5/16-18/17 I went up to Camp Serendipity for 3 days: Tuesday through Thursday.

There was rain off and on for the trip over the pass and even a light snow flurry at the summit. There was also new snow halfway down Dirtyface. But it was nice and dry and 45° when I arrived at noon. I checked out the rhubarb and saw that it is growing nicely. The stalks were about a foot long already.

After hoisting the flag, building a fire, and having my lunch and a nap, I split up some more firewood. Then I made a plumb bob jig for marking the undersides of the rails for baluster holes. The jig is a shim with a hole near the end where the plumb bob string runs through. By holding the shim up against the underside of the rail, I could let the string out slowly and position it so that the bob was centered on the hole in the deck below. Then, holding the shim still, I stuck a sharpie up into the hole in the shim and marked the spot on the rail. It worked well except during gusts of wind. Since it was rather windy I declared proof of concept and went in for the night.

On Wednesday, Dave called after I had gotten the fire going and had had my breakfast. After another delightful conversation, I went back out to work and finished marking and then drilling all the holes in the long Grid F.5 rail.

Next I unloaded a bunch of yard waste I had brought with me and stacked it onto the compost pile.

After lunch and another nap, I went into the woods to check on the giant sequoia trees. They all looked pretty good except for Paul. I decided I had better start irrigating Paul and Brian again right away. I connected the irrigation hose and turned the water on. But when I started walking toward the trees, I saw that the hose had been cut right by the chopping block. I don't remember cutting it but I must have.

I turned the water back off, draped the hose up over the chopping block so it could dry out, and went back to work on the rails. I marked and drilled the holes in the short rail section between Grid F.5,3 and F3. Then I split some more firewood before I quit for the day.

On Thursday morning, I patched the irrigation hose with duct tape and turned the water on. This time the leaks that remained were small enough so that there was enough pressure for the water to get to Brian and Paul. I let it run for about an hour and a half.

While the water was running, I marked and drilled the baluster holes in the rail section between Grid F3 and E3. Then Robert called and we had a nice chat about what he had been up to. He said he would try to stop by next week. I left for home at 12:05 feeling good about my progress.