5/10-12/95 I went up to the property for three days: Wednesday through Friday. No larvae.

I stopped at the ranger station on the way and asked them what the rules were for me using part of the tree that fell on my property. They said that the tree is the property of the Forest Service and that if I were going to use it, I would have to pay for it-either as a saw log or as firewood. They told me I needed to talk to Fred Blodgett and to call him at 8:00 the next morning.

I layed out, cleared, and measured the preferred route for the power trench directly up from the driveway entrance. It measured 146 feet which meets the 150 foot maximum. I spent most of the afternoon digging a trench along this route in the places where it looked like the rock was closest to the surface. There are two places where the rocks look pretty solid.

Thursday morning, I called Fred Blodgett and he said he would send someone over to look at the fallen tree. After that, I dug around the two rocky places to see if there was an easy way through. It didn't look like there was so I decided to have Mike Dickinson dig the trench for me. I called him and he said he would be over to look at it the next morning.

I spent the rest of the day digging the rest of the foundation trench, digging the start of the water pipe trench and building the road and retaining wall at the edge of the cliff. At the suggestion of Larry Markegard, I have decided to run the water pipe out the east side of the house, down the roadway and then more or less up the way the hose now runs to the trailer. I think the digging will be much easier along this route, plus it is quite a bit shorter.

While I was working, Brian Helseth from the ranger station showed up and measured the fallen tree. He said the tree succumbed to root rot and he would recommend to Fred that it be sold as firewood. I just need to stop in at the ranger station and buy a permit.

Friday morning, Mike Dickinson came and looked at the hillside. He said that he was pretty sure that he could make that route work for a power trench and suggested that I have Denny Clark have another look at it. I'll give Denny a call next week and get the application for power rolling again.

The temperature was still getting down to 35 degrees at night, so I decided not to hook the hose up to the trailer just yet. The propane tanks were empty so I took them home.

5/15-18/95 I went up to the property for 4 days: Monday through Thursday. No larvae. On the way, I stopped at the ranger station and bought a permit to harvest the log that had fallen onto our property.

On this trip, I switched from Spring mode to Summer mode: I hooked the water hose up to the trailer and dewinterized it. I fired up the water heater and the refrigerator for the first time this year, and I didn't start the furnace at all.

Monday afternoon, I limbed the fallen tree, cut a 42 foot log 8 inches in diameter at the top and 15 inches in diameter at the butt. This will serve as one of the 42 footers that I need for the cabin. Then I rigged up cables, chains, come-alongs, and a scaffolding frame in order to move the log. I moved it about 6 feet before I quit for the day.

Tuesday morning, I called Russ Christenson at the Building Department to find out the status of my application. He apologized for the delay and promised to send me a list of concerns by the end of the week. I also called Denny Clark of the PUD and told him to proceed on the estimate and to plan on putting the transformer right near the telephone pedestal.

I spent the rest of the day moving the log to a rack next to the woodshed and I peeled the bark off. The tree had evidently blown down this spring after the sap was up because the bark came of easily. The rings on the tree indicated that the tree had grown very fast all its life until the last five years. The last five rings about four times denser than the others. That was probably when it was infected with root rot.

On Wednesday, I rebuilt the log rack (I call this rack number 2) so it was more level and could accomodate the new log, and I stacked the logs on the rack. In the afternoon, I peeled the 60 foot butt section of the log.

On Thursday I finished digging the water pipe trench from the footing trench to the roadway and used the dirt to backfill the upper roadway. This trench is only 15 or 20 feet long, but until I dug it, I wasn't sure I would be able to find an 18 inch deep channel through a major rock outcropping it has to cross. Fortunately, I found a three inch wide gap in the rock that the pipe can go through. From here on, the trench shouldn't be too much of a problem. I know the trench in the roadway will be easy because it is all fill that I put there. From the bottom of the roadway to the spring, there is a lot of lattitude for where the trench can go so I am pretty sure I can find a relatively easy route for it. I'm thinking that if the building permit gets held up much longer, I will buy the water pipe and start installing it. We decided to use 1 1/4 inch soft copper pipe in spite of the cost primarily because it is impervious to moles, rats and other gnawing animals.

