7/1-3/03 I went up to the property for 3 days: Tuesday through Thursday.

I arrived at noon. It was clear and warm and the mosquitos were pretty thick. I brought 6 sacks of mortar mix with me and 10 rolls of 1" copper tube with me. I also brought a pruning shear with me, so after I moved in and had lunch, I did some major pruning. I started by pruning the lower branches of the Grand Fir in the center of the hairpin turn. Its branches were in the way when I drive up the roadway to the cabin. When I dragged the branches to the compost pile, there were a lot of branches in the way so I pruned all the lower branches from the trees on the way into the compost pile. Then I pruned any branches that were sticking out into the lower roadway so they wouldn't tear the rear-view mirror off the pickup again, now that I had put it back on.

With the pruning done, and the compost pile now way over my head, I drove the pickup up to the building and unloaded the mortar and the copper pipe. Then I unscrewed the sheet of OSB that was boarding up the back door and set up the scaffold planks and handrails. I can now just step out the back door and onto the scaffold in order to work on the wall. I fed the chipmunk several times during the work.

In the evening, after dinner, I repaired my mosquito fan. I bought the fan at the fire station garage sale last year and I use it to keep the mosquitos away from the trailer door before I go in. The method works better than anything else I have tried. I fan the air by swinging my arm in a big arc that stirs up the air from the top to the bottom of the door. Each time I see a mosquito near the door, I start my count of swings over with one. When the count reaches three, I put the fan on top of the trailer and quickly open and enter the door. I rarely bring a mosquito in with me using this technique. But a week or two ago, the fan broke. It has a fairly flimsy bamboo handle and just wasn't sturdy enough. To fix it, I found a vine maple branch with a fork in it. I split the two tines right down to the crotch of the stick and continued splitting the main branch for another foot or so. Then I sandwiched the fan, handle and all, in this split and then used heavy string to bind the split halves of the branch back together again but with the fan sandwiched between them. Now the thing is very sturdy and I have a handle that is about 18 inches long. It works much more effectively now.

On Wednesday, I broomed, insulated, and nailed 3 seams on the northwest wall. These were almost out of reach, but by setting the riser on two concrete blocks on the scaffold planks, I was able to reach the seams okay. It makes the work slower having to move the blocks and riser each time I move, but I only have to use the concrete blocks on the top seam, and the riser alone on the next seam or two. During the work, I inhaled a mosquito that got stuck fairly high in my windpipe. I did a lot of coughing and throat-clearing for an hour or so until it finally worked its way up to where I could swallow it. I learned not to breath through my mouth so much.

After lunch, I chinked one and a half seams. These were the highest ones, so the work was a little slow.

On Thursday morning, I screwed a strike plate into the door jamb of the privy. I didn't have a strike plate when I installed the door, so I simply cut a notch in the jamb. In the meantime, I got a plate, but since the notch worked fine, I had no incentive to install the plate. This morning, the wood finally wore through, so I installed the plate. Then I insulated and nailed half a seam, and chinked one seam. I left for home at 1:45.