11/13-15/12 I went up to Camp Serendipity for 3 days: Tuesday through Thursday.

On the way I stopped and visited with Uncle Charles for a while. There was quite a bit of snow on the ground from about 2000 feet on the west side of the pass and all the way to Camp Serendipity but the weather was clear and the road was bare and wet. The drive was beautiful.

I arrived at 1:15 and found about 8 inches of wet snow on the ground. Since the gate post had collapsed, it took a little effort to drag the gate log out of the way. First I shoveled about 8 to 10 inches of snow off the top of the log so that I could lift it. I left the snow on the bottom part to serve as a counterweight to make lifting the top a little easier. I also shoveled a ramp in the snow for the bottom part of the log to slide over while I moved the top out of the way. The log pivoted around the broken gate post. It all worked well enough to allow me to drag the log out of the way, both so that I could drive in, and also so that it wouldn't be in the way for Mike when he plows out the driveway during the winter. I just hope the butt of the log is far enough from the pavement so that the county snowplow doesn't run into it. I think it is.

Bert and Ernie were there to watch the whole process of getting the truck in and parked but they weren't any help in getting the gate open. With the 4wd engaged it was no problem driving over the snow and getting parked. When I finally got parked, Bert and Ernie followed me up to the cabin and got their usual hugs and biscuits.

The cabin was nice and warm because last week I had left the thermostats set at 55º rather than the 50º that I usually set them to. I think I'll set them a little lower than that next time. I started a fire in the wood stove anyway just to cut down a little on the electric usage. Then I had my lunch and a short nap.

I measured for and cut two ceiling boards and took them up and nailed them in place. By then it was getting too dark to see up under the eaves so I quit for the day.

On Wednesday morning I built another fire in the stove and went out to work in the ceiling. I finished nailing up the top course of boards. This one is a little special for several reasons. First, it mates with a groove on top rather than a tongue on the bottom. So it needs to be face nailed somewhere in the middle of the board near the groove. That's a little awkward because it is up inside the apex of the 60º angle where the ceiling meets the log wall.

It's worse because the top end of the cap log is at the Grid 1 end and the log just below the cap log has its butt at that end. That second log is pretty hefty so the log sticks out 5 or 6 inches farther than the cap log so it severely limits the space available for a hammer swing. In the worst cases, there was no room for the hammer head at all in its normal position so I had to drive the nails in using the side of the hammer head with only about 2 inches of swing for the hammer.

If anyone was listening to me work at that point they would wonder if they were hearing a little kid tapping on a toy. With such a short swing, I could only drive the nail in a millimeter at a time with each blow. Of course as the nail got deeper the swing got a little longer, but then again the resistance increased too. But in spite of it all, I got that top course in place.

That left a space for only a couple of boards across the entire length to finish the ceiling off. That was a little complicated too because the cap log was not parallel to the roof edge, so the space that needed to be filled tapered from from nearly two board widths at the Grid 1 end down to about 2 inches at the Grid 3 end. I intended to use my usual method to fill this space. That is to rip a strip out of the middle of a board with the saw set at 45º, discard that strip, and then mate the two 45º faces to form a narrow tapered board with both a tongue and groove intact on the edges. I install the two pieces separately: first the tongue edge and then the groove edge. It worked before so I expect it to work again.

The pair of Canadian Jays visited me regularly both up on the scaffold when I was installing boards and down on the front porch when I was fetching and cutting more boards.

With the ceiling closing in, I decided to remove the rodent valve from the Grid A1 corner. I'll keep it either as a keepsake and conversation piece, or who knows, I may be able to use it yet again. I stapled hardware cloth over the mouse hole that had been protected by the rodent valve to make sure no rodents went back in before the ceiling was closed over for good.

It was such a beautiful morning that at one point I decided to clear off the snow and pine needle debris on the concrete staircase. I also emptied the ash bucket into the old privy hole. I have not yet filled in that hole but I use it as an ash dump. That way the privy is still usable in an emergency and it is a good way of disposing of the ashes from the stove. The wood ash also helps in the decomposition of the contents of the hole.

After lunch and a nap, I went back to installing ceiling boards. I completed one more course and I made the measurements for making the tapered boards needed to fill the remaining space. I made those measurements by making a mark on a short scrap of ceiling board which I put in place at each rafter position, each mark showing how wide the final board needs to be at that spot. The pair of Canadian Jays were constant visitors during this work too.

On Thursday morning, Bert and Ernie showed up shortly after my breakfast. I not only gave them the usual hugs and biscuits, but I had a couple of trays of left-over gravy in the refrigerator so I treated them to the gravy. They really love it when I give them both biscuits and gravy.

I was hoping to be able to completely fill in the ceiling over the eaves before I left but it was a little more complicated than I had thought. Since the remaining space varies from 2 inches to nearly two board widths, there is a point where a second course of full-width boards can be installed. I found that point, and it did not happen to fall on a rafter. So I fabricated a board with the tongue re-made for the last 10 inches or so of the board. That way the board could be installed between rafter centers. But that left an unusual space with which I had not dealt before.

The space I now needed to fill tapered from about an inch and a half down to zero. My standard method of slicing a strip out of the middle of a board would not work for this. So I came up with a new method.

On the board that I had just made the new, angled tongue on, I ripped the tongue off the entire board, which happened to be an 8-footer, and then planed the cut edge as flat and perpendicular to the face of the board as I could. Then I ripped a tapered strip from the tongue edge of a new board but at right angles instead of the usual 45º and tapering down to zero, not counting the tongue which went the full length.

Then, with a little bit of struggle, I started the tongue of this tapered strip into the groove above it, and drove it in from the bigger end so that it jammed over to fill the tapered space with the right angle cuts mating fairly tightly. The joint looked ant-tight to me, and I am sure it won't allow anything for the rodents to chew into, so I am satisfied with the solution. But that had used up all the time I had left, so I quit for the week with the job not done. I had also used all but one 16-foot stained board, which won't quite be enough to finish the job anyway. I should have no trouble finishing next week, though, and I can then remove the scaffolding and start erecting the next one.

My hand felt a lot better and stronger this week for the first time since I dislocated my finger. I still can't close my hand into a fist because the finger is still swollen, but at least I can tightly grip a hammer or a saw without much pain. I am very happy for this improvement and I am eager to have it heal completely.

It started snowing at about noon while I was having my lunch and it continued snowing until I left for home at 12:50. I left the gate open for the winter, and repairing the gate post will definitely be put off until spring. I left the thermostats set at 53º.