11/8-10/05 I went up to the property for 3 days: Tuesday through Thursday.

On the way, I stopped at Tool Pros at 104th and Lake City Way and bought four packages of planer blades. They are Makita brand but the guy said they will work in my Bosch planer.

I arrived at the property at 12:30. It was 35 degrees and there was almost no snow left on the ground. I was again happy to see no evidence of shrews or mice. A fairly sizeable flock of gray jays were there to greet me and get their peanuts.

I got a bunch of damp ripping sawdust and used it for sweeping compound. I swept the mortar mess off the entire floor. That should be the end of it down there. I decided to clean the place up really good for when the scouts come up in January. The adults will be sleeping in the cabin so I want it nice and clean. I started by vacuuming all the joists above the bedroom. The flanges have accumulated quite a load of dust over the years and from now on, there shouldn't be much more dust.

On Wednesday, I lifted two steel scaffold frames and the cross braces up into the loft. I set it up under the Grid D purlin next to the D2 PSL using two 4x4s on each side about halfway up. This made a good platform for working on the purlin. Then I set a plank across the inside corner of the loft floor so that it allowed me to stand on the outside of the D2 PSL. That way I could plane and varnish it. I rigged up some lights and used C-clamps to fasten a tarp to the rafters to keep the planer chips from falling down to the first floor. Then I planed and scraped the part of the PSL that wasn't done yet. That was the inside top half and the entire bottom half. Then I swept up the chips and took the tarp back down. I whisk broomed the PSL so it was ready for varnish. I fed the jays again during the day.

On Thursday I varnished the first coat on the parts of the D2 PSL that I had prepared. That log had gotten pretty discolored so it was a major improvement in looks to have it varnished and shiny.

I loaded up the wheelbarrow and some masonry tools into the pickup so I can help my next-door neighbor in Seattle repair his chimney. Then I measured the spacing of the outlet boxes in the bedroom so I can make up the receptacle assemblies. There was still some time before I had to leave so I put a new blade in my hacksaw and put plastic caps on all the EMT stubs I had going from the log walls into studs. The inspector told me that I couldn't have the EMT terminating like that. I cut each conduit about an inch away from the stud, took out the cut-off piece, smoothed out the burs on the inside of the conduit, and then pressed a plastic cap on. I'm sure that will satisfy the inspector.

I fed the jays once more, had lunch, packed up, and left for home at 1:20.