12/4-6/12 I went up to Camp Serendipity for 3 days: Tuesday through Thursday.

At George's suggestion, I drove to Monroe via the Woodinville-Duval road in order to avoid the closure of 522 that has been happening every Tuesday for a long time and is going to continue for a long time. It worked well. I think I'll use this route from now on until they stop the closures.

In Monroe, I stopped in and visited with Uncle Charles for a while. Then I proceeded on to Camp Serendipity. There was a little snow in the air right at the top of the pass and it was rainy at the lower elevations. I arrived at 1:20, built a fire in the stove, had lunch, and a nap. Then I went to work and erected a third tier on the steel scaffold tower between Grid A3 and B3. Before I quit for the day, I spent some time dismantling a bunch of temporary bird blocks I had made. I had used them to not much effect trying to keep birds and rodents out from between the rafters at Grids A1-C1 while I was working on the ceiling there.

On Wednesday, I resumed work on the scaffold tower and set up the first steel frame for the fourth tier. I soon discovered that I couldn't complete the tier because there wasn't enough headroom for the second frame. I decided I didn't need that fourth tier after all so I lowered the first frame back down to the ground.

After thinking about how to hang the rest of the rebar S-hooks and 4x4 supports, and after setting the 20 foot extension ladder up against the wall, I realized that I couldn't reach high enough with just the ladder. So I set up a second steel scaffold tower between Grid C3 and D3 so that I could set the extension ladder on top of the scaffold platform. The tower was not quite wide enough to provide a base for the ladder both for Grid C3 and D3, so I hung extender brackets on one end which made the platform wide enough.

The top platform was made from three long planks, and since I felt a little exposed up there, I decided to add a second tier of scaffolding even though I would leave the ladder platform deck on the first tier. It felt a lot more secure after that since there was something to hold on to.

With that second tier set up, I had used all 10 scaffold frames that I own. Before I stopped for lunch, I moved a bunch of small firewood from where I needed to walk around the Grid A3 corner of the foundation. The firewood was partly exposed and partly covered by the snow berm that was formed from snow falling off the roof. The snow-covered sticks made the footing a little dangerous, plus if the snow got any deeper I wouldn't have access to the firewood. So I moved all the wood and piled it up under the eaves where it could dry out and not get covered by snow. The result was a nice walkway around the building.

When I quit for lunch, Bert and Ernie showed up for their usual treats. After lunch and a nap I found enough rebar S-hooks to serve as the new D and E hangers. I made identifying labels for the new hangers. I now had all the hangers I needed and they were all labeled.

I took the A hanger and the two B hangers up with me to the top of the 3-tier tower and hung them from the outer Grid A3 and B3 anchor hooks. Then using the long lifting rope with the hook on the end, I snagged each of three 4x4 supports and pulled them up to the top of the tower. Then I hung the supports from the hangers and attached the other ends to the log wall with lag screws in the usual way.

Next I lifted four 10 foot 4x4s to the top of the tower by lifting them successively from one level of the tower to the next. Then I used them to span between the A support and the lower B support. I fastened the outer two to the supports using a hurricane tie in each corner.

Then, with great effort, I lifted a big piece of 3/4 inch OSB up and wrestled it on top of the 4x4 stringers to form most of the A-B scaffold deck. I screwed this to the 4x4s at each corner which made the entire deck very solid and sturdy.

I was extremely tired when I quit for the day. I built a fire in the wood stove and just sat watching it for about a half hour while I rested. Then I took my shower and had my dinner.

On Thursday morning I set up the ladder on the ground under the Grid E purlin to see if it went high enough for me to reach up and hook the E S-hook to the Grid E3 anchor hook. It wasn't even close. It was way out of reach.

I decided to try from up on the porch so I brought the ladder up there and set it up against the Grid E3 corner of the log wall. From up on the ladder I could almost reach through the projecting wall logs to hook the S-hook but I was still about six inches short.

So I found a suitable stick and lashed it to the S-hook to make a handle that extended about another foot. By holding on to this handle I was able to hook the S-hook to the anchor hook. Now I needed to hang the 4x4 support on the end of the S-hook.

I carried the 4x4 support up the ladder with me and balanced it across one of the projecting wall logs. This put it in a fairly good position in order to hook the hanger on the end over the S-hook. Then I slowly and gently pushed the 4x4 out and off the log until it hung vertically from the S-hook. Now all I needed to do was to fasten the other end to the log wall.

Since I couldn't reach high enough to install the Grid E3 lag screw, I decided to extend my second scaffold tower and make it a tandem tower. For that I needed one more scaffold frame and I didn't have any more. So I took one of them down from the two tier tower. After all, that second tier was there purely to make me feel more comfortable. I left the other frame in place and figured that would have to suffice to make me comfortable up on that deck.

I added the frame and two cross braces to make the tandem extension and then I used a rope to guy the remaining lone frame on top of the tower to make it rigid. Without the frame that I had just removed and the connecting cross braces, the remaining frame was wobbly without the guy ropes. I guess if I really need that second tier for comfort or safety, I can always take the tandem extension back down when I finish hanging the E support.

After putting three planks atop the tandem extension, I set the ladder up on the planks and leaned it up against the log wall. It reached plenty high so that it was easy to install the Grid E lag screw and hang the 4x4 support on it.

Then I carried the ladder over to the middle of the deck into a position where it was under the Grid D purlin. I extended the ladder to one rung below its maximum and tried hooking the long D S-hook to the Grid D3 anchor hook. It took me a couple of tries and it was very scary reaching up and out like that trying to see over my shoulder with one eye but I did get it hooked. I was very happy to see that long S-hook hanging down from so high up.

But with that experience, it was clear to me that there was no way to safely carry up a 4x4 support and hang it on the S-hook. It was going to take some extra rigging. I began thinking about how to do it.

It was snowing fairly heavily when I quit. I took some pictures of the results of the morning's work. It doesn't look like much, but as I have just described, it took some doing to get it done. The C hanger will be even harder because the S-hook is longer and the anchor hook is quite a bit higher. I will have to use that last rung in the ladder and I will probably have to do some extra rigging, but first I'll come up with a plan for the D support and then go from there. Getting this scaffold system installed has been quite a series of difficult and dangerous problems, just as I knew it would be. I need to continue taking it slowly and deliberately.

I left for home at 12:20 feeling pretty good about my progress. I was ahead of the snowplows on my way home so there was a couple inches of new snow on the road. I stayed in 4wd all the way from Camp Serendipity to quite a ways down the hill on the other side. But I made it with no problem.