Construction Journal Entry Week of 2/14/21

2/15-19/21 I went up to Camp Serendipity for 5 days: Monday through Friday.

Before I left, I spent an hour and a half at the lumberyard buying lumber for casings and baseboards. Then I stopped at a drug store to get some emergency medicine I had run out of.

There was snow on the road all the way from Seattle, and starting at Zeke's, 4-wheel drive was required. The pace was slow, but the road was nicely plowed. I arrived at 3:00 o'clock and found that the driveway had not been plowed. There was about one inch of new light snow on top, but I had no trouble backing into the parking place.

I shoveled about 8 inches of snow off the steps and packed down the trails to the cabin which took until 4:00 o'clock. Ellen called just as I unlocked the door to make sure I made it OK. After we hung up, I went back to the truck and brought my gear up in one trip. Then I built a fire in the stove and had a small lunch. That was about it for the day.

On Tuesday morning the temperature outside was 16 degrees. I practiced the piano, listened to the radio, and then went to work carrying the baseboard and casing material up from the truck. I counted the steps in the staircases that I climbed and learned that there are 56 steps from the parking place to the front porch. It took 9 trips to carry up all the lumber which amounted to 504 steps in total. I took a picture of the lumber after it had been stacked on the porch. Then I had my lunch and just as I finished, I saw that Josh was plowing out the driveway. I hurried down and moved my truck out of his way so that he could plow out the entire driveway and parking area.

Back in the cabin I had a very welcome nap. When I got up, I spent the rest of the afternoon reading.

On Wednesday morning I practiced the piano, listened to the radio, and learned that Rush Limbaugh had died. Then I went out and split and stacked all the firewood rounds I had down at the cabin. Then I tramped a trail to the woodshed through 6 inches of crusty packy snow.

I pulled one big round down to the cabin with a rope and saw that the trail could now handle a wheelbarrow. So, I took the wheelbarrow up to the woodshed and wheeled down 4 loads of firewood. That emptied the woodshed including one big round used as a step at the privy.

Then I had my lunch and a nap. When I got up, I did some reading and then vacuumed about half of the first floor.

On Thursday I practiced the piano, listened to the radio , and finished vacuuming. Then I called Earl and we had a nice conversation catching up on things.

After lunch and a nap, I split and stacked a bunch more firewood and spent the rest of the day reading and writing. It snowed about 2 inches during the day.

On Friday morning I practiced the piano and then packed up to leave for home. It had snowed about 8 inches overnight, so it took me about an hour to get the stairs cleaned off and the truck dug out. I left for home at 9:00 o'clock. I needed to be home early because Ellen and I will be coming back on the weekend to do some snowshoeing.



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