few hours of quiet tinkering. Who says an old dog can't teach himself a new trick?

And, last but not least, we looked after Roo.Who shows signs of walking soon. She can stand up and walk if she holds on to your fingers with both little hands.

Roo appears to take a "selfie."