12/9-11/09 I went up to Camp Serendipity for 3 days: Wednesday through Friday.

The drive over the mountains was clear, cold, and beautiful. When I arrived at 12:05 the temperature was 20 degrees. I turned up the heater in the trailer and then went up to start a fire in the stove in the cabin. I wanted to get it warmed up before I went to work.

Bert and Ernie showed up as I was gathering firewood. I gave them their hugs and biscuits. I started the fire using the small diameter vine maple firewood that has been stored in the woodshed for about 10 years. This makes a quick hot fire. While that was burning, I took the wheelbarrow and filled it with the fir firewood I had harvested from the limbs of the two trees Robert Ferrell had falled for me. Since this was also small diameter, I figured it would burn fast and hot. I stacked the wood on the back porch.

After moving in and having lunch, I got a second wheelbarrow full of firewood, this time I got the big vine maple firewood, and stacked it on the porch. I discovered that the fir limbs didn't produce as much heat as I expected, so I burned mostly maple. The stove kept the place cozy warm as I fabricated the 6th tread.

Next, I made two new tread-holding jigs. The old ones were too short by now, so I made the new ones using 8-foot 1x2s as legs. These will be tall enough for the highest tread in the staircase, so I won't have to make another set of jigs. I brought the 1x2 legs from home and I had marked them all with the exact heights of all the remaining treads. That way, when I rebuild the jigs for each successive tread, I won't have to take the time to measure and mark the jigs. I'll just have to unscrew the horizontal 2x4s and re-screw them back on at the next higher set of marks. The process gets more efficient with each tread. Great fun!

Before I quit for the night, I mounted the 6th tread in the holding jig and tried the fit for the first time. When I went in for the night the temperature had dropped to 14 degrees.

The heater in the trailer could only get the temperature in there up to 50 degrees during the night, so I had a little trouble keeping warm.

On Thursday morning, the temperature outside was 4 degrees. I went up to the cabin and started a fire and was promptly met by Bert and Ernie. More hugs and biscuits. After breakfast, after a couple rounds of working the notch, I installed the 6th tread. I love doing that final drilling and bolting. And I love the way the staircase is developing.

After lunch, I fetched the blank for tread number 7 and did the rough fabrication on it out on the front porch. Then inside, I scraped, and sanded the top three treads to prepare them for the next coat of varnish, and I glued a broken piece on the 6th tread.

When I went in for the night, I had the presence of mind to bring in a sleeping bag that I carry in the truck for emergencies. With this sleeping bag spread over my bed, I was cozy warm all night.

On Friday morning, the temperature outside was 10 degrees when I got up. I went through the same routine with Bert and Ernie when I went up to start the fire in the cabin stove. After breakfast, I moved the 2x4s on the holding jigs to hold the 7th tread. I did some work on the notch on number 7 and mounted it in the holding jig for the first time. The notch needs to be worked down some more. I took the tread back down and then cleaned up the top three treads. Finally, I applied another coat of varnish to the top three treads: numbers 4, 5, and 6. I am very excited about how the staircase looks with that shiny varnish. Then I closed up, had lunch, and left for home at 2:00.