9/1-5/25 I went up to Camp Serendipity for 5 days: Monday through Friday.

I arrived at 11:40 and carried my gear up in one trip, which was extra heavy this trip. I hoisted the flag and noticed that the air was slightly smoky. There must be some fires somewhere.

After lunch and a nap, I walked to the grave and when I got back, I took a nice cool shower.

On Tuesday morning I was up early. I wheeled one sack of mortar mix from the truck up to the back stoop. Then I did some work augmenting the scaffolding around the right-hand corner. It is awkward and even a little dangerous working back there but the extra plank I added should make a big difference. I am looking forward to finishing that section of the wall so I will be done with it. Hopefully, that will be soon.

Next, I harvested and cleaned a few more stones. Then I laid them up in the back wall using mortar batch #159.

After lunch and a nap, I walked to the grave. On the way, I watched a tiny baby lizard scramble across the road. This little guy was about an inch long with an inch-long tail. Next, I talked with Dave Picarello who was riding an electric motor scooter. We had a nice chat in the 92 degree heat.

On Wednesday morning, I was up and out early again. I harvested and cleaned a bunch of thin stones that I will use to cap the top of the wall when I get the wall built up to the top. This will be a new, untested, process that I haven't quite figured out yet. I laid some of the stones out on top of a board stack trying to fit them together in a flagstone pattern that might work for the cap on the wall. It didn't seem to be a good approach, so I gave up after a little while.

I placed a couple stones in the back wall and then to give my mind a rest, and let it work on the cap problem, I switched gears and did a bunch of pruning. I pruned a big thicket of brush between the back porch and the privy, and then I pruned away all the many bigleaf maple suckers that had grown out of the stump near the septic dosing tank. I worry about the roots of that stump getting into the plumbing so I would like to kill that stump somehow.

After lunch and a nap, I walked to the grave. By that time the temperature had reached 94 degrees. On the way, I talked to John, who had just left his place heading for Home Depot. Later in the walk, I talked to Ken who was on his way to work.

When I got back, I took a nice cool shower which felt great.

On Thursday morning I watered Tiger and gave him an extra ounce because of the heat. Then I went out to work and harvested enough stones to lay them up in the back wall using mortar batch #160. Then I went in for lunch and a nap. When I got up, I was surprised that the temperature outside was down to 75 degrees. That made my walk to the grave a little more pleasant.

I had another chat with John and then on my way back, Barb and Byron stopped to chat. They had been gone for a few weeks and just got back. It was good to see them.

In the evening, Bill called to check up on me and ask about the skin cancer nose surgery I had had.

On Friday, I pruned some more brush and then harvested a few more stones. I laid them up in the back wall and reached a milestone: I mortared in the first cap stone at the far end of the wall which is the first time the wall had reached the top. For that, I used mortar batch #161. Now I just need to top off the rest of that back wall and I will be done back there. That will be a welcome relief.

I went in for lunch, packed up, and left for home at 1:15 after a fun and productive week.