12/19-21/17 Bill, Cam, and I went up to Camp Serendipity on Tuesday. They left on Wednesday and I left on Thursday as usual.

I arrived at about 11:30 after a fairly snowy drive up in 4wd. There was about 8 inches of new snow on the driveway that hadn't been plowed. After a few back-and-forth maneuvers, I was able to drive into the driveway and up to the hairpin turn. I postholed a trail up to the cabin and after three trips bringing up my gear, the trail was packed down pretty well. I knew that Bill and Cam didn't have boots with them, so I wanted the trail to be usable by them in regular shoes.

I hoisted the flag and then went down to the driveway with my shovel to make it a little easier for them to park and to walk up to the cabin. Since I had arrived, the snowplow had gone by and thrown up a berm right in front of the driveway entrance. I shoveled that away and I shoveled some deep rutty parts of the driveway that had forced me to do my rocking maneuvers.

Bill and Cam showed up shortly after noon, and they were able to park in the parking area. I greeted them down there and helped guide them up through tire tracks to my trail and on up to the cabin. They slowed down when they reached the steps and started asking me a lot of questions about my newly installed railings, which they hadn't seen. They liked them which made me feel good.

After chatting for a while, we went into the cabin and had our lunch after starting a fire in the wood stove. After lunch I showed them the saw carriage I used to cut the kerfs in the logs to start the groove for the baseboards. Then I gave them a demonstration of how I chisel the groove under the kerf with the wood chisel bit in the Bosch Bulldog.

Next, we decided on sleeping arrangements and we set up a cot in the "great room". Since Bill was recovering from surgery, and since he had insisted on Ellen and I using his bed when we visited at his place, I insisted he sleep in the bedroom and I took the cot. Cam slept in the bed in the loft.

We had a great time talking about all kinds of things including a lot of stories about the log home project. Ellen had prepared a lasagna meal in a crockpot which I had plugged in right after lunch. When that was ready, we had our dinner of salad, lasagna, and French bread. I spotted a small can of Parmesan cheese and offered it to them. Cam accepted and took the can...but he checked the expiration date before he opened it. He had quite a reaction when he discovered that the cheese had expired on April 22, 1996. We had a great laugh over that, and none of us used the cheese.

After dinner, we got to talking about 4D geometric figures, so I got out my wood model of a 4D hypercube. Then we went up to the loft to look at some 4D and 5D wire models, and from there, we moved on to looking at the completed 5,000-piece jigsaw puzzle that Bill had also worked on. Then we moved on to the log cabin model, and then the Mt. Rainier model. I was flattered by their interest, but I am sure it was sincere and not flattery. We talked until 10:30 which was at least an hour longer than we should have. We needed to get up early so that Bill could make a doctor's appointment later in the day.

On Wednesday, we got up at 6:00. I got a fire going, started the coffee pot, and started cooking breakfast. I served eggs, toast, and li'l smokies. After we had finished eating, but were still sitting at the table, Dave called to chat. I put the phone on speaker and we had a great 4-way conversation. Bill had Dave guess at the cheese expiration date and after several clues of "older", Dave narrowed it down to 1996. We all had another round of laughs about it. Then Dave had to leave to go swimming.

After we hung up, Bill and Cam packed up their gear and we all headed down to their truck. There had been about an inch of new snow overnight, and the doors of the truck were frozen shut. It took a little yanking to open them. While Bill was warming up his engine, I scraped the ice off the windows. It was pretty thick but soon they were on their way. What a great visit!

Back up in the cabin, I put the cot away and unpacked my gear which was mostly still in my bag. Then I went to work and pretty much finished the chiseling job in the utility room that I had started with my demo. Then I took a break for lunch and a nap.

When I got up, I finished chiseling the notch and installed the baseboard on the right-hand side of the back door.

On Thursday morning, I installed the short baseboard to the left of the back door which finished the job of installing baseboards all the way around the exterior walls of the cabin. That should completely keep mice from getting into the cabin from the crawlspace. I'm very happy about that.

After putting all the tools away, cleaning up the mess, and putting things away where they belong in the utility room, I had my lunch and left for home at 1:00. It was a great week and I felt very good.