For some reason, the sky only glows in the west for both sunrise and sunset. Perhaps it has something to do with the mountain valley?
I’m still getting used to 8000 ft altitude. Tim wanted to hike yesterday and I had all sorts of excuses not to. But I went with him for the part of the way.
I spotted this on my walk home.
Road kill?
This is our backyard.
In the morning, while we drank coffee in the dining room, a young bobcat stopped by and meowed on the rock garden.
Later we saw it walk away with its mother, or perhaps father. I found their prints on my return walk.
And in the evening, we had a mushroom leek quiche.
Looks like we will have to shovel even if it’s not snowing. We only got about 4-6″ snow but then the wind blew for a couple of days and created drifts where we didn’t want them.
I may have found a new favorite pastime. I have to knock icicles off the buildings. It is very gratifying – immediately rewarding, with an accompanying tinkling sound.
Snow blows upSunroom
The sunroom is cozy even when it is below 0 degrees f. Passive solar plays a big role in keeping the buildings warm.
View from down the valley to the barn
Such a beautiful, dramatic setting.
The barn
We took a short walk the other day, I’m still acclimating to 8000 ft altitude, and came across places where the elk laid down.
We joined the local pool and our first swim was punctuated by many rests to catch our breath. Otherwise, I feel fine. When we went backcountry skiing in the 10th Mountain Huts outside of Leadville, CO, which is at 10,000 ft, I never acclimated and had the worst headache, despite meds, for the entire time.
High altitude baking intimidates me. My first attempt can’t count because I forgot to add the egg until a crumbcake was already baking. It turned out surprisingly well.
Last night I made a cobbler and pizza. Both were delicious.
We usually volunteer on islands or coasts, where lighthouses are useful.
Now we are close to the equivalent of Point Nemo in North America.
Point Nemo is located in the South Pacific Ocean, 1670 miles from the nearest shore.
On land, its equivalent is the Pole of Inaccessibility, which often refers to the most distant point from any coastline. In North America, the Pole of Inaccessibility is located in South Dakota
We are a mere 6 hour drive from this pole of inaccessibility.
We made it to Rocky Mountain National Park. I can truly say, “We are not in Kansas anymore”, since we drove through it for several hours on our trip west.
We arrived at Mcgraw Ranch Friday, about two hours before the snow and arctic chill fell.
Every year as Christmas approaches I start making projects, lots of them. I think I knit 40 hats, scarves, cowls and sweaters. Most have been distributed.
This is my current tour de force. A drop shoulder fair isle sweater I designed and knit on a machine. It’s being stretched on my new woolly board from the Wool Brokers in Scotland.
I made this pullover from a simple pattern written up in the 1980’s. The body is cashmere, sleeves are alpaca silk and sock yarn. My granddaughter thought it was soft enough to keep.
Star Wars was my theme this year.
When I wasn’t knitting, I baked, lots of different cookies. These buche noel cookies were a hit with me!
These stained glass window cookies were fun to make. The centers were a surprise though. They looked like chewy candy but were actually melted lifesavers and hard. I won’t be making these again.
Decorations were kept to a minimum. I pulled out two candle chimes and a star.
We kept the lights on an evergreen from last year, plugged it in and voila!
Then we hit the road, to Christmas celebration in Kittery, Maine, and skiing at Killington, Vermont in spring conditions.
Complete with a rainbow.
The Champlain Bridge, on our way home, was picture perfect.
A few more days at home and then we are headed back out. We will be caretakers at Mcgraw Ranch in Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. Can you say ROAD TRIP?!
I found this little guy in the basement and another under the outside stairs. A quick search led me to Snake Away to try to keep them from the house. We probably also need to seal a few cracks.
That’s Tim on the roof, for the last time, cleaning the chimney. I’m belaying him from the ground and hate the whole process. He agreed to hire someone next time. I may have to get this promise in writing.
My zinnias keep blooming. Every time I cut a flower, two more appear. They may be my only crop next year.
Here is the last bloom in my wildflower garden.
Honey is in. It was a sticky day. Best advice was to have a bowl of water and towel nearby to rinse your hands, repeatedly.
I harvested about 17 pounds. Since then, I have fed the bees about 80 pounds of sugar to keep them fed over the winter. We traded.
