8/1-3/06 I went up to the property for 3 days: Tuesday through Thursday.

I arrived at 12:50. There was no frog in the gate can, and there weren't many mosquitoes down by the gate when I arrived. After moving in and having lunch, I went up to the cabin and found three dead mice in the three traps that I had set. After dumping them outside and resetting the traps, I went looking for a hole. I found where they had gotten in up in the loft. Once again, the hole was between the gable wall and the ceiling where the ceiling boards will eventually seal things up tight. I plugged up the hole with a piece of board and some hardware cloth. I was happy to have found the hole and I hope it is the last I see of the little varmints.

Next, I rigged up chains and a come-along so I could lift the stringers back out of the CB66s. I lifted each one out and turned them over so I could work on the bottom sides. I had brought two one-pound containers of Board Defense with me so I mixed up a batch using a little over half a pound and two gallons of water. I sprayed both stringers over a period of an hour or so until I got the whole batch absorbed into the logs. I concentrated on the lower ends and the cut-out area that goes into the CB66s. I also treated the header real good on both sides, top and bottom, and the ends. Then I made four bolts for the CB66s by cutting 7-inch lengths of 1/2" allthread, and I got out eight half-inch nuts and washers.

Before I went in I was wondering if the three mousetraps would be enough. Since I had caught a mouse in every trap I had set, I wondered if there might be more than three mice still in the cabin. I decided to rig up a couple more traps. I took two five gallon buckets and made two traps out of them. I placed a dowel across the top of each bucket and then placed a square of sheet metal on the dowel so that one corner was resting on the rim of the bucket. Then I put a peanut on the opposite corner of the sheet metal. The metal was almost balanced on the dowel so it took very little pressure down on the peanut side to make it tip over and fall into the bucket. The idea was that if a mouse walked out onto the metal to get the peanut, it would fall into the bucket with the metal. I went in for the night set to catch as many as five mice. I also had some strategically placed peanuts on the stairs and floor.

On Wednesday I found that the bait was gone from the crawlspace trap, and the two bucket traps were still set and undisturbed. Upstairs, I found that all the peanuts were still in place but there was one little mouse in one of the traps. I was happy with this outcome. I took it to mean that there had been only one mouse left in the building and I had now caught him. Otherwise the other peanuts would have been gone. Time will tell if this is right.

The two stringers were completely dry after the Board Defense treatment so I got out the stain and stained both logs on the bottom sides. The logs were lying upside down. Most of the top side will be cut away in the notching for the treads so I didn't make any effort to stain what I couldn't reach. I can stain that after the notches are cut and before the treads are installed. There were quite a few mosquitoes out while I was working so I guess the mosquito season isn't over quite yet.

While I was in for lunch, the power went off. After a few minutes I called and reported it to the power company. I was told that they had a crew working in the area and that they would be told of the outage. The power came back on after an hour or so.

After lunch, I lifted the stringers up and replaced them in the CB66s. Then I bolted them to the CB66s with the bolts I made and lag screwed the tops to the header from the back side.

Then I went to work and made two jigs that I had designed in my imagination. Once I actually started making them, I modified the design somewhat. The idea was to have two jigs, one mounted on each stringer that would suspend a tread above its intended location much like a lifeboat is suspended by davits. The back of the jig would be held down by a loop of chain going around the stringer. A short 2x4 would hold the center of a longer 2x4 up in a more-or-less horizontal position. Then a 1x4 would be clamped flat on top of the horizontal 2x4. My original plan was to have a cord attached to the clamp and then hang over the end of the 1x4 and from there, down around the tread.

I built the things more-or-less like that and found that the cords were way too light. The first tread, which is over 10 feet long was heavy enough to snap the cords. I decided I needed a lot more strength, so I mounted a come-along on top of each 1x4 hooked to the chain around the stringer, and with the cable running over the end of the 1x4 and then down to loop around the tread. This not only gave me plenty of strength, but a lot more control vertically since I could just click the come-alongs.

With this arrangement, I have good adjustable control over all six degrees of freedom of the position of the tread. The first degree of freedom, the longitudinal one, would be determined by where the cable loops went around the tread. This isn't too critical because the treads will typically be too long and the ends cut off after they are all installed anyway. The two horizontal degrees of freedom perpendicular to the tread axis are controlled by sliding the 1x4 in or out on top of the 2x4 and then clamping it back in place. The two vertical degrees of freedom are controlled by the come-along clicks. And finally, the rotational degree of freedom about the tread axis is controlled simply by rotating the tread in the cable loops.