The temperature was near 70 degrees this week and it was nice to be able to take showers after sweating all day.

5/22-24/95 I went up to the property for three days: Monday through Wednesday. No larvae. The weather was clear and in the 70's.

On Monday, I did some drawing and made some decisions regarding the main staircase inside the cabin. I decided to use slabs from the new log I was harvesting. I decided to cut two 3-inch planks from the center of the log which would leave slabs that are about 12 inches wide. I will use these for the stair treads. I also decided to cut the log into 10' 3" lengths. From this I can get three stair treads from each slab, and each plank can be used for a 6' 8" door jamb and a 3' 7" header or threshold.

I propped the log up on legs using the hydraulic jack in order to cut a 10' 3" section. Then I cut the section loose, marked the section with a chalkline where to make the cuts, and I rigged a mirror up behind the log section so I could see the back side of the log while I sawed.

On Tuesday, I sawed the top slab off and cut it into three treads, and I sawed the first plank and half of the second one. I ran out of bar oil and stamina at about the same time and quit sawing. Then I taped up two sections of the water hose where some animal had punctured it.

On Wednesday, I moved some more big rocks to the wall on the upper roadway and did some more excavating and backfilling.

When I left, the propane tanks were about 3/4 full.

5/24/95 I received a package from the Chelan Building Department containing marked up copies of my plans and instructions on how to fix them. Basically, I needed to get the foundation and structural design approved by an engineer.

5/25/95 I met with Tom Hammond and went over the engineering requirements. He will do a design and prepare it for the Building Department. He suggested that I build a concrete block foundation instead of a poured concrete one. I could do all the work myself, it would be cheaper, and avoid the hassle of erecting forms and pumping concrete up the hill. I have decided to do it this way. Tom will also figure out the optimal size of copper pipe to use in my water supply system.

5/26/95 Tom Hammond called and told me that one inch pipe would be optimal. My requirements demand about 5 gpm at 22 feet of head. 3/4 inch pipe can deliver about 4.5 gpm, which would be workable, but one inch pipe can deliver 10 gpm which is more than I can use. Anything bigger would have no noticeable effect.

5/30-6/2/95 I went up to the property for 4 days: Tuesday through Friday. No larvae.

On Tuesday, I installed a new ripping chain on the chainsaw and cut one plank and six stair treads. The new chain works much better than the old one.

On Wednesday, I rigged vertical boards directly over the corners of the building. I then used these to measure and locate the pads for the columns and for the wood stove. I will excavate each of these down to bedrock. I discovered that the easternmost corner of the deck runs into rock. I will have to figure out if I can move the rock or whether I have to redesign that corner of the deck. I also discovered that one of the column pads will be very close to the gap in the bedrock where the water pipe needs to go. I will have to be careful to make sure there is room for both.

Earl Landin stopped by and we chatted about how I might procure logs, among other things.

On Thursday I went back into the woods, cut two more planks and three more treads, and hauled them out. Earl stopped by again and gave me a sheet of tables showing log volumes in board feet. He also took me down to a place where a guy named Frank something is logging. Frank said that he wasn't cutting any timber that would be good for a log house, but he gave us an idea that Earl said he will follow up on.

On Friday, I excavated part of the wood stove pad and built the road and wall some more. I also measured and recorded the bedrock profile under the footing.

The propane tanks were half full when I left.

6/5-8/95 I went up to the property for four days: Monday through Thursday. No larvae.

On Monday, I ripped 6 more treads and 2 planks from the tree. I talked to Tom Hammond who had done some work on the foundation and he told me that since we had to assume that I had "sedimentary or foliated bedrock" which holds only 2000 lb/sq ft rather than "massive crystalline bedrock" which holds twice that. This assumption was necessary because neither he nor I know exactly what kind of rock we have. The assumption also means that the footing pads for columns would have to be pretty big. He said I would need a geologist to come out and look at the site to be sure what kind of rock I have.

I called Bill Hanley, who is a geologist, and he said he would come and look at the site Wednesday morning.

I also called the Chelan Co. Building Dept. and they told me that for a private water system, there is no agency that is interested in inspecting or issuing any kind of a permit for the water pipe between the spring and the house.

