1/12-16/26 I went up to Camp Serendipity for 5 days: Monday through Friday.

I had a dentist's appointment in the morning which delayed my departure. US 2 was open and was bare and wet all the way over the pass. It was an easy trip. I arrived at 2:00.

The concrete staircase was also bare and wet. I brought my gear up in two trips and hoisted the flag between the trips. After unpacking, I was exhausted, so I took a nice nap. Then I did some exercises, showered and shaved, and got ready to fix my dinner.

On Tuesday morning, the temperature outside when I got up was 30 degrees and there was no new snow. After practicing the piano, I went outside and worked on clearing the space under the right-hand scaffold so that I could stack firewood rounds there. Then I stacked a few rounds that were waiting on a board pile. Next, I took a stout rope down to the stack of firewood rounds that were completely covered in frozen snow. I used a 1x2 as a tool to break the snow away from a round so that I could get a noose around the round. Once I did that, it didn't take much to break the round loose and drag it up onto the snow.

From there, I dragged the round all the way up to the cabin. The trail was treacherous to walk on because the snow was frozen hard and was slippery to walk on. But by leaving slack in the rope, I could walk the length of the rope leaving all my concentration on my footing, so I didn't slip.

Once all the slack was used up, I got a solid stable place to stand and then pulled the firewood up to where I was standing. By repeating the process, I got the round all the way up and placed it in its place under the scaffold. Then I went back down for more.

After lunch and a nap, I walked to the grave. To make it easier, I stopped at the truck and traded my Sorel boots for my street shoes. There was no snow at all on the road, and it was even drying out in some spots. I downloaded the news headlines when I got into an Internet service area.

When I got back, I relaxed and read the news headlines.

On Wednesday morning when I got up, it was cold again with the temperature at about 23 degrees. It was sunny all day, but it stayed cold.

After practicing the piano, I went outside again and dragged firewood up the hill and stacked it. This time, though, I put the ice-grippers over my boots which made all the difference. I had excellent traction on the slippery trail which sped things up a lot and improved my safety.

After lunch and a nap, I put my street shoes on and walked to the grave. Just as I started out, I ran into Nancy who was walking her dogs. She updated me on some of Dave's health issues. As I continued my walk, John stopped in his new truck. This was now the permanent replacement for the one that the flood had totaled. It is a 4-door gray Ram. When I got Internet service, I downloaded the news headlines again and read them when I got back to the cabin.

On Thursday I watered Tiger and then called Ellen to have her pay a bill for me. Then I practiced the piano and then went outside to drag up and stack more firewood. I used the ice grippers again which made it almost seem easy. After lunch and a nap, I walked to the grave again in street shoes.

On Friday, I practiced the piano and then vacuumed the first floor. Then I packed up my gear and got ready to leave for home. I left at 12:30 after a fun and productive week.