8/12-14/08 I went up to the property for 3 days: Tuesday through Thursday.

I arrived at 2:15. There was no sign of mice in the cabin. After moving in, I went to work bracing the forms. After John had seen the pictures of my forms he commented that they needed more bracing. Since he knows more about placing concrete than I do, I decided to take his advice and beef up the bracing. Before I quit for the day, I put together the electrical box for receptacles down at the new power pole.

On Wednesday, I installed the outlet box and connected it to a breaker which I installed inside the meter-disconnect box on the power pole. I decided that I am going to have the PUD disconnect and discontinue the old temporary power pole so now that I have a working receptacle down there, I can do that.

It took me quite a while to install the box because, in my opinion, the parts were poorly designed. The little brackets that were provided for fastening the box to the pole had such a big hole for the screw that the head pulled right through it as soon as I tried to screw it to the post. I made new brackets by drilling holes in two knockout tabs for circuit breakers. These worked out OK but the job took me the whole morning. The gray jays came around for peanuts during the work.

After lunch, I glued up and installed two 3/4" PVC spare electrical conduits under the stair forms. I don't know what I will use these for, but it never hurts to have spares.

Next, I took a roll of rebar tie wire and wired the spare conduits, the telephone conduit, and the fiber optic conduit in such a way as to position them and hold them in the forms where I want them to be. Then I cut two 3-foot lengths of K-web and wired them together to make a sort of mesh for the step that will be right on top of the rock I chiseled away. I installed the mesh over the rock and wired it in place.

Next I got a ladder out of the cabin and set it up against the trailer so I could inspect the trailer closely to try to find out how mice might have gotten in the roof. I went over the trailer with a fine tooth comb and finally concluded, once again, that it is impossible for mice to get in there. I think I must be hearing carpenter ants and not mice. Next week I'll bring up a straw so I can squirt ant killer up into that space from a light fixture opening. I remember going through this same process and doing the same thing a year or two ago. It stopped the gnawing noise then so it probably is ants again this time.

On Thursday morning I built more braces for the forms. I backfilled the forms with dirt and I cleaned brush away from the forms so that you can now walk alongside the forms on both sides in most places. I designed and started to install a big 4x4 strut to brace the upper staircase against the cumulative riser forces that John had warned about. When this strut is built, I think it will do the job.

It was pretty hot working but the mosquitoes seemed to be fewer. I hope they will be completely gone in two weeks when we pour concrete. The gray jays and a chipmunk visited me during the work. I left for home at 2:30.

8/15/08 Made two screeds for the steps as designed and suggested by John. Actually, I made three but I had to throw the first one away because of my stupid errors in geometry.