7/30-8/4/95 I went up to the property for 6 days: Sunday through Friday.

I started late on Sunday afternoon and got to the property about 5 PM. I drove the pickup up the roadway to the building site for the first time. I decided to leave the big tool box up at the site instead of carrying it in the back of the pickup, which I had been doing. I unloaded this box and its contents up at the site along with an old freezer tub which I plan to use as a weatherproof cement storage cabinet. After unloading, I had a fairly hard time backing the pickup back down the roadway, but I finally made it.

On Monday, I figured up the rebar I would need for column pads and called Graham Steel and added that to the order I had already placed. I called Two Rivers and asked what kind of lead time they needed for a concrete delivery. They said 48 hours. I also called Reliable Concrete Pumping Co. and they said they would like a week's notice. It should be no problem for me to give them that much time.

I spent the rest of the day filling the big crack in the rock with concrete. I had to break a lot of it away first so that I could clean out some of the smaller cracks real good with a keyhole saw blade and the hose. I used a little over a sack of cement to do the job. This was the first time I had put the power to use and the first time I had used my mixer. Everything worked fine except for my awkwardness in learning by doing. Shirley Tutino heard the mixer and stopped by to visit for a while. Mike Dickinson called when I finished and said he would come by tomorrow to look at the site. I need to know what I need to do so he can come in and install the septic system.

Mike came by the first thing Tuesday morning. He said the main thing I needed to do was to clear the brush around where he needs to drive. I spent the entire day cutting down trees and brush and bucking up a big log from one of the trees that Vladimir had helped me fall. The log was laying right across where Mike would have to bring his tractor.

On Wednesday, I planned to start building forms. The first thing in the morning, I went over the plans and decided to draw more detailed plans with exact dimensions. The trick was incorporating the steps in the footing needed for the concrete block wall, and the three pads for supporting the purlin and ridgepole support columns. This turned out to be trickier than I thought and I didn't finish drawing until noon. I wasn't happy that I had spent so much time on it, but the forms have to be right and I felt it was important to double check and get the specs exactly right. In the afternoon, I set up batterboards in the east corner and the north corner. I used the transit level to get these exactly at the same height. When that was done, I started building the forms out of old fence boards. It didn't take long to discover that the actual shape of the rock didn't match that of the drawings and if I built the forms according to plan, the footing would be much more massive than it needs to be. It would have taken many more yards of concrete than necessary. This was a little discouraging having spent so much time on a design that I won't use. Just as I discovered this setback, Larry Copenhaver stopped by and visited for a while and I explained my problem to him. I decided not to do another detailed design, because that would require a lot of accurate measurements of the rocks. Instead, I decided to design the footings as I built them.

On Thursday, I got up at 4:50 AM and got an early start. I was eager to get these forms started. I started building one side of the forms on the Northeast wall designing as I went. Unfortunately I was paying so much attention to the step requirements that I forgot all about the column pads. When I discovered this I had to tear down most of what I had built and by that time it was noon and getting very hot. This time of year, the trees on the east side shade the entire site until noon. It is in direct sun then until about 3:00 when the trees on the west side begin to shade it again. When the weather is hot, I try to avoid working up there during the middle of the day.

In the afternoon, I was even more discouraged when I measured more accurately to see where the column pads should go. There just wasn't enough room for them up against the rock wall. Earl Landin stopped by while I was in the quandry trying to decide what to do. What I finally decided to do was to break out, or quarry, some more rock from the wall to make room for the column pads. Before I quit for the day, I had moved some pretty big rocks off the wall.

On Friday, Earl called me while I was having breakfast and told me that Woodrow Wheeler had a septic tank, pipes, fittings, and pump for sale. He suggested that I go talk to him. After breakfast, I went up and quarried some pretty big rocks and made a notch big enough for the first purlin support column pad. After that, I went to see Woodrow (Woody) and we visited for a couple hours. We see eye to eye on a lot of things when it comes to building and we traded a lot of stories. I called Doyle Burke and also the Chelan County Health Department to try to find out if Woody's system will meet the specs for my septic permit. I couldn't reach either of them so I left messages and will try to get an answer on Monday. Meanwhile, Woody will hold the stuff for me.

