Very pleasant, and very quiet here. This was supposed to be the Jia Jia-Kyle weekend at Snettisham but that was pushed back a week so Jia Jia could continue working on her master's project until the deadline Sunday. So here I am. I was so emotionally distressed last night I couldn't do anything, and that carried over into the morning. I got energy from a cup of mint tea on the porch, but the good feelings were slow to come. Thank goodness Cailey wants to come with me, and that I'd already prepped everything for both this trip and the next Snetty trip earlier in the week. Ezra met me at the harbor as I was about to push the cart down to the boathouse and saw me off at 2:50, ten minutes early. The low overcast channel was choppy and we had to slow down about half way down or get beaten up in the 1' chop, not to mention the myriad boat wakes. We also had to maneuver around the seiner with his net again across much of the channel to Mayflower Island. Finally we turned the corner and the seas disappeared about half way to Bishop. Lots of riverboats heading up on the Friday tide. On the way toward Taku Point, I took a more faithful route than I had been, not trying to find channels, and found that I was in deepish water most of the way and never less than 4'--this strongly indicates I should not be veering downstream to find deep water. Deep all the way to Norris River and back to the cliffs. Again I took the route I originally found when using the offshore channel along the meadows, straight to the avalanche until half way past (or at?) the first waterfall, then cut in closer to shore, straighten out, then to shore at the second waterfall. The water was up to the top of the grass at 29,100 CFS and a 15.6' tide. It was shallow across the slough, down to 2 something feet, but I never touched bottom at speed.

Such a pleasure to have the beautiful, civilized dock available. As boats were coming downriver, I hastily tied one of the new large fenders to the floats with the float anchor line, then another to the Ronquil, pleased at how well they worked to protect the boat. Then I unloaded and carried everything up the stairs, which only took a few minutes. I'd arrived around 3:00 pm and had dropped all the gear, opened the shutters, turned on the gas, opened the doors, and pushed the cart back to the landing by 3:15. On the way back I grabbed the mower and mowed around the cabin and then down to the landing so my mom and Roger would have a nice, homie welcome. Then I lit the stove pilots, unpacked everything (taking most things upstairs or to the landing to keep them out of the way), then wrestled unsuccessfully with the fridge. I don't know how many times I hit the lighter button, but when it did spark, it only exploded. I tried a few times, then sent an inreach message from the point, hot in the sunshine. Finally the fridge lit when I got back. I fed Cailey, poured a small glass of wine, and sat out on the porch in the sunshine with a piece of bread and butter. It was only 4:00! Everything open, everything on. How nice it is to have everything in order. I had a second piece of bread while Cailey laid on the dog bed next to me, then packed up for an expedition. I wanted to go for a walk and thought I'd look at repairing some no hunting signs while I was at it. I left Cailey inside and headed out at 4:30, walking down the new and awesome trail.

When I got to the first sign in the meadow inside Glen I rediscovered that its uprights were broken, so left it and wandered around a while until I found the next one on the other side. It was a little bent and I had to replace one of the screws in the sign, which probably didn't help, but by 4:30 I'd unscrewed all the stakes from the uprights, pounded everything back in, and secured the braces to the uprights. by 5:00 or so I'd done the same with the next sign over. This one was quite a bit more twisted and, to face the right direction, the main stakes are on a different plane. Hopefully that won't affect its stability, but it might. From there, I headed back to the back trail, stopping to pick up the yellow warbler nest which I delightedly discovered was largely made from moose fur!

Back at the cabin I was surprised to find that Cailey was not downstairs, then alarmed to see that she was not in her upstairs bed. Where was she?? I panicked briefly until I saw her laying on MY bed. She'd taken herself to bed again, so adorable. Then I got Starlink going, but no one had contacted me and Ezra said the truck was at the house and the garage door was open, indicating that my mother had not come after all. It's now 6:30 and I'm quite tired, but all is well here. I look forward to the rest of the weekend, even if I am alone.

