Saturday
May 28, 2016
Michael made one final meal before they were set to depart at 11:30 this morning. Patty & I and Cyndy & Michael both brought a couple of pints of blueberries to the island last Saturday and there were still a lot left so he made blueberry pancakes with link sausage. After our big breakfast, Cyndy & Michael got to work packing up their things and cleaning the guest quarters to make it ready for future overnight guests. Patty and I headed down to the Whistle House to work on some jobs we started in the workshop.
I worked on a screen door that’s getting refurbished to be used in the gift shop while Patty finished the Lighthouse Trail sign. On Wednesday, Rick (a Wednesday Warrior) wants to modify the door to fit in the door frame but asked if we could do the preliminary work of removing the old screen (attached with half-round he wants to reuse) and sanding it. I got the first part of that finished and will sand later. We also fixed one of the “stay off” warning sign hanging by the top of the tram and just generally just puttered around.
Mid-morning, Cyndy and Michael were ready to head down to the Cove for their 11:30 rendezvous with Ethan. They loaded most of their things onto the tram car which was already parked at the top. Cyndy took Grady and kept him clear of the operation while Patty and Michael walked down to the Donkey Engine House to run the tram. I walked alongside the tram car as it moved down the track just watching it and ready to radio down if anything went awry. Luckily, all went well.
The four of us carried everything down to the cove to await Ethan’s arrival. We had an hour or so before he would arrive and Cyndy, Patty, and I spent the time just relaxing on the beach while Michael headed back up the hill to take some last photos. The tide was the lowest we’ve seen since we got here last Saturday revealing a pretty large sandy beach. Cyndy thought about taking a swim but the breeze kicked up and she opted for a jacket instead.
When Ethan arrived, Michael and Cyndy rowed out with a full load of stuff to transfer to the boat. Michael got off the dinghy and Cyndy rowed back for the final load of stuff and then returned one last time to get Grady. It took lots of (physical) coaxing but Grady finally got into the dinghy for the ride out to the boat. I rowed this time and Grady was happy to follow Cyndy out of the dinghy onto Ethan’s boat. With one last handshake with Michael and a hug from Cyndy, they headed towards Popham and I rowed back ashore. Patty and I pulled the dinghy up to the high tide mark and tied it up before we headed up the hill. Passing by the info kiosk just above the cove, Patty took the cover off the donation box and brought it with . It’s made of unpainted wood and doesn’t really stand out in a way that it catches your eye as you go past. She wants to paint red with white lettering to make it pop a little more.
The weather today was perfect while the forecasts for tomorrow and especially Monday are not so good so we thought we should take care of some outside tasks this afternoon.
Once we were back up top, I took out the push mower to cut the front lawn hill (I think this is the third or fourth cut already) and Patty hopped on the riding mower to get everything else again. The grass was really long when we got here and it’s also really thick. Patty is good at maneuvering the riding mower in such a way that most of the clippings get blown to the edges of the lawn but the push mower bogs down if I try to do that which means a little raking cleanup after cutting. I feel like we’re getting close to the point where the grass is cut to the point that we won’t need to rake afterwards. I finished off by weed whacking around the flag pole, bell, front porch, sidewalks, and everywhere else it was needed.
While I was just starting to weed whack, a couple came up the trail and I stopped to chat with them for ten or fifteen minutes. They were locals out for a boat ride and decided to stop for a hike. As they were starting to head to the North Trail (the only one we still haven’t weed whacked), two boys and their mom came up the trail. Patty had come up from the Whistle House and took them for a tour up to the lighthouse and walked down to the Whistle House with them to show the boys the fog horn. They were also locals out for a boat ride and while the three of them were checking out Seguin, we could see the dad fishing out in his boat off the east side side of the island.
Once they all left, Patty headed inside to give the fridge & freezer a good, thorough cleaning while I cleaned up outside. The last thing we did was to start the process of weeding and turning the garden. We got maybe a third of it finished and are hopeful that we’ll finish within the next few days so we can get some seeds in the ground.
When we finally came inside, Patty made a quiche/omelet sort of thing in our cast iron pan using eggs, leftover sausage from breakfast and some veggies for a late dinner. I acted goofy and “helped.” We ended the night by going up into the lighthouse to take a night time look at the view.
