1/10-12/17 I went up to Camp Serendipity for 3 days: Tuesday through Thursday.

When I arrived at 12:20 there was about 8 to 10 inches of new snow on the ground that had not been plowed off my driveway since last week. I drove past the driveway, turned around after another quarter mile or so, came back and barged into the driveway in 4wd. I got to the foot of the concrete staircase and was too far to the right. The plowed channel was pretty narrow and I couldn't see the bank very well. I high-centered on the passenger's side and got stuck pretty tight.

I made several attempts at getting loose by shoveling snow away and sprinkling sand under the tires but I couldn't get the truck to budge. I finally had to shovel all the snow away along the passenger's side and it was then that I saw how high-centered and stuck I was.

Once I cleared that snow away, I was able to drive ahead with no problem right over the new snow. I pulled up to the hairpin turn, then backed into the parking area and finally drove back to the foot of the concrete staircase with the truck headed out.

Just about then, Dave and Nancy Bartholomew came walking by and we had a nice conversation. When they resumed their walk, I set to work shoveling the snow off the staircase and making the trails above and below it. I finished at about 1:20.

Then I hoisted the flag, made a fire in the stove, carried my gear up to the cabin and finally had my lunch and my usual nap. The temperature outside was about 25° which was quite a bit warmer than last week.

Since the scouts are planning to come up for an outing in a couple weeks, I decided to clear the porch deck as much as I could. I started by carrying a long vine maple pole, that might make a rail someday, down off the porch and stacked it in front of the cabin under the eaves.

Then I cut some more rebar baluster blanks and unscrewed Dr. Dick's rebar cutter from the porch deck. Then I moved all the 10-foot lengths of rebar and stacked them under the porch bench, along with the baluster blanks that I had just cut. Then I moved the rebar cutter under the porch to get it out of the way.

On Wednesday morning I was wide awake at 5:00 so I got up and started a fire in the stove. The temperature outside was 16°, almost balmy. After doing the breakfast dishes, I felt sleepy so I took a nap. When I got up I decided to shovel the snow off the privy roof. It was carrying a very heavy load and I didn't want it to get dangerous. I also wanted to get the extension ladder out from under the back porch. It had occurred to me earlier that it was dumb to store the ladder under there because when the snow berm from the roof got very big, it would bury the ladder. I wanted to get it out because I needed it to get up on the privy roof and I also wanted to store the ladder in the crawl space for the rest of the winter after that.

Since the snow was so deep—I had measured 29" earlier—I decided to use the snowshoes to make the trail from the cabin to the privy. When I finished stomping down that trail, I continued on making a trail from the upper roadway down to the hairpin turn. The scouts will want to use that trail.

Next I fished the ladder out from under the porch, took it to the privy, and set it up against the privy roof. Then I climbed up the ladder, got onto the roof, and shoveled the snow off. As usual, the snow was stiff and laced with ice so it was a considerable amount of work to clear it away. I didn't measure it, but it was probably at least 20" deep.

When I finished and had stored the ladder in the crawl space, I went up on the front porch and set up the big saw horses against the Grid F2 column to use to drawknife the bark off the log scab that I intend to use as an abutment for the handrail against the Grid F3 column.

Then I remembered that I had not lag screwed the front stoop step down and it could be dangerous for the scouts if someone stepped on it wrong. So I got out the drill, bits, wrench, and lag screws and fastened the step down. I don't remember why I hadn't done that earlier.

After having my lunch and another nap, I used the vise-grips to straighten the bent corners of my aluminum scoop shovel that I use for snow. Then I went to work on the scab log with a drawknife.

With the temperature at 16°, the log and its bark were frozen solid. I wasn't sure whether that would make it easier or harder to drawknife. I think it might have made it easier, just like it is easier to split frozen wood. I just had to move the drawknife at a little higher speed and take a little shallower bites. After an hour or so, the bark was all peeled off. I gathered up all the chips and burned them in the wood stove. I wasn't sure how well they would burn, since there was a lot of water in them, but they burned fine and warmed the cabin right up.

On Thursday morning the temperature outside was -5°. Pretty cold but still a little warmer than last week. I spent the morning splitting wood which was an easy job with the wood so frozen solid. I made a pretty big stack of firewood, enough to get through the scout visit.

I left for home at 12:55 feeling strong, healthy, and happy.