9/16-18/03 I went up to the property for 3 days: Tuesday through Thursday.

I arrived at 12:45. There were no frogs in the gate lock can and there had been no work done backfilling the trench. It was a pleasant 55 degrees and there was a skiff of snow on the top of Mt. Mastiff. Winter is on the way.

After moving in and having lunch, I set up a one-tier steel scaffold tower in front of Grid D3 and made a deck of the pressure-treated 4x4s Doris had given me. I laid a short plank across them and stood the 20-foot extension ladder on that. The ladder reached the wall about even with the middle of the top windows and it was right up against the end of the top scaffold. This would allow me easy access to the upper scaffold from the outside.

The problem was that it wasn't easy to get from the steel scaffold or the ladder to the lower scaffold on the wall. I tried a couple different ideas, but finally decided the best thing to do would be to extend the steel scaffold one more tier. I could see that the next frame would straddle one of the lower scaffold brackets on the wall and the steel frame would allow me to climb up and down between the two scaffolds. Rather than get my portable crane out, I decided to install the next frames by hand. I pulled one up from below and the other one I took out the window opening and lowered it into place from above. Since it straddled the scaffold bracket, that was about the only way I could do it. Once the frames and braces were in place, I found that I could also easily step from the lower wall scaffold, onto the steel frame, and from there directly to the ladder. That way, I could go from the lower scaffold to the higher one without having to climb all the way down to the bottom of the ladder and then back up.

Once things were in place, I screwed small boards in place to keep the platform and the ladder from moving. I also screwed two small pieces of plywood to the handrail on the lower scaffold to just meet the underside of the ladder. The ladder is fully extended and it sags more than I like when I am on the middle of it. Those two pieces of plywood keep it from sagging and make it very steady. I felt very comfortable with the whole arrangement once I had it ready. I can now access everything I need to from the outside.

All during the work, the gray jays and the chipmunks were around for peanuts. Late in the day, Scruffy showed up. That lump above his leg is unmistakable and I am sure he wasn't with the rest of the birds earlier. When he took the peanuts, big gobs of sticky saliva came out of his mouth and stuck to the peanuts. I have never seen that before and I don't know if it is some problem or what. Anyway, it was good to see Scruffy again.

On Wednesday morning it was 37 degrees out. I'll have to think about winterizing pretty soon. I started out by installing the last of the small windows on the front. Rather than rig to the anchor hooks like I did the other one, I simply hung my pulley from the top rung of the ladder which was positioned right over the small window. I attached the come-along to a ladder rung down by the lower scaffold which made it very easy to lift and install the window. I didn't use bridles on the window either. It was easy enough to hold the window in place with one hand and my hip while I drove screws in to finally fasten it. I'm getting the hang of window installation now that I am almost finished with it.

I also didn't use my special clips to hold the sling because they were on the cable sling and I used the old rope sling for this window. Instead, I used the 1" C-clamps by themselves. They allowed for more play in the sling, but I figured that even if the sling slipped to the max, the C-clamps would keep it within an inch of the flange which I am sure would be enough to keep the window from falling out. As it happened, the sling didn't move at all so I guess I didn't have to provide any kind of retainer at all.

The window opening was not flat, so before I installed the window I shimmed the rough frame out a half inch on one corner. It seems like all the front window openings have been twisted out of flat. They are all nice and square and plumb in the plane of the wall, but not in the vertical plane perpendicular to the wall.

During the installation I fed the jays and chipmunks quite a bit again. There is one tiny little chipmunk that must be a brand new youngster. He just got up the nerve to take peanuts from my hand, but he got used to it quick. He pestered me from that first time on but he only takes one peanut at a time. If I sit still, he will just sit there on my hand and eat the whole peanut before he wants another. Otherwise he's back in a few minutes for his next one. He can run or walk up or down the concrete block foundation wall as if he were on level ground. It is amazing how he can get around. If I am up on a high scaffold, he will walk right up the block wall, the log wall, the scaffold - steel or wood - and find me where ever I am. I realize that every little hole will have to be plugged eventually in order to keep him out of the building.

After lunch, I shimmed out the high window opening by 1/2 inch in one corner to make it flat. Then I began rigging to lift the remaining two big windows. The rigging will be pretty much a mirror image of the rigging I used on the other two. One thing I succeeded in doing was to get the chain bridle between the two purlins at the top tighter than I did before. This will allow me to lift the window a little higher. Since I was at the very max on the other high window, I decided I wanted a little more slack available if possible.

The biggest difference in the rigging, though, was the fact that the windows start off way off to the side rather than pretty much directly below the pulley. To deal with this, I had to make two additions to my rigging.

The first one was a chain fastened to the Grid D PSL with a big shackle on the other end. The lifting rope ran through the shackle which kept the rope from running into the center bracket of the upper scaffold. The rope came more or less straight down from the pulley, through the shackle, and then angled over toward where the windows were stacked at Grid B.

The second addition, was a 3/4" rope snubbed around the log ends on the Grid A corner of the building. The end of the rope was fastened to the lifting rope just above the window. Actually, it was above my home-made scale which was attached directly to the sling around the window. I have been wondering how much these big windows weigh, so since I have only two left, I figured I better weigh one while I still had the chance. I had to lift and re-rig them anyway, so it would be no extra work to rig the scale in.

While I was setting up the rigging, Larry stopped by to visit. He was surprised to find the open utility trench which made it hard for him to get up to the building. Bert and Ernie came along with him and they were pretty interested in my chipmunks who all scattered for the rocks to hide.

When they left, I began lifting the next big window. I discovered that the 1x2s on this one were screwed on the inside of the flange which made it easy to rig the sling on the outside and remove the 1x2s without having to re-rig the sling.

The rigging worked exactly as planned. I had one hand on the come-along and the other on the 3/4" rope. As I lifted the window off the ground, I relaxed the rope a little which allowed the window to move sideways inch by inch. Then I would crank the come-along a little more to keep the window off the ground. In this way, I moved the window over to where it was directly below the window opening. Then I took the scale off, and removed the 3/4" rope and the chain and shackle from up high. It was a straight lift from there up to the first scaffold level. The come-alongs were wound up all the way at that point so I set the window down on the scaffold and secured it for the night. My scale said the window weighs 150 pounds.

The jays were around most of the day, but during the evening, Scruffy was with them again. This time I didn't see that goopy saliva like I had the night before. Now I just wonder why Scruffy isn't with the flock that visits me during the day.

On Thursday I lifted the window to the high opening and discovered that the opening wasn't square. The opening itself was square, but the bottom 2x10 had warped in an airplane-propeller fashion so that one corner had dropped down 1/4 of an inch. I had to make and install a shim to make a flat level surface for the window to sit on. Once that was installed, I gooped up the opening with caulk and installed the window. I used the same two bridles that I had on the other high window because the pulley is a foot away from the wall and the sling is right up against the pulley. Except that the come-alongs weren't real easy to reach, there was no problem getting the window into place. Of course I had the usual help from the jays and chipmunks.

Since the remaining window opening is now accessible from the outside via the scaffolds, I boarded up the opening before I left for home. I left at 1:45 and found the tiny frog in the gate lock can. I left him in there after I locked the gate.