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I had a late dinner of Indian food, watched an X-Files, then retired to my room to read and try to get a good night's sleep. Success! It seems like a long time since I've slept through the night, and slept well, in the quiet of July. I heard varied thrushes early, but that's it, and being on the dark side of the cabin, I didn't know what time it was when I woke up. 7:00! What a relief. And the day was blue bird, chilly in the shade, but I knew it would be hot once I was out in the sun. I washed up, checked on the boat with Cailey (or, at least, she was outside when I did it), then had yogurt and oats for breakfast, packed up, and headed upriver. I started a bird survey right away and added the junco singing like a chipping sparrow and the four crows I'd seen out the window. Although it was relatively quiet (few songs, but some), there was activity everywhere and a few pockets of excitement. At Devastation Alley I looked at a grove of alders/birches/cottonwoods at three or four or more ruby-crowned kinglets, an orange-crowned warbler, an adult Wilson's feeding a huge long-winged insect to its fledgling (it took several tries), and a fledgling warbling vireo calling to its parent nearby.

From there I went along Strawberry Trail and repaired the no hunting sign nearby, pausing in the middle to investigate the forlorn calls of a female green-winged teal in the beaver slough and check on the beaver dam cam. Sadly, I found it face up in the mud and retrieved it. From there, though I didn't want to, I made myself go to the no hunting sign in the meadow near the slough and fixed that up, breaking to watch a very vocal, but not singing, alder flycatcher. I then returned to the dam, left my pack of heavy tools, and walked across (to the consternation of the teal), skirted through the birch/cottonwood grove, and on to check on the erratic camera. I couldn't tell if it had captured anything, so took the card and left the camera. I was two hours in and worn out by then, but when I found 4-wheeler tracks I turned to follow them, up to the top of the Big Bend hill of course. Discouraging. I heard again what may have been a cedar waxwing but couldn't find it. I returned over the beaver dam and down the back of the loop trail, adding flagging as I went in case anyone else every wants to walk it, since it doesn't look like I'll get to teach it to anyone again.

It was after 11:00 when I got back to the cabin to a dog who really wanted to go outside. I don't think she appreciated it when I stayed inside myself, responded to some work emails and, realizing I was hungry, made a quesadilla and some guacamole. This I ate on the point overlooking the river so I was in the sunshine (the porch was in the shade). Cailey got to bury a new pork rawhide.

And then I got to work prepping the mountain-side balcony for painting. I brushed the silt off the various items out there (metal garbage can, portapotty, camping pad boxes, plywood) and took them inside to get them out of the way, scraped the railings where needed (much less than the other side), washed the silt off the horizontal surfaces, then awkwardly bleached the ceiling and part of the wall. At first the garden sprayer was more like a garden streamer and I had to go back along the boards and rub them with my rubber-gloved hand to spread the concoction. I couldn't find my second shower curtain, so made due with the one I did find and a tarp I fetched from my boat, so as I was moving them around as I worked and got a lot on the floor, which I then rinsed off with fresh water. It was all unpleasant and awkward and I was glad to put it behind me and carry my prep gear back to the back porch. I'd made a lot of bleach solution this time, maybe 2/3 a tub, and because I hadn't needed to bleach the whole wall, I wound up with some leftover.

Relieved that the worst was over, I left the porch behind and headed down a story where I prepped the three upright posts and the long horizontal that are the only pieces of the back porch left to stain. There wasn't much that needed scraping or sanding--just the horizontal which is in the worst shape--but everything was covered in silt, like everything else this summer, so it took a lot of water to rinse it all off. Some of the silty water ran all the way down my arm and sides when I had to wash directly above me. Not pleasant. On my way back to the front porch, I checked out the bedroom shutters and window trim and got thoroughly discouraged by the endless work yet to do, even with the main cabin nearing completion. I scraped those and the front window--both mostly peeling on the bottom trim--and stopped in disgust, the silt so thickly layered that I could hardly finish the job. Any further work would require more washing. Cailey had spent most of her time inside on the couch, somewhat to my relief, and I wonder if her journey upstairs yesterday was in response to the exhausting boat ride. I figured it was time for a walk, so I cajoled her into following me down the new trail, which is such a joy to walk. We passed through the Glen, I dropped off new uprights for the no hunting sign (I had a ready-made crib for the sign in Alder), then walked through Burnet Meadows (living up to its name, the burnet sweetly scenting the air and covering the meadow a bit like the cotton grass going to seed in the north meadows this morning). From there we looped back on the new "trail" to Fox Hole, picking up the camera card on the way.

