6/20-21/06 I went up to the property for 2 days: Tuesday and Wednesday.

On the way, I stopped and talked to Larry in front of their place. He gave me an update on Roberta who is not doing well. I arrived at the property at 2:00. There was no frog in the gate lock can. After moving in, I drove the pickup up to the upper roadway and unloaded ten 60 lb. sacks of concrete mix, which I had brought with me, and stored it under the porch. I also unloaded three CB66s which I will use to support the lower ends of the two stair stringers and the newel post.

Before I drove back down, I whacked weeds and bushes on the upper roadway and especially on the trail between the cabin and the privy. I also whacked a lot of them down between the privy and the drainfield. The tree seedlings all look like they are thriving up there, both the wild ones and the three giant Sequoias that I planted.

After getting the pickup back down the hill, I cut some boards and made an 18"x18" form for the base for one of the stringer support pads. I will have to do some careful figuring and measuring in order to place the form accurately and so that the flanges on the CB66 fit between two stair treads. In the process I fed a couple of gray jays. There were lots of mosquitoes but the Ben's bug juice kept them away from me.

In the evening, there were a couple mosquitoes in the trailer which was not unusual. Sometimes they slip past my fan method of keeping them away from the door before I enter. I got those two mosquitoes during dinner, but then a couple more showed up. That wasn't unusual either because sometimes as many as four of them get in.

But then when I went to bed, a few more showed up and I kept count as I got each of them. By the time I got to sleep, the count was up to 20 or so. Then in the middle of the night the whining would wake me up and I would get a few more and the count kept climbing. I couldn't figure that out. There were dozens of them at the window screen trying to get in, but as far as I could tell, there was no way they could.

The last of these episodes was at 5 AM. After slapping those mosquitoes, I wasn't sure I could go back to sleep but I did. I was in a sound sleep at 8:00 when the phone woke me up.

It was my brother John with the sad news that his wife, Barb, had died earlier that morning. We talked for over an hour while I stayed under the covers leaving only a small tunnel by my pillow for the phone cord and for me to breathe. I had one hand shooing the mosquitoes out as they tried to get into the tunnel.

I told John that I would pack up immediately and get the first plane to Florida that I could. When we hung up, I got my breakfast, packed up, put away the tools, locked up, and left for home by 10:30. The mosquito count had reached 46 by that time and I learned that they were just walking in through the front door. Neither the outside door nor the screen door fits mosquito tight and 46 of them from the huge swarm outside the door had figured out how to get in. I will definitely have to tighten up my security. This seems to be one of the worst mosquito years I can remember.