10/3-5/06 I went up to the property for 3 days: Tuesday through Thursday.

I arrived at 1:45. There was no frog in the gate can. There was also no sign of mice in the cabin. Maybe I finally have them licked for good.

After moving in and having lunch, I went up to the cabin and put away tools and began tidying things up for the scout visit. I started rigging up some lights out on the porch using some extension cords I had gotten at a garage sale. I repaired one of the terminal ends of one cord, and then plugged another one in that had a trouble light at the end of it to see if the bulb worked. It sounded like the cord had a broken wire in it because it caused intermittent buzzing in the radio. I wiggled the cord and determined that it must be in the plug. I was examining the plug to see if I could take it apart when Larry showed up.

I described the problem to him and after trying to demonstrate it to him, it became evident that the problem was only some corrosion on the plug spades and all I had to do was scrape them clean. We had a nice visit although he told me that Roberta isn't doing too well. I was sorry to hear that.

After Larry left, I finished rigging up the lights outside. Then I went inside and rearranged the furniture. Paul Hendricks had told me that he wanted a sheet of plywood or some other sort of easel that they could tape their plans and calendars on. I looked around for something suitable and decided to use two hollow core interior doors that I happened to have in the crawl space. I brought the two doors upstairs and vacuumed them off.

I fed the gray jays a few times during the afternoon.

On Wednesday I built an easel by fastening the two doors together. I put them together edge to edge and then screwed an 8-foot 1x2 to the top and bottom edges. With the 1x2s standing vertically, the two doors were horizontal, one on top of the other, making a nice surface to work on. The thing was just the right size so that one 1x2 was up against the Grid B2 PSL and the other 1x2 was up against the Grid C2 RPSL. I used some parachute cord to lash the 1x2s to the columns at the tops and at the bottoms. That held the whole thing securely and finished the job.

I did a thorough job of vacuuming upstairs and down and cleaning all the spider webs out of the windows. I got all the chairs out and rearranged the furniture so that it will work for planning and also for eating. I also swept off the porch and tidied things up out there.

I fed the flock of gray jays on several occasions, and I also got a visit from Bert and Ernie. We went down to the pickup and I got them some dog biscuits. They were pretty happy about the treat.

On Thursday morning, I hosed off the rock steps and then decided to let the hose run for a couple reasons. I wanted the water in the hose to be fresh for the scouts and I wanted to see if the water that runs off the roof of the building gets down to the potted trees. I let the hose run in the drip line of the roof and then took a shovel down over the cliff and made a drainage ditch to the trees. It looked like without the ditch, the water might have missed the trees.

One of the white plastic chairs had some dirty brown liquid spilled on it. I didn't know what it was at first, but after sticking my finger in it and smelling it, I realized it was bar oil. Then I remembered setting the chainsaw in that chair. That was a mistake I won't do again. I got a spray bottle of 409 hoping it would cut through the bar oil. I also got a scrub brush and went to work. I was pleased that it cleaned up real nice and real easy.

Since I had the 409 and the brush out, I decided to finally clean the window on the privy. When I built the privy, I broke one of the windows and had to replace the glass. The glazing putty left oily marks on the edge of the glass that I had intended to clean up but had never done. Now was the time.

I washed both privy windows inside and out and I did a thorough cleaning job in the privy. The spiders will have to start all over again when the scouts leave. I also dumped wood ashes into the hole to make the privy as pleasant as possible for the guests. I fed the jays and even a chipmunk during the work.

I felt pretty good about having everything ready for the scouts. Before I left, I shut off the hose and checked to see if the water reached the trees. The ground was so dry and porous that the water had only reached about 3/4 of the way to the trees. No wonder the trees were drying up. It looks like I better water them some more. I left for home at 1:20.

10/7-8/06 I went up to the property with 9 Boy Scouts and six dads for the weekend.

The boys did their yearly planning in the cabin. The lower roadway was taken up by parked cars and the boys said it was too lumpy anyway, so they pitched their tents on the upper roadway. One of the dads pitched his tent up by to spring. He wanted to be way out in the woods. Most of the dads, and a couple of the boys made their bunks in the cabin. The porch was set up as a kitchen and, as usual, the cooks were great and the meals were superb. I think everyone had a good time, and the planners got a lot of work done. The scoutmaster told me that it worked out very well and they would like to do it again next year. I told him I would love to have them.

The jays were around for the scouts and dads to feed them, but they didn't bother the cooks too much. I was afraid they might. Bert and Ernie also visited both days and the boys used up all my dog biscuits treating them. The dogs really seemed to enjoy the company and the attention of the boys.

One of the boys accidentally dropped his mom's (I think it was) flashlight into the privy. It was sticking straight up with the light still on. When I heard about it, I got a piece of #9 wire with a hook on the end and fished it out. I set it on a rock below the porch and with everyone watching and cheering and taking pictures, I hosed the flashlight off. Nobody still wanted to touch it so it stayed there overnight. The dad of the boy who dropped it wrapped it up in a plastic bag to take it home and clean it up. He plans on some kind of surprise joke to play on his boy with the flashlight.

As a service project to thank me for the use of the property, the boys hauled nearly all of the chips from the pile and spread them on all the trails to the spring. I was super happy about that. The trails really look nice now and I am really glad the chips are gone. It was a fun and successful weekend.