4/29-5/1/03 I went up to the property for 3 days: Tuesday through Thursday.

I arrived at 12:40. It was a very pleasant 56 degrees. After moving in, I dewinterized the trailer and then had lunch. Then, using the dowels I brought with me, I plugged all 67 holes in the deck planks I had fastened down last week. I made a bunch of shims and then fastened down one more plank before I quit for the day.

Before I fixed dinner, I put the screens back on the windows of the trailer.

On Wednesday, I finished fastening down the 8th course of planks and plugged all the holes except for a few 3/8" holes. I still need to get a 3/8" dowel. I had temporarily fastened down two short planks, about 8 inches long, at the very ends of two courses using five screws in 3/8" counter-bored holes. I needed to use that long skinny screwdriver bit I had ruined in order to extract those screws. I worked on the bit with a bench grinder and restored the end pretty well. I used it to extract those five screws, and to reinstall them after I had shimmed the short planks to the required height. The bit worked well but I was more careful with it this time. It only slipped a couple times so I didn't damage it significantly. From now on, all the holes will be 1/2" so I shouldn't need that bit any longer for the deck.

It rained a little a few times during the day, but it didn't bother me at all. I was nice and dry. Larry stopped for a visit between the showers and had a look at my progress. Two jays also visited me a couple times during the late afternoon. One of them was Scruffy who is still looking pretty scruffy but he seems to be healthy and doing well. It was good to see them.

On Thursday morning, I spent most of the time making a rack for displaying mobiles for a Cub Scout project. I had thought about the design of the thing lying in bed the night before, and I designed it as I built it more or less following what I had imagined. It turned out very nice. It folds up into a neat, easy to carry, package and it can be assembled and disassembled with no tools. I put it in the pickup when I finished it and had time to screw down two more planks on the deck. I also talked to some mushroom hunters who were checking out the ditches along the property. I left for home at 1:20.