lighthouse

Batten down the hatches

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Seguin conifer

The third nor’easter of our stay is passing by today.  A gale with wind and rain. It’s not raining yet but there’s a fresh breeze from the north.

We took advantage of fair weather yesterday to board up the keeper’s house and other buildngs in preparation for our departure this weekend. Now we look though grates in the first floor windows. Nice jail. 

Last night, Tim thought he heard voices, no music, on a couple of occasions and I heard footsteps. Hmmm. Maybe someone’s happy we are getting ready to leave.

Down to the coveBeaufort Wind Scale

 Seguin history and ghosts 

Rest stop for passing birds

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Fly by
The island is a rest stop for many migrating birds. The species have changed during the month. We’ve had common flickers, american kestrels, some from the warbler family and others (unidentified by me).

They dart into open doorways, windows and people. We’ve had birds in the whistle house, donkey engine house and the lighthouse. I hear my children’s ancestors having premonitions because of three birds in the house! Tim and I have managed to get them all out unharmed. One was still in the lighthouse when the USCG chopper arrived. Luckily they were only looking for a toilet and never ventured into the tower.
Touch down
 Really.  A very cute, young USCG, with an English accent, hopped off and asked to use the bathroom. They are all closed up here, so after a brief walk,  he reboarded and they took off. THEY LOVED THE NEW HELIPAD. He said it looked brand new (Ethan uncovered the old triangle of bricks and I mowed it when the rider mower ran). They will be back this week because they plan some work on the light.

I was just getting ready to incubate a batch of yogurt in the lighthouse before they arrived. It turned out to be too cool so I used a combination of a warm water bath in the crock pot and a slightly warm oven. We had homemade yogurt and english muffins for breakfast. Now I am going to try to use the rest of this batch as a starter for the next. And so on and so on…

Yogurt

Welcome sunshine

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Oil house
Glorious morning. Wind shifted to the north, crisp air so why is the fog horn still sounding? Hmmm.

We spent time in the whistle house yesteday working on lawnmowers. I ran the rider mower 30 minutes. Today’s test will be to mow with it.

I used the rowing machine for the first time this trip. I started with it outside on the deck of the boat house. Then the rain began and I hauled it inside and continued, on a 30° downhill slant. When I finished, I walked to the beach to check out the surf.

Cobblestone
Michael, Susanne and Eleanor managed to hike the south trail during a brief moment of sunshine yesterday and shared chili and stories with us last night. Blueberry muffins were delicious.

Do skies lie?

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Yesterday was laundry day and it’s a good thing I did it. The wind whipped clothes dry in no time. It’s unlikely we’ll see the sun the next few days and a gale is predicted. Time to put away potential flying objects.Wash day
I’ll never get meteorology. This morning’s sky looked as pretty and benign as last night’s.
This morning
Morning sky before the gale

Last night
Sunset 9/29/10

But Norton, can it core a apple?

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Big seas, strong winds, I had a day of domestic bliss – of sorts. First I finished knitting the second mitten of a pair, proudly put them together and discovered the first was two inches longer than the second and the thumbs don’t exactly begin at the same place. Oops. So I ripped back and knit again. They are shocking anyway because I made them from scraps.

Next I discovered some beautiful apples just waiting to be picked. Waiting because they were so gnarly even the birds passed them by. But we haven’t been off the island to shop in two weeks and are out of fresh fruit so…they weren’t as bad as they looked. I made two mini pies, which were pretty tasty. The garden provided a nice salad.

Lastly, I was disappointed by the rider mower, which hasn’t been running since we got here. We have spent two days tinkering with it – checked and added oil, filled the battery with water and charged it, Tim cleaned the fuel filter, I cleaned the spark plug and air filter, tightened the starter and made a tiny adjustment on the carburetor. I got it to run and work for about a half hour and then it laid down and died. Maybe it’s time for a new battery. Now we get to mow with the rickety push mower again. One of our highlights is using the rider mower. Oh well.

Sent fom my Palm

Igor’s fog

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CIMG0216.jpg

Originally uploaded by One2KnitFar

We are feeling the effects of Hurricane Igor, literally. Yesterday the sky was clear, the wind was light from the south while huge waves were crashing on the east and south sides of the island. This sent spray flying and created enough of a haze at Seguin’s summit, 150 feet high, to trigger the fog horn.

There were eight to ten foot waves running from the east across the mouth of the harbor. They are supposed to build more through the day.

I think we will stay home today.

Sent fom my Palm

Surf

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