Still exhausted, I tried out the porch swing when I got back and found it perfect, the sun warming my legs but not shining on my face, and I could scooch down one side to keep my arms out of the sun too. Although it was an hour before cocktail hour, I indulged in a grapefruit G&T and read in the perfection of Bullard's Landing on a sunny day. Cailey hung out for a little bit, but I'd left the door open so she could come and go through the screen, and she soon went inside and back to the couch. I read for a while and then found myself with a bit more motivation and energy, enough to start washing the window trim and shutters. As I did so, I decided that parts of it (the top piece especially) had mildew and really should be bleached before painting. Well, guess what? I had that leftover bleach. So I wound up washing the trim and shutters on all five windows, then going around and bleaching the bad spots. The living room side window had a screen which I removed from the inside later...hopefully not messing anything up (I'm not sure why it was still in). I'm anticipating running out of paint early when I work tomorrow, so now I'll be able to at least start on the shutters.

By that time it was after 5:00 and I was getting hungry, but I wasn't quite ready to quit, partly because it is such a gorgeous, perfect summer day. I grabbed my backpack full of tools, picked up some stakes in Alder, and headed to that last no hunting sign, timing my walk (not quite five minutes there). I had to put some deet on and got a dozen bites or so while working, but the project went well, especially since I took the time to pre-pound the holes with the stakes before putting in the main crib. My battery died just as I added the last screw to the sign. It looks good, and sturdy.

Back at the cabin I cleaned up while water boiled for mac and cheese, then ate over an X-Files. Unable to resist, I then taped the front window in preparation for painting tomorrow. All the windows have sludgy gray streaks, especially on the sides, where dirty water dripped down...perhaps meaning I should have washed them longer, with more water, but I think it'll do! Tomorrow I hope to go for an early canoe, then stain the rest of the back porch, since those are more exposed parts, and use up the stain on the most awkward parts of the back porch before switching to paint. Oh, somewhere in there I swapped the tape that was protecting the door and window on the river-side porch to protect the stained wall instead, and did the same with fresh tape on the other side, figuring I wouldn't have enough stain to cover that wall but could work on the trim.

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I read my serious book until I was too tired to read anymore, then headed to bed and watched another X-Files with Cailey laying at my feed, determined to rest. I slept well until 4:45 when a VERY loud boat came by. I heard it until far in the distance and I'm guessing it had twin engines based on hearing it out of sync a few times, or at least that was my sleepy interpretation. Unfortunately, this disturbed my rest and it was touch and go from there. Twice I remember transitions from conscious thinking to dreaming, probably because the dream lasted only seconds before a mosquito buzzing in my ear woke me up. I'm not sure how much sleep I had, but I was up at 7:00 feeling at least decent.

I had a quick breakfast and washed up, then fetched Cailey, who had stayed in bed, to let her outside while I checked on the boat. She didn't seem keen to be left behind this time, but I wanted to start the day with a canoe, so I headed out at five to 8:00 without her. The vegetation was full of dew and my pants (not the quick drying kind) were soaked by the time I got to the canoe. The sun was shining on mountains to the right and left, but the large mountain just in front was still blocking it and I was cool in the shade. It was very quiet on the slough, but I wound up logging quite a few yellowthroats (including two females and one fledgling) and many Lincoln's sparrows including a family of four. I paddled into sun past Yellowthroat Island and continued back into shade for a minute along the mountainside. I may have seen an actual beaver entrance tunnel at the lodge there, though I couldn't see how deep it went. A shallow portion of one of the mid-stream boulders was covered with caddisflies.

