Construction Journal Entry Week of 3/15/15

3/17-19/15 I went up to Camp Serendipity for 3 days: Tuesday through Thursday.

On the way, I stopped in to visit with Bill Odgers but he was not in. I proceeded on to Monroe where I visited with Uncle Charles. I beat him in a game of checkers.

I arrived at Camp Serendipity at 1:30. I started out by unloading a bunch of yard waste and stacking it on the compost pile. Almost all the snow had melted so I spent a considerable amount of time picking up after the scout camp. I retrieved and re-stacked all the boards they had taken. I looked for the last of the lost snow shovels but it was nowhere to be found. I suspect that it got onto the bus after all. I found seven more tent pegs and a bunch of food wrappers.

When everything down there was finally tidied up, I carried my gear up to the cabin using the upper roadway instead of the concrete staircase for the first time this spring. I was able to park in the hairpin turn so the trip to the cabin was a lot shorter.

I started a fire in the wood stove, had my lunch and my usual nap. I got no appreciable amount of work done for the rest of the day.

On Wednesday, I spent an uninterrupted day nailing up ceiling boards. To make access on the scaffold tower easier, I disconnected the dining room light fixture from its anchor under the Grid B,2.5 purlin. I needed to disconnect it anyway in order to lengthen the chain, which I intend to do, but since it has been in the way of working on the scaffold, it only made sense to take it down now.

I also installed a safety rope between the Grid B2 and B3 PSLs. I will be working closer and closer to the high and exposed edge of the scaffold deck, so it made sense to install the rope now. I used a Martin's Differential Hitch to connect the safety rope to one of the scaffold tower frames. By the end of the day, I had installed nearly half of the ceiling boards in this last section.

On Thursday morning, I started out by tightening all of the loft stair bolts. This needs to be done periodically as the stringer and treads shrink. Each nut took about half a turn.

I nailed up a few more ceiling boards and used up all the boards that were varnished. Next week, if the weather is warm enough, I will start out by varnishing a new batch of boards. I'm not sure what I will do if the weather is too cold. I might varnish them inside, or I might install them and varnish them after they are nailed to the ceiling. I'll leave that decision to next week.

I left for home at 1:00 happy with the progress and rejuvenated from my time in the woods. I visited with Bill Odgers for a while on my way home.



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