5/31-6/2/11 I went up to Camp Serendipity for 3 days: Tuesday through Thursday.

Before I left town, I stopped and bought some caulk, some tape, and some 2x4s. Then I stopped at Haight Carpet in Monroe and bought the flooring material for the bathroom, entry room, and utility room. I will pick the material up next week on my next trip up.

I arrived at Camp Serendipity at 12:50 and was promptly greeted by Bert and Ernie. The weather was a little cool and drizzly so I built a fire in the stove to warm the cabin up. I had my lunch, a short nap, and then I went out and checked on the sequoias. They were all doing fine. It had rained quite a bit so I didn't need to water them.

Next I got the wheelbarrow out and hauled a 50 lb. salt block up to the drainfield area for the deer. The last one was down to just a small piece. Then I wheeled a load of stuff from the trailer and stored it in the loft of the cabin. It's amazing how much stuff can accumulate in a small trailer over 19 years. A chipmunk interrupted my work a couple times to take peanuts from my hand.

Next, I made a major dent in item numbers 10 and 12 on my list of things to do to get ready for drywall. These are to take stuff out of the living room closet and the bedroom. Some of it I stored under the foot of the loft staircase but most of it went up into the loft. The hardest part of it was to carry a big heavy wood table top I had bought at a garage sale. I am still not sure what to do with it, but for now, I set it up as a table in the loft. I used two high stools to support one end, and two 1-gallon varnish cans on top of the cedar chest to support the other end. That will work great. It gets the table top out of the way and it also gives me a nice working surface for fixing my meals now that I am eating up in the loft.

Before I quit for the day, I completed item number 5 which is to remove the switch and outlet plates from all the stud walls.

Wednesday was a big day; the drywall material was due to be delivered today. It was a little disconcerting that the weather was so rainy but I was hoping it would let up when the drywall showed up. I got a call from Marson and Marson first thing in the morning confirming the drywall delivery. I asked them to make sure the load was tarped because it was raining where I was. They agreed.

I started out by hauling a wheelbarrow load of short 4x4s down to the lower parking area for use as stickers to temporarily store the drywall. I used a rope to tie Rosie, the rosebush, tightly up against the Grid F3 PSL to get it out of the way of the drywall load. Then I cut brush from around the hairpin turn and the upper roadway. The plan was to have Mike bring the drywall up this way on his front loader. The drywall is 12 feet long and will be carried crosswise so the brush needed to be cut way back on both sides in order to make the turn. It was raining lightly during the work so I wore a raincoat. A chipmunk came out for peanuts during the work.

The delivery truck showed up with the drywall at about 9:30. While the truck drove up the road to turn around, I chatted with Phil Leatherman who happened to be out walking with Dutch on the road.

It was pretty clear that the boom on the truck could not easily reach up to the porch, and setting the load up on the upper roadway would still require Mike Dickinson to lift it up to the porch level. We decided to unload the drywall onto the stickers down in the parking area and let Mike drive it up to the cabin. It was amazing to watch the big boom truck unload the drywall and place it on the stickers on the ground. I took pictures of the process.

When the truck left, I called Mike and told him the material was there and ready to be moved. I wanted to get it out of the rain as soon as possible. Mike said he would be there shortly after lunchtime.

I spent the rest of the morning moving stuff out of the bedroom. I also trimmed the edge of the shelf I had installed in the linen closet. Ron Scollard had pointed out the last time he visited that the shelf was sticking out a quarter of an inch too far. I used a handsaw to trim the board. It was a little awkward but I managed. Bert and Ernie showed up on the porch all soaking wet. They got their biscuits but I skipped the hugs.

After lunch, Mike showed up with two guys and their front loader. They mounted two long forks on the front edge of the loader bucket and used them to lift the stack of drywall. The eight boxes of drywall mud were loaded into the bucket and Mike proceeded to drive the load up around the hairpin turn and then up the upper roadway. It took a lot of maneuvering and there wasn't much extra clearance, but he eventually got the load up to the top.

I wasn't sure whether or not I would have to take the Camp Serendipity sign down. Mike said, "We'll see." and proceeded on. He was able to drive the load under the sign OK, and then once it was clear, he raised the load up to the porch level. The bucket booms just missed the sign and the cab drew up almost to the sign, but it remained clear all around. More serendipity.

The end of the drywall load just cleared the porch deck by an inch or so, so the bundles of material could be slid off the stack and onto the porch. Drywall is bundled two sheets to the bundle. Mike's guys slid the bundles off like this one at a time and carried them directly into the cabin and stacked them against the Grid B2 PSL and the Grid C2 RPSL.

When the last bundle had been offloaded, I lay a couple of planks from the porch deck to the first fork on the bucket and we used them to offload the eight boxes of drywall mud that were in the loader bucket. I took pictures of the process, and I was delightfully happy when the drywall was all securely stacked inside the cabin.

Mike had forgotten to bring the event counter for the septic pump that I had ordered so we agreed that I would pick it up at his house on my way home.

I spent the rest of the afternoon mulling over the problems of building the soffit. I had some questions for Terry at the design center but by the time I called, he had gone home for the day. I took my shower and quit for the day.

On Thursday morning, I called Terry and got answers to my questions. I vacillated on whether to start working on the soffit or to work on getting the trailer ready to move. I decided on the latter because I could get that done before I left for home. Otherwise, I wouldn't get either one done.

I hauled two full wheelbarrows of stuff from the trailer up to the cabin and stored it in the loft. I also filled about eight garbage bags with garbage which I loaded into the truck, and I packed up a big bag of laundry from the trailer which I put in the truck cab to take home and launder. Most of the laundry was clean towels that had been sitting in the closets for many years, so even though they hadn't been used, they still needed to be cleaned. I didn't realize I had so much stuff.

I felt like an archeologist going down layer by layer through that closet to the left of the trailer door. Items that had been stored in there had been placed on top of older items and just covered them up. Some of the stuff at the very bottom I remember putting there 19 years ago when we first brought the trailer up. At the very bottom were two "bug suits" in plastic "charging" bags. These are mesh garments soaked in insect repellent. They have never been out of the bags.

I was very happy to have the trailer completely empty of my stuff. I left quite a few items that sort of belong to the trailer and which I left for Ron.

I left for home at 1:20. I stopped at Ron Sideritz's on the way and told him that the trailer was ready to move. He was happy to hear it and said he would be over next Tuesday afternoon to take it away. Then I proceeded on to Mike's place and got the event counter from Kari. She also gave me a jar of huckleberry-rhubarb jam that she had made. Then, on the other side of the pass just before Deception Falls, I stopped to look briefly at a black bear in the ditch on the other side of the road. Two other vehicles were stopped right by the bear but by the time I stopped and found a place to pull over, I was quite a ways away. I dug my camera out, turned it on, and zoomed it out all the way as I got out of the truck. I took one picture this way just as the bear ambled away. The picture wasn't very good, but at least you can see the black smudge which is the bear. It was an eventful week.