9/28-30/04 I went up to the property for 3 days: Tuesday through Thursday.

The drive over was beautiful. The leaves are just starting to turn in the mountains. I arrived at noon. There were no frogs in the cans; the peanut was still on the floor and all the mousetraps were still set. I think I'll formally declare that the building is rodent-proof. This is the time of year when mice are looking for winter quarters, so if they can't get in now, I don't think they ever will.

After moving in, I sanded all the surfaces needing another coat of varnish. These were the bottom two logs and the window frame between Grids A and B, the bottom of the Grid B3 PSL, the short logs behind it, the top of the Grid C3 RPSL, and the part of the ridgepole above the scaffolding. After that, I spent the rest of the day planing, scraping, gouging, and sanding the logs and window frames between Grids B and D. The logs were drier than last week so this was a little easier, although working on those short logs behind a PSL or the RPSL are the slowest of all because they are so awkward to reach.

I spent the entire day Wednesday working on those same surfaces. I tried to keep the chips swept up and the floor vacuumed as I went, and whenever I used the sander, I had Gus' vacuum hooked up to it. That seemed to keep the dust from getting all over everything like it did before. It also gives me a break from stressing my hands and wrists so much. Since I have decided against using a pressure washer again, I need to pace my work so I don't injure myself. By the end of the day, I got the two big window frames done and all the remaining logs between Grids B and D done except for the short logs at Grid D3.

On Thursday morning, I varnished all the prepared surfaces. Then I took the post hole digger up into the woods and worked on cleaning out the creek bed in preparation for laying the water pipe in it. I got about 30 feet done but I didn't unroll any pipe into the creek. The jays found me in the woods, so I fed them periodically as I worked. It was very pleasant working. The temperature was nice and cool and there were no bugs. This is the time of year to be doing this work. I left for home at 1:30.