When I got back to the property, it was already 2:00 and beastly hot. I sweated off a lot of pounds setting the tool box up in a permanant spot and moving all the tools to it. I also set up the cement storage bin and put the left over cement in it.

I am going to haul my own rebar in small loads so I put the lumber rack on the pickup a week ago. The problem is that it is only 11 feet long and I need to carry 20 footers. I plan to build a stanchion on the front bumper of the pickup to support the rebar over the hood. I selected some salvaged water pipes for that purpose and threw them in the pickup. I also hooked up an answering machine we bought at a garage sale and strung my long extension cord from the power pole to the trailer in order to power the answering machine. I was finally ready to go home about 5:00.

8/5/95 I built the stanchion for the pickup and am ready to haul rebar. I also called the trailer to test the answering machine and it didn't work. It is probably because I took the phone home and it needs a phone to work. I'll have to figure it out when I go back up there.

8/8-11/95 I went up to the property for 4 days: Tuesday through Friday.

On the way, I stopped at Graham Steel to pick up the rebar I had ordered. The stanchion and the lumber rack worked great for hauling it. I drove the pickup right up to the building site which made it easy to unload the rebar. Before I did, though, I checked the paperwork against my order and found that they made 75 pieces four inches too long. I called Graham and they said they would make up an order the right lengths and next week I could just exchange them. I was glad I learned about the error before I unloaded that bundle, because it weighs 195 pounds!

When I resumed work on the forms, I discovered yet some more errors and had to tear some more of them out. After fixing the forms, I finally made some progress and by Thursday, I had finished the outside wall of the Northeast side. This represents 1/8th of the footing forms. I hope I can avoid so many mistakes on the rest of it.

I made a long extension cord out of 14 guage wire to bring power to the trailer. It was primarily intended just to power the answering machine, but I plugged the AC supply cord from the trailer into it and the next day the 12 volt lights no longer worked. It was either a lucky coincidence that I got 110 volt power just as the 12 volt power failed, or else somehow the AC caused the DC to fail. I checked the battery in the pickup and the connections and they all seemed OK. I will have to bring a meter with me next week to diagnose the problem. In the meantime, I use AC power.

On Friday, I did a physical inventory of the rebar to see if any other mistakes were made and I found only one minor one. I also patched some holes in the old freezer tank so I now have a nice waterproof storage bin for cement.

Just as I was about to leave for home, Mike Dickinson showed up with his fancy laser leveler. I went up with him and he layed out the rough outline of where the drainfield will go. It is now up to me to clear out all the brush in that area. That will be my first priority job next week. Mike also told me that Dave McBrier who owns the Squirrel Tree Restaurant can get house logs for me. I stopped in there on my way home and left a message for Dave to call me. The propane tanks were about 3/4 full.

8/14-18/95 I went up to the property for five days: Monday through Friday.

On the way up, I stopped at Graham Steel and exchanged the 75 pieces of rebar for 75 pieces of the correct length. When I got to the property, I spent the rest of Monday and half of Tuesday clearing the drainfield area. It involved felling two clumps of vine maples with stumps as big as 6 or 7 inches in diameter. I was going to cut all the trunks into firewood lengths, but I soon discovered it would take more time than I wanted to spend so I made a big stack of logs instead that I can cut up later. I also ended up with a brush pile that is about 8 feet high. It should provide some housing for some small animals during the winter.

When the clearing was done, I bent the rebar to fit at the bottom of the Northeast footing. I used some of the old iron sewer pipes I took out of the house to help bend the rebar. I used a big steel bar for leverage inside one of the pipes that has a "T" fitting on the end. It worked great and I was able to bend the #5 rebar fairly easily. When the rebar was bent, I wired it to small rocks to keep it off the bottom the prescribed two or three inches.

From then on, I spent most of the rest of the week building the inside form for the Northeast wall. I didn't quite finish the job; there is probably another day's work left to do.

On Wednesday, I rewired the telephone in the trailer so that I could bring the answering machine inside the trailer. The way the phone was wired up before, I had to install the answering machine outside on a bucket underneath the trailer. It never did work quite right and I thought it was because it was too cold. After I moved it inside, it still doesn't work quite right. I guess I will either have to fix it or replace it if I want an answering machine up there.

