1/29-2/1/08 I went up to the property for 3 days and 3 nights: Tuesday through Friday.

The drive over the pass was pretty harrowing. There was snow over the entire road and visibility was very poor. The snowbanks on the sides of the road were between 6 and 10 feet high so it was like being in a huge bobsled run. Sometimes I had trouble seeing the road in front of me. Fortunately there wasn't much traffic in my direction, or if there was, it must have been going the same speed as I was so I didn't see it. Snoqualmie Pass was completely closed so there was more truck traffic than usual on Hy 2. I got all the way to the property without chains.

There was about a foot of new light powder snow on the driveway that had not been plowed. I figured I could just drive through the light snow, but I got stuck crosswise on the road trying to turn around. That seems to happen to me a lot. While I was blocking the road and putting the chains on, a locksmith came down the road and had to wait for me. Bert and Ernie also showed up so I had to get them some dog biscuits before I finished chaining up. It didn't take long to get the chains on and get out of the locksmith's way. I parked with no trouble with the chains on.

I made all the trails with snowshoes, started the heater in the trailer, and started a fire in the wood stove. I also shoveled off the top of the mixer while I was up there. Then I moved my gear in and had lunch.

After lunch, I went to work and sanded the surfaces that were due for another coat of varnish. I noticed that the stovepipe wasn't as plumb as it ordinarily was. I had a pretty hot fire burning and figured that the thermal expansion had worked against the jog in the pipe and pushed it out of plumb. In any case, I figured that I needed to have some guy wires supporting the top of the stovepipe.

I found a perfect piece of stranded wire left over from the treehouse I had built for Paul and Paula . It was 30 or 40 feet long so I wrapped the center of it around the stovepipe and twisted it together to form a loose loop around the pipe with two long equal lengths of wire sticking out. I took the two ends with me and climbed up the ladder. The plan was to anchor these ends up in the loft and then work the loop up the stovepipe so that the wire would be near the top of the stack.

While I was a few rungs up on the ladder I noticed that I had made my loop under the damper. I felt kind of stupid about that and I started back down the ladder to move the loop up above the damper. I broke my own safety rule of doing only one thing at a time and started thinking about getting the loop up and over the damper before I was all the way down the ladder. I was one rung off when I thought I was at the bottom rung, so when I stepped off the ladder, I stepped into nothing and fell to the floor. It wasn't all that far to fall, but I hit my thumb on something and I hit a rib on something else. Otherwise I was okay but feeling even stupider than I had felt a few moments earlier. I composed myself, got up, and resolved to obey my safety rules without exception from now on.

My wire loop was big enough that I had no trouble moving it above the damper. Then I took the ends of the wire and went up the ladder a second time, only this time more carefully.

Each wire reached a few feet past the Grid B purlin so I ran each one over the top of the purlin and fastened each end to an empty varnish can. I put a big hammer in one can and a block plane in the other just to provide weight. The plan was that as I worked the loop up the stovepipe, the weighted cans would pull the ends of the wire down and that would hold the loop in place. I could reach the stovepipe from the loft with an 8-foot 1x2 so I used that to push the loop up the pipe. I got it up to where it was even with the purlin. The wires formed a "V" with the direction the pipe needed to move being toward the center of the "V".

I pulled on the wires to tighten them up and straighten up the pipe at various times to see if there was a difference depending on the temperature of the pipe. I also wanted to know whether the chimney was moving at all. I don't think the chimney moved out of plumb with a change in temperature. But I wondered whether I should have screws in the slip joint. Without screws, the joint could accommodate any expansion of the pipe. On the other hand, without screws the weight of the elbows and pipe above the slip joint would be supported only from the screws at the top holding it to the chimney. I don't really trust those screws since I had trouble installing them so I like the idea of supporting the elbows from below. I'll have to do some more thinking about this, but for now, the counterweights keep the stack nearly plumb. I think I'll replace the cans with screw eyes in the purlin and see if that will work without turnbuckles or springs. I'll start simple and fix it later if it doesn't work.

Before I quit for the day, I planed and scraped about four feet of the second Grid A wall log.

On Wednesday morning there was about 8 inches of new snow. I put on the snowshoes and went over all the trails again. I measured 5 feet 7 inches of snow on the open flat. I built a fire in the wood stove and then went up and shoveled the snow off the privy and the woodshed roofs. This was the first time this winter for the woodshed and it was carrying a huge load of heavy snow and ice. By the time I got the snow off, I was able to walk from the snowbank right on to the roof.

Before I went to work in the cabin, Bert and Ernie came by again for dog biscuits. I spent the rest of the day preparing logs for varnish and got the second log completely ready. I got four feet of the third log ready for varnish. The third log is another tough one, at least on the end where I started so it is a lot of hard work to get it ready.

On Thursday morning there was another foot or so of new snow so I had to break the trails with snowshoes for the third time in a week. That is the first time I ever had to use the snowshoes more than once in a week. I measured 6 feet 1 1/2 inches of snow on the flat. I shoveled the snow out of the driveway behind the pickup so that I would be able to back out. I also shoveled a lot of snow away from the pickup doors and from around the pickup so I could get at it. I took some pictures before and after I shoveled. Then I went up and varnished the prepared surfaces. I had lunch, packed up, and left for home at noon. I wanted to leave fairly early because there was quite a snowstorm in the pass.

I already had the chains on but they were pretty loose. I stopped several times in the first quarter mile to tighten them. I was finally able to get them nice and tight by hooking into the very last link and twisting the chain to take up even more slack. The road was very snowy all the way to Cole's Corner but the chains worked well so I had no problem. When I got there, I found that the road was closed. The troopers told me that they didn't know when it would re-open and that I could wait in the Squirrel Tree until they knew.

I went into the Squirrel Tree at about 1:00 and spent about an hour having a piece of pie. When I was paying my bill, I noticed Paul Rohrbach waiting for a seat. He is the deputy sheriff who came out on 4/28/08 to investigate damage to my water hose. It was a mystery at the time, but I later concluded that the damage had been done by a bear.

I asked Paul about the road closure and he advised me to stay one more night. He said that two semis had jackknifed on the road and I probably wouldn't be able to get over the pass until 8:00 in the evening. I took his advice and drove back to the property. I moved back in, fed Bert and Ernie some more dog biscuits, and then used the remaining daylight to make a video tour of the cabin and property. I didn't want to spend too much time inside the cabin because of the varnish fumes.

I left for home again at 8:30 the next morning. The chains were already on and nice and tight and the new snow behind the pickup was nice and light, so I was able to back right out. When I got to Cole's Corner I could see that the traffic going west on Hy 2 was going near the speed limit. I thought I would have an easy and quick trip home. When I got about a half-mile from Rayrock Springs, the traffic in front of me was stopped. That was at 9:15. I sat there, moving a few feet from time to time until 11:26 when the traffic started moving again. The traffic moved pretty well from then on although the road was very snowy and chains were required. I never did figure out what was going on during that wait. I got to the summit at about noon and then stopped in at Marilyn and George's for a visit and lunch. I finally got home at about 3:00. Quite a week.