Monday
August 15, 2016
The day started off cloudy and warm with no breeze at all. After fruit and yogurt for breakfast, I worked on the blog while Patty cleaned the museum, gift shop, and Guest Quarters following Friday’s big storm and the overnight visitors we hosted. We hadn’t had time until this morning to tidy up since we arrived back on Seguin yesterday with
the full ferry boat. After escaping from the computer, I dumped the finish tray from our composting toilet and reloaded it with newly “material” ready for finishing. I also checked the Guest Quarters toilet which was ok as far as solids but the liquids are close to full…and five women are coming to stay tonight. Hope it’ll be ok. What does it say that I’d rather attend to the toilets than stare at our laptop?
Because I hadn’t had enough bathroom action, we went down the hill to rake and clean the Clivus outhouse. When we got down there, we met a large group of fourteen coming ashore in two boats. They came over from Fox Island for their annual summer visit to Seguin. One person in the group was a member of F.O.S.I.L.S. and had on a William & Mary t-shirt which caught our attention because I grew up in Williamsburg and both of my parents and my aunt Mary-Lewis who was just here all graduated from there. The man with the t-shirt on hadn’t gone to W&M but his son, who was in the group of 14, had.
All the while that we talked with the group, we were being harassed by flies, the worst invasion of flies we’ve had all summer. With a very light to non-existent breeze (and any breeze we got came from the mainland), the flies were plentiful and hungry. They caused me to move the spiel portion of the tower tour from the steps outside the tower to inside where the echo is loud but the flies were less bothersome.
Ethan’s ferry arrived a little before noon but a larger than usual number stayed aboard to fish and we only had six people come up the hill. The first two ladies to make it up the hill were friends from central Kansas that were here in Maine on vacation and were enjoying the relatively cool weather here as compared to their hometown. Another man from Kennebunk, Maine was really interested in seeing the museum and lighthouse but after climbing a dozen or so stairs turned back because of his discomfort about heights. Being able to see through the stairs to the floor below was disconcerting so we went back to the base of the tower and I described the lens and its’ history before he went outside to view it from ground level.
The last three in Ethan’s group were a Mom (Heather) and her daughter (Bridgette) and son (Johnny). Heather’s father Fred Kahrl was a Seguin Island Keeper from 1966-1967 and met Heather’s Mom while station in Maine. After Seguin, he was transferred to a station in Kodiak, Alaska where Heather was born. Heather and her kids now live in Boulder, Montana but were back in Maine visiting family for their annual summer visit. After going up to the top of the tower, we went into the museum where Heather pointed out some photos her father donated to F.O.S.I.L.S. for which he was credited on the captions. They were all charming and Bridgette was especially bubbly and talkative, much more mature than her age, with steady eye contact and a firm Montana handshake. We thoroughly enjoyed having them visit and will certainly remember them amongst all the visitors we’ve had this summer.
Before we sat down for lunch, three more visitors came up the hill including repeat visitors for us Bob & Vicki with their friend Tim who had not been to Seguin before. We laughed when we saw Vicki coming up the hill carrying her own fly-swatter. The flies were that bad today! They stopped at Cobblestone Beach for a snack and carried along the fly-swatter to make sitting still tolerable down there. I took the three of them up in the tower and out on to the catwalk which has fortunately been a refuge from the flies all day.
Patty and I took a break for lunch and had a salad with greens from the garden and some sliced pork left over from our pork chop dinner last night.
After lunch, a steady stream of visitors continued with three men from Annapolis, Maryland that are on a sailing adventure together. Leighton, Jack, and Marc started in Portland (not Annapolis) and are sailing the area for a week or so. While they were checking out the museum, three women came up – a couple who live in Portland, Oregon and the Mother of one of them who lives locally in Maine. One of the young ladies is from North Carolina originally and told us she went to camp in Brevard. She asked if Rocky’s is still open in Brevard and it is. It’s a fun, old
timey soda fountain that sells burgers, sandwiches, and ice cream in what used to be a Walgreens Drug Store in the 50’s. Before they came up in the tower, they had a picnic on the lawn and spilled something sugary on the canvas bag they carried their lunch in. By the time we came back down from the tower, the bag was totally covered with hundreds of flies so we shared a fly-swatter which they used to attack the flies with glee.
Another foursome arrived for a visit, two of whom had been here before and two who had not. After them, another threesome came up and just wanted to browse in the museum and get t-shirts but weren’t interested in going up in the tower. Or at least the dad wasn’t but I think his son wanted to. They live in Five Islands and come out often so after buying some swag, they started back towards their boat.
Before the last group left, our overnight guests Jenn, Holly, Lizzie, Annette, and Karen came up the front lawn from the Lighthouse Trail carrying lots of food and other provisions. It turns out that Holly lives just a couple of houses away from the man that was just leaving and chatted with him for a few minutes before he left. Our overnight guests stayed on Seguin last summer so they were already familiar with the accommodations, composting-101, and everything else about overnighting here.
Almost immediately after stowing their stuff inside the Guest Quarters, the went out to the picnic table to enjoy food and drink with the slowly setting sun in the background. They were really thoughtful and brought us some wine and later gave us a really tasty baguette and goat cheese. They were an absolute pleasure to have stay here on Seguin and undoubtedly provided several of our favorite moments of the day!
Ethan gave us some Mackerel a while back but we’d frozen it because at the time we had other meals already planned but Patty took it out today to cook. Mackerel’s a smallish, boney, fishy fish but is pretty good when prepared as a fish salad (kind of like chicken or tuna salad) and
that’s what Patty planned for tonight but we got a late start on dinner and by the time she pan fried and de-boned the fish, she didn’t feel like finishing the rest of the meal and, having been given a delicious looking bakery fresh baguette from our overnight guests, we decided to eat that instead and save the fish for tomorrow. So, that’s what we did and the bread and cheese was even better than it looked.
We end the evening together in the living room, reading and talking, before heading up to bed.
Visitors – 41
Favorite Moment(s) – meeting Heather, the daughter of Seguin Keeper Fred Kahrl and her two children. Lowering and folding the flag with the five mustachioed ladies that stayed in the guest quarters overnight.
Sunrise – 5:34am
Sunset – 7:34pm
#Seguinisland #seguinislandlight #seguinislandlighthouse #maine #LifeOnTheRock
