We've had a fairly mild summer thus far, but the heavy summer heat is finally here and it seems that it is definitely here to stay. We've been trying to drill a hole into Christian's windshield to stop the crack from spreading but this heat is making the crack race across the surface of the windshield now. I don't think there is any way to save it at this point.
The past couple of years, our summer apples have hit its peak in June. Last year, the apples were nearly done by the time Emily got back home. This year, she will get a lot more as it is peaking in July instead. I have not had the motivation to deal too much with them, so too many of them have fallen and will get tossed out.
We've been working on rebuilding Emily's front axle. Christian got it all out and has been cleaning all the parts. The differential seems to have been rebuilt before. Unfortunately, they didn't do such a good job on it and there is definite signs of wear in some areas, so it is a good thing that we are redoing it. We got most of it finished fairly smoothly, until we got to machining the new solid spacers for the pinion. The pieces are fairly short so we needed a spacer in Christian's lathe in order to work on it. Christian designed one on the 3D printer but we had a heck of a time getting it work. We basically worked on the printer for the next two or three days before we figured out what the problem was and was able to get the thing working again.
We initially had some problems with it before going to Oregon but in the end, we thought it was just a problem with the new filament we got. It didn't seem to be extruded very evenly. We returned it and ran out of time to make anything before leaving on our trip. The printer has been a pain in our backsides. We have had to upgrade and fix many parts. It is cheap and seemed to work initially, but we found many design or engineering flaws along the way. It takes constant maintenance to keep it going but we have also found it quite indispensable.
Meanwhile, we wanted to put in a new compressor and condenser for the air conditioning system on the TJ. The A/C did not work that well in the Jeep and we wanted it for the summer. Christian got the parts from working on his dad's Trooper. Since we had to dump the radiator fluid in order to put it in, we wanted to also try to fix some engine cooling issues on the TJ. We decided to flush the radiator to try to get it to work more efficiently. As we were were working on this, the water pump died on us and we had to replace that as well, but better in our driveway than out in the desert.
Because it is over a hundred degrees every day, we get up early every morning and slave away until we can't function any more...usually by lunch time and we have to call it quits or risk getting heat stroke. Christian still has gotten heat exhaustion on too many days.
After we got the TJ back together, we decided to take a day off to go for a drive. Technically, we were still working the radiator flush through the system but we decided to drive it instead of just running it in the driveway. We took a drive to Owl Canyon.
The cooling system did not like the radiator flush. It was bubbling and belching this nasty black substance. It was not very happy. We lost a lot of liquid and had to keep filling the reservoir back up with distilled water as we worked the nastiness out of the system. In hindsight, it may not have been the best idea to go on such a long drive on such hot day to work the stuff through. It made a mess and we had to keep stopping so that we could refill the reservoir and cool the engine down.
We took a short hike up the canyon. We did not go very far as we learned from our experience on Chute Canyon. At least we brought a drink with us this time as well.
After we got home, Christian continued to work on flushing out the radiator. It takes a lot to flush it out as you only replace a portion of the water every time. Once he flushed it clean to his satisfaction, we finally got to fill it with real radiator fluid once more and we took it out once again to see how well it would perform. This time, we went back to Mojave to see if there was still water in the Mojave River...there wasn't. It was already bone dry. In fact, the water crossing seemed completely filled in with dirt and of course the rock they filled it in with.
We drove out to see the Mojave "Megaphone."
The cooling system works so much better now. It stays so much cooler. We brought a ton of distilled water with us again, but didn't end up having to use any of it this time.
We finally got back to working on Emily's differential. We were able to finish putting it back together and were satisfied with the pattern it made. Unfortunately, when Christian was putting in the pinion seal, he put it on backwards because he was tired and hot and was not paying enough attention. We had to remove it, which, of course, destroyed it. We had to get another replacement but the local store charged twice as much as it did online but our goal was to finish it before the girls returned home and so we pushed extra hard to replace it. We got the new seal in correctly the second time, but unfortunately, we forgot the oil slinger and had to take it out once again.