On Tuesday, I used the electric winch and dragged log number 1 to rack number two.

On Wednesday, Bill Hanley showed up and looked at the rock. He said that it is definitely "massive crystalline bedrock" and he would write me a letter stating this fact that would satisfy Tom and also the building department. After Bill left, I ripped some more treads and planks.

On Thursday, I did some more excavating for pads and building up the road. The propane tanks were about 3/8ths full when I left.

6/13-16/95 I went up to the property for 4 days: Tuesday through Friday. No Larvae. I also sent a check for $2671.00 to the PUD for electric connection fees.

In order to give my tennis elbow a rest, I didn't do any chainsawing but spent the whole four days working on the road and wall. I took some time off and went to visit Earl Landin at his place on Wednesday.

I also did some scouting of the route for the water pipe. I think I found a couple routes that may be workable. I will have to do some digging to find out which of them will work out better.

The propane tanks were an eigth full, or less, so I took them home with me.

6/17/95 I spent a couple of hours with Tom Hammond and finalized his engineering work on the cabin. I also called Bill Hanley who said he had mailed the letter the day before. Now I need to put a package together for the building department.

Also on 6/17, Ellen found an ad for a cement mixer so I went over to Charles something's place at 14047 Courtland Pl. N. (363-3992) and bought the mixer for $200.

6/20-23/95 I went up to the property for 4 days: Tuesday through Friday. No Larvae.

On Tuesday, I hauled the cement mixer up to the building site and made a rain/snow cover for it. When I finished, Earl Landin called and invited me over to his place for dinner. He cooked buffalo burgers.

On Wednesday, I moved a couple of big rocks out of the building site and placed them in the road wall.

On Thursday, I moved some more rocks and finished cutting up the last section of the tree. I now have 30 stair treads and 10 planks stored in the woodshed.

On Friday, I moved some more rocks and built some more wall. The mosquitoes were thick so I worked in a raincoat and a bug hat. It was not very comfortable because it was so hot out, but I didn't get too many mosquito bites.

6/25/95 Prepared the Electrical Work Permit Application for temporary power. Will mail it tomorrow when I can find out what the Department of Labor and Industries' mailing address is.

6/26-29/95 I went up to the property for four days: Monday through Thursday. No larvae.

On Monday, I worked on moving rocks off the building site and into the wall and backfilling the wall with dirt.

On Tuesday, I called Tom Hamilton, the electrical inspector, and asked if I could use the overhead temporary pole with underground service. He said yes but that I would need GFI on it. I also called Denny Clark to talk about connecting up the electrical service. He came over later in the day and we picked out a spot to install the transformer. I also worked some more on the wall and the road, and also refined the foundation footing plan.

On Wednesday I started working at 6:15 AM to beat the heat and the mosquitoes. It was great; nice and cool and no mosquitoes. Larry Copenhaver came over and visited. I gave him a tour of the place and we had a nice chat and a cup of cocoa. By the end of the day, I had gotten all of the rocks off the back ledge where the wall will go. I had stored a lot of them up there in anticipation of using them to build a rock foundation wall.

On Thursday, I layed out and began excavating the three pads for the central ridge and purlin support columns. I also moved some more big rocks off the site.

7/3/95 I bought a bunch of electrical parts and wire for temporary power. I decided to replace the aluminum wire that was in the equipment I bought from Ray Aldrich with copper. I bought 130 feet of number 4 wire. I enlarged the holes in the breaker panel and installed one GFI outlet. Since the electrical store didn't have GFI 220 outlets, I removed the 220 outlet from the panel and installed a plate in its place. I wired the second 110 outlet to the new GFI outlet which left one of the 110 breakers along with the 220 breaker unused. I was hoping that this would be OK with the electrical inspector.

7/5-7/95 I went up to the property for three days: Wednesday through Friday. No larvae.

On Wednesday, I set up a screen tent we had bought earlier. I neded to do some work on the electrical boxes and I figured this tent would provide a place to work and keep the mosquitoes away. It worked pretty well.

