2/28-3/1/12 I went up to Camp Serendipity for 3 days: Tuesday through Thursday.

On the way I stopped in at our tax man to deliver a document, then I proceeded on a few more blocks and visited with Claude McVey for a while, and from there I proceeded another half-mile to Molbak's Nursery where I bought a bag of compost and a 7-foot or so Giant Sequoia tree. This one is intended to replace the one named Chuck that died. I dealt with Joannie at Molbak's who was very helpful. Hopefully I can get this tree to thrive using Joannie's advice.

The drive over to Camp Serendipity was beautiful. The road was clear but there had been a lot of new, recent snow. It still covered the tree branches, just like in a Christmas Card. The snowbanks at the avalanche sites along the way were huge. The one at Old Faithful must have been 30 feet high straight up.

I arrived at Camp Serendipity at 2:10. There was about six inches of new snow on the driveway, but with 4wd, I drove up to the water valve with no problem and then parked as usual. Bert and Ernie joined me right away. They got their hugs and we all went up to the cabin for biscuits and gravy.

I carried up the new range hood we had bought, and then had my lunch and a short nap. Then I chipped ice and snow off the back porch and stairs and then carried the new sequoia tree up to a spot over to one side halfway up the concrete staircase where I plan to plant it. I dug a shallow hole just enough to hold the pot firmly. I'll take it out of the pot and transplant it one of these weeks.

Next I went inside and began work on installing the kitchen cabinets up against the log wall. I made a lot of measurements, strung strings, marked the logs and cut the notches for the kitchen sink cabinet unit. I got it fairly close to being plumb and level before I quit for the day.

On Wednesday it snowed most of the day. I got the kitchen sink cabinet unit placed correctly but not fastened down. The pipes fit perfectly through the holes in their new location. Next I measured, marked, and cut the slots in the log wall to hold the big 3/4" vertical panel. Terry had designed the panel to be an inch wider than the cabinets so that it reaches back to the chinking. The slots in the logs had to be a couple inches deep in some cases.

After lunch and a nap, I finished truing up the notches so that the panel fit properly. It looks really nice. I took the panel back out and stood it aside so that I could work on flattening the logs on both sides of the notches. I spent a lot of time measuring, stringing strings, and hanging a plumb bob in order to mark the logs correctly for the cuts. Then I made the vertical cuts in the logs using the Bosch oscillating cutter.

I used the Bosch Bulldog with the wood chisel bit to remove the wood between the vertical cuts. The chisel worked well to remove a lot of wood in a hurry. Unfortunately, as I was working, standing on a platform atop two old sawhorses, one of the sawhorses gave way. I fell to the floor but fortunately I wasn't hurt. I had made those sawhorses some 30 years ago and they were pretty rickety. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised that one of them let me down.

On Thursday morning I did some more careful measurements and got quite a ways toward getting the logs flattened to hold the cabinet over the refrigerator and the one on top to the left of that one. It was a beautiful sunny day. I left for home at 1:00.