4/15-17/08 I went up to the property for 3 days: Tuesday through Thursday.

I arrived at 12:50. It was sunny but windy. I brought an area rug up with me that Ellen had bought at a garage sale. I carried it up to the loft to store it until we are ready to roll it out. I also carried up a bundle of EMT. While I was up in the cabin, I heard a noise that sounded like a rodent chewing. I quickly checked and saw that the peanut was still on the floor and the mouse traps were still set. I was relieved.

For a while I thought the noise was from thermal expansion of the roof and I'm sure some of it was. But there was also the distinct sound of chewing. It was coming from the east corner of the building, so I went outside and climbed up on the high rock to see if I could see the chewer. Sure enough, there was Rocky the pine squirrel under the eaves near the peak. He looked a little guilty and slowly made his way down the wall right in front of me. I didn't see where he was chewing, but he has been chewing on the outsides of the logs. He might do a little damage, but I am sure he won't be chewing all the way through. I consider him to be just part of the environment.

Speaking of noise, the frog singing was very loud across the road. It is good to hear them so strong.

After moving in and having lunch, I went to work preparing for the electrical service. I started out by making measurements and a drawing showing the route of the service wires in the building. Then I used a 100 foot tape and measured the run through the trench and down to the site of the permanent meter base. That run was 132 feet with about 90 degrees of bends overall. I will be able to use the 2" conduit I had placed in the foundation for that purpose. The trench will end directly below that conduit, and on the inside, the conduit will go straight up to the main floor joists and from there, run between two joists to the wall with the service panel above. I think it is an elegant and simple design for the service. It leaves the meter down by the road where it is now. That way, the meter reader doesn't have to come very far onto the property, and the rules for the wire run to the building are more relaxed than if the meter were on the building.

With the measurements and drawing made, I made a depth gauge of two 1x2s which I screwed together in the form of a cross. I thought the trench needed to be 24" deep measured to the top of the conduit, so I made each leg of the cross 27" long. That way, I could use any of the four legs to probe the trench and the perpendicular legs would rest on the banks if the trench were deep enough.

Then I started digging. I dug a channel through the snow berm off the west corner of the cabin. That got me down to a pile of scrap log ends intended for firewood. I dug up three or four wheelbarrow loads of this wood and moved it under the eaves on the upper roadway where it can dry out. Below that, I dug through six inches or so of duff which I threw over the bank. That left a bare track of dirt where the trench needs to go. By that time it was time to quit for the day.

Before I had dinner, I made a bunch of short ropes and a knot demonstration that I will use for a class I will give at the next scout meeting.

Wednesday was another nice sunny day. I placed a tarp on the ground to pile the dirt on and started digging the trench. I used the rocks that I dug up to form a wall on the tarp to keep the dirt on. I had done that on the previous section of the trench too, so this was the second one. There were a lot of rocks in the ground making digging slow and difficult. But, I like that kind of digging and had fun doing it.

I dug out quite a few rocks that were 30 or 40 lbs. But I hit one that was much bigger. I hit it with the steel bar and determined that it was a boulder and not part of the bedrock. But it was still too big to dig out. Fortunately, it didn't completely cross the trench and I was able to dig under it. I think the conduit will go down into the trench past the rock, but if not, the end of the conduit can be pushed under the rock and pulled through. It is only another 20 feet or so to the building, so that won't be too bad if that's what we have to do. By the end of the day, I got quite a few sections of the trench down to 27" deep. Other places were not that deep. And, there was still 15 feet or so up to the building that I hadn't dug yet at all. Still, I felt that I had accomplished quite a bit.

I fed some peanuts to a couple of Steller's Jays, and shortly after, a couple of gray jays came down for peanuts. It was good to see them again. I haven't seen them for a while. When I went in for the night, the frogs were singing really loud again.

On Thursday morning I dug some more on the trench and then did some cleaning up in the cabin. The boys had left quite a mess around the wood stove. I swept this up and discovered that they had really stained the marble pad with something. There was a can of WD-40 out that they must have gotten out. My guess is that they were squirting it into the fire and that it had dripped on the marble. I was a little irritated. I took pictures of the mess and mulled over different options of how to deal with the boys. I also took some pictures of the trench before I had lunch. I left for home at 12:45.

4/18/08 I sent the measurements and drawing to Brian Kemly via email. He responded that the trench only needs to be 18" deep except for where it goes under the driveway where it needs to be 24" deep. That was good news because it means less digging for me. I'll also have to modify my depth gauge. I'll cut 6 inches off two of the legs.