On Thursday morning, I called Tom Hamilton, the electrical inspector, to see if what I had done, and was planning to do, was OK. He said it was, but that I had bought the wrong kind of wire. I had bought some that was gasoline and oil resistant, but it wasn't approved for underground use. Fortunately, I had not cut the wire, and I rolled it back up so I can bring it back to the store. He also told me that 220 outlets don't need to be GFI protected, so I will reinstall the 220 outlet on the next trip up.

For the rest of the day, I harvested a 14 foot pole from a tree that blew down last winter, dug a hole and a trench near where the transformer will be installed, set the pole in the hole, attached the PVC conduit to it, and drove the ground rod into the ground next to it. I will have to wait until I get new wire to finish installing the rest of the electrical equipment. I also moved a bunch of big rocks off the building site.

On Friday, I moved some more big rocks, and then ripped one of the two logs that I had stored on the roadway on 10/12/94 and 10/13/94. These are two of the three that I had intended to rip by hand. (The first one was already done). With my new ripping chain, I couldn't see spending the time ripping these logs by hand. Since they are stored on the roadway, I need to get them out of there so I can get the pickup up the road in order to bring materials up to the building site. After I get the big rocks off the site, the next project is to clean out a crack between a big slab of rock and the rock wall on the northeast side, and fill the crack with concrete. The footing will then be poured over the top of this crack going crossways. Next trip, I plan to rip up the other log.

7/11-14/95 Went up to the property for four days: Tuesday through Friday. No larvae.

On Tuesday I finished wiring up and installing the temporary power pole. I called the inspector and scheduled him to come out the next day. I also ripped the last 6' 10" log into two planks. The log was in the roadway so now, except for a few fence boards, the road is clear to drive on.

On Wednesday, I moved a bunch of big rocks off the site and layed them in a low spot in the upper roadway like huge paving blocks. Tom Hamilton, the electrical inspector came out and my temporary pole passed inspection. Even though he put his approval sticker on the box, he said he wanted me to drive the ground rod all the way into the ground. I had driven it in five and a half feet because that was as far as the ground wire would reach. I would need to buy a longer ground wire to drive it in further. I called the PUD to schedule them to put in the transformer. They told me I had to dig the trench from the temporary pole to the transformer. Earlier, someone told me that they would dig this trench. Oh well, good thing I like to dig. I got most of the trench dug before nightfall. I also called Russ Christensen of the building department and he apologized for sitting on my application. He said that he had reviewed all the new material and it all looked good. The permit would be issued within the next week or two.

On Thursday, I finished digging the temporary power trench, and moved most of the rest of the big rocks off the building site. There are only three big ones left. Larry Copenhaver came over and we visited for a while. I spent some time working up the detailed footing plans. I discovered an error in a program I had written to calculate the exact location of the concrete blocks, so I will have to wait until I fix the program to finish the footing plans. It will be easy to do.

I noticed that there are a couple dozen of small wild blackberries that are getting ready to ripen. This is encouraging, since last year there were only three or four berries. It looks like we can get this patch to grow and produce pretty well.

On Friday, I moved a huge (maybe 1500 lb.) rock off the building site. Dennis McMahon of the PUD stopped by and looked at my temporary pole and said that they would bring power in either next week or the week after.

The propane tanks were just a little over a quarter full so I left them there.

7/14/95 We received an approved set of plans from the building department and a note saying that a building permit would be issued as soon as we sent them the fee of $546.00. Hooray.

7/17/95 Sent a check for $546.00 to the Chelan County Building Department.

7/18-21/95 Went up to the property for four days: Tuesday through Friday. I didn't check for larvae. I don't think there will be any more.

The first thing I noticed when I got to the trailer was that a mouse had gotten into the cupboards under the stove and sink, and had made a nest out of shredded paper towels. I got a glimpse of it when I opened the drawer with the nest. I couldn't see how it got in, but it couldn't get out of the cupboards into the main part of the trailer as long as all the cupboard drawers and doors were shut. Obviously it became a high priority project to evict and clean up after the mouse and prevent reentry.

I had bought a longer ground wire for the temporary power pole, but I was unable to unscrew the ground wire clamp inside the box. It was corroded on really tight. Now I wasn't sure what to do. I decided to get some penetrating oil to see if that wouldn't loosen the screw.

