Category: Seguin Island News

This Blog is looooong!  Grab a beverage, get comfy and enjoy!

Sunday, July 10th – Beautiful low wind day!  Three boats stayed overnight.  We are working on a pipe in the wall of dirt leading to the beach at the Cove.  This water appears to be pretty clear and we wanted to make a dam of sorts so we can capture some of it in case it turns out that it is potable.  Here was the attempt at putting the pipe in, but the water is not running out through the pipe. We need to think like a beaver and build some type of dam….

During the break, I took the liberty of trying to look up some more data on the 1^st order Fresnel lens.  That is pronounced “Fru-nel” (hold your nose so it sounds more nasal and French like). I’m trying to figure out how many pieces of glass there are in our 1^st order lens.  I have two numbers , 264 and 284.  I counted them, but it didn’t match either one of those numbers.  I can’t tell which pieces of the lower or dome prisms have seams.  The other piece of data, is how much does it weigh.  We found 12,000lbs in one place, so I’m saying now about 6 tons, but regardless, it’s VERY heavy!

A couple more pictures of the lens. 

Steve headed off to spray some Poison Ivy (PI) on the North Trail.  The North Trail has a loop and if you take the loop, this is where the irises grow and you walk along some pieces of board through a damp area.  This is where the PI is growing and is right along the edge of where you walk.  So, we decided it was best to tell folks to avoid this area.  People are walking in sandals or Teva’s, Chaco’s, etc. and their feet are right near the PI.  In a few days, hopefully we’ll see it start to die off and we can open up this portion of the trail, but until then – it’s a place to avoid.

I chose to make some more bread today as well as the crackers.  I’m really digging the crackers.  You make them using the sourdough starter that you would normally throw out when you “feed” your starter.  That is part of the reason I stopped making bread with starter a couple of years ago as when you feed it with additional flour and water, the part you removed can be used to make bread or you throw it out…. or unless you’re making crackers!!!  Next time I make them, I’ll be sure to take a picture.  They are yummy and easy!

Steve took over for dinner as I was giving tours.  Tonight, was chicken marsala, with peas and wild rice – delicious – oops no picture though!

When I finished cleaning, we went down to the Cove to see what’s going on.  It was a little “swelly” or “rollers” as they call it in Maine, but we decided to row out to the closet 3 mooring balls to write on them.  I brought my paint marker with me to write “Mooring Donation, Venmo Seguin_Island”, many folks come and spend the night in the Cove but never come ashore and this way they can make a donation for staying. They came out great but it was tough to write in a straight line!

Took that pic from part of the trail closer to the house.  Well, it’s time to get some crabs (back down to the Cove to row out to get them) and then back up to the house to cook them up.   Here’s our bucket of 9 crabs.  A few hours later, I had picked, picked and picked enough.   I picked clean 7 bodies I might add and did a most excellent job in making sure there were no pieces of shell or cartilage!

Here’s Steve with the empty bucket and then a picture of how much of the sun was still left. I like sitting on this side of the Cove as we get that extra sunlight, and it provides a different perspective. Here are some more pictures of how the rocks are shaped on this side of the Cove, it’s a mixed bag for sure, wished I had studied geology.

Well, it’s sunset. I decided to walk up to the lens and see what interesting shots I can get for the blog. First here is the sunset, then the sunset through the lens. Plus a few more random shots.

Tuesday, July 12th – Nice day but super windy, don’t really expect anyone to visit today or at least this morning. We walked down to the Cove just in case someone came in overnight – nope, Cove is empty.  But while we were there, I noticed there were a lot of fish jumping.  There was a large dark shadow in the water, so it must have been the fish.  Steve went to get his rod in the Donkey Engine House and meet me on the rocks near the Cove Trail vista.  We stood there a while and he would cast right into where they were jumping, but no one was biting.  Guess that is how they roll.  The Cormorants were swimming and every once in a while one would duck under the water and was gone for a long time!  But then, one of them would come up with a fish.  Turns out it was a school of Pogie and not really good for eating but are good bait fish and in the old days, they used to use them for making paint as they were very oily.   

I walked back up to the house to grab my water bottle and my gloves and head back down to mow the Cove Trail and the campsite.  Things are still growing but it’s definitely slowing down.  I also picked up some more sand to top off a few sidewalk seams.  As the wind blows here almost all the time, it blows some of the sand out of the cracks. 

