1/29-2/1/13 I went up to Camp Serendipity for 4 days: Tuesday through Friday.

Tuesday morning started normally enough until I tried to start my truck. It wouldn't start even after jumping it from Andrew's car, and even after the AAA guy tried to start it. I had it towed to Maddy's where Brian diagnosed the problem as a broken distributor cap. I had my lunch at a restaurant while he fixed the truck and I didn't get on the road until near 3:00.

I arrived at Camp Serendipity at 5:10. There had not been much snow since the last time so I had no trouble parking. There was just enough daylight left to make two trips up to the cabin carrying gear and turning the water on. I started a fire, had my dinner and a shower and didn't get any work done on the cabin.

On Wednesday I took my old Trapper Nelson backpack down to the truck and used it to help me carry all the rest of the stuff I brought in one trip. When Ellen visited last week she put together a list of a bunch of stuff we needed to set up housekeeping in the cabin and we had bought quite a few of those things. They included two sets of dishes and silverware, cleaning supplies, kitchen utensils, a garbage can, and some other things.

I lined some of the shelves in the upper cabinets with paper towels and put all the things away. It's nice to keep improving the livability of the place.

Next I went to work outside. I staged four sheets of plywood and OSB up against the 3-tier scaffold tower getting them ready to be lifted up onto the hanging scaffold. Each sheet had a rope bridle tied to it.

From up on the Grid AB platform of the hanging scaffold, I lowered a long rope with a rebar hook at the end of it. I had inherited this rope and hook from Ellen's dad, Leonard, who had used it for exactly the same purpose when he worked on high chimneys. With a little maneuvering and a little luck, I was able to hook in turn each bridle with the hook and then lift the sheet up the 25 feet and get it on the deck.

I used two of the sheets to make the deck for the Grid BC section and the other two for the Grid CD section. I screwed the sheets to the spanning planks which made the entire structure rigid and secure.

Next I lifted three 12-foot 4x4s up onto the Grid AB platform and used them to span the Grid DE section of the scaffolding. That section is lower than the CD section which I was standing on, so I had to lower the 4x4s down to the support that was a couple feet under my feet.

To do this, I pushed the 16-foot 2x4 over so that it rested on the Grid E scaffold support. Then I slid the end of a 4x4 on top of the 2x4 until it, too, was resting on the Grid E scaffold support. Then using a rope with a slip knot in it tied to the near end of the 4x4, I lowered the 4x4 down so that it rested on the Grid D scaffold support. Finally by yanking on the slip knot, I released the rope so that I could use it for each of the next two 4x4s.

I used the 16-foot 2x4 to slide the new 4x4s into the correct positions to support the new deck. One 4x4 ran down the middle and the other two were out at the sides. Now I needed a couple more sheets of OSB for decking.

After lunch and a nap, I found one piece of OSB and a sheet of plywood which would work for the deck. I ran an extension cord and used a corded drill to drill holes in the two sheets because I had left my cordless drill up on the scaffold and I didn't want to climb all the way up there to get it.

After drilling a hole in each sheet, I used them to tie a bridle to each sheet. Then I staged these two sheets up against the 3-tier tower as before and then climbed back up on the scaffold. I also brought four hurricane ties with me and a handful of drywall screws for fastening the hurricane ties.

When I got back up on the scaffold, I used Leonard's rope and hook to haul the two sheets up. Then I lowered them onto the 4x4s spanning Grid DE and gingerly stepped down onto them. I didn't feel real secure until I had screwed in the hurricane ties to connect the 4x4 stringers to the 4x4 scaffold supports, and then screwed the plywood and OSB to them. But once that was done, my scaffold deck was complete and it felt very strong, secure, and rigid. It will make working up there as comfortable as working at ground level. I was extremely happy to have gotten that done.

Next I ran a rope through the outer anchor hooks on the Grid E, D, B, and A purlins, looping it around the rebar hanger at Grid C on the way, and then snugged it up with a tautline hitch. That made a nice safety railing and psychologically it made me forget that I was 30 feet off the ground.

