11/2-6/20 I went up to Camp Serendipity for 5 days: Monday through Friday.

I got off to a late start and arrived at 1:50. I carried my gear up in two trips, hoisted the flag, built a fire in the stove, had my lunch and a nap, and spent the rest of the afternoon practicing on the piano.

On Tuesday, I worked on the last section of the loft flooring. Robert came over and I helped him load up all the loose stuff of his that was left from the logging operation. It included 300 feet of 5/8" steel cable which we coiled up into the bed of his pickup. It rained a little while we were working but we didn't get too wet.

After lunch and a nap, I finished laying the last of the loft flooring. I took a picture of the final result. Then I called Earl and we had a nice conversation catching up on things. I was happy that he reported that he was feeling extra good. I reminded him that Al should come and get his maple saplings before it snows.

On Wednesday, after piano practice and listening to news about the election returns on the radio, Robert came over to haul away the jammer for the last time. He had arranged for Josh to show up with a trailer and his plan was to use his loader to lift the jammer up and place it on the trailer. I got some pictures of the operation which went off without a hitch, so to speak.

Robert followed Josh in his loader to the Two Rivers gravel pit where the loader was used to offload the jammer. While he was gone, I got a big metal Craftsman toolbox from the crawl space and brought it up to the back porch where I began cleaning it out. I plan to put it in the utility room when it is ready.

Robert came back with the loader before I finished cleaning the toolbox. He used the loader to move the big dunnage logs the jammer had rested on so that they weren't so much in the way. Then we talked about a plan for falling a big pine snag on the edge of the property that was leaning dangerously over the road. Since the weather was rainy, we decided to put it off a day.

After he left, I took a nap and spent the rest of the afternoon writing.

On Thursday morning Dave called and we had an interesting conversation mostly about politics. Then Robert called and said he would be over later to fall the snag even though it was raining. I put on my rain gear and took the wheelbarrow down to the truck. I used it to haul some yard waste to the compost pile. Then I put a push broom and a scoop shovel in the wheelbarrow so it was ready for the cleanup job on the road where the snag was going to fall. I also unscrewed the house number sign that was hanging on the snag.

Then I went inside, dried off, practiced the piano, and listened to the radio until Robert called. The rain had increased so we decided to put the snag falling project off for at least another day.

After lunch and a nap, I split some firewood and then settled down to do some writing. In the middle of it, Bill called with some exciting news about the election results problems. He cheered me up considerably.

On Friday morning, the weather was clear, and Robert called me first thing. He said he would be over to remove the snag at 8:30. I got my work clothes on and met him when he showed up. He positioned his loader so that it wouldn't block the road but so that he could still use it to pick up the logs after the snag had fallen.

I set cones out in the road and watched for traffic while Robert cut the snag down, bucked the log, and used the loader to remove the logs. We both used our brooms and wheelbarrows to get the debris cleaned up and hauled away. I had a scoop shovel, and he had a blower and together it didn't take long to get the road cleaned up. We didn't have to stop any traffic.

I replaced my house number sign on the high stump and then I followed Robert in my truck as he drove the loader to Plain. I brought him back to Camp Serendipity where the two of us went up to the cabin. We went a ways into the woods and onto the bluff. He asked me about some maple firewood, and I told him the story of losing and then finding my hearing aid amid the fall leaves and chainsaw dust. We looked at the cedar trees that aren't doing so well and we looked at Paul, the giant sequoia.

While we were on the bluff, we heard a truck down below, so we went down to investigate. It was Al and Pam who had come over to dig up some bigleaf maple saplings. I went to introduce them, and they soon realized that they were friends from back in high-school times and they hadn't seen each other for quite a while. We had a nice visit until Robert had to leave. Then I went back to the cabin to have my lunch and pack up to leave while Al and Pam finished digging up the saplings. I left for home at 1:10 happy that a couple more milestones had been passed.