On Wednesday also, the builders of the house across the road came over to see what I was doing. I gave them a grand tour of the place. They were impressed by the size of some of the big trees we have. They told me that the concrete pumping company I had talked to may not be able to reach the farthest forms and that I may have to use a very expensive pumper. As a result, after they left, I measured the distance the boom would have to reach. It is 106 feet. I think the pumper can reach that far, but now that I know the distance, I will call them and verify it.

It rained most of the day on Thursday, so I worked under a tarp that I rigged up and kept dry while I worked.

Mike Dickinson had given me the name and number of Bill Burgess (763-3119) and said that he might be able to get me some logs. I called and left a message for him to call me. The person who answered said I should try again late Sunday or early Monday. I will try again then.

Since I have power to the trailer, I switched the refrigerator from gas to electric and it works just fine. I intend to leave the refrigerator on all the time from now on so I don't have to keep packing so much food back and forth from home each week. It will also allow me to expand my menu somewhat.

I bought a couple of hose mending kits to fix some leaky spots in the hose. I had taped them up earlier but I noticed that the tape had started to bubble and a small amount of water was squirting out. After thinking about it, I decided not to fix the hose just yet for three reasons: First I didn't want to take the time away from the form building work. Second, I think it will keep the water in the hose a little fresher by running continuously like that, and thirdly, I positioned the leaky part of the hose over a patch of blackberry plants that I am trying to encourage to grow. The extra water should help.

The propane tanks were about half full when I left.

8/21/-25/95 I went up to the property for 5 days: Monday through Friday.

On Monday I finished building the forms for the Northeast wall footing.

On Tuesday, I finished building about half of the outside of the Northwest form. I noticed that a colony of bees or hornets had made their home in the bank of the trench of the Southeast wall. That is why I decided to work on the Northwest wall. I will have to figure out some way of getting rid of them before I can work over there.

On Wednesday, I spent most of the day cleaning the rock under the Northwest wall. This area hadn't been excavated completely and there were still some fairly big rocks and dirt to clean out. By the end of the day, I had about 2/3 of the form wall built.

On Thursday, I discovered an error in the elevations of the forms. I set up the transit level and made some careful measurements of all the forms I had built so far to see how bad it was. I was off about two inches from the highest place to the lowest. This was quite disappointing and I deliberated a long time over lunch trying to decide how to deal with it. I finally decided to choose an intermediate height as a standard. Those parts that were higher than this I will mark at the correct height and just not fill the forms above that line when I pour the concrete. The parts that are lower, I will make up by thicker mortar joints. The parts that are lower are also lower in the wall so I will have many courses of blocks to make up the error. From now on, I am going to make more careful measurements as I go along.

I took the lumber rack off the pickup and stored it on the property until I need it again to haul rebar or lumber. Larry and Roberta Copenhaver happened to stop by just in time for Larry to help me lift the rack off the pickup.

On Friday, I finished building the outside of the Northwest form. Each time I finished work for the day, I blasted the bee tunnel with water from the hose. I know it won't kill them but it might get them to move. If they aren't gone when I get back next week, I will blast them with hornet and wasp killer.

The propane tanks were about 3/8ths full when I left.

8/28-9/1/95 I went up to the property for 5 days: Monday through Friday.

On Monday, I finished bending and placing three out of four long pieces of rebar for the Northwest wall footing. After a little experimentation, I worked out a pretty easy way to bend the rebar to fit the rock contour. I string a 100 foot tape out where the rebar is to go, holding it with rocks where the bends are and pulling it tight so it takes on the shape that I want for the rebar. Then, usng a protractor I made out of a couple of 1x2s, I measure the angle of each bend and record the angle along with the distance from the end of the tape. To bend the rebar, I first tie a piece of string around the rebar at each of the distances that I recorded and then stick the whole length of the rebar into a 10 foot length of one and a half inch galvanized pipe. I leave the rebar sticking out just so the first string is at the end of the pipe. Then I take a length of inch and a half pipe with a tee at the end and pass the end of the rebar through the tee so the tee is up against the end of the long pipe. Then I stand on the long pipe and pull back on the other one and bend the rebar up. I use the protractor to measure the angle to get the bend right. When the bend is correct, I pull the rebar out of the pipe to the next string and make the next bend the same way. I keep doing that until all the bends are done. It works slick.

