Construction Journal Entry Week of 6/26/16

6/28-30/16 I went up to Camp Serendipity for 3 days: Tuesday through Thursday.

On the way I dropped off the glass coasters Marilyn had made in a glass fusion class we attended. Then I proceeded on and arrived at Camp Serendipity at 12:10. I carried my gear up to the cabin, hoisted the flag, turned on the valve to water Brian and Paul, and then had my lunch.

After lunch, I went to work on the tread and got it to fit nearly perfectly. While the staircase was still in the shade of the eaves, I drilled the holes for the lag screws and treated the tread and stringers with Board Defense. The temperature outside was 90° so I knew it wouldn't take long for the wood to dry out since it would be in direct sun within a few minutes.

Next I went down to the truck and unloaded a bunch of yard waste I had brought with me and stacked it onto the compost pile. Fortunately the truck and the compost pile were still in the shade.

Then I installed a remote-control valve for changing the water pressure by operating the valve on the output side of the plumbing. Most of the work was done in the crawl space which was nice and cool. The valve can now be operated from up in the living room. That is an improvement from having to go down to the crawl space to open or close the valve. And even that was better than having to go down to the creek to do it as I had done for so many years.

On Wednesday I stained and installed the new tread. I also watered Brian and Paul again. The weather was a little cooler but at 85° it was still too hot for me to be comfortable.

After cleaning out my brush, I went to the woodshed and fetched another tread blank. I dragged it down to the cabin and planed and chamfered the round part, scraped the flat surface, and made the tread nose. Then I built the support structure and mounted the tread blank for scribing. Then I had my lunch.

After lunch, the staircase was still in the shade so instead of taking a nap, I took advantage of that shade and went back to work. I scribed the tread and stringers, located the 16 notch points, and drew the cutting lines on the tread and stringers.

Then I cut the kerfs in the tread with a Skilsaw and started sawing the vertical kerfs in the stringers with the big crosscut saw. When the sun moved far enough so that the shade was gone, I quit working, went inside, and took a very welcome nap.

On Thursday morning, Dave called first thing and we had a nice conversation. Then after breakfast, I watered Brian and Paul again and then went into the woods to check on all the giant sequoia trees. They all look fairly healthy but they are sure growing slowly. I also checked the spring and found no problems. There is plenty of water flowing out the overflow pipe but I am puzzled by the amount of water coming out of the ground a few feet above the springbox. I hope it is not a leak in the underground system that will interfere with my use of the spring.

When I got back to the cabin, I took a come-along and a couple light chains and went up on the high rock. The butt end of the log that crashed onto the cabin was held fast on the edge of the cliff by a couple chains that had been holding it for over a year. Since I had cut away quite a bit of that log and taken it for firewood, the remnant was small enough that I thought I could drag it up away from the cliff with a come-along.

After rigging up to pull the log, I found that it moved easily. I had to re-rig several times to do the job, but I eventually got the log up high enough so that it was no longer in danger of sliding or rolling down over the cliff. That freed up all my chains so I brought them and the come-along back down and stored them in the crawl space where they belong. I'll buck the log up for firewood later.

I did a little more sawing on the vertical kerfs in the staircase before I quit and went home. I left at 12:30 after having my lunch.



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