10/2-7/95 I went up to the property for six days: Monday through Saturday.

It rained all day Monday. I built up the form on the low column pad another eight inches and I buried the extension cord under the driveway so I don't have to unplug the cord and roll it out of the way in order to drive into the place. After that, I cleared the brush away from the trail to the privy to make it more comfortable for Ellen, Dave, and the rest of the people coming up later in the week.

On Tuesday, it rained until mid afternoon. I built the footing forms for the masonry stove pad and installed 2-inch drain pipes through the column pads on the Northeast wall. Russ Christensen of the building department came up to inspect the footing forms. He was impressed with the solid rock I was building on and OK'd the work without hardly looking at it. He said the project looks a lot different in real life than what he had imagined when talking to me about it or looking at the paperwork. After he left, I had a big bonfire and burned up most of the wood scraps that were cluttering up the site.

On Wednesday, I calculated the additional volume of concrete needed to raise the column pad and to fill the masonry stove footing. The total now came to 12.2 yards. I called Roy Dickinson of Two Rivers to change the order to 13 yards. We also discussed the question of who was in charge of deciding on a schedule. I had gotten some hints that Reliable might want me to change my schedule. He assured me that I was in charge and should tell them when I wanted them to show up.

Later on, I talked to Peter and Jerry at Reliable quite a few times and had a little bit of a hassle getting them to hold to their commitment for their big 42 meter pumper. They wanted to use it for a job in Everett that just came up and were trying to get me to change my schedule or use the smaller pumper. Fortunately their man Don had been up to the site to see it and had told me that the small pumper wouldn't reach. After his close estimate on the volume of concrete, I trusted his judgment on reach as well. This, plus the conversation with Roy earlier in the day, gave me a strong negotiating position and I stuck to my guns. In my last conversation with Jerry, he rather curtly told me that I would have the big truck at 10 A.M. just like they committed.

The rest of the day was spent building scaffolding so that we could walk up alongside the high northeast forms. These turned out to be absolutely essential.

On Thursday, I did a whole bunch of last minute little chores. These included mounting a plaque that will leave a big '1995' imprinted on the Western corner of the footings; building ladders up the scaffolds; setting up and checking out my home-made concrete vibrator to make sure it still worked; finding and setting out various trowels; covering knotholes in the forms with tin can lids; taking down the mosquito tent; adjusting the rebar stubs to the proper heights; and cleaning debris out of the forms.

About noon, Larry Copenhaver came over and gave me some fresh corn he had grown. I told him that Ellen was due to come up that evening so he gave me enough for her as well. Ellen arrived at about 6:30 and after we went for a run, showered, and had dinner, we walked down to Larry and Roberta's and had a nice visit in their home.

Friday was the big day I had been preparing for. After breakfast, I went up and made a tripod to hang the vibrator from. About 9:00, the pumper truck showed up. It was awesome. It had no trouble reaching the farthest forms. The Two Rivers concrete truck showed up at 9:55 and five minutes later, Dave and his partner, Mike Woods showed up. Two minutes later we were pumping concrete. It went fast and smoothly and we were done in two and a half hours. None of the forms blew, but some of them were stressed to the max. I was really afraid that the northeast form might give way. The concrete was a lot soupier when we got to that part and the forms pulled away from the rock wall about an inch in one place. Anyway, they all held and I felt a great sense of relief.

At one point, I asked Dave, the Reliable truck operator, what they did about the Everett job. He said they gave the business away to another pumping company.

Dave (Martin) and Mike did a great job pouring and working the concrete. It would have been an awfully long, hard, and more expensive job if Ellen and I had to do it by ourselves.

Ellen took a bunch of pictures of the proceedings, and also did a bunch of troweling before she fixed lunch for Dave, Mike and me. After chatting for a while after lunch, Dave and Mike left for home. Ellen and I drove down to the Two Rivers office to pay them, and we had a nice visit with Roy. Roy told us that Reliable didn't have such a bad day; after they left us, they did another job nearby before going back. This news removed the last trace of guilt I had for demanding that they stick to their committed schedule with their big pumper.

After that, Ellen and I looked around our property for mushrooms. Earlier, I had found a perfect specimen of a King Boletas mushroom growing about where Vladimir and Joyce had pitched their tent almost exactly a year ago. Unfortunately, the bugs had already infested the mushroom. We figured if there was one, there must be more, but after looking alongside all the trails on the property, we didn't find any more.

