10/5-7/10 I went up to Camp Serendipity for 3 days: Tuesday through Thursday.

I arrived at 12:50 and was promptly greeted by Bert and Ernie. I found one medium sized mushroom in the parking area so I harvested it and cooked it as part of my lunch. I had been fighting a cold so after lunch, I took some Zicam and then took a short nap.

I went up to the cabin and installed a GFCI breaker for circuit 31, the septic pump control. Then I measured the clearances between the stove and the staircase a little more carefully and determined that I needed to move the stove 16 inches rather than the 10 that I had previously estimated. That was somewhat of a disappointment, but it looked like there was plenty of room to move the 16 inches anyway.

Next I brought up most of the remaining pieces of marble that I have and laid them out on the floor. I selected a few small pieces with straight edges and placed them so that they outlined the new edge of the hearth if it were extended by 16 inches. It looked like it would work fine to move the stove that much and extend the hearth to match. It also looked like I have plenty of marble. The only problem was that I would have to figure out how to cut it so that the pieces would fit together. I decided to leave the marble pieces on the floor and switch my attention to other things. I was in no rush to move the stove or extend the hearth just yet.

I decided to make an exercise device that I have been thinking about for quite a while. I hung a snatch block from the protruding log over the front door and a pulley from the Grid F1 anchor hook. Then I ran a stout rope through the two pulleys. I tied a knot about a foot from the end coming out the snatch block, and tied a 5-gallon bucket to the other end so that the bucket was on the ground when the knot was up against the snatch block. The idea is to add a rock to the bucket each day and to lift the bucket by pulling the other end of the rope. By raising and lowering the bucket of rocks, I will be exercising my body using the same muscles I would use to climb a rope. Once the rocks in the bucket outweigh me, I should be able to climb a fixed rope with no problem. That's the plan anyway.

Bert and Ernie visited me again. After hugs and biscuits, I took a shower and quit for the day.

On Wednesday it was a crisp 36 degrees out: perfect weather for working outside. I got the wheelbarrow and a couple shovels out and started wheeling dirt from above the old privy down to the sewer pipe run where I need to build up the grade for the electrical inspector. I spent the morning wheeling dirt and feeding the chipmunk and gray jays with every trip. My back was sort of sore from lifting the marble the day before, but it was just sore muscles. I was sure I didn't injure myself. I was careful shoveling and wheeling the dirt so that I didn't stress my back too much.

After lunch, more Zicam, and a nap, I went up to begin installing the four additional receptacles I need in the loft floor. But it was too hot to work up there so I installed a 2x4 header just above the distribution panel instead. The electrical inspector said I needed it to secure all the wires coming out of the top of the panel. With the header installed, I stapled all the wires to the header.

I called Gale Insulation again and left a message to call me. There was no response all afternoon. I took another shower before I went in for the night.

On Thursday morning, I called Gale again and left another message to call me. Then, since it was nice and cool in the loft, I started on the installation of the floor receptacles. I got all the holes located and cut and the mess cleaned up.

I left for home at 1:15 intending to stop at Marilyn's on the way back to see her new kitties. I stopped at the top of the pass to call her and tell her I was on my way, but when I tried to leave, the truck wouldn't start. I had two different people try to jump start me, and I cleaned off my battery clamps in between those attempts, but it wouldn't start. I called Marilyn and AAA and eventually got Jim, from Billboard Towing in Skykomish, to come up to help me. We got the truck started so I drove down to Jim's place where he diagnosed the problem as the starter. I hadn't shut the engine off all the while and I left it running until I drove home and parked it at Maddy's to have him fix it. Ellen picked me up at Maddy's and we went to dinner from there. I'll have to visit Marilyn another day.