Construction Journal Entry Week of 4/15/12

4/17-19-12 I went up to Camp Serendipity for 3 days: Tuesday through Thursday.

On the way I stopped and dropped off a videotape for Priscilla. Then I proceeded on to visit with Uncle Charles for a while. I arrived at Camp Serendipity at 12:15 and was greeted by Bert and Ernie as usual. After carrying my gear up and giving the dogs their usual hugs and biscuits, I had my lunch and a short nap.

After that, I took a half-bucket of water down and watered Chuck, the newest giant sequoia tree. Then since the weather was so nice, I decided to try out my chainsaw. I hadn't fired it up since I got it out of the saw shop and I figured I'd better check it out. I wanted to make some big blocks for use at home so I started cutting into the big butt log left from the tree Robert Ferrel had falled for me. I was pleased with how the saw started and ran, and I really liked the full-length starter cord which the shop had installed to replace my short one. But I was disappointed with how the saw cut.

I struggled with it for a while before it dawned on me that the new chain I had bought was not mounted on the saw. For some reason I thought it was but I should have known better.

I took the saw back to the cabin, found the new chain, and installed it on the saw. I went back into the woods and resumed sawing. That chain worked a lot better and I was happy with it. But after working for a while, I found that the project of cutting the blocks was going to take longer than I wanted to spend on it, so I gave up for the time being.

I spent the rest of the afternoon drilling the rock under the porch trying to finish my drainage channel. The pool was dry, so after I had done my chiseling and drilling, I poured a bucketful of water into the pool to see how it would work. I learned that it still needs more work.

On Wednesday, I got out my mortar mixing tools and carefully measured how much water the water jar holds. I also measured how much the mortar mix vessel holds so I could calculate the ratio of water to mortar mix I used. I did this in order to answer a question I got from a reader of my website. Then I took a picture of the two vessels for reference.

Next I tried out my new Rubbermaid Reveal mop on the bathroom floor. It worked so well and was so easy that I ended up mopping the entire first floor except for the bedroom and utility room which don't have flooring on them yet. I love the mop.

All morning, and even the night before, my hands were cramping from running the Bulldog for so long drilling into the rock. My thumbs would jam up against my hand so that I had to use the other hand to pry them loose. I really didn't want to do any more drilling for a while so I changed my work plans. Ellen has been eager for me to move the kitchen stove up from our garage in Seattle to Camp Serendipity. I can't bring it up until I can get the truck up on the upper roadway, and there is a big snow berm up there blocking the way. The berm is from the snow sliding off the roof.

Also, the next project I want to work on is installing the ceiling boards and to do that I will have to erect a scaffold tower at the end of the porch. That will be in the way of unloading the stove too. So I decided that the thing to do would be to clear away the snow berm so that I could bring the stove up in two weeks. The roadway should be dry and drivable by then. And then I can set up the scaffolding and work on the ceiling after that.

I spent the entire morning shoveling the snow away. I love to shovel snow so it was great fun, but now that I am one day away from being 72, my body isn't used to it any more. I took it easy so I wouldn't hurt myself. I took a picture of the berm before and after the work.

After lunch and a nap, I went outside to set the gate back up for the season. I saw one chipmunk but he was too nervous to stick around for peanuts. I set a few peanuts out and saw that while I was gone the chipmunk took them. I miss working outside all the time because now I don't see the wildlife as much anymore. I haven't seen a gray jay for a long time now and the chipmunks aren't as tame either. I was happy, though, to hear a lot of frogs croaking across the road and there was at least one loud frog pretty near to me somewhere.

Before I could replace the gate log, I had to repair the gate post with the lock. The post had rotted through at ground level and the snowplow had knocked it over during the winter. Rather than make a new gate post and plant it in a post hole, I decided to use the old stub. The top of it was plenty good and it had the rebar with the lock fitting already installed.

What I decided to do was to drive two 5-foot lengths of #4 rebar down through the post and into the ground. That would keep the post in place and upright and would do the job. It would also present me with a good challenge that would be fun to tackle.

My plan was to bore four 5/8" holes into the end grain of the log, two from each end. I would try to line up the holes so that the rebar would run through the holes. The log was just over 30 inches high, and I had an 18" augur, so theoretically, the two holes from each end of the log should meet to form one nice long hole. Getting the holes to line up and meet was the tricky part.

I drilled the holes about an inch from the outside of the log and I surprised myself in getting them lined up so that on the first try, I was able to drive those two lengths of rebar down through the log and into the ground. It worked exactly as planned. I think there was some serendipity at work there.

The next part, of lifting the gate log up onto the pivot post was a familiar job that I am pretty good at by now. The challenge is to place the scaffold frame in just the right place and choke the log in just the right way so that in one maneuver, I can lift the log up off the ground using a come-along so that it is positioned with the hole right over the vertical rebar. Then cranking it back down so that the rebar goes into the hole and the log ends up in place. That's exactly what I did.

Next I replaced the concrete block counterweights on the end of the gate log, shoveled a lot of snow out of the berm so that the log could swing into the shut position, tried it out, carried back all my tools and the scaffold frame in two trips, and the job was done.

On my last trip up it started to rain. More serendipity. I was really exhausted by the time I finished so I spent some enjoyable time just sitting in Dave's Adirondack chair, having a glass of water in the sunshine while the rain was pouring down. Life is good.

Since my muscles and bones were extra sore from more physical work than I am used to, I treated myself to a long lingering hot bath before I showered and shaved. It was a truly wonderful day.

On Thursday morning my hands were still cramping so I decided not to do any more rock drilling. Instead I spent until 10:30 finishing up an excellent book Ellen and I both read. Then I decided to do my annual check on the giant sequoia trees and measure and record their height and bushiness. I measured and recorded the first tree, Paul, but when I went into the woods I found that most of the rest of them were still buried under a couple feet of snow. Brian and Andrew were exposed because of the shelter of bigger trees, but I decided to put off the measurements until I could get to all of them. Brian looked a little dry so I shoveled a lot of snow up behind it so that it would provide moisture when the snow melts.

While I was up there, I pulled out the sign in front of the old Chuck tree, which had died, and brought it down and drove it into the ground near the new Bill. Then I put away the tools, had lunch, packed up, and left for home at 1:00. It was a very pleasant week, and it seemed productive even though I didn't make much progress on the building projects. Good thing I'm the boss.



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