Construction Journal Entry Week of 5/22/16

5/24-26/16 I went up to Camp Serendipity for 3 days: Tuesday through Thursday.

Before I left, I went downtown and had a delightful breakfast with Dave and Bill at the WAC. Dave told us that he would be moving to Florida within a week, so that breakfast was going to be the last time I see him for quite a while. It was a great breakfast but I am going to miss him a lot.

I arrived at Camp Serendipity at 2:30 and took my usual photo of the rhubarb plant. Then I moved my gear in, hoisted the flag, watered the giant sequoias Brian and Paul, and then went over and checked on Paul. It was getting water and seemed to be thriving, but growing slowly.

Next I went to work on the back staircase. I removed the next temporary plank tread and began erecting the suspension system for holding the tread blank in position for scribing.

On Wednesday, I started by cutting some wood and building a fire in the wood stove. It was a little chilly in the cabin and the small fire made it nice and cozy but yet not too hot. Then after breakfast, I went out to work and finished suspending the tread blank. I got it aligned correctly this time, and scribed it after calibrating and aligning my scriber.

Next I used a modification of my method of locating the back corner points on the stringer notches. I had worked out a method, on 5/11/16, of making a cardboard triangle for the purpose, but I decided to make them out of paper this time instead. It was a lot easier to draw and cut out the four paper triangles, but a little harder to hold the level on the long side of the triangle while putting it to use. Next time I think I will leave a half-inch strip of paper along the long edge of the triangle and fold it over 90°. That should make it firm enough to hold it close to the level.

When all the points were located and the lines drawn, I started cutting the notches using the reciprocating saw and the Bulldog before I went in for lunch and a nap. When I got up, I watered Brian and Paul again and went into the woods to check on them. They are all doing pretty well. While I was in the woods I spread 5 gallons of wood chips on the Pipe Trail. I discovered that a fairly big tree had fallen across the trail. The wheelbarrow run from there back down the trails is not too bad so I may harvest the firewood from the tree when I cut it away from the trail. More work to add to the backlog.

That evening, Ellen confirmed that we would be spending the night in the cabin on Friday after hiking the Eightmile Lake Trail and having dinner in Leavenworth.

So on Thursday morning, I devoted my energies to sprucing up the place. I vacuumed upstairs and down, dusted off the window ledges, swept the front porch and steps, and put away a bunch of stuff. I have to admit that it looks pretty nice in there when it is all cleaned up. I left for home at 12:30 eager to come back up on Friday.

5/27-28/16 Ellen, Marilyn, and I spent Friday night at Camp Serendipity.

Ellen and I picked up Marilyn on our way to the Eightmile Lake Trailhead up the Icicle Creek road. We had a beautiful and fun hike to the lake. The weather was perfect for hiking and there weren't nearly as many people on the trail as I had expected. And only one or two bugs. After the hike, we had dinner in Leavenworth at Andreas Keller and then proceeded on to Camp Serendipity. We relaxed, had showers, and watched a movie before going to bed.

In the morning I fixed oatmeal for breakfast and took a picture before we headed out. We turned right and went up the road a mile and visited Eunice Henry's grave. From there we turned around and went home, dropping Marilyn off on the way. It was a delightful time.



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