3/19-20/11 I went up to Camp Serendipity for a week-end overnight snow camping trip with the Troop 100 Boy Scouts.

Four adults, Paul Hendricks, Mark Gedosch, and Ken Brasel, and I, along with 11 boys, rode the troop bus to Camp Serendipity on Saturday morning. We arrived shortly after noon. There had been some new snow and the weather was just below freezing so the conditions weren't too bad. The boys all had snowshoes and they used them to pack down and set up their camp over the drainfield area. Paul set up his usual kitchen on the porch and we all proceeded to have a good time from then on.

Bert came over for hugs and biscuits shortly after we were set up, and both he and Ernie visited the cabin and the tent camp multiple times throughout the weekend.

At one point, we went up to the loft where I demonstrated to the three other adults how I reconfigure the bronze Mt. Rainier model from its storage and travel configuration to the display configuration. Then we spent some time reminiscing over visits to the park as we identified various features on the model.

Later, I led a group on a snowshoe tour on the trail to the spring by way of the sequoia grove and back across the bridge near the water pipe run. Brian was the only sequoia not still buried by the snow. When I unscrewed the overflow pipe at the springbox, I found one caddisfly larva. It's still a mystery to me how they get in there. And on the return, nobody fell off the bridge even though it was a little challenging keeping your balance on that skinny rounded pile of snow on top of the bridge. I did, however, fall on at least three occasions during the tour, all with soft landings, but nobody else fell. It was a fun trip.

The boys eagerly and enthusiastically pitched in and, as a service project, carried all the big pieces of plywood and OSB, that I had stored in the entry room, down to the storage rack I had prepared under the front porch, where we stacked it to get it out of the way. That was a great help to me and I appreciate it very much.

The boys spent the rest of the afternoon having fun in the snow, but later on, the cabin filled up with wet, tired, boys warming up and drying their soaked socks and boots on all the various heaters we had available. Paul served a simply marvelous pot roast dinner, that he had cooked in Dutch ovens, for the adults and senior scouts. We ate that in the dining room while the rest of the boys cooked and ate their dinners in their snow camp.

I slept in the loft in my usual bed; Mark slept in the bedroom; Ken slept in the living room; and Paul slept on the front porch as he always does. The boys slept in their tents on the snow.

On Sunday morning, after a wonderful breakfast of ham and some kind of egg dish, again cooked up by Paul, he, Ken and I took a walk up the White River Road to the Sears Creek Bridge. On the way back, we talked to a young man gearing up to climb some rocks above the road. Further on, we ran into a group of people and dogs going the other way. The dogs met us first led by Bert, followed by Ernie and then a couple other dogs. Then we met the people, who were Dave and Nancy Bartholomew, Mike and Peggy Reeves, and their boys Justin and Patrick. After introductions all around, Nancy commented on how she admired the troop bus. We learned that the young climber we had talked with was Dave and Nancy's son Colin. We had a nice chat and then invited them to stop and visit Camp Serendipity on their way back.

Later, the group stopped in for a visit. They spotted my old Trapper Nelson pack and I proudly demonstrated that I had cleaned it sufficiently that it no longer reeked of pack rat urine. They politely agreed that it didn't stink so I'll take their word for it. They had questions about my rodent valves which I tried to explain and which I pointed out to them. We went up to the loft so they could see the bronze Mt. Rainier model which was still in its display configuration.

After the visitors left, the boys wanted to know if I had another project they could do as a service project for me. Unfortunately, I had not prepared for two projects, but one of the boys did take the ash bucket, which was nearly full, and dump the ashes into the old privy.

Late in the morning, a couple of gray jays showed up and one of the boys fed them some peanuts on the ground. I didn't see them because I didn't know where they were. I had gone out the back door and up to the tent camp but the birds were near the front porch. They were gone by the time I got there, but at least some of the scouts got to see them and feed them.

Paul decided that we should have lunch on the bus on the way home, so he prepared lunches to go for all of us. We packed up our gear, cleaned everything up, closed up, and left for home at about 12:20. We stopped for milkshakes at Zeke's on the way back. It was a great weekend.

3/22-24/11 I went up to Camp Serendipity for 3 days: Tuesday through Thursday.

I arrived at 1:00 and was soon met by Bert and Ernie. After the usual hugs and biscuits, I moved my gear up to the cabin and started a fire in the wood stove. Then after lunch and a short nap I measured the refrigerator dimensions and called Terry at Marson and Marson and left the dimensions on a message to him.

Next, I reconfigured the Mt. Rainier model to its storage/travel configuration. Then I drained the hose on the porch, hooked it back up, and coiled it under the workbench.

The full sheet of OSB that the scouts use on the porch for a table top was still on the porch. I carried it down and stored it in the rack under the porch with the rest of the plywood and OSB. Then I made sturdy wire retainers to keep the stack from falling over. I had made temporary rope retainers when the scouts were there, but I figured it would be safer to have something more durable.

Next I replaced the diamond masonry blade on the Skilsaw with the normal wood-cutting blade. In the process I brushed off the fine marble dust that was all over the saw. I didn't want to raise a marble dust cloud every time I used the saw. Finally, I swept the porches and outside steps and took down the tarps that I had wrapped around the bathroom stud walls. Things were now pretty much back to normal after the scout visit.

On Wednesday the weather was clear, warm, and beautiful. I spent a lot of time looking at the problem of installing the soffit for the cabinets above the range. In particular I examined the problem of building it next to the short loft beam. I made a lot of careful measurements using a tape and a plumb bob. Then I called Terry to discuss the situation.

Terry had not included the beams in the kitchen ceiling in his drawings and some of the dimensions were not quite right. I described the beam positions and gave him my detailed measurements. He asked me to make some more measurements, which I did while we were on the phone. He took the measurements and said he would produce an updated set of drawings and send them to me. We also discussed flooring options and he told me about a product called Konecto, which I will look up on the Internet.

After lunch and a nap, I worked on various items on my list of things to do before drywall. I added two items, frame a ceiling in the linen closet, and install ducting for the kitchen fan, which brings the total to 46 items. I completed one item, #39, to remove the EMT sticking out of the pantry wall, and made a little progress on a couple others.

I went outside and walked over to the drainfield where the scouts had set up their tents. They had done a good job of leaving no trace, except for their tracks in the snow. I got a kick out of their choice of a site for their camp fire. They chose just about the deepest snow there was so their fire had melted a hole in the snow that was about 3 feet deep. The boys had said it had been a little awkward to sit around the fire toward the end when the fire was down in such a deep hole.

On Thursday morning, I made a little progress on item #32, taking stuff out of the utility room, but I spent most of the time on item #27, providing drywall backing for the ceiling along Grid A. The first joist is out a way from the log wall and I wanted backing attached directly to the log.

I explored quite a few ways of making the backing but all were awkward. To fasten to the log, the wood would have to be fastened to the convex surface of the log. I couldn't figure out an elegant easy way to do this. I tried a few ideas and then gave up.

Then it occurred to me to install a 2x4 as if it were another joist but up close to the log. I tried a couple different approaches to this before I settled on one long 2x4 spanning the entire width of the kitchen and another 2x4 spanning the utility room. I got the 2x4s cut but I didn't get them fastened. That will have to wait until next week. I had my lunch, packed up, and left for home at 1:00.