3/11-13/03 I went up to the property for 3 days: Tuesday through Thursday.

It was raining all the way over, and it rained all the rest of the day. It looked like there had been quite a bit of new snow since last week. The driveway had been plowed at least once and there was another six inches or so of new slushy snow since then. I was able to park the pickup by getting a good run at it and driving in and out of the driveway a half-dozen times to pack the snow down.

After moving in, I measured all the window openings and called Marson and Marson to get a quote on windows. I talked to Bobbie and she said she would work up prices for two different types of Milgard windows and mail them to me by the weekend. I also arranged for a salesman from Statewide Windows to talk to us about their windows this coming Friday evening. Before that, I talked to Einar Johannson about the possibility of getting windows from him so I will have to check that out before I make any decision.

After the phone conversation, I went to work on the deck planks. Toward the end of the day, the power failed as I was running the skilsaw. It took me a while to track the failure down to the power strip on the workbench, which I use as the main temporary power distribution point for the building. I couldn't see a breaker switch, or reset button on the thing, so I tried to unfasten it from the bench so I could see what was wrong with it. It was deja vu. I remember trying to get that thing off a long time ago but I couldn't do it.

It is fastened with square-drive screws, and I don't have a square-drive driver up there. I tried to use the end of a big phillips screwdriver, to no avail. Then I made a square driver out of a nail, but the screws simply wouldn't turn and made the end of the nail round again instead. Then I remembered going through that whole process once before and I gave up on it.

About that time, I discovered that there was a reset button underneath the strip that was hard to see. Once I reset it, I was back in business, but it was so late that I quit for the day.

On Wednesday, it rained cats and dogs all day. I was glad to be working under cover, but it is still a little depressing to hear that steady rain on the roof all day. I worked on ripping the edges of planks, cutting them to length, and fitting them into position. I think the deck is going to come out really nice.

I noticed that there is more water accumulating in my privy hole than I would like. I figured that the rain and snow melt is running in there from the surface, so I got a spade and dug a diversion trench around the high side of it. That should keep any major runoff from going down there.

On Thursday, the rain was a little lighter, but it still rained the whole morning. I made some more progress selecting, fitting, and positioning planks and then left for home at 2:00.