Construction Journal Entry Week of 4/24/22

4/25-29/22 I went up to Camp Serendipity for five days: Monday through Friday.

I arrived at 11:45, carried my gear up in two trips, hoisted the flag, and had my lunch and a nap. When I got up, I worked on my new hypercube a little, and then went outside and checked the trees on the bluff. I found that three of the transplanted cedars were dead. Most of the rest of them had a sickly yellow tinge. I hope they recover.

In the Sequoia Grove I found that the snow load had melted off enough so that the big vine maples that had been bent over and buried under the snow had broken loose and were now standing up. They had pushed into the mirror knocking it loose but there was no damage. I could see that there was going to be a lot of pruning required. I wanted to completely free the mirror and its mount from interference both from the trees themselves and from the shade. As it was, I couldn't even aim the mirror.

On Tuesday I practiced the piano, listened to the radio, and then started shooting video of the new paint job I was going to give to a completely new hypercube.

After lunch and a nap, I backed the truck up to the compost pile and unloaded a big load of yard waste from the truck and stacked it on the pile. Then I brought the pruning hook and a bowsaw into the woods and pruned the bushes from the trail going to Paul and to the other sequoias.

Then I noticed that during the winter a huge tree had fallen and had landed halfway between Dave and Ellen with the end almost hitting Dan. Lucky misses. Using mostly the bowsaw, I cut the big vine maples away to clear the trails and to free the mirror and its mount. I found that the mirror mount had been jostled enough and the ground had softened enough so that it no longer stood up straight and was going to need some bracing.

On Wednesday the temperature outside was 30 degrees when I got up. After practicing the piano, I did some more work on the new hypercube and shot some more video. After lunch and a nap, I went outside, hooked up and started the irrigation hoses. Then I gassed and oiled the chainsaw and took it into the woods. I cut the big fallen log away from the two places where it had crossed my trails. Then using the chainsaw, I cleared more brush and branches. Then I made a trip back into the cedar trees on the bluff to make sure irrigation water was reaching all the trees. I was happy to see that it was. It started to rain so I went back to the cabin.

On Thursday it was 25 degrees outside when I got up. I practiced the piano and then went out on the porch and dismantled the saw shop I had set up to make parts for a wooden hypercube. I had abandoned that idea in favor of making paper parts. After lunch and a nap, I went out to the mirror with a couple of ropes and used them as guys to straighten up and hold the mirror-mounting rebar. It worked great. Then back in the cabin, I worked some more on my new hypercube.

On Friday after practicing the piano, Robert called and told me his store was having its grand opening. We agreed that I would go down to visit the store next Wednesday. Then I turned my attention to my solar tracker project and put together a solar panel consisting of the 10 solar cells I had bought. I was sorely disappointed. Even though I could measure 50 volts produced by the complete array, I couldn't get it to turn that little gearmotor at all. One or two flashlight batteries had no trouble spinning it, but the solar cells refused. I left for home at 12:30after another fun week.



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