Construction Journal Entry Week of 7/29/12

7/31-8/3/12 I went up to Camp Serendipity for 4 days: Tuesday through Friday.

This week I spent four days because on Thursday evening I was expecting Brian and Kathleen Kemly to come up and spend the night before a hiking adventure to Spider Meadows the next day.

Before I left for Camp Serendipity, I bought a roll of 1/4" mesh hardware cloth for the top porch vent. Then I proceeded on to visit with Claude McVey for a while. And, from there to Camp Serendipity.

I arrived at 2:00 and had so much stuff with me that I used a wheelbarrow to haul it all up to the cabin. I whacked down some weeds and brush on the lower roadway and the parking area and then went in for lunch.

After lunch I had another mouse mystery. I happened to glance over toward the front door and there was a little mouse sitting in the sun on the floor right in front of the entry room doorway. He couldn't have been there when I brought my gear in or I would have stepped right on him. And I couldn't have missed seeing him.

Yet, there he was looking like he was just relaxing enjoying the sunshine. I approached him wondering how I was going to catch him and he just sort of curled up with his nose under his tail like he wanted to nap. I backed off, trying to figure out how to catch him.

I went into the bathroom and got the basin I use to wash dishes and threw it over the mouse. He was trapped inside. Then I got a piece of cardboard that I slid under the basin, picked the whole thing up, and carried it outside. I dumped the mouse over the edge of the cliff and watched it roll down. I couldn't really tell if it was dead or alive. It didn't move after it came to a stop, but that wasn't conclusive either. I still don't know whether it was a baby mouse or a shrew, or whether it was sick, dead, or healthy. It had to be healthy enough to walk over to that spot on the floor while I was eating my lunch, but it sure acted lethargic from then on. I'll probably never know what really was going on.

I went back outside and finished whacking down all the weeds and brush on the lower roadway and parking area. Then I ripped the roll of hardware cloth I had bought into four strips 10 feet long and 6 inches wide.

All during the night I could hear rodents in the rafters above the gable wall so the rodent repellers that were still up there evidently did not keep them out after all. That increases the urgency of getting the ceiling on in that area. I revised my priorities after thinking about it.

I will first finish up installing the vent at the top of the porch which will free up at least three scaffold frames. I'll use two of these to raise the existing tower one more tier. From this I will finish installing the entire ceiling between Grid E and F.

When that is done I will dismantle the tower and set the frames etc. aside. But instead of erecting another tower to proceed around the front of the cabin, I will begin installing ceiling boards at the back of the cabin. That is where the rodents are.

With the tower dismantled, I will be able to get my truck up there and deliver flooring and get it up onto the porch. So somewhere along the line I plan to buy the rest of the flooring for the bedroom and the loft. I can install that next winter or at any time. The main thing is to evict the rodents.

Since they have the insulation above the gable wall so fouled, I plan to cut open the screen and clean out and dispose of all the old insulation. I'll also look into ways of deodorizing the space as well. Then I'll stuff new, clean insulation into the space and seal it up with ceiling boards. That will be a happy day when that's done.

On Wednesday, since it was the first of the month, I tested the AFCI and GFCI breakers and read the septic pump counter. It had started two times in the previous month.

I got the extension ladder out and set it up against the Grid A wall and inspected each of the birdblocks I could get at and didn't find any way that mice could get in except for one very small crack which I doubt was big enough. But I plugged that gap up with Vulkem just in case. I am getting desperate and clutching at straws.

I then went up on the cliff behind the cabin and tried to see if there might be any knockouts in the rafter above the gable wall that might be knocked out so the rodents could get in that way. I didn't see any.

Next, I went into the woods and watered all the giant sequoia trees. When I got to where the hose ends and where my buckets were stored, it looked like a bear had torn up the place. There were tree branches strewn all over the place.

Upon a closer look, I realized that the mess was caused by a huge dead tree that had fallen and all the branches were those that had broken off in the fall.

I was afraid the tree had fallen on some of my sequoias. In a panic I couldn't find Dave which should have been right near the end of the hose. Looking around it looked like the tree trunk had fallen right over the top of Ellen.

To assess the damage, I climbed up onto the trunk of the fallen tree and walked up the trunk toward the butt end which was up the hill to the west. When I got near the top, I could see that the tree had broken off about 15 or 20 feet above the ground and that the stump was 20 or 30 feet north of the big ponderosa pine that is on the property line and is a good visible landmark at the top of the hill there.

From the end of the trunk it was clear and easy to get to Larry which was untouched by the fall. I followed the trail down to John, and from there down to Ellen. I was relieved to see that none of the trees was damaged so far. Earl was further from the fallen tree so it was untouched. Then I found Dave which was surrounded by debris but unscathed. I cleared away the branches.

I was back at the end of the hose, so I followed the trail in the other direction and found that none of the rest of the trees was hurt either. That was a relief.

The tree had fallen right between Dave and Chuck. The trunk was 6 feet from Dave, 4 feet from Chuck, and 2 feet from Cam. More serendipity. Since I can get a wheelbarrow in there, I think I'll harvest some of that trunk for firewood.

By another smaller stroke of serendipity, I had brought Gus' razor sharp hatchet with me so that I could clear some brush around the trails. That worked extremely well for clearing away vine maples that had been scrunched down over my trails, and it worked well for trimming back the brush around the trails.

