8/4-6/10 I went up to Camp Serendipity for 3 days: Wednesday through Friday.

I arrived at 11:15. It had recently rained and everything was still wet. After moving in, having lunch, and taking a nap, I went to work and installed circuit number 9, which contains the receptacle for the washing machine. Then I installed the disposer leg of circuit number 5.

There were fewer mouse and packrat turds on the porch, but there were still some. It was mostly clear in front of the electronic ultra-sonic rodent repeller, so I think it works. I also think it is no coincidence that I haven’t seen a chipmunk since I installed the repeller. I miss the chipmunks, but I would like to get rid of the mice and packrats.

On Thursday there were several thunderstorms, a couple of them with hail. That was sure loud in the cabin since there is no ceiling insulation yet.

I spent the day working on the Convectair heaters. I started by opening the boxes, reading the instructions, and inspecting the mounting bracket and electrical systems. I figured out where the heater in the bedroom should go and I determined that I needed to move receptacle box number 32. Fortunately there was enough slack in the wire to allow me to move the box closer to the door so that it wouldn’t interfere with the heater.

Next I decided to install the dining room heater because it is all by itself on a leg of breaker 34, 36. I drilled a 5/8” hole vertically through the lowest log in the wall for the electrical cable. There was room, after a little chiseling, for the handy box between the lowest log and the next one up. I had to shim the lower log with small boards in order to fasten the mounting bracket to the wall, but everything fit pretty nicely.

I strung the MX cable, connected it to the handy box and started wiring it up. I was puzzled by the wires. The red, black, and green wires had counterparts in the heater, so there was no puzzle there. But the white wire from the cable had no place to go, and there was a taped-up purple wire in the heater which was a mystery to me. It was time to quit for the day anyway, so I called Brian and left a message with my question about the wires. I had a nice shower, as usual, before I went down to the trailer for the night.

On Friday I talked to Brian first thing and learned that the white wire is not used as a neutral, but instead is used as a pilot wire for the heaters to communicate with if you have a programmable thermostat. The purple wires attach to the white wires in the cable, and all the white wires are connected together in the service panel. They are not connected to the neutral bus bar. Brian also cautioned me that the phases for all the heaters must match. That will be easy to achieve.

Before I finished breakfast, the flock of gray jays got me out of the trailer to feed them peanuts. Evidently only one of the two juveniles from this season’s flock survived. He is obviously a pretty aggressive male. He has been a dark color up to now, but this morning he is showing the beginning of his adult coloration. He still looks a little scruffy, but he’s getting there.

I mixed up a batch of Superthrive plant food in a bucket of water and brought it into the woods for a couple of the sequoia trees. I used it on Bill and Andrew. They both looked like they could use the help. All the rest of the trees looked very healthy.

Next I sketched out the heater circuits number 33 and 34 and assigned wire numbers. Then I went back to work on the dining room heater. I got it completely installed and energized and then I set the controls to Fahrenheit instead of Celsius. I left it energized but turned it off at the heater. I was very happy to have gotten that heater installed. Now I have the confidence that I can install all the rest with no problem.

Before I left, I swept the porch off good so that I can see new signs of rodents. I still only left the one repeller out and in the same position as last week. I left for home at 2:15.