There was no way we would be able to finish on time at this point and just ordered another seal.
Meanwhile, the girls were done with finals, they were packed up and on their way home. They left earlier than usual this time to have extra time to hang out with their cousins. Apparently, Austin either had the day off or only worked in the morning. Austin and Natalie decided that a trip to the lake was in order since the girls usually stopped by after he got back from work and they would have dinner and chat for a bit before going to sleep and everyone went their own way in the morning.
They went to Quail Creek. Austin has a pair of jet skis that he hauled out there. Their cousin Mason and his new wife met them out there. None of us had gotten to meet her yet since they got married out in Boston and we aren't as close as we used to be. Aron and her husband apparently took the time off to meet them out there as well. Austin and Mason taught them how to ride the jet skis and they all took turns. Aron took Caitlyn out first and then rode with her while she got to drive it herself. They had a lot of fun. Unfortunately, we didn't get any pictures from anybody.
The next day, they stopped by to see Aron and their cousin Michaela in Mesquite, but Aron got called into work. Michaela missed out on the river since she had to work the previous day. So they stopped in to have lunch with Michaela. Craig gave Michaela money to take the girls out to lunch, so that was awfully nice. Afterwards, they stopped by Aron's work to say goodbye since they didn't get to see her and they didn't get to say goodbye the previous evening when everyone was busy cleaning up to leave.
On the way back, Emily had to stop by the hospital in Las Vegas to try to clear up some mess with the radiology bill from her accident a year ago. She has called them a number of times to clear it up but they haven't done a single thing about it. They once again, gave her the runaround. They claimed not to have anything to do with it because it was the University Hospital's responsibility. The hospital said it was the Radiology Departments responsibility since technically it is a different company that runs it. Emily told them she was just there and they made her go across the street to the hospital instead. Luckily, the hospital seemed like they were more helpful and competent and didn't just send Emily back over there. They got on the phone with them and tried to force them to do their job. We'll see if it worked or not. We aren't going to hold our breath since Emily already gave them her insurance information many times to no avail.
Caitlyn was waiting out in the car through all this and it was super hot so she was suffering from the heat there which is worse than Riverside. But they had all their stuff in the car and didn't want it stolen. They finally made it home that evening. Traffic was miraculously good so they didn't have any problem.
We got the third pinion seal and got it back together without too many more issues but it was pretty stressful. Emily has started helping cleaning the parts so hopefully it will move along a bit better now but she doesn't get up as early as Christian and can only get a few hours of work in the morning done before it gets too hot. Christian has Caitlyn working on a few projects as well. We are putting in extended brake lines on her XJ to accommodate the extra flex from the lift. We've been lucky so far as not to have had any problems but it was a weak point that needed to be addressed. Plus, she has been helping me process some of our summer apples.
In the afternoons, the girls are mostly free to do their own thing but since it is too hot to do much, we all end up at our computers most of the rest of the day. Christian is usually looking for parts or researching and learning how something works. Caitlyn has been trying to catch up on her pictures. Emily has been helping design some 3D parts for us all. Some of it is functional, some of it is for fun and some of it is both. When not working on apples, I've been trying to catch up on my Blurb books for my journal. I'm several years behind.
When we were all thoroughly sick of all the work, we took a day off to go for a drive. We piled into the TJ and headed to Pinkham Canyon. Emily had not been there before.
Despite the new air conditioning system, there is only so much heat you can overcome. There are no air vents in the back of the Jeep and no carpeting or insulation of any kind on the bottom, so it is still horribly hot in the back of the Jeep.
We were pleasantly surprised that there were still flowers out in the desert. We were especially surprised to see all the Indigo bushes flowering out there. Some of the bushes were spent but we still found quite a few that were still actively flowering. We've never seen them bloom before.