In the evening, when it cooled down, I blasted the bee tunnel with wasp and hornet killer. I didn't see a whole lot of activity. They were probably all in the tunnel for the night and that stuff kills them so quickly that they didn't have a chance to get out. Poor things. On the can it says that the residual left from spraying will kill any stragglers that happen to come back to the nest. It sure worked, because there is no bee activity around there any more.

On Tuesday, I finished bending the last piece or rebar and put it in the form. After that, I started building the inside form wall for the Northwest form.

I called Roy at Two-rivers, and Peter at Reliable Pumping Company and discussed various issues involving pouring my footings. I think I will be ready to pour around the first of October.

For the rest of the week, I worked on the forms and finished late Friday morning. That represents half of the wall forms and it took me a month to do it. I hope I can do the other half a little faster because I still have to put in the vertical rebar and I have to build some scaffolding in order to make the pour.

On Friday, I set up the transit level in order to set up an accurate string above the Southeast wall. The sun was so hot that I was unable to keep the instrument exactly level, so I will have to redo it. I was able, however, to get close enough to discover a major error. It was an error in correcting an error. When I discovered the errors in elevations the week before, I made careful measurements of 31 points along the forms and found them to be as much as two inches off. What I didn't realize was that I recorded all of these numbers with the signs reversed. That is, the points that I thought were too high, were actually too low and vice versa. Fortunately, I hadn't taken any drastic action to correct the forms. My plan was not to completely fill the forms that I thought were too high but just fill them to the level that would correct the error. This would have been a disaster; in the places where I thought the forms were two inches too high, the footings would have ended up four inches too low.

My plan now, is to build up the forms that are too low with strips of wood. Also, my plan is to be more careful and build the rest of the forms accurately in the first place.

When I left for home, the propane tanks were nearly empty so I took them home.

9/3-4/95 Ellen and I went up and spent Sunday night in the trailer. The next day we went for a short hike on the Raging Creek trail to pick huckleberries. We didn't get many berries-I think we were too late-but we did get some mushrooms. We cooked some for dinner and brought the rest to Vladimir and Joyce.

9/5-7/95 I went up to the property for three days: Tuesday through Thursday.

On Tuesday, before starting on the southeast wall forms, I carefully measured the corner elevations, and double checked them with diagonal strings. I want to make sure that from now on all the elevations are right. After getting a tight, accurate string, and also the 100' tape strung over the southeast wall, I started building forms.

I spent the rest of the time cleaning rock and building forms. It rained parts of Wednesday and Thursday, so I put up a tarp. Building progress is a lot slower when it rains and I was disappointed that I only got about 3/4 of the outside form wall done by the time I had to leave. I was hoping to be able to pour the footings by the first of October, but now it looks more like the 8th would be a better date.

9/12-15/95 I went up to the property for four days: Tuesday through Friday.

On Tuesday, I almost finished the outside form wall for the southeast footing. It was finished before noon the next day and I started measuring for the #5 rebar for the bottom of the footing. I got the measurements made by 3:00 and then took a break for lunch. After lunch, I started bending rebar and by the end of the day, had it all bent and wired in place.

On Thursday I started building the inside form wall and by the time I left on Friday, I had the inside wall about 80% done. I didn't even meet, much less shorten, the two week precedent of building one form wall. I am now thinking that the middle of October might be a more realistic date to pour concrete.

The propane tanks were half full when I left for home.

9/18-21/95 I went up to the property for four days: Monday through Thursday.

On Monday, I finished building the southeast footing form. Earl Landin stopped by and I had him look at a dying tree. It is a big grand fir and was probably weakened by root rot before the insects killed it off. I also had him look at a big douglas fir that is infected with mistletoe. He told me how to deal with it. That will be a good wintertime project.

On Tuesday, I built about half of the outside form wall for the southwest wall.

On Wednesday I called Marson and Marson and asked about CB88s. They said they didn't stock them and it could take as long as a week to get them. I figured the best thing to do is try to get them in Seattle. They are the 8"x8" column bases that I have to have in place when we pour concrete.

