12/16-18/08 I went up to the property for 3 days: Tuesday through Thursday.

I got a late start because I had to take the cat to the vet and also take care of Tianna until her school opened because of a snow day. I also delivered Christmas jam to the neighbors on the way. On my last stop, Bert and Ernie got their treats there and then they ran alongside the truck to the property where they got more. I arrived at about 2:30.

It was 11 degrees out and there was about 8 inches of snow on the ground. The snow was very dry and light so I had no trouble driving about halfway up to the trailer. I started a fire in the wood stove right away and then carried my gear to the trailer and had lunch.

I went to work and almost finished wiring up Box L, half of Box K, and I installed circuit breaker number 4. The temperature was 8 degrees by 6 PM, but it was nice and cozy working in the heated cabin. That is a really nice experience compared to previous years. The heater in the trailer ran pretty much continuously but could never get the temperature in there much over 60 degrees.

On Wednesday morning the temperature was 10 degrees outside and there was another 8 inches of new snow on the ground. I started another fire in the stove and then decided to take the gate down for the year. I carried a scaffold frame, a short chain and a come-along down to the gate and had no trouble taking the gate log off the gate post. Then I screwed the wand back on to the post so that Mike would see it and not run into the post when he plows.

Then I shoveled the driveway between the truck and the road so that I could back the truck out and park it near the road. It was fun shoveling the snow because it was so light. It was about 16 inches deep but I could just sweep it away with my big aluminum scoop shovel.

When the driveway was cleared, I backed the truck down and ran smack into the gate post and broke off the wand. I felt a little sheepish and stupid. I got my cordless drill back out, made a new wand, and stapled some red streamers to it to make it easier to see. Then I screwed the new wand to the gatepost.

Next I decided to install a handrail on the back staircase. With the snow on the treads, it felt a little less safe than it had when it was dry, so I figured a handrail would help. I already had the newel post made so it was a simple matter to put it back and bolt it to the CB66.

I measured and cut another length of the same 3/4" rope I had used for the concrete staircase rail for use on the back steps. But I could see that the newel post was too short because the temporary steps are higher than the final ones will be, and the post was a little too far out. The solution was to lag screw a 4x4 to the inside of the newel post and tie the rope to that. I tied the rope to the three posts and it made a nice safe rail.

When that was done, I stoked the fire back up and went in for lunch. After lunch, I finished wiring up Boxes L, H and K. Now you can turn the living room lights and the dining room lights on and off by using their real final switches. That is nice.

It snowed more during the night so on Thursday morning there was about two feet of snow on the ground. The temperature was still 10 degrees. I built another fire and then went back down for breakfast. When I was up there getting firewood I noticed cougar tracks in the snow following the usual path. The tracks were partially covered by blowing snow.

After breakfast, I went down to the truck and shoveled about 30 feet of the driveway behind the truck. The snow there was a lot heavier because the snowplow had thrown a berm onto it. Since I was having so much fun shoveling snow, I decided to shovel off the new concrete steps just for fun. They looked really nice against the snow when I was done.

Both porches were completely covered with snow because it had evidently been blowing during the night. I swept both porches off. Then I went in and swept the floor of the cabin and tidied things up a little.

A winter storm was headed for the pass, in fact for the whole region, so I decided to leave a little early. I left at 12:30. It was a beautiful drive home. It looked like I was driving through a Christmas card the entire way.