7/21-23/15 I went up to Camp Serendipity for 3 days: Tuesday through Thursday.

On the way, I stopped to pick up a prescription and then realized that I had forgotten to load Priscilla's antique clock that I wanted to bring up to the cabin. After returning home and getting the clock, I proceeded on to visit with Priscilla for a short while. From there, I proceeded on to Monroe where I eked out a draw at checkers with Uncle Charles. And after that, I proceeded on to Skykomish where Marilyn and George served me a nice lunch.

I arrived at Camp Serendipity at 1:45. The weather was mild, about 75º, which was delightful.

After carrying the clock up to the cabin, I returned with the wheelbarrow which I used to bring my gear up in one trip and then four 60 lb. sacks of mortar mix in two more trips.

Then I turned on the valve to water Brian, the giant sequoia, and went into the woods to check on the trees. They all seemed to be thriving and Brian was getting water.

After taking a closer look at Brian, I could see that the trunk was divided about six inches above the ground. One stem was a few inches longer than the other one and it looked to be the older of the two. It was brown most of the way up and at the top the foliage was drooped over and looked sick. I have been hoping that it would straighten up as the result of giving it extra water and removing some of the shade, but it didn't seem to have made any difference.

The other stem looked to be healthy and growing even though it wasn't as tall as the old, drooped stem. It looked to me that the second one was the one to nurture and that a divided trunk was not good for the tree. So I snipped off the taller stem in the hopes that the smaller one would do better. I am no arborist; I just did what seemed to me to be the right thing to do. I guess we'll see the results later.

When I got back to the cabin, I got out all the masonry tools and got them ready to mix mortar and lay up stones the next morning. About that time, Larry rang the doorbell. It was so pleasant out on the porch that we decided to sit out there and chat rather than go inside. He had already seen the latest progress inside anyway. It's amazing that he is as active as he is being 92.

On Wednesday morning I got up at 4:45 and got an early start on the masonry work. It is downright pleasant working in the cool of the morning. The temperature was about 50º. I took the wheelbarrow to the rock pile in the back to get more rocks ready before I started. I used up a little more than half of the mortar mix I had brought. By the time I stopped at about noon, I was plenty sore and tired.

After lunch and a nap, I fixed the broken tailgate support for the truck. The original support was a short cable with a connector on each end, one attached to the top of the side rail of the box and the other to the corner of the tailgate. The original cable had rusted through and broken at the middle. My fix was simply to cut an 8-inch length of cable and then use two cable clamps to attach the two connectors to the cable. It was a quick and dirty fix but it will work for as long as I own the truck.

Next, I whacked the weeds down on the upper roadway starting at the hairpin turn and I used the warthog to dig out a few thistles. Then I went inside and started working on the antique clock. I read the directions from the clock repair shop, unpacked the clock, leveled it, set the time, and started the pendulum. I set it up on the living room window ledge temporarily.

Ellen isn't sure she wants the clock where she can hear it bonging and ticking while she is trying to sleep. I set it up in the living room to see whether it bothered me. If it is too loud, I may move it to the loft. Wherever it ends up, I will make some sort of shelf for it. I selected a 2x6 that I had previously varnished and I'll make a shelf from it when I finally decide.

On Thursday morning I got up at 5:00. The ticking and bonging didn't interrupt my sleep even though I could hear it. After breakfast, I went back to work laying up rocks. I used up all but a few pounds of the mortar mix that I had and got the top tread on the right hand third of the staircase mortared in place. Starting next week, when the mortar is set, it will be possible to walk up a continuous staircase in the front of the cabin for the first time ever. That will be nice. There is still quite a bit left to do on the rest of the steps though. I left for home at 12:15 happy with my progress, slow as it is.