7/29-31/13 I went up to Camp Serendipity for 3 days: Monday through Wednesday.

After dropping Tianna off at Big Blast, I proceeded on to Priscilla's where I intended to load up a big 4-drawer file cabinet. Unfortunately I forgot to bring a dolly with me so I turned around, went back home to get the dolly, and then returned to Priscilla's. Marielle happened to be there at the time so we had a nice visit while I loaded the cabinet into the truck. The planks and tackle I had brought with me, along with the dolly, made the job pretty easy.

From there I proceeded on to Monroe where I visited with Uncle Charles. Just as I was about to leave, Mark showed up and we chatted for a while before I left for the mountains. I arrived at Camp Serendipity at 1:40 and was very disappointed to find two mice caught in my traps. I had six traps set, so I guess it was some sort of good news that four of the traps were still set. This is getting to be annoying, ... again. Both mice were caught on the first floor so I guess that sort of narrows down where they might have gotten in.

After lunch and a nap, I moved the file cabinet into the cabin and up to the loft. Instead of using the porch crane, I made a plank bridge from the tailgate of the truck to a step on the front porch staircase. After sliding the cabinet over the bridge to the staircase, I used a come-along connected to a rope bridle around the cabinet to winch it up the stairs and onto the porch. Then after walking it into the cabin and positioning it at the foot of the loft stairs, I used the come-along again to winch it up the stairs and into the loft. It is a heavy beast but it is now up in the loft where I am sure it will be very useful to us.

By the time I got the truck backed down and parked, it was time to quit for the day. The mosquitoes were noticeably fewer this week than in past weeks. That is a good sign.

On Tuesday I started out by going into the woods and watering the giant sequoia trees. I didn't use any bug juice at all and even though there were some mosquitoes in the woods, it wasn't all that bad. I am really glad to see the end of the mosquito season.

Back in the cabin, I finalized the kitchen faucet valve plumbing by adding Teflon tape and tightening the threaded joints so that the parts lined up correctly. Then I finalized the mortise-tenon joint connecting the wooden faucet spout to the maple faucet base.

Then I spent a lot of time getting the spout ready for varnish. It was more or less covered with dirt and glue from the two halves being glued together and being handled so much. I used Gus' hunting knife to restore the whittled finish over the entire spout. I really liked how it came out.

After having lunch and a nap, I went looking for scraps of 1/2" pex pipe which I was sure I had. Unfortunately, what I was thinking about was 3/4" pipe and the only 1/2" pieces I had were too short. Fortunately I had bought a couple flexible hoses intended for remote dishwasher hookup and they were the right outside diameter to work with the Shark-Bite connectors I had. These were intended to serve as risers to connect the water sources at the bottom of the cabinet to the pipes in my kitchen faucet assembly.

Next I mechanically fastened the faucet assembly to the granite countertop. I was proud of my method of fastening it. I had thought of many ways of doing it, mostly of fastening the maple base to the granite through the holes, but instead I fastened the copper plumbing to the granite and let the pipes hold the wood down in place.

What I did was to buy two 1/2" bronze ground clamps and use them to clamp the vertical pipes just an inch or two below the granite. Then, in a stroke of serendipity, I just happened to have a supply of steel rings about 3 or 4 inches in diameter each with four evenly spaced holes in them tapped for 8-32 threads. (I had salvaged these from some old IBM equipment years ago and they have proven to be useful for many applications.)

The rings were just the right size to ride on top of the ground clamps. And to keep them centered around the pipe, I used a 5/8" flat washer around the pipe and on top of the ground clamp. The washers just happened to fit in the inside hole of the rings so the rings stayed centered.

Then with two 8-32x3" machine bolts going up through a pair of diametrically opposed holes in each of two rings, plus four 1/2" copper caps, the clamping assemblies were complete.

