2/1-3/05 I went up to the property for 3 days: Tuesday through Thursday.

It was amazing how little snow there was in the mountains. It was like a late spring day. I arrived at 12:45 and with a few good runs at it, I was able to get the pickup halfway up to the trailer. There was only about 6 or 8 inches of old snow on the ground. After moving in and having lunch, I sanded all the surfaces that were due for another coat of varnish.

On Wednesday, it was 50 degrees out and no wind. Very pleasant. I spent the morning hauling the rest of the branches from the broken trees up to the burn pile and burning it. Since the branches were all green and wet, it took quite a bit to get the fire going but it finally took off.

After lunch, I rigged a brace to hold the scaffold frame I had bolted to the outside of the northeast wall. There is a lot of long lumber stored on it. I wanted to remove the bolt holding the scaffold frame so I could finish the log it went through. I used two overlapping 2x4s for the brace with a bar clamp against the overlapping ends. By tightening the clamp, it forced the 2x4s to extend and tighten up against the scaffold frame. When it was tight, I clamped the 2x4s together with a c-clamp and then I removed the bolt.

I planed, scraped, and gouged three more logs between the corner and the window on the northeast bedroom wall. Then I swept up the chips and vacuumed to be ready for varnish in the morning.

On Thursday morning, I mitered the molding and trimmed the inside of the tall dining room window. Then I varnished all the prepared surfaces. It looks pretty good in the bedroom now. I left for home at 1:40.