After we fixed and ate dinner, we walked to the Cougar Inn for a couple drinks.

On Saturday, we relaxed in the morning, and in the afternoon, drove to see the White River Falls. On the way, we saw a lone lost sheep on the road. We went back and called Earl Landin and told him. He said the flock had already gone back to Yakima and he would call the owners and tell them they missed one of their rams. He said it would be up to them whether they would come and get it or not.

After visiting the falls, we hiked about an hour up the Twin Lakes trail looking for mushrooms, but again we got skunked. When we got back to the trailer, we started getting ready to leave. Part of this was to winterize the trailer. I poured the antifreeze into the tank, unhooked the hose, turned the bypass valves, and tried to turn on the water pump. Then it dawned on me that we needed 12 volt power to power the pump and the 12 volt power had mysteriously failed since I hooked up to 110 volt power. This caused a one or two hour delay in our departure. I had to take the battery out of the pickup and hot wire the pump while Ellen ran the faucets in the trailer. Good thing she was there because I couldn't have done both jobs very easily. We also ran out of antifreeze in the process and had to drive to the Parkside Grocery store to get more. We did the job though and left feeling pretty good about the week's work.

10/10/-13/95 Went up to the property for four days: Tuesday through Friday.

It rained cats and dogs all day Tuesday and Wednesday but was nice and mild Thursday and Friday. In order to get as much masonry work done before it starts freezing, I made laying up the block walls the highest priority. I removed only those forms that I needed to in order to lay up the blocks. I made two story poles-one each for the south and west corners. By Thursday I had layed up 24 blocks on the west corner.

Since it was raining so hard, I had a good opportunity to check the drainage. In order for the drainage to work along the northeast wall, I had to remove some of the forms to open up the drain pipes. When that was done, the drainage system worked well and kept the water level 8 inches or so below the level of the column bases. This will keep them plenty dry.

On Friday, I changed my priorities because I realized that my cement mixer was inside the building and I had to get it out of there before I built the walls up. I still needed the mixer in there to make the concrete for the remaining four column pads so pouring them became the new priority. I spent the day Friday hauling 24 loads of aggregate up to the site in a wheelbarrow. I had this much left over from previous concrete work and I think it will be enough to do the column pads as well as to fill some of the cores in the block wall. Next week, I will build the forms, wire the rebar meshes together, and, weather permitting, pour the pads.

The propane tanks were empty when I left, so I took them home.

10/16-19/95 I went up to the property for four days: Monday through Thursday.

It rained cats and dogs all day Monday, through the night, and until about 4:00 in the afternoon on Tuesday. I worked under a tarp hung from the tops of the high batterboards and from the trees up on the rock. I built the forms for the three center column pads and wired up the rebar meshes that go into them. On Monday, I scheduled the building inspector to come out on Wednesday.

On Wednesday morning, I built the form for the loft support column pad and got everything ready to mix and pour concrete. The weather had cleared and it was a beautiful, mild sunny day. Around 11:30 I called the building department to find out when the inspector was going to show up. They said that he always does owner-builder projects in the afternoon. I had my lunch, and at about 1:30 the inspector, Bruce Williams, showed up. He looked the project over, asked a few questions, and then gave me the OK.

As soon as he left, I started mixing and pouring concrete. It was soon evident that I was going to run out of aggregate, and sure enough, I only had enough to pour two of the big pads and the one small one. Just as I finished and was cleaning up the tools, Mike Tutino stopped by. We went down to the trailer and had a nice visit. He hadn't seen our plans yet so he looked them over.

When Mike left, I unloaded the concrete blocks I had brought up in the pickup and also unloaded everything else out of the pickup bed so I could haul gravel.

On Thursday morning, I drove to Two Rivers and bought a pickup load of mixed sand and gravel. I wheelbarrowed about ten loads of this aggregate up to the site and mixed and poured the concrete for the last column pad. After I cleaned up the tools, I shoveled the rest of the aggregate into a stockpile down by the trailer. That is the end of the concrete work inside the building, so now I can take the mixer out of there and finish laying up the foundation walls.

The propane tanks were about 3/4ths full when I left.

10/23-26/95 I went up to the property for four days: Monday through Thursday.

