6/19-21/07 I went up to the property for 3 days: Tuesday through Thursday.

On the way through Monroe, I ignored signs saying that the highway was closed at milepost 39 with no detour. I figured I would continue and just wait in line until it re-opened. The traffic was held up at Index because of a fatal accident. I was delayed about an hour. A loaded semi had not made the corner and had gone off the bank and into the river. They were still hauling parts of the truck out of the gorge when I drove by.

I drove to Plain and bought 12 sacks of concrete mix. The weather was 70 degrees, nice and dry and I figured it would be good to stockpile some concrete. On the way, I saw a coyote gingerly cross the road in front of me.

I arrived at the property at 1:30. After moving in and having lunch, I drove up to the upper roadway and unloaded the 12 sacks of concrete. When I checked the cabin, I discovered two dead mice in two of the three traps I had set. The third trap, upstairs, had no bait in it. I spent quite a bit of time looking for how they might have gotten in but I couldn't find any way.

After making some measurements, I chiseled a flat face on the sill log where the back deck beam will be mortised into it. Then I made a drilling jig out of four short 1x6s which will be used to align the drill so as to make holes delimiting the corners of the 4"x4"x4" mortise hole. I used the jig, drilled the holes, and got a good start at chiseling out the mortise hole. A couple of chipmunks were after me the whole time to give them some peanuts. I appreciated the breaks from the work that those feedings gave me.

Before I went in for the night, I went up to the drain field and discovered that the big Ponderosa snag had fallen over since I was there last week. I measured the snag at 74 feet and took some pictures of it. That must have been some loud crash when it came down.

On Wednesday, I found one dead mouse in the downstairs trap but the two traps upstairs and the peanut on the floor were undisturbed. I took this to be a good sign. It could be that the three mice I had caught all came in while I had the back door open, and now I had caught the last of them. .. Or it could mean that there is a hole somewhere and these mice are the only ones that have found it so far. We'll see.

When I went to work, I was met by a flock of Gray Jays, a couple Steller's Jays, and a couple of chipmunks. They all kept me busy feeding them all day long. I finished making the mortise hole in the sill log and had just gotten a good start on the tenon on one end of the beam log I had chosen, when our neighbor Tom drove up. It was good to see him. We did the grand tour of the property and I took a few pictures of him as I showed him around the place. It was a great visit.

After Tom left, I removed the first back deck column so I could position the beam to fit the tenon into the mortise hole. I used the same rope and come-along rig to suspend the beam so I could try the fit. After working both the mortise and the tenon a few times with Rasputin, the tenon fit perfectly into the mortise hole. I was very happy.

Next I did some careful measurements and marked the column for its mortise hole and the beam for the tenon on the other end. Then I used the drilling jig to drill the holes in the column and got a good start at chiseling out the mortise hole in the column. And finally, before I quit for the day, I used the chainsaw and a chisel to rough out the second tenon on the beam. I felt pretty good about how much I had gotten done. That was the very first mortise and tenon joint I had ever made and I was pleased with how nicely it fit.

On Thursday morning I overslept a little, but I woke up feeling pretty good. I was super happy to discover that there were no mice in the traps and the peanut on the floor was undisturbed. I had new reason to hope that all those mice came in through the door while it was open.

I went to work finishing up the mortise and tenon for the column and after a little work with Rasputin, the joint fit perfectly after only the second try. Since the beam was still hanging from my rope rigging, I decided to try to re-install the column by brute force and not use the rigging. The new mortise hole in the column gave me a nice hand hold so it was pretty easy to muscle the column back over to its CB66 and get it mated with the beam. The whole thing went into place easily and I bolted the column back into its CB66. I was amazed and pleased with how quickly and easily I had gotten the first beam installed. I used a drawknife and a scraper to clean up the beam so I could take some nice pictures of it. I'll take the whole thing apart later on to apply borate to all of it and to stain the parts, but for now, the thing is standing.

Since I was on a roll, I decided to see if I could muscle the second column up into its CB66 in the newly built column pad. The column is longer, but a little skinnier than the first column and I had no trouble setting it in place. That was a lot quicker than setting up some lifting rigging like I thought I would have to do. With the column standing in place, I proceeded to drill the two bolt holes and install the bolts. That also went pretty quickly and I was happy about it. I celebrated each of these little successes by feeding the chipmunks and the jays as I went. I took some pictures of the results. I felt really good about the week's work. I left for home at 2:00.