Tonight, was a Spot-the-Station (the International Space Station-ISS) night.  I get texts alerting me to the times when I might be able to view it based on my location. Luckily the storms up here roll in and roll on out.  Viewing time was around 10:45 pm.  I was able to get a pic of it by itself, then a pic to the right of the tower from the gift shop side (there is a little blue arrow pointing to the dot that is the ISS). As it was approaching, from my angle, it went zooming by the last star in the big dipper handle, and as it departed and then faded, it went by the top right star of constellation call Cassiopeia (it looks like a ‘W’). I was VERY excited as the viewing time was 6 minutes tonight! It was crazy to be able to see it even though there was almost a full moon! Then I turned to see the moon – amazing!

Wednesday, July 13th – Tonight is the full moon!  Overnight, the tide was up to 11 feet (a normal high tide is about 8.5 to 9 feet) and the low tide was 1.4 feet below mean low tide! Weather report – it is very foggy right to left but if you look straight up it’s sunny!!

Not a shore day.  Weather was too iffy earlier this a.m. so it was moved to tomorrow.  Walked around the house and noticed this spider web on the picnic table.  Then down to the Cove to see if there is anyone there and there were several ground spider webs with dew reflecting the sunlight.

While down in the cove, I took a picture to show Steve how far up the tide came overnight as you can see the seaweed line!  We had brought the boat up the highest we’ve ever done and the water still came up to the middle of the dinghy! As I walked a little on the beach, I saw these foot prints.  Looks to me like a goose walked up and then walked back into the water

Lastly, Steve just standing in the water enjoying the view and the serenity of an empty Cove. Here’s the pair of Vans, that no one has yet claimed.  They are dry now and I have emptied out all the sand out from getting bounced around on the waves coming into shore!

I would like to just chat a moment about my new saying from out here…. “My existence is my exercise.”  We are busy about 80% of most days, unless it’s raining.  And most of that 80% is physical exercise, up or down the main trail, cleaning up the other trails, going down to the donkey house for something, etc.  I really like that.  It’s not perfect as sometimes we don’t feel there is enough cardio, but if you just add a gallon of water to your walk up from the cove every time – you’ll notice it. I feel like there is always something to do here.  Of course, I look for things to do.  Those that know me well know that’s no surprise!  Well just wanted to share that as it was a little bit of an ah – ha moment for me.

Ok back to the pics….Besides the absolutely amazing supermoon (also referred to as a Buck Moon) rise we had tonight, I had another viewing of the International Space Station (ISS).  This time it was for 7 minutes and it was very high in the sky!  So, I’ll make a deal – how about two moon pics and two space station pics? Ok, maybe three moon pics and 1 ISS pic! The ISS is just to the right of the dome on top of the Tower.

Here they are in chronological order.

There is Sam and Fran’s house with the red chairs, notice the heron is now in the foreground of the photo, but check out how LOW it is!

And now, here are the ‘after’ pictures (high tide) of what I took this morning, the boats and the view of Sam & Fran’s house!

Ethan pulled up with a group that had been on a lobster tour with him.  We had time to chat as Ethan wanted to clean up a little before we got on with our stuff.  They got off the boat and she noticed my VCU Physical Therapy shirt.  She asked what that was, we explained and proceeded to chat about lots of random stuff.  They were a family from Bakersfield, CA., first trip to New England and had a their young children with them.  They had started at a lake in CT, stopped somewhere I can’t remember in Massachusetts then up to Maine where they rented a cottage in Popham.   But – I forgot to take their picture! You’d think by now there would be an internal alarm that would go off!

On the ride back, we needed to get 4 lobsters as our friends Sharon and Brent are coming in tomorrow!  Yay!!!!  Here is Steve picking them out to put in our lobster car.  Couple of nice boats in the Cove on our return. Here is Steve carrying up 10 gallons of water from the Cove to the donkey engine house and here is all our stuff on the beach (looks like it will be a long way to move the dinghy up as it will be another very high tide tonight)!

I still had some cleaning to do in the guest quarters before the 40^th wedding anniversary couple come in tomorrow (a little welcome basket, with a few treats, napkins, etc.) and Sharon and Brent are arriving in the morning too! 

Friday, June 15th – Happy Birthday Kari (my nephew’s wife) – Hope you “had” an awesome birthday!  I was up early today.  I get like that when I know I have a busy day coming up as well as a few things to address before the guests and our friends arrive! Since it was early, I start with some general pickup / cleanup around the house and straightening. I was looking at some of the old Lighthouse Digests that are hanging around and was making notes if they talked about Seguin on them or not.  I came across the Jan-Feb 2016 issue and noticed it was a picture of Seguin on the cover!

