Construction Journal Entry Week of 8/30/09

9/1-3/09 I went up to the property for 3 days: Tuesday through Thursday.

I arrived at 12:20. Before I moved in, I went up to the cabin, got a tape, and went out and measured the log I had cut for making a new stringer. I had had the uneasy feeling that I might have cut this log too short and I wanted to put that to rest. The log turned out to be 18 feet long and the stringer is somewhat short of 15 feet, so I am OK. While I was up at the cabin, I varnished a bishop I had made for the chess set. After I had made a replacement pawn, I discovered that a bishop was also missing. I wanted to have a complete set ready for the scouts so getting the bishop varnished and dry would get that done.

After moving in, having lunch, and a short nap, I carried six buckets of water into the woods and watered all 12 sequoia trees. Then I rebuilt parts of the crane on the porch. I replaced the anchor for the rope holding the top of the boom and the CBA. Both of these had too much slippage in them. My solution for both was the same. I drilled a half-inch vertical hole in the end of a projecting wall log and ran a half-inch allthread through the hole. I placed a nut and washer on the top, and at the bottom, where the boom was fastened, I used a nut and two washers with a shackle between the washers. The molly went through the shackle at the bottom to complete the CBA. The rope holding up the top of the boom went through the shackle at the top. What this accomplished was to make the swinging of the boom under load a lot smoother.

When the crane was finished, I used it to lower the 18-foot log I had up on the porch back down to the ground on the upper roadway. That log was intended to be a supporting beam for the top of the stair stringer. But I have had second thoughts and now plan to use a piece of angle iron instead of a log beam. I wanted to get that log off the deck to make room for the kitchen we will set up on the porch when the scouts come up in two weeks.

On Wednesday I dismantled the scaffold tower that I had been using to work on the loft beam. I stored the scaffold frames in the bathroom, and the planks in the utility room. Then I went to work cleaning up the mess. To start with, I picked up all the big chunks of wood I had chiseled out of the notches in the beam and put them in a box. These will be used as kindling during the wintertime. Then I swept up the sawdust and planar chips and picked up the bigger chips to use as tinder. I already had several buckets of tinder (chips) but I wanted to free up those buckets for the scouts. I had two empty plastic storage boxes, so I put all the tinder in them and emptied the buckets. The scouts always want to do a good turn for me when they visit, so I decided that I would have them carry all the chips from the pile on the upper roadway and spread them on the trails in the woods. Having a bunch of buckets for that purpose will make the job easy. I think I will have at least one bucket per boy.

Next, I did the same thing on the porch; I picked up the wood blocks for kindling and the planar chips for tinder. Then I put away all the tools and materials that were out on the porch as well as inside and swept off the porch deck. With the building pretty well cleaned up, I went in for lunch and a nap.

After lunch, I took a bow saw into the woods and did some major trail maintenance. I cut away some vine maples in the sequoia trails and then I went over all the rest of the trails and cleared the branches that had grown into them. I also cleaned out the spring. I was particularly watchful for hornet nests in the ground. They seem to like to make them right on the trails and since the boys will be on these trails, I wanted to avoid a hornet attack if I could. I didn't see any nests.

During the night, it rained quite a bit and there were a couple loud thunderstorms.

On Thursday morning, the rain had stopped by the time I got up. I started out by moving the bathroom light switch box, E, from the outside wall to the inside wall. I wasn't sure where it should be, but I got good advice that it should be on the inside, so I moved it.

I put away the last few tools and other odds and ends and then systematically vacuumed both the loft and the main floor. Except for setting up the easel, I am pretty well ready for the scout visit. I left for home at 2:10.



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