2/7/06 I went up to the property for 3 days: Tuesday through Thursday.

I arrived at 11:30. There was no new snow but Mike had plowed the old snow off the driveway so I could drive right in and park. I was able to walk on the trails without snowshoes. After moving in and having lunch, I hauled a bunch of branches to the compost pile. There had been a windstorm in Seattle the previous Saturday and a whole bunch of branches had blown down.

I went to work and sanded and vacuumed the five Grid E loft wall logs that were due for another coat of varnish. Then I set up a scaffold so I could reach the gable peak and the end of the ridgepole. I also set up lights up there and hung tarps all around the scaffold to keep the chips in. Before I quit for the day, I got a start planing and scraping the end of the ridgepole and the gable logs.

When I went outside, I heard a couple of owls hooting in the woods. There was not a breath of wind and the owls hooting was just about the only sound you could hear. I sat on the floor of the woodshed for about a half hour just listening to the owls.

Each owl hooted in a monotone with the pitch of the two different by a minor third. Sometimes they would alternate in their hooting, but most of the time, the lower pitched one would start and the other one would begin before the first one was finished. The hooting patterns stayed about the same for long periods but then would change. They always hooted in combinations of short and long hoots, so I tried to memorize the patterns by interpreting them as Morse Code. In Morse Code, the lower one hooted the patterns AME, AM, ESM, and ESME. The higher pitched one hooted SSN, ESESN, ESM, and ESME. I'll have to talk to an owl specialist some day to find out if these were spotted owls or just barred owls. It was a pleasant and beautiful experience just to sit there and listen to them hoot. It was really a hoot.

On Wednesday it was sunny and beautiful out. Before lunchtime, I got the end of the ridgepole and the top three gable logs planed, scraped, and ready for varnish. When I went in for lunch, I was pleased to see the gray jays. I haven't seen them for quite a while so it was good to have them back. I fed them quite a few peanuts and then had lunch myself.

After lunch, I got the fourth gable log ready for varnish. This is a big, very lumpy log so it was hard to get it ready. I had to scrape most of it by hand. Before I went in, I swept chips off the scaffold deck, and swept off the gable wall logs and the end of the ridgepole.

On Thursday morning I varnished the five Grid E logs, the end of the ridgepole, and the top four gable logs. When that was done, I went for a walk in the woods. The snow was frozen rock hard so I could walk right on top of it anywhere. There was no wind and the sun was shining. It was a very pleasant walk.

When I went down to the trailer to get my lunch, a pine squirrel was playing on the open window shutter. I couldn't see him from inside the trailer except when he peeked over the edge and looked in the window. The rest of the time he was pretty active jumping around doing something up there. While I was paying attention to him, Larry stopped in for a visit. We had a nice chat in the trailer and I walked him back down to the road. While we were talking down there, the jays came back and landed on our heads and hands. Larry left and I went back and got the jays some more peanuts. I left for home at 1:15.