12/20-22/16 I went up to Camp Serendipity for 3 days: Tuesday through Thursday.

After getting my truck loaded up for the trip, I started it up and saw that there was an indicator that said "electrical charging system needs service". I took off and the indicator light stayed on so I swung by Maddy's and had Brian take a look at it. After plugging his diagnostic devices in, he advised me that it would be risky to ignore the light. Since I plan to take Ellen, Marilyn and Ocean to Camp Serendipity the following week, I decided to get the truck fixed right away.

I left the truck with Brian and walked home. He called about 2:45 telling me that the alternator was bad and that he had replaced it. I walked back to his shop, got the truck, and headed for the mountains at 3:45.

There was more traffic in the city at that time of day than I am used to, and it got dark by the time I got to Sultan. There was also a storm moving in so it was raining below Scenic and snowing above. Chains or 4wd were required beyond Scenic but the road had been recently plowed so I had no problem driving except for the endless stream of oncoming headlights from the skiers going home. This was my first trip with my new glasses and it was great. I can see so much better now that even in the dark with snow falling and all those headlights, I had no problem driving.

I arrived at Camp Serendipity at 6:45. I had planned to deliver some of Ellen's Christmas jam to neighbors on the way, but I put that off until morning due to the circumstances.

There was about 10 inches of new, heavy, wet snow that had fallen on my driveway since the last time it was plowed. And then there was a heavy berm of snow thrown up by the snowplow from the road. The berm was probably 15 inches deep and I knew I wouldn't be able to drive through it.

I drove down the road another quarter mile or so and turned the truck around. Then I came back and parked the truck with the headlights lighting up the berm and driveway. I got my shovel out and spent about 45 minutes shoveling out a gap in the berm.

Then, with the truck in 4wd, I got a run at it and barged the truck into the driveway, turned the corner, and drove it all the way to the hairpin turn over the 10 inches of snow and got it parked by 7:45.

Rather than get the snowshoes out, I postholed my way to the cabin carrying only the cooler. Once up there, I got a fire going in the wood stove. Then I returned to the truck and got the rest of my gear. Finally, I prepared and ate my dinner.

On Wednesday morning after breakfast, I went down to the truck, scraped the ice off the windows, and headed out to deliver the jam. The temperature was in the low 20s.

I found each of the neighbors that I visited to be at home so I spent some time visiting with each of them. It was a pleasant series of visits on a beautiful crisp sunny morning. I learned how poor Ernie had died. Mike told me that Ernie had slowly deteriorated until at one point he simply could not get up on his feet. Mike then took him to the vet for the last time. It was a sad story, but probably better than Bert's. Bert had gone off by himself and died alone in the woods.

When I got back to Camp Serendipity, I spent about an hour shoveling the wet snow off the concrete staircase and stomping down the trails above and below the stairs.

While I was working on the stairs, Mike's tractor showed up and whoever was driving it, probably one of his sons, cleared the driveway and parking area up to my truck.

I went in for lunch and a nap and then split a bunch of firewood and built a fire in the wood stove.

Next I gassed and oiled the chainsaw and tried to start it. I was dismayed that the starter rope failed to retract all the way and eventually was out so far that it couldn't turn the crank at all.

I took the starter rope mechanism apart and wound three more turns of the rope around the pulley. Then I put it back together and it worked fine. I don't understand what is going on but it must be that the spring is weakening and that I am now using more of the inner part of it. As long as it keeps working, I guess I don't really need to understand it.

I took the saw down to the gate log, dug the snow away, and cut off a couple feet of the log. After bringing the saw back and storing it in the cabin, I took a rope back down and used it to drag the log section up the hill and onto the front porch deck.

Next, I got a drawknife and a couple different chisels and tried peeling the log, which was frozen solid. Nothing worked very well so I gave up. I just wanted to get an idea of how hard it was going to be and what tools might work the best. It probably will be a lot easier when it is thawed but whatever the case it won't be too much of a job.

I also plan to cope one side of the short log so that it mates with the Grid F3 column. I plan to lag screw the short log to the column and then use it as the anchor for the vine maple stair rail.

On Thursday morning, the temperature outside was 23° but I had the thermostats set up to 65° so the electric heaters made it comfortable enough inside the cabin so that I didn't need to start a fire in the stove.

Dave called first thing and we had another delightful conversation. When we hung up, I had my breakfast and then started sprucing up the place to get it ready for guests next week. I went out on the front porch and moved the vine maple rail from up on the deck, where it was in the way, and placed it pretty much where it is finally going to go. I lashed it in place with ropes and had it running through the knuckle notch in the Grid F.5 porch beam. Then I put away all the tools that were lying around, vacuumed the floor, and generally tidied things up.

Finally, I had my lunch, packed up, and left for home at 12:45 looking forward to having visitors next week.