With the scaffold system finished, I went right to work on the ceiling. I started by taking out the pine boards that I had jammed into the slot that will receive the eventual ceiling boards. These were temporary boards that had been used to form the mortar joints of the chinking, and they had been left there to try to keep out the rodents. Unfortunately there were other ways for rodents to get in there, and they had taken advantage of them, big time. Just like on the other side of the cabin, I needed to clean out all the insulation above the gable wall and evict the rodents. It looked like it was mice on the other side of the building, but on this side it was definitely packrats. They were finally getting their final notice to get out and stay out.

A couple of the temporary boards were stuck and I needed a hammer or something to get them out. I didn't have a hammer with me and it was getting late so I came down from the scaffold and quit for the day. I was very happy with the progress. Before I went in, I went to the privy, which I now use as a storage shed, and got a couple of jigs I had used to build the inside staircase. I planned to make a video of how I built the staircase and I wanted to use those jigs in the video.

After dinner and a shower, I shot the scenes I would need to make the staircase video.

On Thursday morning first thing, Ellen called and suggested that since I had gotten off to such a late start that I should stay an extra day and come home on Friday. I thought that was an excellent idea.

After breakfast, I reshot a scene for my video that had not turned out well from the previous night. Then I shoveled some snow from the back porch and stairs and from the crawlspace stoop. Then I went down and started the truck just to prove to myself that it was going to start OK. It started right up and I let it run for a while to warm it up. I figured that I should have no trouble starting it from now on.

Then I went back to work on the real job. I rigged a bridle on the riser and staged it to haul up onto the scaffold deck. From the center of my scaffold I couldn't quite reach up to the peak of the ceiling. But with my riser up there, I would be able to reach.

I got a hammer, a utility knife, my respirator mask, and a box of garbage bags and brought them with me up onto the scaffold. Then with Leonard's rope again, I hooked the bridle on the riser and hauled the riser up onto the scaffold. I was now almost ready to begin evicting packrats.

First I had to loosen and remove the last two temporary boards that were jammed in the slots. Unfortunately I was a little careless in my first attempt and I jammed my left thumb between the hammer and the log wall. I have mashed my thumbnails before, but this time it seemed particularly painful, and the pain didn't diminish nearly as quickly as I would have liked. In fact the pain didn't go away completely for a couple days. It just throbbed constantly, so I decided just to ignore it and continue working—a little more carefully.

Standing on the riser and starting at the peak, I used the utility knife to cut the window screen that was under the insulation, and I removed the screen. Then, with a garbage bag held open underneath, I began pulling out the soiled insulation and stuffing it into the garbage bag. It was an ugly mixture of urine soaked paper, urine soaked insulation, packrat poop, and dried leaves and mushrooms that was intended to be the wintertime food supply for the packrats. Most of it went into the garbage bag.

I cleaned out the Grid BC section and filled one garbage bag before I quit for lunch. After lunch and a nap, I went back up on the scaffold and finished the job. I cleaned out the entire stretch over the gable and filled five garbage bags. I used Leonard's rope hook to lower each of the bags to the ground and I was able to free the hook from the bag each time so I could pull the rope back up. I was extremely happy to have that messy job done and I was so glad that I had the extra day to work.

I climbed down off the scaffold for the last time this week feeling very good about progress. I carried all five garbage bags down to the truck before I quit for the day. I went in, built a fire, had a shower and dinner and except for my throbbing thumb, I couldn't have been a happier man.

On Friday morning, I stained ceiling boards. I didn't have any stained boards on hand and next week I will be ready to begin nailing them to the ceiling so I need a supply of stained boards. I stained 14 of them before I quit for the week. I left for home at 1:00 feeling very good. It helps to be completely rid of my cold and to have made substantial progress on the ceiling project. The truck started right up and ran smoothly with no problem. Life is good.