10/16-18/18 I went up to Camp Serendipity for 3 days: Tuesday through Thursday.

The drive over was stunningly gorgeous. I think the autumn leaves were at their peak. The sun was bright, the sky was clear blue, and the leaves looked brilliant. I arrived at 12:11. I brought my gear up to the cabin and found one mouse in a trap in the crawlspace. After taking care of that, I hoisted the flag, built a fire in the stove, and had my lunch.

There was a phone message from Earl so I called him and we chatted for a while. He had his eye surgery and the prospects were that his vision would improve but it was going to take several months. After we hung up, I took a nap.

When I got up, I sprayed Board Defense on the three rails for the back porch. I left them to dry on two sawhorses and went up to the bluff to check on the trees. They haven't been irrigated for a couple weeks but it doesn't look like they need it anymore. They all looked healthy.

Then I went up to the sequoia grove and checked them. They also looked healthy.

I continued on up and checked the spring. There was still about the same flow out the overflow as before so it is OK.

When I returned to the cabin, Robert called and updated me on his plans. He will be over to Camp Serendipity next week to resume the logging activity.

On Wednesday the rails were dry, so I stained them right after breakfast. Then I figured out a better way to make elevation measurements in the crawlspace. Instead of measuring down from that long 2x4, which I would have to have kept moving around and re-leveling, I decided to measure down from the flanges of the joists overhead. They cover the entire floor and they are already there. A 15-foot tape easily hangs onto the flange while I unroll a bend in the tape to the ground below. I made a new sheet for recording the measurements.

Then I went down to the crawlspace, put the long 2x4 back where it was stored and started making and recording elevation measurements. I made a bunch of measurements before I stopped for lunch and a nap.

When I got up, my mind was on the crawlspace project and I was wondering what to do about getting rocks to put in the channel. I decided I didn't need to lay pipes in there but just fill it with clean smooth rocks. I tried to guess how many rocks I needed. I didn't think I needed very many, but if I had to get them from Two Rivers, I needed to do it before it snowed.

There is an old pile of aggregate down near where the trailer was parked that was left over from building the spring box some 25 years ago. I decided to try to separate the rocks from the sand and see how many rocks I could salvage. I looked around for a screen to use and I found the plastic mesh sleeves that I used to protect the sequoia trees when they were seedlings.

I took a couple sleeves and a couple buckets down to the aggregate pile and found that it worked slick. I harvested about 2 gallons of rocks and wheelbarrowed them up to the crawlspace to see how far they would go. That way I could judge about how many rocks I would need.

I poured the rocks into a section of the drainage channel and was surprised at how far they went. It was clear that there are plenty of rocks in that pile, so I just needed to harvest some more.

While I was there in the crawlspace, I found a roll of 1/2-inch mesh galvanized screen. I figured that might work even better so I cut a strip about a foot wide and took it, a shovel, and a couple more buckets in the wheelbarrow back down to the aggregate pile and harvested another bucketful of rocks. I poured a bunch more rocks into the channel and satisfied myself that I had, or could easily get, enough rocks to do the entire job. I was happy to have solved that part of the problem.

On Thursday morning, Dave called first thing and we had a great conversation. After the breakfast dishes were done, I cleaned out the Grid A3 corner of the crawlspace and filled a big garbage bag with some deteriorated tarps and plastic that were in that corner. I think that after I design the floor sections, that corner will be where I will start. With the garbage gone, there is nothing in that corner now, so I can build the floor there and then store other things there to free up some other area where I will build another section of the floor.

I wheelbarrowed the garbage bag and my tools back down to the aggregate pile and screened another bucketful of rocks. Then I wheeled them back to the cabin. I placed some more rocks in the channel, took some pictures, and then went outside and split up a bunch of firewood.

I left for home at 12:30 happy to have made some progress on the railing and on the crawlspace before the logging resumes next week.