5/6-8/03 I went up to the property for 3 days: Tuesday through Thursday.

I arrived at 12:45. It was 46 degrees and sunny. I started out by finally plumbing a valve in between the water tank and the water line in the trailer. I didn't use the valve Dr. Dick gave me because it would have taken a lot of extra fittings to adapt the valve to the plastic plumbing. The old gray plastic plumbing in RVs has been changed to a clear polybutylene tube with white plastic fittings. I bought a valve made for this system and the fittings connect to the old gray pipes so all the parts fit together. The fittings are connected hand-tight only, so I didn't need any tools to install the valve. It was a pretty quick and easy job. The water pressure will be on that valve from now on all summer so we'll see if water leaks back into the tank. I am confident at this point that the winterizing problem I have put up with for so long has finally been solved.

After moving in and having lunch, I got the wheelbarrow out and hauled a 50 lb. salt block I had brought with me for the deer up to the old ripping station. That spot is between two big trees and it hardly gets wet under there even in a heavy rain. I think that will be a good place for the salt lick.

I plugged 20 holes and shimmed and screwed down two more planks on the deck. A chipmunk was watching me work from a rock pile, so I fed him a few peanuts a few times.

On Wednesday, I screwed down all the rest of the planks on the deck and plugged all the holes. I discovered that the planks had shrunk between the time I fitted them on the deck and finally screwed them down. As a result, they all walked toward the building a little so the last planks were about 3/4" off from their original position. The only place it makes much of a difference is at the Grid G2 post. I had cut a perfectly tight notch in the plank to fit up against that post, and now, it is off by 3/4". So much for precision carpentry.

At one point I noticed a bird up under the eaves on the Grid D purlin. It turned out to be a Stellar's Jay. Stellar's Jays have been notoriously antisocial with me. I put some peanuts on a rock and stood back about 10 feet. The jay made quite a few tentative passes at the rock, but eventually came over and took them. That is the first time I have gotten a Stellar's Jay to take peanuts while I was standing within sight of him. Maybe I can get some of them to be a little more sociable than I thought I could. The chipmunk(s) (I think there might have been a couple different ones) got used to me enough so that they were eating out of my hand before the end of the day. I hope they will be clever enough to keep out of the way of the owls.

On Thursday morning, I got the electric hand-held planer out and experimented with a corner of the deck. The question was how much of the discoloration and imperfection in the planks do I need to, or want to, remove. I also worked on edges that were uneven to reduce the chance of tripping. I ran the plane over the area and got all the high spots and the easy spots. There were still a lot of imperfections left in the wood. Then, I stained that area with one coat of TWP 101. Next week, I'll look at it when the stain is dry and make a decision about how well to plane the deck before I stain the entire surface. Even though some of the chainsaw scars are completely black, all the imperfections add to the rustic look and make it look pretty good. I'll make a final decision next week and finish staining the entire thing. I'll leave the construction of the stoop until later because I want to get started chinking again as soon as I can.

Speaking of the stoop, Ellen convinced me that I don't want to have the first step down immediately in front of the front door. Instead, I'll make the stoop at the same level as the floor of the house, and then have one tread (and two risers) between the stoop and the deck. I think I'll use three slabs for the stoop and one more slab for the step. I'll also use two courses of logs to support the stoop. I'll wait until the outside chinking is finished, though, before I build that.

I fed the chipmunks from my hand a few more times in the morning. And, once when I was in the building, I saw the Stellar's Jay in a nearby tree and he saw me. So, I put some peanuts on the window ledge and stood back about 10 feet. After a few passes, he got up enough nerve to land on the window ledge and take the peanuts. He was scolding me the whole time, but at least he was sociable enough to get that close to me. I left for home at 1:20.