For the rest of the afternoon, I moved the last two big rocks off the building site.

On Wednesday morning, I opened the drawer where the mouse nest had been and there was the mouse. It started crawling out into the room and in a split second by reflex I slammed the drawer shut to keep it from getting out. The drawer slammed shut right on the poor little mouse and pinned it. The drawer has a latch that keeps it from coming open when the trailer is moving, and this latch was holding the mouse so tight that it may have been killed outright. To make sure, I got a piece of string, looped it around the mouse's neck, and strangled it. I felt awful to have to do it, but it was over pretty quick. I don't think the whole episode took 30 seconds from the time I first saw the mouse until I threw the carcass out. I spent quite a bit of time for the rest of the morning outside and under the trailer looking for how the mouse got in. I didn't find any way. Then I looked from the inside and I found a hole in the floor next to the sink drain pipe. I plugged the hole good with heavy screen. I spent the rest of the day doing more excavation of the building site and building up the roadway.

On Thursday I had to get up early to drive to Seattle for a dentist appointment. On the way over the pass, I saw what I thought might have been a wolf. I got pretty excited. I stopped at a ranger station and called the wolf sighting 800 number. It was no longer in service. On the way back, after the dentist, I stopped at the same ranger station which was now open. I reported the sighting and they gave me some plaster to get an impression of a track if I could. I went back to where I had seen the animal and found the tracks, but none of them was suitable for casting. I also checked the area against my memory of it and since I was a lot closer to the animal than I thought I had been, it was probably a lot smaller than I thought it was. It also had big fluffy ears so I now believe I saw a coyote and not a wolf. I called the rangers back and changed my story.

When I got back to the property, the power company was there putting in the transformer. They told me that I wouldn't have had to dig the trench that I did. They didn't even use it to bury my temporary wire but instead they used it for their 3-inch conduit stub that I will later use for permanent power. To make up for my extra digging, they drove my ground rod in all the way. I used a different ground clamp inside the box so I didn't have to get the stuck one loose.

I did the final excavation of the crawl space. I may move some dirt or rocks out of the crawl space later on, but it is excavated as much as it needs to be to proceed with the rest of the building. The next thing before I can build footing forms is to fill a crack in the rocks that I described in the 7/7/95 entry of this log. I dug a wheelbarrow full of dirt out of this crack. Later I calculated the volume of the crack to be 4.5 cubic feet. I figured that would take a bag and a half of cement to make enough concrete to fill it.

On Friday, I rigged hoses to reach the crack and cleaned it out with the hose and a brush. I went to Two Rivers and bought two sacks of cement. When I got back, the power company said that I was all hooked up and that I had power. I strung my extension cord from the pole up to the building site and plugged it into the cement mixer. It ran perfectly. Hooray again.

I tried to haul a mixing box full of sand and gravel up the roadway in the pickup but couldn't. I tried to back up the hill because that was the way the pickup was aimed and I would either have to back up or down the hill anyway. I think I was unable to get up the hill partly because I was backing up, partly because the ground was so dry that it was powdery, and partly bacause the ground squirrels had dug tunnels and loosened the dirt in the area where I got stuck. Next time I will try going up frontwards and maybe it will work, but for this time, I used the wheelbarrow to haul the aggregate up the rest of the way. I found that a good size load is ten shovelfulls of sand and gravel in the wheelbarrow. I hauled one more such wheelbarrow load up in order to have enough to fill the crack. I had in my mind that I was going to actually fill the crack that day, but by the time I got the mixer moved onto the site and everything ready, I was exhausted and it was already 5:00 in the afternoon. I also discovered that there was a smaller crack connected to the big crack that I want to clean out real good before I pour the concrete, so I decided not to mix concrete until next time. I covered the cement bags with visqueen and put the wheelbarrow over them upside down to keep them dry. Ellen is taking next week off and I don't plan to come back up to the property until the week after. By then, we should have our building permit and I can start building forms.

The propane tanks were empty, so I brought them home to fill them.

7/27/95 We received our building permit from Chelan County. I placed an order for rebar for footings with Graham Steel (823-5656).

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