12/6-8/05 I went up to the property for 3 days: Tuesday through Thursday.

I arrived at 12:50. There was about 4 inches of crusty snow which was new since I had been there last week. I backed down the road, got a good run at it, and drove the pickup almost to the trailer. I left it parked there. The temperature was 32 degrees.

There was no shrew in the trap and the peanuts upstairs were undisturbed. I burned all the old mortar sacks that had accumulated. Then I went in and scraped more of the Grid D purlin. I was feeling a little stronger than last week, but I was still not at full strength.

On Wednesday, it was 23 degrees. I planed, scraped, and gouged the Grid D purlin and even resorted to using a 1 inch chisel and my pocket knife to work on the log right under the ceiling board. It was very hard work so I took a lot of breaks. But I did finish preparing the 9 feet of the purlin I could reach from the scaffolding. There is still about 3 feet of it to do up against the wall, but I'll wait until I have the scaffolding up against the wall before I finish that part.

I swept up the chips and then vacuumed the purlin, the PSL, the scaffolding, and the floor so the purlin and PSL are ready for varnish.

On Thursday morning it was 16 degrees. That's the coldest it has been up there for a couple years. I kept the cans of varnish in the trailer so they were nice and warm. That made it easy to apply the varnish. I varnished the second coat on the Grid D2 PSL and the first coat on 9 feet of the Grid D purlin. After I cleaned out my brush, I tidied up some on the porch. I didn't see any gray jays all week. It must have been too cold. I left for home at 2:00.