4/27-29/04 I went up to the property for 3 days: Tuesday through Thursday.

I arrived at 12:45, moved in and had lunch. I brought a big old workbench with me that Joe O'Leary gave me. I drove the pickup up to the building so I could unload it. I hooked a snatch block to the Grid E3 anchor hook and ran the long chain through it to a come-along fastened to a deck joist in the stoop area. I had just gotten the workbench lifted out of the pickup and was cranking it up when it started raining. I figured I'd better get the pickup back down the hill before it got too wet. I left the workbench dangling from the chain and backed the pickup down. By the time I got back up to the building, it was raining cats and dogs.

After hoisting the workbench up onto the deck, I planed and scraped the top of it so it didn't look so beaten up. Then I went in and sanded the logs that are due for another coat of varnish.

On Wednesday I planed, scraped, gouged, and sanded two more logs at Grid E, four more between Grids D and E, one more at Grid A, and one more between Grids A and B. In the process, Larry knocked on the door and we sat down and had a nice chat. He said he wanted those rebar spikes so I told him I would drop them off at his place on my way home.

In the animal department, there was one chipmunk running around outside and at least one Stellar's Jay. The chipmunk took a couple peanuts after I tossed them over to him, but he didn't show any interest in coming over to me to eat out of my hand. He'll learn sooner or later if the owls don't get him first. The Stellar's Jay surprised me by taking a couple peanuts while I was still within ten or fifteen feet. Usually they refuse to get that close to me.

On Thursday morning I didn't feel too perky. I varnished all the prepared logs and the top of Joe's old workbench. I left for home at 1:00.