3/11-13/08 I went up to the property for 3 days: Tuesday through Thursday.

I arrived at 12:45 and was promptly met by Bert and Ernie, eager for their dog biscuits. The temperature was about 35 degrees and there was a light rain for about an hour. After moving in and having lunch, I went to work and sanded the bottom three Grid A wall logs which were all due for another coat of varnish. I also sanded the inlay on the column in the dining room preparing it for its second coat of varnish.

On Wednesday, the weather was beautiful, sunny, and about 40 degrees. The snow was shrinking fast.

I spent the day planing, scraping, and gouging the last three logs in the loft. The end is in sight! The logs are at the bottom of the Grid 1 wall on the left side. I had planed the first of them earlier, but that log has a severe imperfection so it took a lot of extra work to prepare it. A fairly big section of the log has separated from the main log. I deliberately put that section inside the building so that only good sound wood is exposed to the outside. I have been wondering what I would do about this log ever since I put it in. At the time I placed the log, I was completely out of long logs so I didn't have much choice. The log is sound enough, but it has this split-off section.

One option would be to cut the section away, but that would leave a huge hole which would be hard to repair nicely. By leaving the section in place, it will simply look like the log has an especially big check. I decided to leave the section in place, clean it up nicely, and varnish it. Then when I chink, I might put mortar in the biggest part of the crack. I also might use a couple screws to keep the section from breaking off. We'll see. For now, I just cleaned it up and got it ready for varnish.

The log below that was no problem and it cleaned up fairly easily. Then, below that is a log that is below the floor level for most of its length, but the left side of it comes up above floor level for about 8 feet. I could hardly get the planer in to work on it so I ended up scraping and gouging it by hand to get it ready.

I was especially happy to clean up the chip mess knowing that that would be the last major chip mess in the building, at least involving wall logs. I vacuumed the walls and the loft floor feeling good that they will stay clean for quite a while from now on.

On Thursday morning I varnished all the prepared logs. It snowed lightly for a little while and I fed a flock of Steller's Jays who were bold enough to come pretty close begging for peanuts. I left for home at noon.