Will you look at that. So pretty. I need more garlic and rosemary next time but it was quite the creative focaccia.
All beautiful. Seguin always delivers. A little rain, fog, the foghorn, great trails, monarch migration, some visitors but then a week without another person (except Tim of course), nightly cricket invasions, clouds, sunsets, waves, the view of Mt. Washington, ships, near and far, lighthouses along the shore, rocks, spider webs, good food, at least one mink this year, bald eagles, the prism rainbow, but no rainbows this trip, the weather was too nice. Feeling on top of the world.
Never too old to learn new tricks. We have a problem with the tractor engine, please don’t ask, and it was decided we should remove it from the tractor snd take it off island. We, meaning the Royal We.
I was up to my elbows in grease – no wonder all those you tube mechanics wear black vinyl gloves – when Tim came down to the Whistle House, to check my progress.
So I stopped for the day, cleaned up a little and made salmon cakes.
Yesterday, I went back at it and set it free. The task itself was straightforward, but access to nuts and bolts was ridiculously hard. Now we just have to figure out how to get it down the quarter mile hill, onto the beach, into the dinghy for its ride home.
After I finished, I made a batch of scones and a loaf of bread with somewhat clean hands.
Tomorrow is closing day, our last day on island, which will be a flurry of activity, after no visitors for a week due to windy, wonderful lighthouse weather.
And while here, I finished knitting a baby bonnet in silk/wool, which I spun while at Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse, a pair of mittens and started a hat. All in a day’s work.
It’s been windy here on this offshore island. Seas are big, waves are crashing in the cove and we had a super, high tide, with the full moon and a north wind.
Bottom line, no visitors for a few days and lots of debris and seaweed in the cove.
We had to haul the dinghy up to higher ground. Our next few dinghy trips should be interesting. Not today though. Small craft warning persists.
Land snails seem happy enough, until I hear one accidentally crunch underfoot.
It has been a crazy couple of weeks. First we went camping to evade a music festival in town.
We worked out a kayak lift system that didn’t break us. We hitched our kayaks to a horse drawn carriage and were transported in comfort to the shore of a beautiful lake.
We loaded up the boats and headed to our favorite campsite, complete with Adirondack chairs.
It was sunny but cool. I swam my final letter in the alphabet, “W”, and sunned myself on a rock to stave off hypothermia. Tim swam longer than me and had a harder time warming up.
Not my best but it’s too cold to keep swimming.
We found a great tent site, where a tree had already fallen. Nature won’t strike twice in the same place, would she?
We sat and looked at the water and clouds for hours on end.
We returned home Sunday, I worked Monday, we went out to dinner for our 18th anniversary, then packed again.
We are back on Seguin Island! This will be about our 14th fall. We spent summer 2008 ad season caretakers and have returned most years since then to help close up the island in the fall.
We packed enough food and water for as long as we will be here. Luckily the Wednesday Warriors were here and they were a big help hauling our gear from the boat to the beach and then up the hill.
We were soon joined by one set of kids and grand kiddos. What a blast. Naturally we ate lobster and corn, found beach glass, hiked trails, gave tours of the tower, flew airplanes, cracked crab claws, watched sunsets, ate delicious meals, hunted crickets in the kitchen, and played lots of cards.
So much to do before the end of summer: finish swimming my gps alphabet; canoe camping at Great Camp Santanoni; train to climb a big hill with stuff.
The hill starts today. We’re hiking Rooster Comb, with friends but no gear. I will hopefully get to swim an “R and S” after our hike.
We’re getting ready to return to Seguin Island for a few weeks to help tuck it in for winter.
This is truly one of my favorite places in the world. We’ve helped out almost every year since 2008. I may know the 64 acre island better than my own little piece of paradise.
But to get there, we have to take a boat, then a dinghy to the beach, offload everything, then climb up another couple hundred feet to the top of the island, where the lighthouse is perched. I have knots in my stomach already even though Tim does most of the hauling while I unpack in the kitchen. I and/or some our stuff usually take a dunking as well.
Next weekend there are big goings in in our little town and we like to high tail it out of here. Tim arranged a horse drawn carriage to bring our kayaks four miles in to the great camp, where we will look for a nice camping spot- another of our favorite places.
Island and North Country Life 