8/30/05 I went up to the property for 3 days: Tuesday through Thursday.

I arrived at 12:55. There was no frog, but the jays were there right away for peanuts. After moving in and having lunch I went up to inspect the cabin. I found the flap to the rodent valve open and all the peanuts gone in the pipe and on the ramp. It looks like at least one mouse exited that way. Two of the three mousetraps had caught mice and the peanut was gone from the floor. I reset the mousetraps and the rodent valve and put peanuts back on the floor, the ramp, and the pipe.

Then I insulated and nailed all the seams up to the Grid A dining room window.

On Wednesday morning I was greeted with good news: all the peanuts were still there and all the traps were still set and baited. This could mean victory!

I fed the jays and chipmunks quite a few times during the day. I chinked the seams between Grids C3 and B3 which happily finished up the short logs behind the columns. Those were very awkward and slow to do, and on top of it, the mortar seemed to be extra sandy and hard to work with. The next sack of mortar mix seemed to be not so sandy.

I felt very good. The working conditions were as perfect and pleasant as they could be. The weather was perfect, there was no wind, no mosquitoes, and it was pleasantly cool. After lunch and a short nap, I chinked about three and a half seams between Grid B3 and A3 and three seams between A3 and the dining room window. Not a whole lot of progress, but it all adds up. Feeding the jays and chipmunks slowed me down a little.

On Thursday morning I was elated to find that again there was no evidence of mice in the building. The peanuts and traps were untouched. I think I have won the second round of rodent wars. I cleaned the logs where I had chinked, fed the jays and chipmunks some more, and left for home at 1:20.

9/3/05 Made the receptacle assembly for the first receptacle outlet in the living room. I'll make these up in Seattle so it won't take as much time when I am up at the cabin.