11/4-6/08 I went up to the property for 3 days: Tuesday through Thursday.

There was snow on the ground above 2500 feet and snow on the roadway above 3300 feet going over the pass. There was no new snow on the ground at the property. I arrived at 12:50 and was promptly greeted by Bert and Ernie. I was puzzled but happy to find no evidence of mice in the cabin.

After moving in and having lunch, I went to work and made a steel strap fastener for a shackle. Then I anchored the strap and shackle to the outside of the concrete staircase as an anchor for the downhaul for tightening the rope rail. Then I used hurricane ties and concrete anchors to fasten the bottom two posts to the concrete.

I measured the length of rope I would need for the handrail and cut a 56 foot length from the 3/4 inch rope I had stored in the loft. There was a pretty strong skunk smell outside so I knew one or more of the critters was pretty nearby, but I didn't see any. The next day the smell went away. Good thing.

On Wednesday, Bert and Ernie came around for treats again right away. I installed the rope handrail on the stairs and took some pictures of it. That is all I plan to do with the staircase. I felt happy that the project is finished. I am super happy with how it turned out.

Next, I turned my attention to the back staircase. The first thing was to trim the half-log deck plank ends. I used the Skilsaw to make a kerf across the tops of them as deep and far as it would go, but the planks are too thick for the blade to cut all the way through. I used the big crosscut saw to finish cutting through the first three planks. The fourth one is up against the wall so not only couldn't I run the Skilsaw all the way through it, but I couldn't get the big crosscut saw in there either. I used a combination of a back saw and a small handsaw I got from Gus in order to cut through the log. It took quite a bit of work. I took my lunch break in the middle of the job.

After lunch, I finished trimming off that fourth deck log. Then I spudded the concrete off one of the 2x8s I had used for the concrete forms, and cut 20 gussets from it. It was starting to get dark when I finished cutting them so I took them inside the cabin. I'll use two gussets to fasten each tread to the log stringers to make the stairs.

I drilled six holes in each gusset as pilot holes for screws. Then I started six three-inch screws in each gusset.

On Thursday morning, it was raining when I got up. But by the time I got out of the privy, the rain had turned to snow. I started a fire in the wood stove and went to work on the back staircase. The gussets and treads will be installed on top of the log stringers rather than being notched into the stringers as the eventual half-log treads will be. So the treads ride higher and can't match the top and bottom landing correctly. I did the best I could to position the top gussets to make a reasonable step, and then I measured the stringer length and calculated the correct position for each step.

I started at the bottom and screwed the first two gussets to the stringers, and then screwed the first tread to the tops of the gussets. I was happy with how it came out, so I kept going, installing steps. It was pretty hard on my back, so I decided to quit at noon. By then I had five of the ten steps done. I figured that if I continued working, I might really hurt my back. It was sore enough the way it was. By the time I left for home at 1:30 there was about 2 inches of snow on the ground.