1/5-7/10 I went up to Camp Serendipity for 3 days: Tuesday through Thursday.

I arrived at 11:30. There was about a foot of new snow on the ground since last week, but it looked like there must have been a couple feet of it which had been rained on and melted down to about a foot and then frozen pretty solid. Mike had plowed the driveway nearly to the trailer and also a big part of the parking area, so I easily drove right in using 2WD.

Bert and Ernie were soon there to greet me. I started out by moving things back to the trailer that I had brought up to the cabin for the family outing. I also built a fire in the stove.

After getting the trailer back to normal, I had my lunch and went to work

Since I could see that the stair blanks in the woodshed were getting wet, partly because it looked like the snow had blown in on them and partly because the stack was lower now so it was more exposed, I decided to fetch the remaining five blanks that I needed to finish the staircase.

I dragged them to the porch in the usual way but I lifted them two at a time with the crane to get them up on the porch. Then I brought them all inside the cabin and stood them up near the stove so they could dry out.

Next I got all the tools back out that I use to install treads and I rebuilt the tread-holding jigs for the next tread level. Finally, I removed the lower two temporary treads so that I had room to install the 9th permanent tread.

On Wednesday morning I saw tracks in the snow near the trailer door that looked like they might be raccoon tracks. I have never seen raccoons around, but I don't know what other animal it might be.

I took the driest tread blank I had and went through the steps of making the 9th stair tread. Bert and Ernie showed up during the process so I took a break and gave them their hugs and biscuits. After lunch and a nap, I continued working on the tread until Larry showed up for a visit. We had a nice chat sitting by the warm stove.

After Larry left, I proceeded on with the tread installation. I got two of the three bolts installed before I quit for the day.

On Thursday morning, I finished installing the 9th tread, scraped and sanded the top four treads to get them ready for varnish, and swept and vacuumed the staircase and floor. Then I applied a coat of varnish to the top four treads, cleaned out my brush, closed up, and left for home at 2:00. The staircase is now above eye level and I am very happy with how it looks.