6/1-3/04 I went up to the property for 3 days: Tuesday through Thursday.

I arrived at 12:30 and found no frog in the gate lock can. There was also no sign of PR . The peanuts were still on the floor and he was not in the screened cavity. I think he moved and got another job somewhere else. I will miss him -- sort of.

After moving in, I sanded the logs that were due for another coat of varnish. Then I planed, scraped, and gouged on the Grid D purlin and the top part of the D2 PSL. While I was working, I heard a thump and saw that a young Stellar's Jay had flown into one of the windows. He had fallen to the ground but he was moving around. I watched him for quite a while and little by little he moved more and more. Pretty soon he had hopped up onto the rock retaining wall on the cliff edge. He hopped along that and then up into a small tree but he didn't fly much. I noticed that an adult Stellar's Jay was watching him and pretty soon the both of them flew off. I have a hunch that was that little bird's maiden flight and I think the experience of hitting the window left him pretty bewildered. While I was outside watching the jays, a chipmunk took a few peanuts from my hand.

On Wednesday, I finished preparing the D2 PSL that I could reach and got a start planing the window frame between Grids A3 and B3. Then I broomed off all the prepared logs, starting with the ridgepole and then I swept off the scaffold platforms and the loft floor. There shouldn't be much mess up there again until I start working on the logs up there so it will be nice to have it clean for a change.

A flock of gray jays showed up at the loft windows so I took some time out to go out and feed them some peanuts. They seemed pretty shy so I don't know if these are birds I have seen before or not. These may be some of the young birds that I saw the last time. It didn't take too long for a couple of them to get used to eating out of my hand. There are lots of wild roses in bloom this year and you can smell them from quite a ways away from the bushes. Very pleasant.

My hands and wrists have been pretty sore for a few weeks and I have begun to worry about repetitive stress injury. Working overhead on the ridgepole and purlins is especially stressful. I'm glad that part of it is done. Maybe that will give my hands a needed rest. They will also get quite a rest while I am recovering from prostate surgery during the month of July. That will be one of the pluses from that experience.

I swept up the chips and dust from the first floor and loaded up the wheelbarrow, a big garbage barrel and four 5-gallon buckets with the chips. I lashed the barrel and buckets all together on top of the wheelbarrow so I could haul the whole lot in the wheelbarrow. While I was outside working, I fed a chipmunk a few times.

On Thursday morning, I varnished the bottom log under the smaller dining room window, the ridgepole, the Grid D purlin, the D2 PSL, and the C2 RPSL. Then I went outside, fed the jays again, and pushed the wheelbarrow and all the chips up the trail to the spring, spreading the chips as I went. I had enough to do the entire long trail to the spring and then some distance past the spring.

I cut 20 feet of the copper pipe from the coil I had attached to the water line last week. I sweated this on to the end of the water line that was sticking out from under the big boulder. Then I rolled the pipe out so that it lay in the creek bottom and went all the way up to the spring box. Then I chose a spot on the pipe where there was good access to it. I cut it at that point and sweated a union in to join them again. I will also install a union close to the nipple coming out of the spring box. That way I will be able to easily remove the section of the line that will have the valve in it. It will also help make installation easier. I'll get the fittings I need to connect it to the spring box and bring them next week. I am happy to be making progress on putting that water line together. I left for home at 3:30.