Now that summer is here, it feels like it has flown by.  The final push is on to accomplish the major projects: seal all the leaks, paint any unpainted wood, replace gutters and repair windows.  We realize we have a lot of work we would like to complete and have been working hard the past few days.  We scraped, sanded, primed and painted one side of the house and reglazed and painted windows.  When I woke up to have breakfast yesterday, this is the view outside my kitchen window.

We’ve been lucky to have nice weather.  DH is running laps around the property now and I may join him and then jump in the water to cool off.

I’ve been deferring some inside cleaning for the next rainy day and it looks like sun is predicted for the next several days.

The ladder provides a good perspective to watch the local boat traffic.

Yesterday I am happy to report that we got the mower safely to the repair shop, Powder Hill Service Center and they did a great job.  We carried it down the rocky beach, loaded it into the rubber dinghy and were able to lift it without incident into the boston Whaler.  They looked at it and fixed it while we hit the laundromat, hardware store and cafe.  It turns out that the equivalent of a sheer pin was broken, caused by DH hitting a rock while mowing.  But at the shop, he told them I did it and they all had a good laugh.  Well today I mowed for several hours and I am broken. But the mower runs great.  The best comment when I was bringing it down the dock at the marina was, Wow, you must have a pretty big boat!

Now I will get wierd (living on an island can do that to you ). Mowing today made me philosophical and I can see the parallels of mowoing a large lawn with life.  You have a plan to cover the ground one way and then you run into an obstacle, like solar panels or a lighthouse and you have to decide how you will incorporate that into your original plan.  Focus on the obstacle or just work around it.  Fascinating right?

Shirley and Loki are back from their camping trip but didn’t want to put the thermarests away just yet.

“Nice array you have there.”  This is what an islander drove up and told DH today.  He was repositioning the panels to move them out of partial shade.  We’ve been living on the edge with depleted batteries and hope this helps.  After admiring the solar panels, DH’s admirer went on to discuss battery banks.

Tall Ship Departing

While working on the solar panels, DH was surprised to find this creature.  He spent some time debating with me whether  or not there was an hourglass on the spider’s back.  I opted for yes and did away with it.

Hourglass or not

More knitting,   today I grafted 2 panels together.  Now to add a border.

Grafted panels

Nice Array

Kristi visited and one of the first things she did was spend a few hours mowing and she is one of the few people who mowed in a pattern acceptable to Tim.   There was a gale during her visit and we stayed indoors and painted and painted and repaired windows and doors.  I took time out to take pibtures of this still life:

Flowers with Barbie surfboard

The surf board is one of the first treasures I found on the beach.  I also found someone’ s vertebrae and some green sea glass.

Shirley has begun walking down to the beach when we leave by boat.  Our last trip, we left at 7 am and returned at 5 pm and she looked pretty tired.  I’m not sure if she waited for us the whole time but this is what she was doing when we got home.

Super cat

We rely on solar power and the weather has put a drain on us and our batteries.  We conserve the power for the fridge and the pump that allows us to have running water.  The well was tested and it looks like we can drink the water.  No more lugging 5 gallon bottles of water from the dinghy up the beach.   I’ve begun working on the outside since the storm we had uncovered several leaks.  I have caulked and reglazed several windows and have to get up on the roof in the next couple of days.

Today after a hard day’s work, Tim, Shirley and I went for a swim.

So after lots of head scratching and trips to nautical supply stores, we figured out a solution to the flag dilemma.  Thanks Andre, but we couldn’t get Loki to walk the boom.  We bought a few pulleys and when we were at the store saw a whisker pole on the counter and voila!  We own a whisker pole.  We could use that as an extension arm, maybe.  So first we had to get it out on the catwalk without breaking anything.  The first oath in medicine and lighthouse care taking is do no harm.

The problem, old hooks and no rope and high in the sky

The approach with the new brass hook and whisker pole

Rethinking

So close but…

The team at work, photos courtesy of Kristi

A New Approach

Houston, we have contact!

Look at that!

Victory

Flying high

Back to shipshape

And then when our work was done I was able to return to my knitting.  I finished the shawl I had begun at the bottom of the Grand Canyon in April.  It’s a lot smaller than I thought but now I am going to stretch the heck out of it and see what happens.  After that, we have a lot of painting and housework to do

Finished shawl

We’re safe at night.  No ghosts ramblings and the cats look out for us when they’re not sleeping.  We’ve been settling into our summer home and finally have it in a presentable state.

The computer room

What you can’t tell is that the table is only 18 inches off the ground and DH is sitting on a beach chair.

Kitchen

Refrigerator high

Pantry

Looking through the front porch

Porch

Note the toilet repair kit close at hand

View from the prison cell

Very comfy bed, I sleep 9 hours straight

Looking out from bed, which I do when I’m not sleeping 9 hours

Tower from the beach

Our link to land

Shirley