3/4-6/08 I went up to the property for 3 days: Tuesday through Thursday.

Last week I noticed that the picturesque little bridge just north of the highway and just before you get to the rest stop -- near MP 82, had collapsed. I forgot to record it in this journal last week. I looked at it again as I drove by. I should have taken more pictures of it before it fell. I also noticed that the ice is completely gone from the lake. Last week it was still completely frozen over and had been since that cold weather earlier in the winter.

I arrived right at noon and was promptly greeted by Bert and Ernie. I gave them each a couple dog biscuits as I moved my gear to the trailer. It was a beautiful sunny 40 degrees. Before I had lunch, I went up and glued the inlay into the column where I had installed the light switches. I wanted it to be nice and dry so I could work on it before I left for the week.

After lunch, I sanded the logs due for another coat of varnish and then I planed and scraped the rest of the fifth log in the Grid A wall. Before I quit for the day, I measured the diameters of the posts on the front and back porches. I intend to buy copper caps for these posts to protect them.

On Wednesday morning the snow was frozen hard so I could walk over the top of it anywhere. The temperature had been below freezing overnight. I walked around in the woods just enjoying the scenery. I discovered a big Doug fir snag that had fallen over sometime during the winter and was leaning down over the cliff above the driveway entrance. It looked like it was a good sound log that I might be able to use so I got the spud out and spudded off all the bark that was exposed above the snow.

Then I went to work on the Grid A wall and planed, scraped, and gouged all the rest of the logs on that wall. Before I did the last of it, I got the camera out and made a video of how I prepare the walls for varnish. Unfortunately I used the time-delay feature of the camera and I later discovered that that makes the audio out of sync with the video. I'll post the video on the website anyway, but I won't use that timer feature on future videos.

Before I went in, I used a scraper to prepare the inlay for varnish.

Thursday was another beautiful sunny day. I did some more walking around on top of the snow enjoying the scenes and the animals. Then I went in and varnished the logs in the loft and the inlay on the column. When I started to clean out my brush, Larry stopped by for a visit. He watched me finish clean the brush and then we went out on the porch for a visit. The fumes weren't so bad out there. I walked him back down to the road, helping him not slip on the snow, and when we got to the road, I showed him the big cottonwood branch that I had seen fall during the heavy snowfall. Then I went back to the trailer, had lunch, and left for home at 1:30.