9/22/08 (Monday) I assembled and mounted the lumber rack on the truck. Rather than remove, or cut out parts of the bedliner, I simply peeled it back from the corners and was able to get the stanchions in behind it. The bedliner is bent out and distorted, but after I am done with the lumber rack and take it off, the bedliner will go back in place with no damage. I had to make some parts to bolt the front stanchions to the bed rail, but for the rest, all I had to do was drill holes in the bed and bolt the stanchions to it. Then, with a little help from my neighbor Kerry, I bolted the rack together and it is ready to haul. I need to get the long straight ladder from the property in order to carry the roof panels. I'll do that on my next trip.

9/23-25/08 I went up to the property for 3 days: Tuesday through Thursday.

On the way, I stopped at Mike and Shirley's to pay him for fixing the truck, but they were not home. I did meet Bert and Ernie though, and fed them some dog biscuits. I arrived at the property at about 12:30 where I met and fed Bert and Ernie again.

I was very pleased to see that there has been no more frass whatsoever below the big Grid F.5 beam since I applied the borate treatment to it on 9/10/08, and I was pleased that there has been no evidence of mice in the cabin since I patched the loose screen on 9/6/08. I am gaining confidence that I am winning the war against invading critters.

The weather was again perfect for working in the woods so I went right to work on the water pipe trench. I tackled the particularly bad stretch at the base of some big trees and gradually cut away the roots and teased out the rocks that were entwined in the roots. I got most of that stretch down to the required 19 inch depth. (The frost line is 18 inches and the pipe is 1 inch.) During the work, the gray jays visited me in the woods and got their peanuts, and on trips to the cabin, Charlie the chipmunk got his share too.

Before I went in for the night, I wired a mousetrap to some hoses under the hood of the truck and set the trap. The plan was to stop the packrats before they could do any more damage in there. Before I went to bed, I checked the trap and found that I had caught a mouse by the foot. He was just standing on the trap looking at me. When I tried to grab him, he pulled his foot out of the trap and ran off. I set the trap again but I began to think that this was not a good approach. I might have lured that mouse up there with the peanut butter bait and he might not have gone up there otherwise.

On Wednesday morning the trap under the hood was sprung but there was nothing in it. There was also no evidence of damage or packrat activity. I decided that the mousetrap was a bad idea. The best strategy might be simply to check under the hood each morning, and whenever I am out in the evening, and evict any packrats that are in there. Since they are looking for nesting sites, I think they will quit trying to build nests under the hood if I keep destroying any nests as they start.

I spent the day working on the water pipe trench again. I started digging at the rock outcropping at the bottom end of the trench and dug it to the required 19-inch depth. I worked my way uphill, through the difficult root-bound area, and got nearly the entire trench dug to depth.

Bert and Ernie came to visit me in the woods, but since I didn't have any dog biscuits with me, they had to settle for strokes and hugs which they seemed to thoroughly enjoy. I also fed peanuts to the gray jays and to Charlie the chipmunk. Charlie's cheek has healed now so that there is no trace of his previous injury.

After lunch, I called Mike to make sure he was home and then I drove over and paid him the money I owed him for fixing the truck. Then I went back to work in the woods. It was absolutely beautiful in the woods. There were no bugs, no wind, and the temperature was nice and cool. Perfect for working.

Before I quit for the day, I opened the dam a little so that the pipeline trench was flooded with water from the creek. I figured that by running all night, the stream would carry away some of the loose dirt and also reveal the contour of the bottom to let me know where I needed to do some more digging.

On Thursday morning, debris had plugged up the part of the dam I had opened up, so there was only a trickle of water running down the pipeline trench. This trickle showed me exactly where I needed to dig more. There were pools of water separated by flowing sections of stream. The flowing sections were ideal for laying the pipe since they were completely downhill. The pools showed where the trench had dips in it and where I needed to dig away where the pools were dammed up. By using the post hole digger to drain each of the pools, I was able to finish digging the entire trench to the correct depth and to make the bottom of the trench continuously downhill. It was ready for pipe installation, but I was out of time. I opened the dam again a little and left it for next week.

Before I left for home, I took the short ladder down from the loft, so I would have a way to get back up there, and then I took the long ladder down to the truck and lashed it to the top of the lumber rack so I can haul the new roof panels on it. I left for home at 2:00.

9/26/08 (Friday) Went up to CP Sheet Metals and bought three new roof panels and 310 screws. Curt gave me some invaluable advice on how to deal with the panels and how to install them on the roof. All of his advice greatly simplified what I would have done without the advice. The job actually seems pretty easy to me now so I am looking forward to getting it done. It's a good feeling now to have everything I need to fix the roof and a clear plan about how to do it. And, I have a free lumber rack to boot, thanks to Curt's generosity.