3/19-21/14 I went up to Camp Serendipity for 3 days: Wednesday through Friday.

On the way I stopped at the hospital and visited with Priscilla for a while. She was taken there for the day because of dizziness. From there I proceeded on to Monroe where I visited with Uncle Charles. It was snowing when I drove over the pass but it wasn't sticking on the road.

I arrived at Camp Serendipity at 12:20. Marty and Garren from DNR were sitting alongside the road in their truck having lunch when I drove up. Ernie also showed up when I parked so I gave him his hugs and biscuits.

I invited the DNR guys up to the cabin while I brought up my gear and fixed myself a small lunch. While I was eating lunch I answered questions and told stories about the building of the cabin. They were especially interested in the unique wiring problems.

Robert Ferrel arrived at about 1:15 and the four of us went out in the woods to talk about the logging project. Marty took me into the woods and showed me where Robert and I had made a mistake in setting out the flags. I took the bad flags down and re-tied them to Marty's satisfaction. When we got back out of the woods, they granted us permission to start on the project.

Robert decided that it was too muddy to be able to begin work so that will give me some extra time to work on roof repair until it dries out enough to start logging, probably in a month.

After they all left, I built a fire in the wood stove and then carried up a globe and a small bench Ellen and Marilyn had given me when we were cleaning stuff out of Priscilla's house. The bench had been in their basement when they were kids and it has a sort of sentimental charm for them. For me it is the perfect solution to a problem the building inspector had given me.

My egress window in the bedroom is a little too high off the floor to meet code. The inspector had told me that instead of making me tear out the log wall, he said I could just position a small bench under it and declare that it would be a permanent fixture in the bedroom. This little bench was perfect. I will bolt it to the wall and make it permanent and I can quit worrying about that requirement.

I also carried up 4 10-foot TJI beams that I had brought with me for use as the replacement rafters. After that I took a nap, and when I got up, it was time to have dinner and quit for the day.

On Thursday it snowed lightly off and on all day but it didn't amount to much. I went up on the scaffold and measured for the rafters. Then I mitered three of the TJI beams to form three rafters. I decided that the end rafter would pass by the remnant of the old rafter rather than butt against it. That would be a lot easier to do but it meant that I would need tapered shims between the rafter and the fascia board. The shims needed to be seven feet long. I found a 2x4 that was just over 3 1/2 feet long, so I cut it to 3 1/2 feet and ripped the shim out of it. That way the same angle cut served to make two halves of the shim. In another stroke of serendipity it turned out that just the single angle cut made both halves exactly the right sizes. The thickness that the shim needed to be at the mid-point was exactly half the width of the 2x4 plus the width of the kerf. Dumb luck.

After thinking the installation through, I decided to install the fascia board first. When I built the roof originally, I had put the fascia boards on after the OSB sheathing had been installed. I had had to invent a special set of hangers that held the fascia boards in place while I leaned over the edge of the roof and screwed the boards in place. I had to be tied in to do that and I remember being very uncomfortable. This time I wanted to install the fascia board first.

To do that, I needed the board. I called Plain Hardware and learned that they had the boards. I drove to Plain and bought 5 cedar 1x12s 10 feet long. I only needed one for my fascia board but I plan to use the same lumber for the trim on the loft edges so I decided to buy it all at once.

When I got back, Bert and Ernie showed up for hugs and biscuits between my trips up and down carrying the boards up the steep snowbank and getting them up on the porch.

By the time I finished, it was time for a late lunch and a nap. When I got up, I went up on the scaffold and measured for the fascia board. It was pretty awkward trying to get the measurements but I finally did. When I marked the fascia board, I didn't feel right about cutting such a nice board without measuring twice so I didn't. Instead I hauled the board up to the roof and clamped it in place so I could see whether my measurements were right or not. They were not.

I had measured to the peak of the roof and had forgotten that the fascia board does not reach the peak. I would have cut the board too long, which is better than cutting it too short, but still it would have been wrong.

With the board clamped in place, I could see exactly where it should be cut. Unfortunately I forgot to bring a pencil with me, so I had to scratch the mark with a nail. I took the board back down to the porch and cut the miter cut on the nail scratch mark.

My back was sore from carrying lumber and from crawling around on the ladder and scaffolds and I was super tired. I didn't feel like working any more so I took a break and started working on a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle that Ellen had sent up to the cabin with me. I love to work jigsaw puzzles so I especially enjoyed that break.

On Friday morning, I still felt sore and tired but I took the fascia board up onto the scaffold a second time and placed it where it needed to go. I had nailed a short board to the end of the Grid B purlin right under the fascia boards so the new loose board could be supported by it. The board was kept upright because the rake metal was still intact for a couple feet up the board. And the top of the board rested right against the miter joint on the opposing fascia board. So the board stayed once it was set in place and it fit perfectly. I was happy and gratified to see it fit so nice.

I took the board back down to the porch for the final time to stain it and possibly screw one or both of the shims to it, and maybe even screw the whole thing to the rafter. I wasn't sure exactly how to assemble the thing.

I got another short 2x4 and ripped the second shim, also in two pieces, from a 3 1/2 foot board. I shot some scenes for the seventh installment of the roof repair videos and then I stained the fascia board. Before I left for home, I took another long break and made some progress on the jigsaw puzzle. I left for home at about 3:30.