Construction Journal Entry Week of 9/2/12

9/4-6/12 I went up to Camp Serendipity for 3 days: Tuesday through Thursday.

After doing some errands, I proceeded on to visit Charles. I had lunch with him and a few other residents of his home. I arrived at Camp Serendipity at 2:10.

When I opened the cabin, I found a dead mouse in each of the two traps I had set upstairs. This was no surprise, but a disappointment nonetheless. There was a small piece of ceiling insulation on top of my microwave so I got a ladder out, set it up against the inside wall between Grid A2 and A3, and went up to investigate.

The mice had obviously been into the insulation and had made what looked like nests just above the log wall. This was encouraging because I was sure it would lead me to the hole they used to get into the building.

I pulled back the Visqueen and pulled out the insulation so I could inspect the birdblocks along that wall expecting to find the access hole. I didn't see any possible way the mice could have gotten in.

I took the ladder outside and checked the birdblocks for the fourth or fifth time from out there but couldn't see any way they could have gotten in from there either. It was very discouraging. Now I had a mouse mess and torn up insulation inside and wasn't any closer to a solution than before. And I had wasted precious time.

I decided to give up on finding the mouse hole and put off cleaning up the mess. I was going to concentrate my efforts on installing the ceiling boards which will finally close off all mouse access from the roof-wall interface. And since that is the only mouse-vulnerable area left on the cabin, it should solve the mouse problem for good. The only problem is that the ceiling board installation is a big project and is only one quarter finished at this time.

I went to work on the scaffolds and nailed up five courses of ceiling boards between Grid A1 and B1. By then it was too dark to work.

During the night I could hear the mice chewing and moving around in the ceiling somewhere near Grid E1. At one point one of them even ran over the top of my bed with me in it.

Pretty soon, I heard the trap in the loft go off so I got out of bed to dump the carcass outside and reload the trap. I went back to bed, and in a half hour, I heard the trap on the first floor go off. I repeated the dumping and reloading ritual and went back to bed again. I repeated this two more times during the night catching a mouse in each trap a second time. After those four mice were caught, the cabin was quiet for the rest of the night and there were no mice in the traps in the morning. I probably got the entire family who had figured out the way into the cabin. Now it will just be a matter of time before other mice figure it out. Sadly, they will figure it out before I do.

On Wednesday I started out by watering the giant sequoia trees. That takes me just under an hour. While I was in the woods, I heard an animal crashing around. I thought it might be a deer, but pretty soon I could see that it was Bert. It was good to see him, but I was a little concerned that Ernie was not with him again this time. He got his usual hugs in the woods, and he got his biscuits after we both went back to the cabin.

Then I went back to work on the ceiling boards. Before I installed any more boards, I swept out the cavity above the wall where the insulation had been and sprayed the entire run with one more treatment of the deodorant enzyme. The batteries driving the sprayer ran out just as I finished the job. I'll have to remember to replace those batteries before I try to do any more spraying.

Next I set the camera up on a tripod on top of the high rock and made a video of me installing ceiling boards between Grid A0 and B1. I finished installing all the boards between the Grid A and B purlins before lunch and a nap.

After lunch, I started out by installing screens over the holes in the TJI blocking at the Grid C1 peak of the roof. Once I get all the boards nailed on between Grid C1 and A1, the mice could still get into that space by going over the peak and through the holes in the blocking up there. So the screens I installed will keep them out. If there are already mice in that cavity, which I suspect there are, they will either have to leave now, or get trapped inside.

I stuck my head in as far as I could and looked down that cavity to the Grid A1 end and it looked to me like there was a new mouse nest down there. At least, there was some dark colored stuff at the bottom that I didn't recognize.

I banged on the boards down there with my hammer hoping to wake them up and give them a message to get out, but I didn't see any leave. They may have left when I wasn't looking.

I installed a few boards between Grid B0 and C1 before it got too dark. I was very tired when I went in for the night.

During the night I heard some mice but I didn't catch any in the traps. I suspect that the ones I heard were scampering around in the cavity which is now open to the outside, but that they hadn't yet found the secret hole that lets them into the cabin. I guess I'll find out next week whether they figured it out over the weekend.

On Thursday morning, as soon as I went out to work on the ceiling, I saw Bert coming down the road. I waited for him on the front porch and was delighted to find that Ernie was with him this time. I had been worried for nothing. Both dogs are getting pretty old and probably won't live too many more years. I made a short video of Bert and Ernie impatient to get their biscuits. (I thought I was taking a picture, but the camera had been left on the movie setting so I got a video instead.)

I spent the rest of the morning nailing on ceiling boards and I completed the section between Grid B0 and C1. That seals off half of the gable wall -- between Grid A1 and C1, or one eighth of the perimeter of the building. That means that I now have 3/8ths of the total job done. Progress is slow but steady.

I left for home at 1:20.



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