The new look: born to run

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Cooper recommended the book, Born to Run to me.  It’s about barefoot trail running and the negative impact the sneaker industry has had on our pocketbook and knees.  So I have been trying crocs with socks.  Not to attractive, I have to admit, but a pair of crocs costs $25 and I’ve been feeling pretty good.  The only problem here is that the newly mowed grass gets caught in my socks.

Last night we had the boat ride from hell.  It all started innocently enough. We went ashore to an afternoon play on Cape Ann. Then dinner with very nice but slow service and when we made it back to the dock to ride the whaler back to the island the fog was thick, THICK.  Visibility was less than 100 yards.  Luckily we had our handheld GPS with the waypoints of the buoys back to the island and the seas were calm.  We announced on the radio that our little boston whaler was headed outbound in the Salem Sound.  What are we?  Nuts?  But we made it back safe and sound.

We have had some water trouble.  Our well water didn’t pass the test so we had to get to the well and treat it.  We only had to lift three of these blocks to find it.

Concrete block over the well we lifted

Small craft advisory and thunderstorm warnings.  Time for sailing camp.

Crazy sailing school

Loki apres dinner

Faint rainbow, June 28

It was a dark and stormy night

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Not really but there was a brief, intense storm right before sunset.  Then the sky was beautiful.  Luckily we watched it from indoors.

Caretaker fingers

Tim and I have matching injuries.  My index finger got mildly caught in the flywheel of the string trimmer.  Oops.

Storm brewing

Striped berries

I want to figure out what these are.  Any ideas?

Nice clouds

Time to do it all over again

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We finally completed our first pass of mowing.  It took five days!!  Yesterday, I took the day off and we’ll be back at it again today.  Now we have to chop up the 3 feet long grass that is lying on the ground and take it down a notch.

The seagulls start their racket 4:30 am.  The other night, we heard a laughing gull.   We both stirred, laughed with it then rolled over and went back to sleep.  Yesterday, a dolphin washed up on the beach.  Very sad.  I hope the high tide overnight took it back out to sea.  Maybe it will take the deer with it too.

The projects begin.  At least the house is in pretty good shape.  Tim’s been on the roof to fix flashing (no easy task getting back down), we are having some trouble with our well water and need to install more batteries.  Not too bad.  And it’s sunny.  Small craft warnings today, so we’ll stay on the island.

Some things don’t change

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Last night I noticed both cats focused intently on something out the window.  I looked and saw a two point (I think) buck munching on the grass.  I could be in the Adirondacks.  Apparently, deer are not known here and this one may have swum out over the winter.  Two weeks ago, a rabid raccoon entered a house here via the cat door and bit the sleeping owner on the foot.  We have been acting as doormen for our cats who have already caught two mice here.

Deer on the island

Two point buck

We are settling back into island life.  We really appreciate how much work we did here last year.  Today, we saw more sailboats than we can remember.

Daisies and sailboat

We’ve been using the lawn mower, string trimmer ( the official name for a week wacker) and some other lethal motorized device to thrash our wheat.  I think we need pitchforks to create a big hay pile.  Today Tim found a scythe and looked the part clearing the lawn.

Tim with a scythe

Thrashed wheat from the lighthouse

Boston skyline

This was our biggest feat last year.  We managed to snag a snap on a pole, eight feet out and a hundred feet high.  This is the line that flies the flag off the lighthouse tower.  Except we don’t have a flag at the moment so we just admire our line.

Last year’s amazing project

I found a new Beaufort scale measurement today.  The wind speed was probably 20-25 knots which was enough to blow our rice crackers right off the plate.

To the lighthouse

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We drove to MA to head to the lighthouse yesterday.  The cats traveled like champs.  They didn’t do too bad on the boat and dinghy ride either.  Unfortunately, when we got here, our mooring had vanished, likely from a storm in winter.  We looked around and then arranged a borrowed mooring with the island’s winter caretaker.  While this was going on, a squall blew in and all my clothes and Tim’s electronics got soaked.  Then the grass was waist high.  But today was a new day and all is well.

Shirley bewildered

Cats and other luggage

My wet clothes

The waist high lawn

Today I tried to get the weed wacker to work for about an hour then took the John Deere lawnmower out to the field.  I set it on a hover craft setting and thrashed the wheat.  Much improved.

A better day

The helipad

Phelps Mountain

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We are moving to the lighthouse island on Wednesday and climbed our last Adirondack peak,  Phelps Mountain, on Monday.  The views are supposed to be spectacular from the summit but clouds and fog rolled in right about when we arrive.  Total trip about 8 miles and 2000 foot elevation gain.  Marcy Dam was beautiful.

Phelps’ View

I took plenty of opportunities for breathers both on the way up and down.  That’s where I met this guy.

Toad on the way down

There was a request to hike with a rock and drop it off at the summit.  Since we weren’t heading to the right peaks, we left unburdened.

Hike with a rock?

Unfortunately my boots bit the dust mid hike.  I lashed them to my feet but had to discard them at the end of the road

Top of the hill

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Shirley and I were on top of the world today

Today I hiked to the top of Round Mountain with my hiking group. The views were spectacular. This was my last hike with them before we leave for the lighthouse. The group hiked, snow shoed or skied in all weather. I’m looking forward to rejoining them in the fall. We saw wildflowers and fungus. I’m a fungus fan.

Shirley had her own little adventure to the top of her world.

Lady slipper

Toxic fungus

So when is Father’s Day?

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I woke up yesterday and made Tim french toast for breakfast. Then I presented him with this plaque for the house and a handmade card for father’s day. Next it was lunch of his choice. Later in the day, I called my brother to wish him a happy father’s day. He said thanks but it’s not for a few weeks!! Oops, I guess I don’t live by the calendar enough anymore. I know I have to go to traffic court tomorrow though.

Long Distance

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Life has been crazy. I put about 2000 miles on my car last week before turning it over to Cooper. I picked up Chelsea from school, dropped her off on Long Island (after some day drinking for her birthday), drove to Annapolis and picked up Tim, drove to NYC to vacation with Tim’s brothers and then drove home. Now we are here for a week before we head back to Long Island for a wedding and then off to the summer lighthouse.
Whew.

Adirondack extremes

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Here is our bumper crop, the first strawberry. It measures about a half inch long but is a real, tasty strawberry. We have lots of them growing but we will need thousands to even consider a pie.

On the other hand, the spiders are ginormous.  This one visited me on the front porch – while Tim is sailing to Annapolis so I had to contend with it myself.  It filled the bottom of the 4 inch glass I trapped it in.

I was hoping the photo made it appear that it was as big as Jay Mountain. It was

It was really hot the other day and the cats were hiding in the shade of cool plants and lying in the dirt.  The temperature improved after a thunderstorm rolled through with winds that blew the screens right off the windows.  Here’s Loki looking very cool.

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Giant crop

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