1/30-2/1/07 I went up to the property for 3 days: Tuesday through Thursday.

Before I left, I bought a gallon of Verathane. They had changed the label so I couldn't find the type I bought before. It took a long time to find someone at Home Depot who knew that the same product was still available but with a different looking label.

On the way up, I hit a big patch of ice near the fire station and slid off the road. I hit the snowbank on the right, then bounced and slid back across the road and hit the snowbank on the left. Good thing I had the road to myself. It knocked out both parking light lenses but both bulbs still worked.

I arrived at 1:30. There was no new snow. The temperature was 28 degrees.

After moving in, I checked things out after the scouts' visit. I crawled into the snow cave where three boys had slept and toyed with the idea of sleeping in there myself. I decided not to. I walked all the trails and put a few things back where they belonged. Then I got some rebar tie wire and wired up the parking light bulbs so they weren't just hanging by their wires but were positioned inside the openings where they belong. I'll need to get some new lenses.

I spent the rest of the day preparing to resume varnishing logs in the loft.

On Wednesday it was only 20 degrees out. I rigged some lights and tarps around the loft gable wall and started working on a very irregular log. Those are the hardest to do. I used a scraper, a gouge, a chisel, a rasp, and my pocketknife.

During the work, I got a new inspiration for the inside staircase. I think I will make it just like the one outside, with two log stringers, the stair treads making a gradual turn as they descend, and the staircase flaring out at the bottom with curved handrails. I think I can also increase the pitch somewhat so that the bottom is back further from the windows. That plan will be a lot easier than any of the spiral options I have considered, and it will be safer than the single half-log stringer I had planned on earlier. I don't have to make a final decision on the question for quite a while yet, but it is comforting to have a solution in mind that I think will be good looking, safe, and relatively easy to do. I will quit worrying about it now.

I am not used to the scraping, chiseling, gouging, and rasping, so my muscles got tired and sore pretty fast. I went in a little early for the night and worked on mounting flags on flagpoles for the boy scouts. Before I went in, I filled the wild bird feeder.

On Thursday it was 18 degrees. I went back to work planing, scraping, gouging, etc. the loft wall. There were five Steller's Jays having a great time robbing the bird feeder. The thing is supposed to prevent squirrels from getting the seed, but the Steller's have no problem getting in. I took some pictures of the temporary staircase outside and left for home at 1:10.