8/19-21/03 I went up to the property for 3 days: Tuesday through Thursday.

I arrived at 1:00. The padlock on the gate was still unlocked but it was still covered by the can. There was a note from Dale Marine taped to the can asking if I could use his help with the windows. There was no sign that Tim had been back to start digging the upper trench. It was a warm 78 degrees out.

After moving in, I dug a 5-foot, or so, trench from the end of the trench Tim had dug to the water pipe stub near the Grid F.5,3 column. The 1" copper pipe was 18 inches underground at the column footing and it curved up a foot or so where it ended with a cap. The dirt was dust dry and as fine as flour so I had a fine mist spraying from the hose while I dug to keep the dust down.

I decided to run two 1" copper pipes in the trench from the building down to the creek: one for the water supply from the spring, and the other for a return to the creek. That way, I could let water run through the plumbing continuously. It would keep the water from stagnating in the pipes during intervals when we weren't there. It could also keep the plumbing from freezing, although I would have to do some additional thinking about it to make sure that it would protect all the pipes. Plus, the return pipe could be used to supply water down below for hydro-electric generation, irrigation, supply to the trailer, or whatever. At any rate, since I had enough pipe, I decided to install the second line while I had the chance.

To get the second pipe past the column footing, now that it was already in place, I had to chisel an opening between a corner of the footing and the bedrock. I knew my star drill was in the old freezer tub with other masonry tools, but I also knew that the mice had made a mess of the inside of that box. I put my respirator mask on and opened the door of the box. When I did, a big pile of plastic rebar protective caps fell out. I knew that I didn't stack them against the inside of the door like that so I couldn't figure out how they got there.

Then, to find the star drill, I had to start removing things from the box and rummage around quite a bit looking for it. While I was doing that, I could hear some animal moving around in there obviously disturbed that I was making so much noise and moving his things around. Pretty soon he came out but instead of a mouse, it was a pack rat. That explained why the rebar caps were stacked up like that. I decided on the spot that as soon as I get the windows all installed, the next priority project will be to mouse-proof, and while I'm at it, ant-proof, the entire building. The easy part will be to hang the back door, install door casings, screen the crawl space vents, and so on. The hard part will be to screen all the vent spaces and cracks around the blocking between the rafters above the walls. That will be a long tedious job but I think it is high time to evict all the critters that have been living inside my building. Only when they are gone will it do any good to clean up after them.

I found the star drill and used it to hammer out a big enough hole to take a 1" copper pipe. Then I took a roll of pipe, stuck the end of it up into a 3" ABS drain pipe penetrating the footing, unrolled the pipe in the approximate shape to make it go through the hole I had made near the column pad, and then proceeded to thread the pipe through that hole and on up to the building and into the ABS pipe. It was very awkward working because there are three big log slabs over the trench where the pipe had to go and a lot of other obstructions. Not to mention that that roll of copper pipe is pretty heavy and awkward to manipulate sliding it about 15 feet through that little hole in the concrete and getting it up through the ABS pipe. But after struggling with it for a while, I got the job done.

The end of the second pipe is now inside the building where I can connect it to the rest of the plumbing, and the pipe goes through the column footing about six or eight inches underground. I don't have to worry about freeze-up in this pipe because it is downhill all the way and all but this short section will be two feet underground.. Since the end of the pipe will be open, the water can just run out before it freezes.

On Wednesday, I soldered four more 60-foot coils of 1" inch copper pipe together to form the two water lines in the bottom of the trench. I found a magnifying dental mirror at a garage sale a long time ago and I used that to inspect the solder joints. It worked extremely well. I was able to see the joint all around the pipe, magnified, without having to get my head down on the ground or having to use a flashlight. I could easily see that all my joints were perfect so I don't expect any leaks.

I fed a flock of gray jays and a chipmunk during the course of the work. I also went down to the road to talk to some highway department workers. They were repairing the edge of the road, but they decided to wait until Tim was done taking his rocks before they repaired the edges near the rock outcropping. One of the workers said he has been interested in watching the cabin develop over the years and he is interested in getting some firewood from me, especially from some dead trees he spotted. I told him we could talk about that later.

I also heard some noises from down there that I assumed were either the highway dept. guys or Tim back after more rocks. But when I went down to investigate, I found a woman and a man I took to be her son busily loading my rocks onto a trailer. I told them that they were my rocks but that I had already sold them to Tim. I said that I didn't really know whether Tim wanted the smaller rocks or how he would feel about them taking them. They acted a little embarrassed but they thanked me and took off with what they had already loaded up. I figured that the rocks now belong to Tim and it is his responsibility to either protect them or to pick them up and take them.

Next, I laid 120 feet of 1" PVC electrical conduit and 100 feet of 3/4" electrical conduit in the trench. I figure if I need to, I can pull a telephone wire through the small one and some electrical wire through the big one. I might have a hydro power plant down there some day and I could run the power back up to the building in that conduit. Another possibility is that I might want remote electrically controlled valves down there and run the wires back to the building in that conduit. Another possibility is the power to run a UV disinfectant device that I need to install somewhere in the water line. I am not sure what I will really need later on, but there is no time like the present to bury those conduits. It was hot dusty work, but I got four lines (two copper and two PVC) laid down ready to be backfilled. I took some pictures of the trench with the pipes and then I did a little backfilling by hand up at the top of the trench.

In the evening I called Dale Marine and told him that I had figured out how to install the windows by myself and that I wouldn't be needing his help after all.

On Thursday, I started out by feeding the jays. The young birds finally got up the nerve to get on my hand and take peanuts. They are still pretty awkward and nervous, but they are learning fast.

Next, I installed the two casement windows in the loft. I didn't install the trim yet, so I left the scaffold in place. That leaves only the six big windows on the front of the house to do. I left for home at 2:00. When I went to lock the gate, I found a tiny little green frog under the padlock can which I had left on top of the telephone pedestal. Maybe I should set up a bunch of cans for the frogs. They sure seem to like them.