11/1-3/17 I went up to Camp Serendipity for 3 days: Wednesday through Friday.

My schedule was off by one day this week because of Halloween. I drove through a little rain on the way over, but it was dry and 46° when I arrived at 12:10. After unloading some yard waste, I brought my gear up to the cabin and was again happy to find no trace of mice. After building a fire in the stove and having my lunch, I decided to skip my usual nap and take advantage of the weather. Rain or snow was forecast for the next day, so I wanted to cash in on the good weather.

I got the chainsaw ready and bucked up the short log on top of the cliff and then went down the slope and bucked up the entire 12-footer that was down there. I didn't want to run my saw down into the dirt, so I made my cuts as deep as I thought I safely could. Then I tried to roll the log to finish the cuts.

The log was so big and so hard to roll that it was quite a struggle. I was able to buck it in two at a point where it didn't touch the ground. Then I was able to roll each of the shorter logs to finish those cuts, but it was a lot of grimy work.

With the entire log now bucked up, I brought the chainsaw back to the cabin and returned with a come-along, a cant hook, and a couple of chains. Using the same rigging as before, I pulled one round up over the edge of the cliff. That proved to me that it would be pretty easy to pull the rest of the rounds up and avoid damaging the cedar sapling, even if there was snow on the ground.

I was beat, and it was near the end of the day, so I brought the come-along and cant hook back to the cabin. Then I went back up and rolled one of the rounds down the hill and added it to the stack under the eaves. And, before I went in for the night, I split one of the rounds to see how easy that was going to be. It was not easy. The wood is pretty wet.

On Thursday morning, it was 30° and still not raining or snowing. Robert called before breakfast and told me he would try to come over this week or next week. I told him about my chainsaw problem and he said he would fix it.

After breakfast, I brought the come-along and chains back up and rigged them up to reach further down the hill. Then I used the rig to pull up all the rest of the rounds and got them up on top. Now I am even more ready for snow.

I rolled all but five of the rounds down the hill to the cabin and then went in for lunch and a nap. After all that physical work, the nap felt extra good. When I got up it was raining. I was glad I gotten done what I did in the morning. I put a raincoat on and stacked the rounds that I had rolled down. Then I split one of the rounds. I took some of the wood inside and used it to start a fire. I was worried that it might be too wet to burn. I used smaller pieces and it burned fine.

Next, I started working on the chainsaw starter rope mechanism. I cleaned it up and got it apart far enough so that I could see pretty much what was happening. The connection between the pulley and the spring was failing somehow. I think a knob on the spring was occasionally slipping out of the slot in the pulley that was supposed to hold it. I couldn't see how to open up the spring compartment, so I decided to leave it until Robert could look at it.

On Friday morning, Dave called and we had a short conversation. There were a few snowflakes in the air early in the morning, but they had stopped by the time I finished breakfast. I went out and rolled all remaining rounds down to the cabin. Then I stacked them all under the eaves except for a couple that I split. With the wood pretty much taken care of, I went inside and finished assembling the 5040-piece jigsaw puzzle that I have been working on in the evenings for a little over a year. That was very gratifying. I took a couple pictures of the result.

I had an early lunch and left for home at 12:15. I needed to be home in time to go to a concert with Ellen and I thought there might be a snowstorm in the pass. Surprisingly, the pass was clear but there was a snowstorm all the way between Maltby and Kenmore.