To install a clamp, I ran the two machine bolts about halfway through the holes in each of the rings. Then, lying on my back under the sink in stereotypical plumber's fashion, I placed a washer over the pipe coming down from the faucet, and I placed a ring over the pipe with the screw heads pointing down. Then I loosely attached a ground clamp to the pipe under the washer and ring.

Next I placed a copper cap over the top of each bolt, aligned the ring and the clamp so that I could reach the clamp screw heads and the vertical machine bolt heads with a screwdriver, and then pushed the entire assembly up so that the copper caps were up against the bottom of the granite with the bolts holding them up.

In that position, I tightened the two ground clamp screws to hold the clamp tight. That held the washer and ring up, but they could still be moved around somewhat. I made sure that the ring was centered around the washer and that the copper caps were engaging the granite outside the hole in the granite. Then I tightened up the machine screws which pushed the ring down against the ground clamp while pushing the copper caps up against the granite. This had the effect of pulling the copper pipe down, which in turn squeezed the maple base between the valve assembly and the granite. It made for a very effective clamping system with no additional holes or fasteners required in the maple base. As I said, I was proud of it.

Next came the risky part that I dreaded: hooking up the water lines. The plumbers had left the supply pipes poking up through the bottom of the cabinet with shut-off valves installed on them using pex crimp fasteners. I have no pex crimping tools and I didn't want to use those shut-off valves because of their small apertures, so my plan was to use Shark-Bite connectors.

I had bought two 1/2" ball valves that were already fitted with Shark-Bite connectors on each end, and I intended to use those as my shut-off valves. Then I would run the hoses between these valves and two more Shark-Bites to connect them to the vertical pipes coming down from the faucet.

The risky part was replacing the shut-off valves with the ball valves. If that leaked, I wouldn't be able to replace the old valves. I filled a gallon jug with water just in case I wouldn't be able to restore the plumbing and then went down to the crawl space and shut the water off. I came back up and made the move of no return. I cut the hot water pex pipe with a tin snip to remove the shut-off valve. Then I used a pliers to try to restore the end of the pex pipe to a more-or-less round shape so that it would fit inside the Shark-Bite fitting on the bottom of the ball valve. I pushed the valve on to the pipe and it seemed to seat OK. Then I did the same for the cold water valve and went down to the crawl space to turn on the water and face the moment of truth.

When I got back upstairs, I was delighted to find that the valves were both dry and that neither one was leaking. That was a relief.

Next I proceeded on to install the two hoses and test them. Unfortunately the cold water one leaked at the top between the hose and the Shark-Bite. I removed that Shark-Bite connector and replaced it with a different one. But before I reassembled it, I smeared some silicone around the end of the hose that was leaking and pushed the Shark-Bite connector on to the end.

I let that cure while I took my shower and had my dinner. Since the hot water was working fine, I did my dinner dishes in the kitchen sink (with very hot water) which marked a milestone at Camp Serendipity. I have been waiting a long time to be able to do that.

When the dishes were done, I hooked up the cold water hose and to my great relief, the leak was fixed and the plumbing stayed nice and dry. I now had both hot and cold running water in the kitchen for the very first time. Hooray!

On Wednesday morning I noticed a new problem. There were the telltale signs of powderpost beetles at the base of the Grid B2 PSL. I had seen traces of fine sawdust on the floor there before, but I had talked myself into believing that it was the remnant of my own working. Now I knew that I hadn't done anything to produce that sawdust so I need to take it more seriously. I vacuumed the sawdust up and if it shows up again next week I'll drill into the post and give it a dose of sodium octoborate. I think I still have a small supply and I know that it works.

I was also dismayed, but not surprised, to find another mouse in the trap near the front door. This trap had been one of the two with a mouse in it the day before, so it might indicate that the mouse hole is somewhere near the front door. Maybe that will help me find it.

I spent the rest of the morning putting away tools and cleaning up the first floor. The family is coming up for an outing in a week so now that the plumbing is working, I will spend my time getting things ready for them and for the scouts who are coming up the following week.

I left for home at 1:30 feeling very happy about the progress.