By making these six adjustments, each tread can be positioned exactly level and exactly above the stringers where they are supposed to go. Then the tread and the stringers can be scribed for the notch cuts. When each tread is taken down from the jigs for cutting, the jigs will be moved up the stringers to be in place for the next tread.

I have at least three different options for the notch cuts, and at this stage, I expect to use two and maybe all three of them. At the top of the stair, where the stringers are the smallest diameter, I may leave the stringers uncut and notch only the tread. This will maximize the strength of the stringers. At the bottom, where the stringers are so big that their strength is not a problem, I will probably notch the stringers and not the treads. For some of the treads in the middle, I may notch both the tread and the stringer and get a rectangular planar bearing surface between them. (I could also get a hyperbolic-paraboloid mating surface too, but I doubt that I will do that.)

I got the jigs set up and the first tread hanging from them and then I went in for the night.

On Thursday morning I was greeted by a flock of gray jays at my trailer window. I got dressed and went outside and fed them some peanuts. There were only two or three adult birds and the rest -- maybe five or six -- were juveniles. It seemed that this might have been their first trip out of the nest. The young birds would watch the adults land on my hands and load up on peanuts. Then when the adults were away, the youngsters would get up the nerve to land on my hands but then they didn't know what to do. Sometimes they would just fly off. Other times they would peck at my hand. But eventually they got the hang of taking the peanuts. They visited me off and on during the morning's work. Some of the juveniles were quicker learners than the others, but in just a few minutes in a few feeding episodes, the progress in learning was remarkable. By the time I left, all the little birds were landing on my hands and taking peanuts.

The power went out again in the morning. I called again and was told that outages were expected for today. It came back on again in a few minutes.

When I went up to work, there were no mice in any of the traps. They were all still set and seemed to be undisturbed, but the peanut I kept out on the floor was gone. I thought I had left one out but I couldn't remember for sure. I had the sinking feeling that there was still a mouse in there who was smart enough not to get caught in a trap. I hoped, though, that I had just forgotten to set out a peanut. I set out another peanut, and with five traps set, we'll see what happens when I come back next week.

Back to work, I realized that for safety's sake, I should cross brace the jigs. The tread is pretty heavy and if the jigs tipped over, it could be dangerous. I rigged up cross braces made of 1x2s clamped to the jigs and running to the ground. The whole thing is very sturdy now and I think it is completely safe.

Once the jigs were set up and braced, I started aligning the tread. This was the acid test to see if I had built the concrete piers correctly and that the stringers were in the proper positions vertically. I want the staircase to curve gently so that the bottom steps turn and face a little downhill. I had already built the first three stone steps slanted that way so I want the log staircase to blend in. The top tread needs to be square with the building and then each successive step down the staircase needs to slant a little more until the last one matches up with the stone steps.

I decided that to make it look good, each tread should be aligned with a tree 40 or 50 feet away that is in line with the top of the staircase. I adjusted the jigs until I got the tread to aim directly at that tree but I wasn't sure if it was going to work in that position. I needed a tape and a level to make sure. While I was in the cabin getting those tools, Larry stopped by to check on what I was doing.

We discussed the problem of aligning the treads and achieving the look I wanted. He had me continue with the measurements I was about to make while we were talking. I had calculated where the nose of the tread should be over each of the stringers. I had the first stringer marked and the nose of the tread was already aligned over that one. Now that the stringer was swung over to point to that tree, I wasn't sure if it was where it was supposed to be over the stringer. I strung the tape, marked the second stringer, and used a level to check how close I was. It was within two inches of being correct, which made me very happy. I was afraid that it would be much further off than that. I think I can adjust it to correct the two inches, or if not, I'll just choose another spot instead of that tree and use that instead for my convergence point. I didn't do any more work from that point on.

While Larry and I were chatting, a couple of gray jays came by for peanuts. When I walked Larry down to the road as he was leaving, the mosquitoes were thick enough that we didn't stop to chat long.

I went back up to the cabin and vacuumed the first floor and the window sills. The mice had made a mess and I wanted to clean it up now that I hope they are gone. When I went to leave, at 2:20, there was a little green frog in the padlock can. I locked up the gate and replaced the can with him still inside. I hope he didn't mind too much.