3/20-22/07 I went up to the property for 3 days: Tuesday through Thursday.

I arrived at 1:15. There was quite a bit of snow going over the pass but there was no new snow on the ground at the property. It was 35 degrees and very pleasant. After moving in and having lunch, I sanded 9 logs that were due for another coat of varnish. Then I started on the last loft window, which is the last window left. I hammered the nailheads down a little so I could plane and scrape over the tops of them.

At one point, I found a 9 mm Luger shell casing on the lower driveway. It disturbed me a little to think that someone discharged a pistol down there. I looked around but didn't find any more shell casings. It made me wonder, though. I decided it might be time to put the gate back up, but when I checked it out, I found that the gate log was still under quite a bit of snow so it would be a lot of extra work. I decided to do it next week.

I got a call from the admissions doctor who told me that Gus was going to be admitted to the hospital to get re-hydrated and to get an infection treated.

Quite a few frogs were croaking in the early evening. It was good to hear them.

On Wednesday I finished planing, scraping, gouging, and chiseling the window frame and got it ready for varnish. Windows are harder to prepare than logs are so I was especially glad to get this last one done. Then I planed and scraped two more logs and got them ready for varnish. Then I swept up the chips and vacuumed the floor and the wall.

I got a call from Dr. Yoo who was treating Gus and was updated on his condition. He is worsening. After she hung up, I called JoAnne and gave her an update.

On Thursday morning, I varnished the 11 log sections and the window. Then I did a rough measurement of the stair stringers in the temporary crawlspace staircase and realized that I could use them to build the back outside staircase. I could use the technique I learned from Skip's website of building the log staircase upside-down on the temporary stringers. After all the logs are notched the log staircase is removed, inverted, and installed in its final place. The stringers are then discarded. I think this will work for the back. I'll have to do some more careful measurement and planning before I can be sure. I left at 11:15 and went directly to the hospital to see Gus.

3/25/07 I learned that the 9 mm Luger shell had probably fallen out of the JoBoxes on the Scout bus while it was parked in the driveway. I found a similar shell on the ground after returning from Black Mountain and was told that a few of them had been found in the new boxes. That was a relief to find out.