11/20-22/17 I went up to Camp Serendipity for 3 days: Monday through Wednesday.

I arrived exactly at noon. It was a damp, gloomy, 35° outside with the remnants of an earlier snowfall on the ground mostly melted away. But at least it was not raining. As soon as I brought my gear into the cabin, I got a phone call from Ellen. After our conversation, I built a fire in the stove and it started raining. After having my lunch, the rain stopped so I went out and hoisted the flag. Then I had my nap.

When I got up, I planed three more 2x4s which gave me enough baseboards to finish the entire job. I brought the two 2x4s that I had previously varnished outside to the front porch. I applied a second coat of varnish to those two, and I varnished the three new 2x4s. Then I varnished the two small baseboards in the entry room. I shut the inside entry door to keep the fumes from the small baseboards out of the cabin. I didn't want to varnish the long baseboards between Grid B3 and E3 until just before I left because of the fumes.

It rained all night and was still raining on Tuesday morning when I got up. The ground was frozen and ice was beginning to form. I thought we were in for an ice storm, but the temperature warmed up a little and the ice storm didn't develop.

After breakfast, I applied another coat of varnish to the five 2x4s out on the porch and the two small baseboards in the entry room. That was the final coat for two of the ones on the porch and the two in the entry room.

After cleaning out my brush, I moved on to the next project: the baseboards between Grids E2 and E1 in the bedroom. I moved furniture in there to give me room to work and I removed the floor register and taped over the hole to keep chips and dirt from going down into the ductwork.

After having my lunch, I went outside and split a bunch of firewood. It was raining cats and dogs. Then I went in and had my nap. When I got up, I prepared most of the seat for the baseboards. This section was trickier than the rest because of the log spacing. I have to plug gaps between the baseboard and the log above that I didn't have to do before. I wasn't sure exactly how I was going to do it. The rain continued steadily all day and through the night.

On Wednesday morning, it was still raining. I brought the two 2x4s that had had their final coat of varnish inside and set them on sawhorses. They were still a little tacky because it was near freezing on the porch, and I wanted them to dry completely in case I could install one of them before I left.

Next. I worked on fabricating a piece of wood that would serve to plug half of the gap between the Grid E2 - E1 baseboard and the log wall. I made it from a pine board and I shaped it mostly using a drawknife. I used two C-clamps and a short 2x2 as a vise to hold the pine board fast to the window ledge while I drawknifed it. It worked very well.

I went through many iterations of testing the piece, determining where more wood needed to be taken off, and then clamping it and drawknifing it. I also used a gouge to make some concave cuts.

Once I was satisfied with the fit, I caulked between the wall log and the plug and then nailed the plug to the log. That section was now ready for the baseboard. Then, before I had my lunch and left for home, I applied the last coat of varnish on the three new 2x4s on the porch, the two entry room baseboards, and the long baseboard between Grid B3 and E3. I was happy to be done with all the varnishing.

After cleaning my brush, I had my lunch and left for home about 1:00 before I breathed in too many fumes. It was still raining when I left.