On Monday, I hauled up a load of stuff and drove the pickup up to the site and unloaded it. The load included 20 concrete blocks, 500 lineal feet of K-web, and Leonard's old electric winch. I also built a concrete block storage crib for the leftover aggregate so it won't get dirty or scattered during the winter. The rest of the day, I cleared around two trees that I intended to fall and rigged a rope to one of them to help it fall where I want it to.

On Tuesday, it rained lightly all day and I felled a fairly big grand fir. It was the one Earl and I looked at on 9/18. The butt end is 20 inches in diameter and the bar of the chainsaw just barely reached across it. I limbed the log and did some peeling. The bark is on pretty tight and peeling is a tough job. I hung Leonard's hoist from a tree and tested it. It works great and it should prove very useful in handling logs and other heavy stuff. In the process, the rope on a block and tackle broke and I repaired it. Later, I did some scouting of the new pipe trail. The woods are very thick in that area and I didn't come to any conclusions. I will have to do some test digging to decide the exact route.

On Wednesday it rained all day and I peeled half of the log. Then I hauled up two scaffold frames, two come-alongs and a bunch of chains and used them to turn the log over so I can peel the other side.

On Thursday, it was still raining and I spent the day stripping forms from the footings. The propane tanks were about 3/8ths full when I left.

10/30-11/2/95 I went up to the property for 4 days: Monday through Thursday.

On Monday, I hauled a load of concrete blocks up to the site in the pickup. When I backed the pickup down, I got stuck and had to winch myself out with come-alongs. It's kind of a nuisance getting stuck. I am debating whether I would save time in the long run by either widening the roadway in the turn, or by wheeling the blocks up in the wheelbarrow. I will think about the question more before I do anything. Anyway, snow is coming and I won't be able to get the pickup up there much longer this year at all.

The cores in the block wall I had laid had about 5 inches of water in them from all the rain last week. I used a kerosine pump to pump them out. Good thing I did because it got down to 18 degrees Monday night. I don't think it froze very hard before that. After I pumped the cores out, I covered the wall with visqueen to keep any more water from getting in.

I did some more peeling on the log but I didn't overdo it in the interest of not hurting my arms. The bark is really stuck on and I have to fight with every square inch of it.

When I finished work, I called Earl Landin and invited him over for dinner. He came over and we ate some leftover stroganoff that Ellen had made.

On Tuesday, Halloween, I peeled some more on the log, repaired the long ladder that the snow had broken last winter, hauled up to the site and stacked some more concrete blocks that I had stockpiled down by the trailer, rolled up the hose that I had going up to the construction site, and hung a light in a tree over the driveway for the trick-or-treaters. I called Roberta Copenhaver earlier and told her that I was prepared for trick-or-treaters if they wanted to come over later. Larry Copenhaver stopped by late in the afternoon and we walked the trails around the perimeter of the property. About 6:30 I was visited by a group of 4 trick-or-treaters.

On Wednesday morning, it was 18 degrees outside again, and I was nearly out of propane. I drove down to the Parkside Grocery and filled the tanks. When I got back, I did some more peeling, measured and cut a 42 foot log, rigged up the electric hoist, and started pulling the log out of the woods. I also built a set of ramps to get the cement mixer out of the building site.

On Thursday, I got the mixer out of the building site and loaded it into the pickup. Dave plans to borrow it this winter so I will take it back to Seattle. Before I left for home, I finished peeling the log and got the 42 footer pulled up up onto the log rack by the woodshed.

11/7-10/95 I went up to the property for four days: Tuesday through Friday.

Chains were required over Stevens Pass and there was compact snow on the road all the way from the pass to the property, so I just left the chains on. I had to shovel about a foot and a half of snow in order to park the pickup. It started raining as I was shoveling and it rained from then on for the next two days.

I used the snowshoes to make trails to the trailer, and the privy, then I used the wheelbarrow to pull concrete blocks, one at a time, from the pickup up to the building site. It was a hard job pulling the wheelbarrow over the wet snow and I only got five blocks up this way on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, I called Keith Tower of the Health Department to talk about our septic permit which expired in the middle of October. He said that there is no problem as long as we have started construction of the house. The permit will remain in force as is as long as we install it next spring. I called Mike Dickinson and he agreed to put me on his list for the first thing in the spring.

