6/9-11/09 I went up to the property for 3 days: Tuesday through Thursday.

The drive over was beautiful. I arrived at 12:15 and was promptly greeted by Bert and Ernie. After moving in, lunch, and a nap, I decided to build a better CBA for the small crane I had erected on the porch. The base of the boom was temporarily supported by a chain that was wrapped around a log end projecting from the Grid E3 corner of the cabin. There was too much slack in it so the winch would run into the projecting log below when the crane was swung over. I didn't like that, plus I didn't want to tie up the chains that way.

The way I had built the crane was a quick and dirty proof of concept. Now that I know that it will be useful, I want to make it more permanent. The question was, how to support the base of the boom that would be strong, flexible, and small. After thinking about it for a while, and collecting some parts that might be useful, I decided to make a molly.

I had never made a molly before but ever since I heard about them, I had wanted to try. I think it was Roy Dickinson who told me about them, but I can't really be sure about that. Whoever it was told me that when he was young he worked in the woods logging and one of his jobs was to make mollys to join lengths of cable. The molly is a small continuous ring of cable.

To make a molly, you count the number of strands on the outside of the cable you are going to use (this will be 6 for small cables) and then multiply that number by the circumference of the molly you want to make. Then you unwind one strand from a cable for that length and cut it loose.

Then you simply wind that strand around itself, passing it through the loop again and again until it is all used up. The strand will reform back into a cable but it will be a continuous small loop.

I got a piece of 5/16" cable, cut a strand loose, and made my first molly. In the process, I passed the strand through a 5/8" eye-bolt so that when I was finished, the molly was running through the eye of the bolt.

Next, using Dr. Dick's rebar cutting/bending machine, I bent a piece of #4 rebar into a loop that fit around the projecting log end. It also had a right-angle bend in one end that stuck down into the loop a couple inches. I drilled a hole in the top of the projecting log that accepted the bent end of the rebar so that the loop was held in place around the end of the log. Then I threaded the molly through the rebar loop just like you would put a key on a split key ring. Finally, I drilled a hole in the end of the 4x4 for the eye-bolt and bolted it in place. The CBA was finished and worked like a charm.

In the future I'll probably replace the chain arrangement holding the top of the boom also, but I'll do that later.

On Wednesday Bert and Ernie greeted me again first thing in the morning. I got an early start because I didn't want to be working in the loft in the middle of the day if it was going to get too hot up there. I was chinking by 7:00 AM and by 1:00 I had gotten three seams done. I was careful not to stress my leg and I was happy that it felt strong the whole time.

After lunch and a nap, I went back to work and cleaned the logs around the three seams I had chinked. There was a thunderstorm and it rained for about half an hour so it didn't get too hot in the loft to work.

The wild roses are in full bloom and there are a lot of them around the cabin. Each time I would go by a bush, I would stop to smell them. I've heard that's what life's all about.

On Thursday morning my leg felt good enough to go back to work. I chinked one more seam before I cleaned up my tools and quit for the week. I left for home at 1:30. I had to brake for a young deer on the road a couple miles from the cabin.