After watering all the trees, I went back and honed Gus' hatchet back to a razor edge. Then I rearranged the scaffolding by placing the big sawhorses on top of the scaffold tower with a plank on top of the horses. This was almost too high. I couldn't stand up straight on top of that plank so it was awkward working. But I figured I'd try it, maybe by working from my knees.

When I was getting something out of the crawlspace, Byron Williams came up the stairs and invited me up to see the progress they have made on their cabin. He was in a hurry and couldn't stay long but I told him I would go up and see his place.

I had my lunch and then drove up to Byron and Barb's. Byron was gone but Barb showed me all around the place. They have made good progress and were just finishing up the wiring. I took some pictures, but unfortunately none of them turned out. I must have had something set wrong on the camera.

Barb graciously invited me over for dinner on August 15th—two weeks away. That was nice.

I drove back to Camp Serendipity and had a short nap. Then I ripped and stained a 4-foot ceiling board as the first one on the last course of boards. This would be sort of an experiment and proof of concept to see whether and how I could fabricate and install the vent up there.

It was really awkward and hard work to work from the scaffold deck that was a little too high. I also tried to fasten the screen to the purlin and the board on top of it with electrical staples. I tried to hold the staple with a needlenose pliers and then hammer it in, and it sort of worked. But it was so tedious that I knew I couldn't use that method for the entire 40 feet. I had to find a better way.

That first board was under the eaves so it was just about out of reach from my scaffold and there was no cabin wall to lean against. I was just hanging out in space. For safety I put on my lineman's belt and hooked it to the Grid E1 anchor hook. I got that 4-foot board almost installed by quitting time, but I was exhausted, hot, tired, and sweaty by the time I stopped.

I went in and soaked in a cool bath before I finally stood up and had my shower.

On Thursday morning, I rebuilt the scaffolding by taking down the big sawhorses and replacing them with concrete blocks and my trusty riser. That way I could stand straight up. I tried a regular 1/2" staple gun instead of trying to drive in those electrical staples and found that it worked perfectly. I finished up that first 4-foot board. I now had the confidence that I could rather easily install the entire vent that way.

Next I cut an 8-footer to length, used the Skilsaw to rip the milled pattern off, stained the sawed edge, and stapled on the two screens on the back. I used a hammer stapler for that which worked slick. Then I bent the screens over into the configuration I had figured will work and brought it up to install.

I discovered I had made an error by leaving the screen hanging out on the wrong end. I fixed it by trimming off the screen from the one end and by stapling the remnants to the rafter where they need to overlap the screen on the next board. That fix didn't take too long but I felt a little stupid.

It took a little doing to get the tongue and grooves to engage because there is no way to get a hammer swing to coax the board down into place. I tried to lever it into place using a crowbar, but eventually I discovered that my hammer was the perfect tool to do the levering. With the head of the hammer on the tongue of the new board, the claw of the hammer was a nice fulcrum riding against the log wall so that when I pulled down on the handle, the head forced the board into place. Once it was there it was a routine matter to nail it to the rafters. Then I hammered the screen into shape up against the purlin so it was ready for staples. I stapled a few staples, but then quit for the week. It was lunch time and I planned to spend the afternoon cleaning the place up to prepare for the guests.

After lunch, I had a short nap. Then I put away all the tools, and using some fancy rope rigging, I replaced the big log bench on the porch. It is supported the same as it was before but now it is out away from the wall far enough for the scaffold legs to fit behind it. I'll move it back after the scaffolding is removed.

Next I swept the porch and vacuumed the first floor of the cabin. I also tidied up some other things. I wasn't sure when my guests would arrive but I went ahead and had my shower and my dinner.

After dinner I read while I waited for them to arrive. I got a call from Brian who told me that they were also bringing another couple with them. They arrived at about 8:30 PM.

The other couple was Sern and Mari Watt whom I had known from years past in connection with the scout troop. They had also brought the Kemly's dog, Luna, with them. After dodging the mosquitoes and learning how to negotiate through my mosquito screen, they all came into the cabin with their gear. A few mosquitoes came in with them so we occasionally swatted them as they would find us.

They brought out a bottle of wine and I got out my Jack Daniels and we had a delightful visit until it was time for bed. I took a few pictures of them. At one point the conversation turned to my acquisition of the logs and to explain how accurate were the estimates of my log supplier, I brought out my scale model of the cabin.

Mari faded first, and soon afterward the rest of us went to bed.

During the night Luna could hear the rodents cavorting on the porch outside and she dearly wanted to go out and harass them. But Brian and Kathleen prudently thought it would be too risky to let her out so she had to stay in all night.

In the morning, Brian got up early and took Luna outside. She promptly treed Rocky, the neighborhood pine squirrel, and she sat at the base of the tree while Rocky loudly scolded her.

The rest of us got up and had coffee. I wanted to show Kathleen the bronze model of Mt. Rainier. She and Brian had seen various plaster versions but they hadn't seen the bronze. We went up in the loft and set the model up in display mode and talked about various points of interest around the mountain where each of us had been. I also explained the patina process to them.

Next, we packed up to leave and they graciously invited me out to breakfast at the 59'er Diner. We drove over there and had a delightful conversation over a great breakfast, of course served by Flo. From there they left for their Spider Meadows hike and I proceeded on to Skykomish where I met Ellen and her sister Marilyn and the three of us then hiked to Dorothy Lake. It was an eventful, enjoyable week.



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