5/27-31/24 I went up to Camp Serendipity for five days: Monday through Friday.

I arrived at noon and surprised a wild Turkey that was in the hairpin turn. I waited until he or she vanished into the brush before I parked. I brought my gear up in two trips using the wheelbarrow for one of them. I hoisted the flag and then had my lunch and a nap.

When I got up, I walked to the grave and when I got back, I did some exercises and practiced the piano.

On Tuesday morning the temperature outside was near freezing but I think it is safe enough to work with mortar. I practiced the piano, listened to the radio, and then walked to the grave. When I got back, I used the wheelbarrow to haul two 60 lb. sacks of mortar mix up to the cabin in two trips.

After lunch and a nap, I improved the stone steps that were incomplete off the back stoop. Then I took the wheelbarrow up by the privy and harvested a fairly big stone. My guess is that it was around 30 lbs. It was already pretty clean, so I hosed it off and brushed it without taking it out of the wheelbarrow. Then I wheeled it over close to the stone wall and used a skyhook-come-along combination with a chain choker to lift it out of the wheelbarrow and dangle it over the site in the wall where I intended to place it. This was a pretty exciting first attempt at using this technique. I took a picture of the stone hanging above the wall. Then I mixed a batch of mortar and placed the stone in the wall. Very gratifying.

On Wednesday I practiced the piano and then walked to the grave in a light rain. The rain was not much more than a mist. I had an early lunch and a nap and when I got up it was raining cats and dogs.

I practiced the piano during the rainstorm and in about 1/2 hour the weather cleared up and the sun came out. I went outside and harvested three big rocks in the wheelbarrow from up by the privy. I scrubbed the rocks clean and then mortared them into the wall using the skyhook and come-along on a couple of them. One improvement I made was to stop using a chain choker, which is hard to clean, and use a nylon clothesline rope instead. That is much easier to pull out of the mortar joint when the weight is off, and it is easy to clean.

We had been having technical problems with our telephone, so I called Ziply after Ellen found the service number and scheduled a service call for Thursday.

On Thursday morning Dave called and we had a delightful conversation. Among other topics, we talked about our phone trouble and discussed some options. When we hung up, I practiced the piano and then walked to the grave. On the way I met Dean and his dog River and the neighbor dog Roxy.

When I got back, I filled and loaded the water jugs into the truck. Then I had my lunch and before I finished, the phone repair crew arrived in two trucks. They worked on the telephone and made some changes that might fix the problem. We'll see. When they left, I had a short nap.

When I got up, I mixed up the 47th batch of mortar and laid up a few more stones in the wall using the skyhooks.

Robert called and we updated each other on our activities. Then I destroyed the tick that had bit me the previous week because I could see no use and keeping it.

On Friday I practiced the piano, and then walked to the grave. On the way I ran into a crew of people harvesting firewood from the Forest Service land and I talked with them for a while. Some of them had watched my log home project over the entire 30 years and I gave them a couple of my business cards. When I got back, I got the Bosch bulldog out and installed 4 wall ties positioned over the new stones I had laid. Then I took a picture of the resulting wall after 47 batches of mortar. It was a good full week, and I was happy with the results.