I didn't go far down the channel before heading back, tying up at Big Bend and walking to the erratic camera. I considered other erratics to try but wound up keeping it in the same place but tilting the camera up so it captured more of the sky above the rock--just in case something ever does land there. While working on that, a flock of at least ten cedar waxwings flew around the some landed in a spruce nearby. Back on the slough, ten barn swallows flew and perched, joined by a robin and a kingfisher.

I was back at the cabin a quarter after 10:00, let Cailey out, and thereafter left the door open until 7:00 so she could come and go and the cabin could be warmed by the air outside. I started staining the uprights and horizontals on the back porch as planned, finding it more complicated than I would have liked trying to access all portions of the uprights. I wound up using three ladders from various places, including on the porch, plus gingerly climbing around the wood pile. The beam supporting the second story over the wood pile still needs to be done as does the inside of the one on the upriver side, but both need to be treated more first, beyond the scope of today's efforts. I also stained the braces supporting the old shower stand. I was pleased with how the logs looked, especially when wet, and was done precisely at noon.

I broke for lunch on the porch, not needing to seek the sunshine today, and was back at it at 12:45. Not feeling up to the awkward staining of the back porch, I switched to shutter painting, bringing down the shower curtain to catch drips. I started with the outsides of the front porch shutters, carefully returning the downriver side back to its open position without touching the back of the porch swing, then painted the insides of the shutters, which was such a large surface area that the actual window frame flew afterwards by despite its many complicated pieces at right angles. I think the outsides of the shutters will want a second coat. From there, I painted the insides of the shutters and window frame on the bedroom window and took a break because it was approaching 2:30 and was a tea day. While I didn't feel a strong desire for tea, I still had the porch staining and three windows to do, so I came inside for special coffee, the coolness and the fact that I'd been painting in the shade making the heat acceptable. Wide-eyed with caffeine, I found myself on the upstairs porch at 2:50. Naturally I wanted to hit the most difficult places first, so crawled along the side of the water tank and wound up on my belly to reach the ceiling panels in the corner. I was soon breathing hard and sweating from the work of maintaining that awkward position, and while I was there decided to go ahead and stain the wall paneling five rows up so I didn't have to crawl back there again. I strained my body to stain as much as I could reach in the confined quarters, then retreated to assess my progress. I had to take the top off the tank to reach where I'd had to stop staining from the other side, but was eventually able to connect everything. Lots of work. I then returned to the outside corner and somehow managed to reach the ceiling panels under the overhang on the other side of the railing and the inside of the fascia, again on my belly. I don't remember it being quite so hard to reach last time, but I was again breathing hard when it was over. I also stained the railing there, then did the same thing on the other side of the porch, which was a dream in comparison, with nothing in the way. Still awkward, though, and I got a lot of stain on my arms as I kept staining the inside of the railing pieces before I was done on the other side. I got better at that with the middle sections.

I had more stain than I realized and, in the end, stained the bottom section of ceiling on both sides, the whole railing, the wall up to the top of the door on one side and the bottom of the window on the other, the two smaller uprights, and the two lower horizontals. It won't take much more to finish the job. By then it was 4:30 or so and I switched back to shutter paint, tackling the three downriver windows from bathroom to living room, bothering the roses and fireweed with the step ladder. At some point I had scraped and sanded all the windows as needed. It was so hot by then and I was in the sunshine that I painted them all topless. Thankfully the bugs weren't too bad when I had a mosquito coil going. Cailey had developed a swollen right lip which I at first thought was something in her mouth, so I held off feeding her until I could watch. Thus it wasn't until I was finished at 6:00, after painting the outside of the bedroom shutters, that I came inside and gave her dinner. She wasn't keen on it, but after some grated cheese was added she ate most of it with no apparently problem, and the rest a little later. I washed up and gratefully changed out of painting clothes, then ate chili on the porch with a little wine and checked in with home. I could feel exhaustion coming on, but I wasn't quite done yet. I want to wash the windows tomorrow to get the silty water streaks off, but had not yet painted the very edge of the window frames around the glass on the three downriver windows because I hadn't taped them yet. After a brief rest, I was up and taping, fully expecting to run out, but managed to cover them all with a few inches to spare. First I changed gears and swept out the outhouse to remove the thick layer of silt from the winter with a soft brush (in case others do eventually come here, and because I'd been meaning to do it), then clipped the path to the landing (mostly new growth on salmonberries, goat's beard, cranberries, and expanding devil's club leaves), discovering a lady bug on the goat's beard, cut new line for the two big fenders and tied them onto the float, and fueled the boat. Finally, I finished the window painting in just a couple of minutes. My goal had been to curl up with an X-Files at 7:30 and I was just a couple of minutes late. Now it's 9:21, surprised that I had the energy to do this, and will soon curl up in bed.

