8/12-14/03 I went up to the property for 3 days: Tuesday through Thursday.

I arrived at 1:45. It was 78 degrees. The can covering the gate padlock was lying on the ground but the padlock was still locked. I looked around but didn't see any signs of mischief anywhere. After moving in, I decided to build a rack in the pickup to carry the four big windows up to the building, and a crane to load the windows into the pickup. I brought a 16-foot 2x4 down to where the windows were stacked and then, back up in the building, I loaded the wheelbarrow with chains, ropes, pulleys, shackles, come-alongs, and other things I needed to build a crane. About the time I got it loaded, Rick Morrison stopped by to look at the project.

He suggested that the two of us could carry the windows up the hill by hand. We tried it and found that it wasn't too hard. We carried one up but it was pretty hard work. For the second window, I built a wheeled carriage to help make it easier, but the ground was too uneven and the pine needles built up underneath it so that it was harder to push the window on the carriage than to carry it.

Our hands got pretty sweaty so it was hard to maintain our grip on the window frame. Rick suggested that a harness with handles would make it easier. I went up and got the sling I used to lift the other windows. The two clamps I made from electrical conduit were perfect handles so by tying a couple knots, we had the perfect harness with handles. That made carrying the last two windows much easier. All four big windows are now stacked against the building just below where they will eventually go. My hearty thanks to Rick for helping me with that job.

While we were in the middle of carrying windows, Tim Wangen stopped by and asked if he could trade some of the big rocks from the outcropping near the road for some excavation work. I said I would have to think about it and he said he would be by the next day to talk about it.

Before I quit for the night, I saw a small lizard on the floor of the cabin. He was about as long as the normal lizards around there, but he was about as thin as a pencil. I think he was a juvenile. I watched him for quite a while until he finally walked into a pile of boards.

On Wednesday I decided to plane some 1x2s to brighten them up for use as window trim boards. I realized that I hadn't replaced the broken belt in the planer, but then I had a heck of a time finding the new belts I had bought. After looking in all the logical places where I might have put them, I finally looked in a box containing some of Gus' tools, and there they were.

I replaced the belt and planed a bunch of 1x2s. Tim showed up again and I told him I'd trade the rocks for a ditch between the building and the creek by the trailer. That would serve as one leg of the water line trench and it would save me that much digging. He agreed and in a couple hours, while I worked on window trim boards, he had the ditch dug. He said that after I laid the pipes and wires, he would backfill the ditch as part of the same deal. I figured that was a fair trade. I don't know how much those rocks are worth to him, but they are worth nothing to me unless I sold them, and the trench is something I need done.

I told Tim about my plans for the remainder of the water line and I asked him what he would charge to do that. He said he would come around the next morning to look at the ground and decide. He spent the rest of the afternoon hauling rocks away from the outcropping. He took a bunch of them.

I worked on the window trim for the dining room and kitchen windows and fed the flock of gray jays during the process. I also stained the plugs that Andrew and I made for the new scaffold bolt holes. I installed the plugs and then dismantled the scaffold. I hauled the planks and frames up into the loft so I can install a scaffold on the outside in order to install the loft windows. I fed the jays and chipmunks during most of that work.

On Thursday morning, I set up the scaffold on the northeast wall just under the loft windows.

Tim stopped by, as he said he would, and he and I went up into the woods to look at the upper portion of the pipe route. He had been afraid it would be too steep, but after seeing it, he was confident that he could dig the trench. I told him how I wanted it and I showed him the only spot I had found where he could get through an outcropping which runs pretty much all the way across the property. He said he charges $65 an hour and he thinks he can dig the ditch in a day. Since I am not going to come up to the property next week, I agreed to let him dig the trench when I wasn't there. That way he can fit it into his schedule where it works best and by the time I get back up there, the trench should be done.

It is exciting to me to be getting that job under way. I had been dreading the job of digging the trench by hand through the woods. I had imagined putting it off as one of the last projects. Now it looks like it will be completed this summer or fall. I'm not used to this much progress so fast.

I did some rigging outside for lifting the loft windows. I used a rebar S-hook fastened to the end of an 8-foot 1x2 to connect a chain to the inside anchor hook on the ridgepole. That was a pretty easy reach from the scaffold. Then I fastened the other end of the chain to the anchor hook on the Grid B purlin. Then using a chain hook, I hung the snatch block from the chain over the center of the window hole. And, finally, I attached a come-along to the RPSL and ran the cable up over the snatch block.

Then I went inside and rigged up some ropes and a come-along and lifted the two loft windows up from the main floor into the loft. This gave me more practice, and more confidence, in the rigging arrangement. I want to be absolutely sure that nothing goes wrong when I get around to lifting the big windows up to where they need to go.

After I got the loft windows up in the loft, I realized that I don't need to use any rigging to lift them and set them in place. They are light enough that I can do it by hand just like I did the kitchen and dining room windows. I was glad I had done the rigging of the chain anyway, because that is how I plan to rig for the big windows, and this was a good dry run. I am now confident that it will work for them. I left for home at 1:50 feeling really good about the progress this week even though I didn't get any more windows installed.