10/17-19/06 I went up to the property for 3 days: Tuesday through Thursday.

The drive over was gorgeous. There had been some rain so the leaves were all brightened up. I arrived at 1:00. The fire danger was posted as "low" and it was a beautiful clear day. Rain was forecast for the next week so I figured this would be the perfect time to burn the big slash pile that had been drying out for a few months.

After moving in and having lunch, I went to work to burn the slash pile. It was too close to some trees so I decided to move it if I could. I wrapped a big rope around the base of the pile and hooked it to the pickup. Then I dragged it a ways, but instead of sliding very much, it tipped over. It looked like way too much to burn all at once, so I decided to start a small fire and just feed branches to it to see how much I could safely burn at once.

Just two or three branches, with their dried needles still on, made a huge blaze, so I was really glad I didn't light the whole thing off. I used a pruning clipper to cut the branches in two or three lengths before I threw the pieces on the fire. Most of the time there was no wind and the flames went straight up. During those times, I would pile on quite a few branches and the flames would go up about 10 or 12 feet. When the breeze came up I would let the flames die down before I put any more branches on.

It took the rest of the afternoon, but I burned up the entire slash pile and had nothing but a pile of ash and embers by dinnertime.

On Wednesday morning I decided to do some careful measuring of the tread placement on the staircase. After getting the tread nearly to where it needs to go, it just seemed to me that it had to be notched way too deep and for the past couple weeks I had the sinking feeling that maybe it wasn't going to work. I had imagined the worst case scenario and tried to think of how I could fix the problem. If the stringers were too high, the only way I could raise the treads would be to redesign the staircase so that it extended further out at the bottom. That would mean tearing out the rock steps I had already built and rebuilding them farther out. If the stringers were too high near the top of the staircase, one solution would be to extend the deck out by one extra tread, which I think would look tacky. I dreaded the thought that I would have to do any of those things, so I strung some tight strings and did the measurements to find out how bad it was.

To my great relief, I found that it will work the way it is. The first tread is already in the correct position so I don't have to do any more notching on it at all. The tread is nice and level in all directions.

As for depth, the left stringer was no problem. The notch depth on that side was about right all the way up. On the right side, the first tread was notched pretty deep, but it got better as you moved up the log. The log is plenty thick at the bottom, so I will be able to notch it in a way that will work and still be safe. The next tread will be a little tricky because the CB66 will interfere on the left side so I will have to do some tricky cutting on that side. It shouldn't be a problem though.

Since the tread is at its final position, I could see how it will mate with the newel post. I did quite a bit of thinking about how I will do it. The newel post will come right through the middle of the tread axis and the tread will be right at the level of the lower of the two bolt holes. It will be a little tricky getting the bolt through the holes with the tread in place. The only way I can figure out how to do it is to remove a chunk of the end of the tread, put the bolt in and tighten it up, and then glue or screw the chunk of the tread back in place. I think that will work.

Rather than work any more on the stair, since the weather was so nice and promising to get worse, I figured this was the perfect time to fall three dead trees by the lower driveway. One of them was leaning over the driveway and I figured I didn't want to have to deal with it in the rain or snow. I planned to buck them into firewood and take them home for Paul V.

While I was sharpening the chainsaw I just happened to get a call from Paul asking me if he could borrow my pickup when I got home. He wanted to get some firewood. I told him that just by coincidence I was going to bring him some firewood, and he said something like, when it rains it pours.

I took the chainsaw down to the trees and as soon as I got there, I saw Bert on the road. He saw me and came running over to get some dog biscuits. He and Ernie were out on a walk with Brad Philbrook and two of McComas's dogs: Brass and a beagle whose name I didn't catch. I hadn't met Brad before so after we introduced ourselves, we went up and I gave him the grand tour of the property and the cabin. We had a nice chat and exchanged email addresses.

After Brad left, I felled the three trees, bucked them up, loaded the firewood into the pickup, and burned all the slash. The leaves were gorgeous along the road, so before I quit for the day, I took a couple pictures of the rock outcropping at the road and the leaves around it.

On Thursday morning I worked on the newel post. I used part of the log that came from the tree on the high rock. I fashioned the end of it to fit into the CB66 and tried it out. It stands in there perfectly plumb and it looks really good. The tread was moved out of the way at the time because the post needs to be cut more in order to fit through the hole in the tread. I did some measurements for this cut and made a template, but I will leave the cutting until next week.

During the work, three or four chipmunks were scurrying around but only one of them got up the nerve to take peanuts from me. I can't understand why this year's chipmunks are so shy. It rained lightly during the morning. I left for home at 1:3