5/22-24/18 I went up to Camp Serendipity for 3 days: Tuesday through Thursday.

On the way I stopped in and had a nice visit with Earl. He seemed to me to be doing better than the week before. After the visit, I proceeded on to Camp Serendipity and arrived at 2:30. The first thing I noticed when I went up on the porch was a small bat lying on the deck. At first, I couldn't really tell that it was a bat, but it was clear after I got closer and tried to move him. He woke up, looked around and slowly started to crawl. I got him a small tray of water and then left him alone. I also noticed that a colony of hornets was busy building their nest under the porch ceiling. The nest was only about the size of an orange, but I blasted it with hornet killer, so it wouldn't get any bigger.

I hoisted the flag, brought the rest of my gear up from the truck, had my lunch and then went out to peek at the bat. He was gone, so I can only guess where he went. I went back inside and had a short nap.

When I got up, I went up on the bluff and checked on the ten cedar trees. They were all doing OK and the ground around each one was damp, just like it is supposed to be. Next, I took the wheelbarrow down to the truck and moved a considerable amount of yard waste from the truck to the compost pile. Then I wheeled some tools back up to the cabin that I had used in Seattle.

Before I went in for the night, I counted 32 holes in the new mason bee block were now fully occupied.

On Wednesday, Dave called, and we had another delightful conversation. Then I gassed up the chainsaw and took it up on the bluff. I bucked up the logs that had been exposed in the brush pile as a result of removing and burning brush. I threw the firewood rounds out of the brush pile and took some of them down to the cabin in the wheelbarrow with each trip I made.

Even though open attended burning is still permitted, it was getting dry enough so that I wanted to have a good supply of water at hand before I started burning. But the pressure was not high enough to suit me. After a little checking, I found two fairly major leaks in the hose. They were each near the end of a hose, so I repaired both of them by shortening the hose and installing new fittings on the ends. That worked, and the pressure was now adequate at the fire pit.

I started a new burn pit almost in the middle of the remaining brush pile and proceeded to burn brush and wheel firewood down with each water break. Around noon, I went in for lunch and a nap. I was worried that when I went back out I would be working in direct sun and that it was going to be hot. But fortunately, it clouded up and didn't get too hot. In fact, there was a lot of thunder and dry lightning all afternoon but no rain.

The weather and the work were still plenty hot for me. I couldn't exert myself very much without starting to feel light-headed. I think I was short on electrolytes. I had to sit down periodically for fear that I might faint. I took it slow and easy and took a lot of water breaks, wheeling a load of firewood down each time. I was hoping to get the rest of the brush in the pile burned before the end of the day, but I didn't quite do it. When I quit for the day, 38 bee holes were filled.

On Thursday morning, there were 39 bee holes filled when I got up. I started out by carrying a bucket of water each to Brian and Andrew. They are both hanging in there. I also checked all the rest of the sequoia trees and cleared away some of the shade competition from some of them.

Then I did quite a bit of reorganizing of the brush piles that Robert, Tim, and I had made last week. I got the brush off the trails and piled it in stacks off the trails where it can be easily thrown on burn piles next winter. I'll cover each stack with a tarp before it snows.

Next, I got Cindy and trimmed branches from the trails, especially the trail to Andrew. Then I went back and checked on all the cedar trees on the bluff and soaked the ground all around the fire pit I had used the day before. Then I noticed another big leak in the hose. It seemed to have gotten bigger overnight, so I repaired it by cutting out the leaky section and joining the good ends with a coupler. I am going to need to re-stock my supply of hose fittings.

I had some errands to do on the way home, so I had an early lunch and left for home at 12:25.