Friday, June 16, 2017
Our morning started out a drizzly mess on the island. Never a good omen for a busy day of visitors on the island. We were expecting a group of 5 to stay in the guest cottage over the weekend but the NOAA forecast is indicating the 5 may make it to the island but may not get a return trip until Wednesday! I guess we will find out if they chose to gamble at 11:30am if Ethan arrives in the cove, no Ethan, no gamble!
I spent some time getting the guest cottage all set for this weekend’s group which included adding a wide assortment of board games to keep them entertained if the rain continues all weekend as predicted.
Brian and I headed down to the cove around 11am to wait and see if the guests were going to arrive and Brian wanted to ask Ethan about a spare part for one of the push mowers. Pickles decided she needed to look at the waterfront of her kingdom as well, so off down the hill we went. Phinneus doesn’t make the trip anymore because of his heart, he ended up staying sound asleep on the couch. Pickles loves to run on the sand whenever she gets the chance but would prefer the warmer waters of the Bahamas than the Maine frigid waters.
Ethan and his boat was a no show. I headed back up to the cottage and Brian chose to go out walking the Cove Trail to Cobblestone Beach. As I started making lunch, Brian called me to let me know there was a seal on the beach and to come down to see. Off I went down the hill again! It was low tide and the seal was hanging out on the seaweed. Once again, I live in a Disney like life and my background is in veterinary medicine. This combination makes me want to save everything! The seal seemed to be a smaller one and didn’t move its left front flipper. At this point, I was convinced he was injured and needed to be saved. I called Cyndi to find out if there was a marine mammal rescue I could call. She warned of how a seal can become aggressive when approached and when the tide comes back in it would probably swim away. Ok, I had to have a reality lesson while out on the rocks. Brian spent a long-time reasoning with me about how nature works (like I don’t know) and it was probably resting up for another swim to shore. He also reminded me about a swan I tried to save once in Connecticut (another time and another story). The result was we went back up to the house and I had tears in my eyes, I didn’t want to find it tomorrow washed ashore deceased.
The one thing we figured out quickly here on the island is when tasks are all checked off the to-do list, something happens to add a few more to that list. When we walked into the house, we heard water running, never good in this house. A fast trip down to the basement and there was another water pipe break, arghhh! We are getting good at this now, quickly hit the circuits for the water pump and heater, shut off the water feed to the pump, let the last of the water drain from the pipes while Brian gets the tools needed to fix it. After a quick repair, turn everything back on and make the trip to the pump house to turn the well pump on to top off the cistern again. This is becoming second nature.
This afternoon got cool again and the space heater was used. We were couch potatoes for the afternoon, I knitted some more on his sweater and he played solitaire. No one arrived on the island, the weather was perfect for the ducks on the island but not very hospitable for humans.
We finished our day with a comfort food dinner, meatloaf and mashed potatoes. There wasn’t a sunset to view just torrential rain trying to convince the dogs they wanted to go out in. Hopefully the forecast will be wrong for the rest of the weekend and we can get out on the trails and some hardy souls will come and visit.
Guests today – 0
Guests total – 91
USCG – 6