Brian Helseth stopped by to see what I was doing. He volunteered to come and help when we pour concrete if he is available. By the end of the day, I finished building the outside wall and got all the horizontal rebar in place. It didn't require near as much bending as the last two walls did. I got half of the rebar wired together before I quit for the day.

On Thursday, I finished wiring the rebar, loaded all the rebar stubs into the pickup so I can take them home, and I measured the as-built footing design. Since I designed as I went, I don't have an accurate footing design on paper. I need it to figure out the rebar stub placement, and I will also need it in order to figure out the concrete block requirements. I got a good start building the inside form wall for the southwest footing. This is the last wall of the footings.

The propane tanks were about 3/8ths full when I left.

9/22/95 Ordered six 8-inch column bases (CB88) from McLendon's in Woodinville. I can pick them up in a week on my way up to the property. I also found six of them at half price from Second Use Building Material in Woodinville.

9/23/95 I went to Woodinville and picked up the CB88s from 2nd Use. He charged me $50 plus tax for the six. At home, I made 32 rebar stub assemblies by drilling tight fitting holes in short boards and inserting L-shaped pieces of rebar into the holes. Each of them was coded with a distinct ID based on the span of the board, the spacing of the hole, and the size of the rebar. This would make it easy to place them in the correct positions on the site. Doing the work at home also saved me a lot of work time at the site.

9/24-29/95 I went up to the property for five days: Monday through Friday.

On Monday, I scheduled the concrete pour with Two Rivers and with Reliable Concrete Pumping. I also scheduled the building inspector to come out three days prior to the pour. The rest of the day was spent working on the forms. I completed the inside of the southwest form wall, which was the last one, by the end of the day Tuesday.

On Wednesday, it rained all day and I spent the morning fixing elevation errors in the forms. The northeast wall was as much as two inches too low in places, so I ripped long strips of boards to build up the entire length of the forms on that wall to the proper grade. I think it would have been a disaster if I hadn't done that since there will only be one course of blocks on that wall.

In the afternoon, I installed about 3/4 of the rebar stub assemblies.

On Thursday, the rain stopped, and I installed the remaining rebar stub assemblies on the northeast wall. In the process, I discovered an 8-inch error. The new "As-built" drawings, which had been copied from the old abandoned footing drawings, were copied incorrectly. Since I followed the drawings, when I got to the end of the northeast wall installing the stub assemblies, I found that I was 8 inches off. Back to the drawing board.

After finding and fixing the error, I tore out most of the northeast stub assemblies and reinstalled them in the correct positions.

In the afternoon, I made detailed measurements of the forms for the purpose of calculating the volume of concrete that I will need. After that, there was still time left in the day to do some form reinforcement.

Around 4:30 in the afternoon, a guy named Don, from Reliable, came by with his pumper truck. I had asked them to have somebody stop by and look at the site to see what problems, if any, I was up against. I was really glad to see that guy.

He said that he couldn't reach the forms with his boom, but that they had a 42 meter pumper that would be able to reach them all with no problem. It would cost about $150 more, but it would be a lot easier to place the concrete. I was convinced, and I called Reliable and ordered the bigger truck. He also looked over my forms, said that they looked pretty good, and he estimated that they would hold 10 yards of concrete - not the 6 that I had estimated.

After Don left, I wired up about 3/4 of the rebar meshes that go in the six column pads that are connected to the footing.

On Friday, I finished wiring the rest of the meshes, and also the rebar mesh that goes in the masonry heater footing. I also decided that one of the column pads is too shallow, so next week I will build up the forms over the pad one concrete block height. I am sure that if I didn't, the building inspector would make me do it anyway.

The propane tanks were about 1/8th full, but since next week will be a long week and Ellen and Dave are planning to be up for the pour on Friday, I took the tanks home to fill them to make sure we don't run out of gas.

I am getting very excited and anxious about the upcoming concrete pour. This is my first time pouring concrete on this scale and with a pumper truck and there are a lot of potential pitfalls. I have given it a lot of thought and sought a lot of advice, but relief won't really come until the concrete is safely and correctly snuggled in the forms and gently starts setting up.

9/30/95 I entered into a spreadsheet all the measurements that I had made on the forms and the volume came out to be 10.3 yards. Needless to say, I was impressed by Don's estimating ability.

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