8/17-19/04 I went up to the property for 3 days: Tuesday through Thursday.

I arrived at 1:30. It was a great feeling to be getting back to my normal routine. There were no frogs in any of the three cans but it was 82 degrees out. I figured it might be too hot for frogs. There were also no mosquitos.

Before I moved in, I fed two gray jays. I think they must be permanent residents nearby. I hooked up the water and re-filled the water heater. Everything seemed to be okay after a month. No signs of vandalism or any other problem.

When I tried to put my frozen dinners in the refrigerator there was too much frost for them to fit. It had needed defrosting a month ago, but now it couldn't wait. I sat hunched over chipping ice out of it for about an hour. When I finished, I could hardly straighten up. My back was really stiff and sore.

After lunch, I went up to the building and discovered that the peanut was gone from the floor but the trap was still set. Most of the peanut butter bait was still on the trigger. There were mouse turds on the floor but no pack rat turds. That means that whatever hole there is into the building, it is too small for the pack rats. I set the trap.

I noticed a bunch of dark wood chips in a line about two feet out from the wall in the loft directly under the ridgepole. I don't know how they got there but I suspected something had been chewing wood directly overhead.

I carried the molding pieces and six quarts of varnish up to the building. Then I carried some yard waste to the compost pile and started trimming branches. I had just gotten the pickup painted and a lot of branches had grown into the driveway and I didn't want to scratch the paint job. My back was very sore so I quit working pretty early.

About 9:00 in the evening, I was visited by three local firefighters. They went up to the cabin, asked me a lot of questions, took a lot of notes, and left me with a sheet of tips about how to protect the property from fire and how to stay safe during a fire. I thought it was just routine and I was happy that they stopped by.

On Wednesday morning, my back was so sore I could hardly get out of bed. It had hurt all night long. I guess it really atrophied during the past month of relative inactivity. Up at the cabin, I found that the trap had fallen and killed a mouse. Evidently the mouse had tripped the trigger and tried to dive under the box and it hit him (or her) in the neck. It left no doubt that mice can get into the building somehow. So I still have a rodent problem.

When I went out on the porch deck to toss the mouse carcass away, I spooked a little lizard by moving a board that was his hiding place. I watched him for a while but let him alone so he could eat bugs.

We were planning to have guests come up and sleep in the cabin over the weekend, so I planned to spend most of my time this week cleaning the place up. I started by sweeping the loft floor and the porch deck. Just as I finished, Larry stopped by. He had my pickup tabs which had been mailed to the property address and the letter carrier had trusted Larry to give them to me. Larry told me that there was a forest fire burning on Dirtyface right above the property. It had started August 6 and they had several crews working on it. That explained the helicopters I had heard and it explained the visit from the firefighters. I knew there were fires near Wenatchee but I hadn't heard about the one right above me. There was no wind and Larry said the fire wasn't growing very fast at all. It was a couple hundred acres, if I remember right. Still, it got me thinking about fire safety.

On Thursday morning, my back was still hurting pretty bad. The peanut was gone from the floor but the trap was still set. Some of the bait had been nibbled away so the trigger mechanism is just not sensitive enough for mice.

I spent the morning finishing cleaning up the cabin. I hauled many buckets of chips outside and I vacuumed the floor and table tops after I had swept out the place. It looked better than I had ever seen it when I was done. I left for home at 2:00.

When I got home I checked the Internet and found out that the Dirtyface fire was smoldering and was 55% contained.

8/20-21/04 Eileen, Victor, Ellen, and I spent Friday evening at the property.

We hiked to Barkley Lake on the way up. This was a very easy hike to see how I would do. My back was really stiff after sitting or riding for very long, but it relaxed pretty quickly and didn't bother at all to stand or walk once it got stretched out. I had no problem with the hike.

On the way to the property, we stopped at the ranger station and learned that the Dirtyface fire was under control. When we arrived at the property, there were no frogs in the cans. We showed Victor and Eileen around. We went to the Squirrel Tree for dinner and found that it is under new management and is now called the Star Spangled Manor. Back at the cabin, we played Pictionary in the cabin and had a great time. Ellen and I slept in the trailer and Victor and Eileen slept in the cabin. They had the honor of being the first people to spend a night in the cabin.

On Saturday morning, we fed the gray jays and left to hike to Heather Lake. This was a 1300 foot elevation gain but again I had no trouble hiking it. I am impressed and grateful to the doctor for how quickly I am recovering from the surgery.

We had beautiful hiking weather both days, but on the drive home, Victor and Eileen had a flat tire just over the pass during a driving rainstorm. Ellen and I were following them in the pickup. After the flat was changed, we drove to Sultan and had dinner at the Dutch Cup. It was a great weekend except for the flat tire and a bee sting I got on my hand.