2016-05-30
Monday (Memorial Day)
We woke up early to a very foggy and windy morning accompanied by intermittent rain. For the first time since we bought the new flag last Wednesday, we didn’t raise it first thing in the morning.
After a breakfast of breakfast of fresh fruit, yogurt, and granola, we decided to tackle the job of cleaning the keeper’s quarters…top to bottom. We vacuumed all the exposed rafters in the kitchen and the exposed second floor joists on the first floor. Lots of cobwebs and other goodies that collected over the winter. We also hit the brick walls throughout the house. After that, everything (pictures, lamps, furniture) got a good dusting and wiping down. The tub got a scrub and the windows all got a wash on the inside. Several rugs and runners were put out on the porch to be hung and beaten when the weather’s nicer.
By early afternoon, we were finished and felt good about the look and feel of the place. We had a quick lunch of leftovers and figured out what to do with the rest of the day. The weather got steadily better (although cooler) after lunch and we even got some sunshine and put up the flag around 2. A few times a thick fog blew in and blanketed us for a while but then it moved out again and the sun would be out. It was a strange day of weather – like a few days wrapped up in one.
We worked on a few things in the workshop including sanding the screen door and insert that Rick is going to work on for the gift shop on Wednesday and fixing a large print of a Kennebec and Sheepscot Rivers chart that fell down in the living room last week. Patty also got the date/time fixed on the weather station so that we will now get correct sunrise and sunset times. Between her fix and me fixing the rain gauge on it a few days ago, I think it’s totally functional now.
There was a Weber Q gas grill in the workshop that we moved up next to the kitchen to use for grilling outside. I think we’ll use charcoal when we have friends and family visit but day to day, we’ll use the gas grill.
While I was messing around with the grill and whatever else, Patty made granola which we were just about out of. She also did a little clothes wash in a Lowes bucket that we brought with us. It’s our manual camper wash method – a 5-gallon bucket with a hole cut in the lid and a plunger (never previously used for it’s intended purpose). Add some soap, hot water, and dirty clothes then put the plunger in and and snap the lid on. Now, make like you’re churning butter with the plunger and your clothes get washed. The rinse (same basic idea) and hang to dry. It works although everything we wash is going to end up some shade of orange because of the color of our water from the iron.
While we worked in the afternoon, in and out of the house, we caught bits of the Redsox vs. Orioles game that we had on the radio. We both enjoy having a game going on in the background even if we’ve never followed the Redsox before. I guess by the end of the summer, we’ll know everything about all the players.
By the time sunset rolled around a little after 8, we had a nice view of bright red clouds over the mainland with a bright white reflection on the shoreline across the water and a stream of red from the sun reaching towards us.
At the end of the day, we relaxed and felt good about what we accomplished. Tomorrow’s weather looks like it’ll be good so we can get back outside in the sun and fresh air.
