6/10-12/03 I went up to the property for 3 days: Tuesday through Thursday.

I had another meeting late Tuesday so my schedule was the same as last week. I arrived at 9:20 PM, moved in, talked to Ellen, and went to bed.

On Wednesday morning, I took the power screwdriver down to the driveway entrance and backed the screws out a little that are holding up the address number sign. I'll do that each spring so that as the tree grows, the sign will not be in the way. I also cleared the vine maple branches away so that you can clearly see the sign as you drive down the road.

When I walked up to the building to start work, an owl flew from the building and into the woods. He perched in a tree but he was too hard to see for me to make any kind of positive identification. He was too small for a Great Horned Owl so he was probably just a Barred Owl. There was quite a bit of owl poop and one owl pellet on the porch deck so the owls have been lurking around trying to get the squirrels, chipmunks, and mice.

I went to work and chinked two seams and fed the chipmunk a few times in the process. So far he has escaped the owl. It was a little windy and at one point I heard what I first thought was a rockfall on Dirtyface. But then I realized that I had heard a big tree fall in the woods. I tried to look but the foliage is too dense already to be able to see through. I also don't want to be walking in the woods when it is windy, so I'll have to wait until later to see what fell.

On Thursday morning, I chinked one more seam and used up all the mortar mix I had. I didn't feel too ambitious this week, so I didn't work especially fast. But at least I got something done. I left for home at 2:00.