12/26-27/10 (Sunday and Monday) Ellen, Almitra, Tianna, Ocean and I went up to Camp Serendipity for an overnight adventure. On the way up, we stopped at Marilyn and George's for a visit and to see their cats. Marilyn and George followed us from there to the '59er Diner where the seven of us had lunch.

We all proceeded on from there to Camp Serendipity where Marilyn and George helped us carry our gear up to the cabin. Most of our gear was bedding and it had been hauled up under a tarp in the back. Up in the cabin, Marilyn and George had a look at the bronze Mt. Rainier model.

After a brief look around the cabin, Marilyn and George went back home while the rest of us got in the truck and headed for Leavenworth. We looked at the lights and storefronts, had a great dinner of German food at King Ludwig's, and watched as the girls had a great time sledding. Ellen made a video of the pictures we took.

Back at Camp Serendipity, the girls wanted a fire in the wood stove, so I built a small one. That overheated the cabin, which was warm to begin with, so we opened some windows to cool it a little before bedtime.

In the morning after breakfast, the kids did some more sledding before we packed our gear back up and headed for home. It was a fun trip for all of us.

12/28-30/10 I went up to Camp Serendipity for 3 days: Tuesday through Thursday.

I arrived at 12:30. After moving my gear in, I called Dave Bartholomew and let him know that I was at Camp Serendipity and that he could come over and take a look at the Mt. Rainier model when it was convenient. I also called State Farm and scheduled a windshield replacement on the truck. A rock chip that had happened last Thursday on my way home had grown into a big crack on the driver's side.

On our outing the day before, I had hauled the two emergency sleeping bags under the tarp in the back with the rest of our gear. They had both gotten a little wet from snow melt. I took them both up to the loft and hung them over the guard rail to dry them out. Then I shoveled snow off the porch steps and went down to the trailer for lunch.

I spent the rest of the afternoon working on the installation of two smoke detectors in the loft. I decided to install them on the gable wall close to the ceiling at about 7 or 8 feet off the floor. I figured that however the bedrooms might eventually be laid out up there, this would put one detector in each room. I planned to use 12-3 MC cable because I had a lot of it left over from installing the heaters, and it had the extra wire needed to connect the alarms together. The AWG 12 wire would be a little stiffer than necessary, but I decided to put up with it.

I planned to run the MC cable up and over the ridgepole along the rafter just above the log wall. Each box would be a standard octagon box recessed into a hole in the wall log. I would bore holes from the inside of the box hole to route the cable into the ceiling and to accommodate the cable clamps. I got a good start on chiseling out the first hole using a hammer and chisel before I quit for the day and had my shower.

On Wednesday I finished chiseling the hole for the first box so that the box and its one clamp would slip into it. Then before I broke for lunch, I got the cable strung up over the ridgepole and about 3/4 of the way to the second alarm site.

Just as I finished lunch, Dave Bartholomew called and said he was on his way over. We had a nice visit while he looked at the cabin and the Mt. Rainier model. I took some pictures of him.

He told me that he had gotten a lot of historical information about the Lake Wenatchee area from Earl and other people. He invited me to see it, so the two of us walked over to his place where he showed me his house and the historical documents. He said he would scan them and give me access to them electronically. We had a nice visit. I told him about Earl's so-far-successful battle with Parkinson's.

Back at Camp Serendipity, I finished stringing the cable between the two alarm boxes, and I finished installing and wiring up the first box. Then I got started chiseling on the hole for the second box before I showered and quit for the day.

On Thursday morning it was cold, about 18 degrees, clear and beautiful outside. All the trees and twigs were covered with fresh snow and the sun was shining. Nason Ridge was stunningly beautiful with the peaks all back lit.

I spent the morning working on chiseling the hole and seating the second alarm box. This one was tougher than the first one because it had two cables entering it instead of just one like the first box. I positioned the two clamps 90 degrees apart—one on the top and the other on the right side. The trick was to be able to push the box into the hole with two cables clamped to the box.

With a considerable amount of sculpting wood from inside the octagon hole, I was able to push the box into the hole with two short lengths of cable clamped to the box to simulate what needed to happen with the final cables. I was able to get the box with its cables and clamps seated in the hole before I quit for the week. I left for home at 1:30.