9/2-4/15 I went up to Camp Serendipity for 3 days: Wednesday through Friday.

On the way, I stopped in to visit with Uncle Charles but I caught him napping. I woke him up and gave him the option of playing a game of checkers or going back to sleep. He chose to go back to sleep so I left.

I arrived at Camp Serendipity at 12:20. I moved my gear in, had my lunch, and had just lain down for a nap when Barb rang the doorbell. She told me that Byron needed some help and some tools in order to raise his log deck columns. I loaded some chains, come-alongs, shackles, and pulleys into the truck and drove over to help Byron.

He had five 7 or 8 foot logs, each about 12 to 14 inches in diameter laid out ready to be raised and set atop five concrete columns about 6 feet high. We used a method I learned in Skip's's class which Skip had called "corner lifting poles'. We selected a long pole, which broke in our first attempt, so we selected a second stouter pole and used it. We rigged a pulley with a rope near the top of it and then lashed the pole upright to the first concrete pillar. We chokered the first log above its center of gravity with one end of the rope and connected the other end to the cable end of a come-along. Then we anchored the come-along to the base of the upright pole and started cranking the come-along.

After a few stops, where we had to re-rig for various reasons, the log was finally suspended over the steel flange which was to receive it and we lowered it in place. Everything did not go smoothly, but we were able to overcome each problem as it arose. When the log was finally secured in its upright position atop the concrete column, I went back to Camp Serendipity leaving the tools I had brought with Byron.

On Thursday morning, my head was spinning with ideas about how we could have improved on yesterday's project of raising the log. I tried to call Byron to see if he needed more help but I couldn't get him on the phone. I imagined that he was outside working by himself so I decided to go help him.

I loaded a few more chains and a chain boomer that I thought would be helpful and drove back to Byron's. He wasn't out working yet, but he came out right away and we went back to work.

Avoiding some earlier mistakes, and trying some more efficient techniques, we kept improving the lifting process so that by the time we hoisted the fifth and last log into position, it went pretty smoothly. We had worked continually without so much as a moment of relaxation, or a sip or bite of anything to eat or drink. We were in "flow", enjoying the challenge and the work and I think each of us had the attitude that we would only quit if the other guy quit first.

We were both surprised that it was about 2:30 in the afternoon when we finally finished and relaxed for the first time. We loaded all my tools into my truck and I went back to Camp Serendipity.

It looked like it might start to rain, so I decided to unload a bunch of tree branches that had broken off during the big windstorm in Seattle over the weekend and to put away all the tools before I went in for lunch.

The wheelbarrow was still parked down by the truck from hauling all the tools down the day before so I used it to wheel the tree debris from the truck to the compost pile. Then I loaded all the tools into the wheelbarrow to bring them back up to the cabin. There were a lot of chains so it was a heavy wheelbarrow load but I was able to push it up the hill anyway.

After all the tools and the wheelbarrow were put away, I went in and had a late but welcome lunch. I was super tired so at 4:00 I lay down for a nap. I don't think I ever really dozed off so I got up at 4:30, fixed a cup of Pero, and sat out on the porch in Dave's Adirondack chair. I thoroughly enjoyed just sitting there looking at the view, breathing the crisp mountain air, sipping my drink, listening to some Beethoven and Mozart coming out through the open window, and just simply relaxing. It was wonderful.

Then before I went in to take my shower, I did a bunch of stretching exercises on the porch deck.

On Friday morning I was plenty stiff, but when I got to moving around, my body loosened up. It might have rained a little overnight but in the morning the sky was clear and the temperature was about 45º -- just perfect for working in the woods.

I took a spade down to the creek to inspect the water line installation. I wanted to make sure that the pipe was well covered. There were a few places where it was exposed under the clear water so I shoveled dirt and gravel over it to cover it up. Then I started seeing how practical it might be to backfill the trench by hand.

When Mike's guy had dug the trench, he had piled the dirt on the right side of the trench as you look uphill. He started at the high end and worked backward. When he got to the creek, which is on the right, he piled the last few scoops of dirt on the left side of the trench.

Since I wanted to make sure that when Mike came back to backfill the trench, he wouldn't mess up the rockwork I had started which was intended to separate the creek bed from the water line trench. As it was, the water line trench was also serving as the channel for the springs in the valley behind the cabin. I'm still not sure whether the original bed for this small creek goes down where the trench was dug or not. Once the trench is backfilled, it will be restored to whatever it was originally. In any case, I figured that if I backfilled the dirt piles on the left I could make it come out exactly how I wanted it and it would also provide a direct access to the upper part of the trench for Mikes tractor without disturbing the rock work.

I stuck my spade into the dirt pile and was delighted to find that the dirt was super dry inside the pile because of the hot dry summer so it was easy to shovel the dirt out and the shovel loads were light in weight. I was surprised at how easy it was. Since I like to dig, it was delightful and a lot of fun.

The piles were not just dirt, however; they were mostly very tangled vine maple root balls. But when I shoveled the loose dirt out from underneath, wherever I could get my spade in, eventually the root ball was loosened up enough so that I could move it and throw it into the trench where it came from. In the cases where there were still live saplings attached, I transplanted them in the area behind the rockwork figuring that they would help bind the soil on the creek bank.

I was surprised at how much dirt I could move. Of course it helped to have gravity working with me. Instead of digging out rocks and throwing them up onto the bank, as I had to do to dig a trench, now I simply rolled the rocks downhill to add to the rockwork at the edge of the bank. As I get further up the trench, I'll simply roll the rocks down into the trench along with the root balls without using very much of my energy. As long as the dirt stays relatively dry, the entire backfilling job is within my ability to do by hand.

I had learned that Mike is busy building a fire line somewhere near the big fires so I don't expect that he will be able to come over any time soon. So as long as the weather is good I plan to continue backfilling the trench by hand and if it looks like I can get it done this fall, I'll simply cancel my order with Mike. Since it is only the first of September, I expect that I will have a month or so of ideal working conditions for shoveling dirt in the woods. The fact that there aren't any mosquitoes almost compels me to take advantage of this rare opportunity to get such pleasure from a digging project. As I told an old colleague years ago, I love to dig and I savor every shovelful of dirt.

I left for home at about 12:30 feeling very good about the week's work.