After that, I carried the remaining 35 concrete blocks up the hill using my trusty Trapper Nelson backpack. This was a lot easier than using the wheelbarrow. I finished around 3:00 and about that time, the rain stopped. I started stripping forms and got a pretty good start and then about 4:00 it started raining again and after getting soaked, I quit for the day.

It was clear on Thursday morning so I spent the morning clearing snow and branches away from the hose. I have decided to leave the hose in place all winter and just keep clearing the branches so it doesn't get pinched off. The water running through the hose keeps the snow melted away from the hose. I hope this works because it makes it a lot easier to fill my water jugs. When the hose line was clear, I worked on stripping forms until 3:00 when it started snowing pretty heavily. I went in and called all the loggers whose numbers I knew trying to find logs. I left a lot of messages for them to call back.

On Friday morning, I talked to Louie Brender, 548-7970. He can supply us with white pine logs that are seasoned and peeled. He thinks I will only need one truckload and said he wants a deposit before he starts accumulating them for me. I told him I would figure out exactly how many logs of what sizes I need and get back to him.

I also talked to Dave McBrier, 763-1503. He said that he can get any size or species of logs I want and he said I would need two or three truckloads at $8000 to $10000. He said I should look at Louie's logs first and if they won't work, then get back to him. I feel a lot better now that I have two promising sources of logs rather than none.

I spent the rest of the morning scouting a pipe route through the woods. I dug a few test holes to see if rocks would be a problem. I think I found a good route. It swerves over pretty close to the property line next to Dick Tutino's. This winter, I will clear the brush and trees away from this line, and maybe start digging and installing pipe.

The propane tanks were half full when I left.

11/13-15/95 I went up to the property for 3 days: Monday through Wednesday.

There was about 8 inches of old wet snow on the ground but I was able to park without doing any shoveling. I spent Monday afternoon packing 30 concrete blocks up to the building site. The last time I packed blocks up, the blocks wore a hole in the backpack. To avoid any further damage, I made a wire hanger so I can hang a block on the outside of the pack without having to put the block in the bag. This will not only save wear and tear on the bag, but it makes it much easier to load and unload the blocks.

On Tuesday, I spent the morning clearing the new pipeline trail and I got maybe a quarter of it done. In the afternoon, I met with Louis Brender down at his place on the Chumstick and made a deal on logs. They are rather pricey-$2.75 per lineal foot-but house logs seem to be rather hard to come by and the price is pushed up by the export market. He will start selecting out nice straight seasoned white pine logs for me next spring, and will deliver them sometime in April of next year. He can't get the 5 long 42 foot logs that I need, but I think I can get them from trees on our property.

On Wednesday, I spent the morning stripping forms. It started to rain about noon, so I packed up and went home. The propane tanks were 3/8ths full so I left them.

11/20-21/95 Since it is Thanksgiving week, I went up to the property for only two days: Monday and Tuesday.

Enough snow had melted so that I was able to back the pickup all the way to the trailer. I was also able to use the wheelbarrow so it was fairly easy to take 30 blocks up to the site. I stripped the forms off the fireplace pad so that I could start a pile of blocks right next to it. There was no rain or snow either day so I made good progress on the pipeline. I used a length of rebar to probe for rocks and I have settled on a pipeline route. It is probably 2/3 cleared, but there are some spots left that have some big trees fallen over them. I will have to use the chainsaw to clear them. There is also one log among them that is good enough to use, so I will drag that one out of there one of these days.

The propane tanks were down to about 1/8th so I took them home with me.

11/27-29/95 I went up to the property for 3 days: Monday through Wednesday.

It was snowing when I drove over Stevens pass but I followed a snowplow and didn't have to put on chains. The snow turned to rain on the other side, but by the time I got to Lake Wenatchee, it had turned back to snow. There was only about a half inch on the ground when I got to the property, so I was able to back the pickup up to the trailer. I hauled 40 blocks up on this trip and I was able to use the wheelbarrow to haul them up to the site. By the time I finished, there was about 2 inches of snow on the ground. By dinnertime there was about 4 or 5 inches on the ground. Then it turned back to rain, and it poured for the next two days.

Another tree blew down across the property line so on Tuesday, I went to the ranger station and bought a firewood permit so I could use it. I took a sample of the bark to the rangers and they thought it is a douglas fir. I limbed and peeled the whole log on Tuesday in the rain. The tree had been dead for a while so the bark came of easily. I also stripped the forms off the outside of the northwest footing.