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It was a bit of a rough night, only because Cailey was feeling ill and let me know by getting up and going to the stairs that she needed to go outside--three times. The first, at 12:30 am, was actually lovely because, to my surprise, the stars were out! The Big Dipper hung over Hole-in-the-Wall Glacier. The next two times, not so much, but I was able to get back to sleep until around 7:30. I stayed around the cabin longer than usual packing up a bit and doing the dishes, then headed out to pick strawberries at Devastation Alley. I had to leave the door open so Cailey could come and go as needed through the screen. I started out heading upriver, but was diverted by a bird call I never figured out and so wound up going down the mini loop. When I got to the Crossroads, where I needed to set up the camera, I was surprised to find that Cailey had tracked me! And so she followed me the rest of the way. I reset the camera at the dam, laboriously, then headed down along Strawberry Trail, quickly stopped by...a strawberry! I picked half a tub there, then finished that and two others at D-Alley. I'd thrown the extra tubs in just in case I found, perhaps, some blueberries, but I never guessed at how many strawberries there were! I left so many on the ground, and I think it only took about 20 minutes to fill the tubs. I had noted some on the north side of the Alley along the slough and that's where I did the majority of picking.

I was back around 10:30 or so and did some pleasant chores around the cabin: filling the water tank, filling the empty water jug, washing the windows (so satisfying), digging up the double cottonwood sapling in the yard to take to Snetty, and, finally, picking a couple cups of blueberries before I broke for lunch. I enjoyed it, as usual, on the porch, then headed up to Debbie's Meadow where I'd seen more blueberry bushes loaded to the full with a large tub I have here for nagoons (rather than diminish my mothers' supply of cottage cheese containers). The picking was good, and I also casually pulled up most of the alders that have been growing up, surprised so many came up, along with more spruces. I finished picking back around the cabin, again leaving the majority behind for other pickers of all types. I continued cleaning on and off, carried the cottonwood to the landing, and reinserted the SD card in the Fox Hole Trail cam. Finally, I grabbed gloves, drill, and kestrel box and set off into the meadow. I'd picked a tree yesterday, one of the row that separates the small meadow at the end of the trail behind the cabin with the larger meadow and the slough beyond. There were a number of gaps where the box could go and wolf tree branches to climb.

The climbing was easy, finding a spot to put it where I could access it from the right side (where it opens) was tricky. For some reason, the open spots didn't have branches on the upriver side to support me and I'd always imaged the box facing the meadow. I wound up having it face slightly upriver, secured with a screw to hang from and two screws through the inside into the tree. I put the included shavings inside and took a look at the spectacular view that anyone who takes up occupancy will see! It's not quite plumb, but that can be taken care of with the shavings. It was a bit trickier to go down as I had to place the drill on branches each time I moved (it was in the kestrel box which was easier to balance on the way up), but I soon made it, happy to discover my phone at the bottom in a hole between roots, haven fallen from my pocket during a graceful monkey swing between branches. I am chuffed, though I have no idea if it's in a good spot for kestrels or any other potential takers.

Back at the cabin I made a quick trip to the landing to see if I could suck the top of the railing farther down against the upright, which was largely unsuccessful. I'm sure the slight gap will be noticed, but it doesn't change the fact that it's perfectly functional. I filled out the log and now I'm out on the porch in the sunshine with some chips and an indulgent G&T and should head out as soon as it's finished. I feel so much at home here, never as much as now, and wish others could feel that too.

Freshly-painted shutters