Construction Journal Entry Week of 7/8/12

7/10-12/12 I went up to Camp Serendipity for 3 days: Tuesday through Thursday.

I stopped and visited with Claude McVey on the way. It was a very hot drive over, ranging from 90º to 78º. It was 87º at Camp Serendipity when I arrived at 2:00. The AC in my truck needs fixing and I have an appointment to get it fixed on Friday. Hopefully the ride home this week will be the last uncomfortably hot ride for a while.

After moving my gear in, I had lunch and a short nap. When I went outside to work, a chipmunk was right there to get his/her peanuts. I nailed up the fourth course of ceiling boards above the Grid F purlin. The hard part of the work is rearranging the planks and climbing up and down the scaffolding. It's probably good for my old bones though to keep this active.

It was pretty warm in the cabin, about 78º, before the end of the day, so I opened all the windows in the evening and left them open all night.

On Wednesday morning, it was a cool 65º inside the cabin which felt good. I shut all the windows again before it started getting hot outside. It was something like 48º outside when I got up.

I started out by going into the woods and watering all the giant sequoia trees. The temperature was up to 78º by 10:00.

I nailed up the 5th course of boards and part of the 6th course before I broke for lunch and a nap. The chipmunk was up on the porch several times during the work. I was pretty stiff and sore when I got up from my nap but I went back out and nailed up the rest of the 6th course and the entire 7th course. I was really hot, tired, and sore by the time I quit. The temperature on the porch was 87º. A cool shower felt great after I quit for the day.

On Thursday morning I was so tired and sore that I didn't want to think about climbing back up on the scaffolds. During breakfast I toyed with the idea of skipping the hard work and just whacking down some weeds and brush that are getting out of hand around the place. But before I finished with the breakfast dishes, the doorbell rang.

It was Larry Copenhaver. He had stopped in to visit but he also wanted to get some pictures of my bronze model of Mt. Rainier. He had tried to describe it for some people and figured that pictures might help.

I took a picture of him after he announced that he would soon be celebrating his 90th birthday. Then we went up into the loft, opened up the model, and he got his pictures. Then we got to talking about various things and I realized that he had never seen the model I made of the cabin. I got that out and we had a lengthy conversation about building, model-making, and other topics.

Larry left a little after noon so I didn't do any more work on the porch and I didn't get any weeds whacked. As soon as he left, I had my lunch, packed up, and left for home at about 12:45. The drive home was hot, but I was looking forward to getting the AC fixed the next day.



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