On Wednesday morning, Ellen called and told me that both Snoqualmie and Stevens pass had been closed because of flooding. I decided to get ready to leave as soon as I could. When I left a little after noon, Stevens was still closed but Snoqualmie was open so I went home via Blewett and Snoqualmie. I saw a lot of flooding on the way. The Tumwater canyon was awesome.

12/4-6/95 I went up to the property for three days: Monday through Wednesday.

On Monday morning, I picked up about 700 lb. of rebar. This is all of the steel that will be needed in the foundation. When I got to the property, there was about a foot of snow on the ground. After some shoveling, I was able to back the pickup halfway to the trailer. Then, after making a trail from the pickup to the building site with snowshoes, I used the wheelbarrow to haul 30 concrete blocks from the pickup to the site.

On Tuesday, I hauled the rebar up to the site and stacked it. Then I took the lumber rack and the rebar stanchion off the pickup. In the afternoon I used the chainsaw to clear some fallen trees from the pipeline trail. The weather was beautiful; it was clear but pretty cold. it was about 25 during the day and about 12 degrees at night. The moon was so bright at night that with the snow it was almost as bright as daylight,

On Wednesday, I finished clearing the trees and brush from the pipeline trail. Now when I get time, I can begin digging the trench and laying pipe. Before I do, though, I need to make a rack to hold the logs that will be delivered in April.

When I left for home, the propane tanks were just over half full.

12/11-13/95 I went up to the property for 3 days: Monday through Wednesday.

There was some snow in the pass, but chains were not required. It took me 45 minutes to shovel out a parking place. There was about 18 inches of snow on the ground. After making a trail with snowshoes, I tried to haul blocks to the site in the wheelbarrow. I only took one at a time and I figured that after a few trips, the snow would pack down and it would be easy. After three such trips, I learned that it wasn't easy and didn't get any easier. I switched to hauling them on the backpack like I did before. That is a lot easier. I got 12 blocks hauled up before it got dark on Monday.

On Tuesday there was about 4 inches of new snow and I packed up the remaining 24 blocks. Of the 40 that I bought, I left 4 home so I could start making the special notched blocks I need for corners and jambs on the bond beam courses.

In the afternoon, I used the snowshoes to pack down the snow in the area where I will have the logs delivered. I spread out a sheet of visqueen that I had in this area to keep the ferns from growing up under the logs. I still need two more sheets of visqueen and I will get them next week.

The snow turned to rain on Wednesday, so I spent the morning in the trailer studying Russian, and then left around noon. The propane tanks were just over a quarter full so I left them.

12/18-20/95 I went up to the property for 3 days: Monday through Wednesday.

There was just an inch or so of new snow so I didn't have to do any shoveling or trailmaking. I stopped in at Earl Landin's on the way up to give him some of Ellen's jam and while I was there I saw his ultralight parachute airplane.

I tried using the two wheeled hand truck to haul blocks up to the site but after three trips, I decided it didn't work as well as the wheelbarrow. I switched back to the wheelbarrow, but I made slings that hung from the backpack down to the handles of the wheelbarrow. That worked great. You could almost push the wheelbarrow with no hands. All the weight is on the backpack. The only problem is that you have to keep moving pretty fast so that you have enough momentum to get over all the bumps in the trail. By 3:00 or so, I had all but 6 of the 40 blocks moved up to the site and I went over to Mike and Shirley Tutino's and gave them some jam. Shirley gave me (us) a wooden Frosty the Snowman that she made. While I was there, I found out that Mike had been in a pretty bad accident and wasn't feeling very well.

On Tuesday, I carried the remaining blocks up one at a time on the backpack because my back felt like it needed a break and so did my arms. After that, I spread visqueen over the rest of the log rack area, and then went to visit Larry and Roberta and deliver some jam to them. When I got back, Earl Landin came over and identified the new tree that had blown over as a douglas fir.

On Wednesday, I hauled one log down to the new rack and got a second one skidded over the lip of the cliff. By the time I was finished, it was time to go. The propane tanks were empty so I took them home.

12/26-27/95 Ellen and I went up to the property to relax and have fun. We spent one night in the trailer, visited Mike and Shirley, Larry and Roberta, and Earl. We also skied to the top of the viewpoint over our property.

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