4/22-24/03 I went up to the property for 3 days: Tuesday through Thursday.

On the way up, I stopped and visited with Marilyn and George. I also saw Larry out in his yard and stopped to chat with him and look at the water mill he made. I arrived at the property at about noon.

After moving in and having lunch, I started fastening down planks. I got three of them screwed down before the end of the day. I also filled the holes with 3/8" dowels smeared with wood glue. I used Henry, my crosscut saw, to saw them off flush, and then smoothed them down with Rasputin, my big wood rasp. They looked great. You can hardly see them unless you look for them.

The bit I made worked well for as long as it lasted, but by the time I got the last screw down, the bit was worn out and pretty much useless. That meant that I would either have to sacrifice a few more screwdrivers, or go to Plain to buy long bits, if they have them, or do something else. I went in for the night weighing my alternatives.

On Wednesday, I started out by hiking up past the spring to look at the little tree I had transplanted. I wanted to check on the chicken wire I had put over it. The wire had been bent in quite a bit, either from snow or from animals or both, but it was only barely touching the tree. It was easy to straighten out the wire. The tree looks like it is doing great, now that it isn't getting nibbled any more. Last year's growth looks like it was 7 or 8 inches and the tree looks good and healthy.

Back to work on the planks, I gathered up all the Phillips screwdrivers that I had and then I decided on another alternative. I decided to use 1/2" dowels instead of 3/8". That way, the regular screwdriver bit holder would fit inside the counter-bore hole. I had one 1/2" dowel so I was able to try it out. It worked great, so that is what I will do for the rest of the deck.

Before the end of the day, I had screwed down the first four courses of planks starting next to the house. The time consuming part of it was shimming the planks on all the joists so the tops end up reasonably flat and level. I was pleased with the result. When you walk around on those first four courses, it feels super solid and pretty flat. I used up that dowel after the first two planks, so I'll have to fill all the rest of the holes later when I bring up some more dowels.

Scruffy and one other jay came around several times go get peanuts from me. Scruffy's feathers are still a little more disheveled than they should be, but the swelling above his left leg has gone down so that it is no longer noticeable. I'm glad he's doing well. I also saw a couple chipmunks darting among the rocks, so the owls haven't gotten them all yet.

Before I went in for the night, I screwed the house number sign I bought from the fire department to a tree. I've had the sign for quite a while so it's about time I got it displayed. I'll have to remember to back the screws out a little each year to allow for the growth of the tree.

On Thursday morning, it was still raining cats and dogs after raining most of the night. It didn't let up until after I left for home. The rain didn't bother me at all, though, because I was nice and dry working under cover. I got one more course of planks screwed down before I left at 1:00