12/19-22/22 I went up to Camp Serendipity for four days: Monday through Thursday.

I got started late and the weather was cold and snowy. The highway was plowed but there was thick traffic, so it was slow going. I arrived at 1:15. The temperature was 7 degrees and there was about 6 inches of new light powder on the ground. I parked with no trouble. I stomped the trails and shoveled off the steps and when I reached the cabin, I found that the temperature inside was 58 degrees. The four little electric heaters evidently couldn't keep up with the cold weather. I built a fire in the stove, hoisted the flag, and then made two trips to the truck to bring up my gear.

I had my lunch and my nap and slept for two hours. That took care of the day.

On Tuesday the temperature outside was 5 degrees when I got up and there had been about 10 inches of new snow that fell overnight. It was still snowing and snowed most of the day.

I built another fire in the stove and then harvested some firewood from the front porch by sawing up a slab. After practicing the piano, I cut more wood and split some firewood rounds. I hauled a couple loads of firewood up to the back porch. I spent some time listening to the radio before having my lunch and my nap. When I got up, I called Earl and had to leave a message. Then I did some reading. It stopped snowing at about 6:00 PM and the temperature was still 5 degrees.

On Wednesday when I got up the temperature outside was 4 degrees. I built another fire, practiced the piano, and then went outside for a couple hours of hard work.

I stomped the trails through the new snow and shoveled off the stairs. I dug out the truck from under about 3 feet of snow and started it. I was happy that it started right away. As I was shoveling the truck loose, a car pulled up on the road and it was the new neighbors from across the road. We introduced ourselves by shouting across the snow and agreed that we would visit one another soon. There was over 20 inches of snow on the ground in front of the truck and since I needed to leave the next morning, I decided to clear a path to the road so that when I drive out I will not high center the truck, so I cleared that path.

After lunch and a nap, I stomped a trail to the privy and cleared the snow off the mixer on the way. There was about four feet of snow on the ground and the temperature was 10 degrees. When I got to the privy, I went back and got the extension ladder, set it up against the privy and climbed up and shoveled the snow off the roof. There was about four feet of snow on the roof, and it was approaching the limit of safety, at least as much as I wanted to test it. By 8:20 PM the temperature outside had dropped to zero.

On Thursday morning when I got up, the temperature outside was minus 5 degrees. I had just built the fire when Dave called, and we had a delightful one-hour conversation while the fire warmed the place up. After we hung up, I went out and split some more firewood, hauled some more up to the porch, and then practiced the piano. By the time I finished, it was lunchtime and time to pack up to go home. I had a doctor's appointment the next day and it was fortunate that I did. The weather was bad, and traffic was thick so I didn't get home until 5:30. But if I had waited one more day it might have been impossible to get home because the weather got worse. I chalk that up to Serendipity.