10/18-20/05 I went up to the property for 3 days: Tuesday through Thursday.

It was a beautiful 60 degree day when I arrived at 11:35. I drove up to the building and unloaded six sacks of mortar mix. I also fed a chipmunk, a few gray jays, and, believe it or not, a Stellar Jay in the process. The Stellar Jay took the peanuts only about 10 feet away from me. Usually they won't take them unless I am out of sight or a long way away. This one scolded the whole time, but he had the nerve to approach me and get the peanuts. They're smart birds, so maybe they could be tamed after all.

After I had lunch, I opened the building and discovered another shrew had gotten caught in the mouse trap in the crawl space. The rest of the peanuts and traps were untouched. I still don't know what to think about the shrews.

I went to work and insulated the top five seams on both walls in the bedroom and then I nailed the top four seams on both walls. For some reason, I felt extra tired.

On Wednesday, the mousetraps were all still set. I chinked the top three seams on both bedroom walls. During the work, I fed the jays and chipmunks each time I mixed another batch of mortar. It rained during the day and lots of frogs were croaking. I thought they had all gone into hibernation, but if they did, this warm weather brought them back out again. It was good to hear them.

On Thursday morning, the mousetraps were all still set and the peanuts were untouched. I decked over the hole in the porch where the stoop will go. I figured I should make it safer for when the Boy Scouts show up. I cleaned up the logs where I had chinked on the Grid 1 wall in the bedroom, but since I was running short on time, I only did the first scraping pass on the logs on the Grid A wall. I hope it won't be too hard to finish up the cleaning next week. At least I got it loosened up with that first pass. I fed the chipmunks and jays some more, and left for home at 1:45.

10/22/05 I attended a meeting of the Log Home Builder's Association of North America and brought my model and a couple photo albums with me. I hadn't been to one of those meetings for many years so I met a lot of new people and had a great time.