10/1-3/02 I went up to the property for 3 days: Tuesday through Thursday.

I arrived at 12:15. It was a beautiful 50-degree fall day but there was evidence that it had recently rained. After moving in and having lunch, I went to work nailing the seams I had insulated last week. The three jays came around for handouts during the whole process.

At one point two sheepherders came by and I invited them up to see the project. Their names are Ferere and Dante and they are both from Peru. Neither of them spoke enough English for us to do much communicating. They seemed to enjoy the visit, though, and they both seemed to get a kick out of feeding the birds out of their hands.

On Wednesday I started out by preparing the ceiling groove. There were only two logs that needed rasping, and they didn't need too much. So after a few minutes with Rasputin, they were ready. I also used my home-made chisel to clean up some blobs and burs of caulk.

I cut two ceiling boards long enough to tuck into the grooves the whole length of the gable that I had left to do. I will just leave these boards there until I install the real boards under the eaves. That way, I think there is less chance that animals can get into cavities in the mortar made by the insulation.

With the preparation completed, I chinked 5 seams. I was visited by six jays rather than my usual three, so the word must have spread.

Down by the old log rack, I spotted a huge King Boletas mushroom, but it was already full of bugs. Then I scouted around and found eight or ten more. Unfortunately, all of them were buggy except for a little over half of the stalk of one of them. I ate that part raw and it was delicious. I kicked myself for not checking for mushrooms when I arrived the day before. I knew it had recently rained, and I knew that the mushrooms come out right after the rain, but I didn't think to check. My mistake and my loss.

On Thursday morning, it rained lightly. I chinked two more seams, and of course, fed the jays in the process. I also installed the pegs in the three scaffold bolt holes for the upper scaffold. I left for home at 2:00.