9/11-13/07 I went up to the property for 3 days: Tuesday through Thursday.

Highway 207 was closed in order to build fish culverts so I had to detour through Leavenworth and Plain. I arrived at 1:50. The weather was a warm 78 degrees.

After moving in and having lunch I carried up four wooden folding chairs and a microwave oven that Joe had given me. Then I dismantled the easel the scouts had used and carried the two doors back down to the crawl space. One of the old dining room chairs had come apart while the scouts were having their planning session. I decided that it can be put back together but I decided to do it at home. I took the pieces down and loaded them in the pickup. A second chair needed some work also so I loaded it in the pickup too.

Next, I made some measurements and got a start chiseling the abutments for the stair stringers on the porch beam. I used a 3 lb. hammer and a couple different size wood chisels.

In the middle of the night I was awakened by an owl hooting nearby. I wanted to get a recording of the sound so I got out the camera and set it to take movies. I took a couple movies of my bed during the hooting thinking I would be capturing the sound. During one of them, a pack of coyotes started howling and yipping. As it turned out, the camera didn't capture any of the sounds at all. I guess the microphone is built to pick up close in sounds.

On Wednesday, I finished chiseling both abutment notches before lunch. Then I made precise measurements of the angle each stringer would make with its respective abutment surface. I need to cut the tops of the stringers at exactly these angles.

I made a scribing jig for scribing the ends of the stringer logs. The jig is a rectangular frame made of 1x2s that is fastened to the end of a board and held rigid at the correct angle. There are eight screws sticking out of the 1x2 frame with a tight string strung among them to form two parallel strings on each side of the frame. There is enough room in the middle between the strings for the log.

With the board screwed to the stringer log, the frame with the strings goes around the end of the log. By sighting across a pair of strings on each side of the log, the log can be scribed all the way around.

I scribed the first stringer and then got the chainsaw out to cut it. The saw started but it wouldn't accelerate. If I pulled on the trigger just a little, the saw would stop. After messing with it for a while, I discovered that it would accelerate if I closed the choke just a little. Once I figured this out, I cut the end of the stringer on the scribed mark. It's a little discouraging that the saw is behaving worse now than it did before I brought it to the shop.

Next, I made a template of the abutment notch and used it to shape the end of the stringer so it will fit snugly up against the deck planks that will stick out beyond the stringer. Finally, before I went in for the night, I measured and marked the stringer for the CB66 flanges. The gray jays came around all day for peanuts.

Earl called in the evening and we had a nice chat. He said he is feeling pretty good and that they will be going south again in November.

On Thursday Bert and Ernie came around for dog biscuits first thing in the morning. I shifted my work priorities a little. Instead of continuing work on the back staircase, I decided that the next project will be to move the wood stove up to the cabin. Since the hole in the floor is filled in, I can set the stove in there any time. And since the weather is bound to get wet sooner or later, I decided to bring the stove up next week while it is still nice. I gave a lot of thought as to how I was going to load the thing into the pickup and how I was going to get it up into the building. One thing I needed was some sort of anchor in the front of the pickup bed to use in pulling the stove up into the bed.

After looking at the pickup bed, I decided to make two rebar anchors that would seat inside the stake holes in the front corners of the bed. I used Dr. Dick's rebar cutter-bender and some pieces of #4 rebar I got from Sid Fadden and fashioned two anchors. I was pleased with how they came out. We'll see if they work.

Then I loaded four 2x12 planks for skidding the stove up into the pickup. The stove is awfully heavy and I was afraid that two planks would not be strong enough. Better to be safe than sorry. I also loaded two come-alongs (I thought I would only need one, but one extra one wouldn't hurt), three chains, a can of shackles and hooks, a big steel bar for use as a lever, some old towels for padding, and some other odds and ends.

I needed to leave a little early because of the detour through Leavenworth, so by the time I got everything loaded in the pickup, it was time to quit for lunch and leave for home. I left at about 12:30.

9/15/07 I loaded the wood stove in the pickup. It was a fairly involved operation. I had to move a lot of junk from around and off of the stove, just to get at it. Then I had to move a bunch more stuff just to be able to get the garage door open. The stove was up on concrete blocks in the garage, so I was able to get two skateboards under it. Then by rocking the stove sideways, I could get the concrete blocks out and rest the stove on the skateboards. Then I could push it out of the garage and into the alley.

Then I drove the pickup around to the alley and lined it up with the stove. By taking the tailgate completely off, I could rest two pairs of planks on the back bumper and the top plank just came even with the pickup bed. I thought that worked out slick.

I wrapped my two rebar anchors in small towels so they wouldn't mar the pickup, and stuck them into the stake holes in front of the bed. Then I hooked a chain bridle between the two anchors. I unrolled a come-along all the way and fastened the come-along to the bridle. Then I wrapped a chain around the middle of the wood stove with small towels at each corner to protect the stove. I fastened the come-along hook to the chain around the stove.

I had some slick plastic coated particle board panels that were salvaged from some old furniture. I got one of these panels under the stove by using the steel bar and a concrete block to lever the stove up so I could get the panel under the stove. The panel was partly lapping over the two plank rails, so by cranking on the come-along, the stove slid up onto the panel and up the planks. The stove was going to skid off the panel, so I fastened a loop of chain around the panel and fastened it to the pulling tackle. That way, when I cranked on the come-along, it pulled the stove and the panel up together. The chain around the panel was between the two plank rails.

I pulled the stove up only a click or two at a time. Each time I would check the progress and make any adjustments. The panel was slick enough that I could easily push the load around to keep it centered on the rails and going where I wanted it to go.

When the panel reached the pickup bed, I wanted to remove the chain from around it because I wanted the panel to lie flat on the bed liner. I didn't want that chain under it. I waited about one click too long to remove the chain because the hook on the end of the chain got hung up. I used the steel bar to lever the stove and panel up just enough to get the chain out. Then as I cranked on the come-along another click or two, the stove started teetering forward. Between clicks, I would adjust the panel by pushing it, and kept the stove and panel where I wanted them. Then as I clicked some more, the stove tipped up straight so that the panel was flat on the bed. Since the bed was level, it was easy to slide the panel around in the pickup bed. The plastic on the panel and the plastic bed liner made for a low coefficient of friction.

I disconnected my pulling rigging, planks, etc. and pushed the stove to the front of the bed. Then I used one come-along and the two anchors to secure the stove up against the front of the bed. I was very happy to get that job done. Now I just have to get it lifted up onto the porch deck and then into the cabin. That will be next week's job.