1/24-27/22 I went up to Camp Serendipity for four days: Monday through Thursday.

I had another doctor's appointment in the morning, so I didn't arrive at Camp Serendipity until 2:30. The snow was frozen hard and unchanged from the last time I was there. I brought my gear up in two trips with no problem. The cabin temperature was 62 degrees, the new heater was working fine, but the old one was not working at all. I built a fire in the wood stove and then installed a new light fixture in the bathroom that I had brought with me. I took a picture of the fixture and texted the picture to Ellen.

On Tuesday morning the temperature outside was 16 degrees. Dave called and we had a delightful conversation. After breakfast, I called the Convectair company to see if I could get some technical help diagnosing or fixing the old heater that was intermittent. After a while I talked to a service technician and was told that my only options were to give him part numbers and order new parts that I could install myself, or I could take the heater to an authorized dealer and pay to have it repaired. Neither of those options was reasonable and I decided it may be time to junk the old heater.

After lunch and a nap, I split and stacked a bunch of firewood. Then I took my stout rope up to the woodshed to see if it was feasible to drag wood down from there. The temperature was 23 degrees so the snow was frozen hard. It worked great pulling the wood down. I took a picture of the wood in the woodshed.

On Wednesday the temperature outside was 20 degrees when I got up. After practicing the piano, I did a lot of thinking about installing light fixtures in the loft. The only reasonable way for me to reach the highest one is to use a scaffold tower which will require bringing 4 scaffold frames up to the loft. It wouldn't be reasonable to try to carry them up the stairs, so I figured the thing to do is to move my porch crane up to the loft temporarily and use it to lift the frames from the main floor to the loft. Everything about that plan is straightforward and easy except for the CBA. So, I did quite a bit of thinking about how to anchor the bottom of the boom. I came up with a plan that seems easy, and I found some materials to use to make the parts.

I also got the owner's manual out for the new heater and set the time and date on the device. Then I had my lunch and a nap.

When I got up the sun was shining brightly, and the cabin was experiencing huge solar gain. The temperature inside had gone up to 74 degrees with no fire in the stove. The temperature outside was under 40 degrees.

I went outside and made two trips to the woodshed to retrieve wood and while I was there, I could see that a fairly tall tree had broken off and the top of it had hit the woodshed and evidently that was what had toppled it. I took a picture of the tree but it doesn't show most of the tree. It sort of restored my confidence in my engineering since I don't think the woodshed would have collapsed without that hit.

While I was up there, I noticed a wide animal trail coming out of the woods and going to the base of a lone tree and stopping there. I took a picture of it. The trail evidently had taken a lot of traffic but didn't go anywhere beyond the tree. There must be some kind of den under it or at least under the snow there.

Back in the cabin I went out on the front porch to work on my CBA and was noticed by Earl and Al who happened to be driving by. They waved at me, and I invited them in. The two of them climbed over the frozen snow to the concrete staircase and from there up to the flagpole before I could get out to give them a hand. They were just wearing tennis shoes and had no gloves, but they still made it to the cabin with no problem. They came in and we had a delightful visit for just under an hour. I took some pictures of them.

On Thursday morning the temperature outside was 16 degrees, and I was surprised to discover that the old heater had decided to work again and it had evidently worked all night. The cabin was toasty warm.

After practicing the piano, Robert called and told me what he had been up to. I told him I was going home today because I had a doctor's appointment the next day, Otherwise he might have come over for a visit. I listened to the radio for a while and then left for home at 12:45 after having my lunch. It had been another delightful week.