The next story was in the section titled “From the Archives of Lighthouse Digest” – An old newspaper clipping from the Portland Sunday Telegram and Sunday Press Herald, dated September 29, 1949.

I continued to turn the pages and found another article “Memories of Life at Seguin Island Lighthouse!” It’s a story about Beverly (Stephens) Ramsey, who lived her first two years of life on Seguin Island with her parents Walter F. and Mary A. Stephens. Walter was an assistant Coast Guard keeper and they live in the same part of the house where we are living now!  The officer in charge lived where the museum and gift shop are located next to us.  Beverly’s mom, Mary, went home to Florida in October of 1958 to await the birth of their child as being on the island would be no place to give birth.  After Beverly was born, the U.S. Coast Guard arranged transportation for Walter to go to Florida and pick up Mary and baby Beverly.  They took a bus from Jacksonville to Portland and then arranged transportation to the island (yikes, that must have taken a few days). The wintery boat ride was blustery and cold and the water was choppy. As they left the Kennebec River, the swells or “rollers” caused the vessel to go up and down. The captain of the vessel ordered everyone be tied to the boat to prevent them from being tossed about or injured! Then they had to climb the narrow steep and slippery pathway up the top and snow was falling at a pretty good clip.  Things were going well for the young family until September 28, 1959 when Mary had to leave the island and travelled to the town of Bath months before her due date with a second baby.  Unfortunately, baby Linda Jo died a few hours after her birth. 

In 1999, Beverly and her mom Mary returned to Maine to place a granite marker at Linda Jo’s gravesite and they made a trip out to Seguin. Beverly fell in love with Seguin and its historic lighthouse.  In 2011, Beverly convinced her husband David to apply for the job of summer caretakers of the island and lighthouse. Unfortunately, Beverly’s father Walter S. passed away in October of that year and she wondered if her upcoming quest for the 2012 caretaking duties at Seguin Lighthouse would be joyful or gloomy. Beverly said she felt her father’s presence everywhere on the island. As a caretaker, or modern-day keeper, Beverly said it was a special treat for her to be able to stay in the same rooms that her parents lived in when she was a small child on a remote island off the rugged coast of Maine.  Beverly has returned to the island several times since.  She says, “Seguin pulls at my heart each time that I have to leave.  I have yet to find another place like Seguin Island.”

So, in our living room, we have a very old chair that has seen many years of use.  I wondered why such a chair was here.  Of course, living on an island, once something makes it way to the island, it never leaves! But interestingly enough, here is a picture from that article.  It’s baby Beverly sitting in that chair when she was one and then sitting in the same chair in 2012.  I now look at that chair with a whole new perspective.

All of this before 7:00 am in the morning!!! It was an amazing article and shifted my whole view on many of the items I see here in the caretakers’ side of the house.  Well now, I need to get crackin’!

I finished cleaning and sanitizing, putting little vases in both guest rooms, and a final vacuum.  Phew, ready now!

We headed down to the Cove as we got a text from Sharon and Brent saying they were on their way.

The next few pictures are of the visitors where I remembered to take a photo.  Today, we had visitors from Maine, Mass, NH and CT!

Just before 5ish, visitor traffic seemed to slow down so the four of us headed out the North Trail.  We got a picture of us and I took one of Sharon and Brent.

Saturday, July 16th – First and foremost, let’s look at our delicious breakfast Sharon and Brent made for us.  She made homemade from scratch “oh-my-godder” maple biscuits with homemade strawberry jam with bacon and scrambled eggs. Holy Cow, what a feast for the pallet! 

The guests staying in the Guest Quarters arrived today, Brenda and Steve from Litchfield, Maine. Very nice and they are super excited to be on Seguin.  We had a steady stream of visitors today, but not crazy.  Here are some pictures of our guests.

Left Photo: The Larkins from Maine and Mass. They were super fun and really enjoyed the tour!

Right Photo: Vanessa and David, long time supporters of Seguin picking up some new swag!

Our last group for the day was Tom and Meg from Freeport.  The last time he was here was in 1955!  Steve and I had so much fun talking with them, listening to their life, etc.  What experiences they had in life.  They are planning to stay over night.  A picture moment didn’t really present itself, but I wish we had taken one.  There was something about them that Steve and I just wanted to keep talking to them! 

We kept talking to them so long, that we never got to hike Cobblestone with Sharon and Brent so we’ve delayed that till the morning.  They leave tomorrow but not till later, so we’ll go first thing as it’s supposed to be beautiful which translates to a busy day!

We had another amazing meal prepared by Sharon and Brent, felt like we were at a restaurant!  They prepared baked haddock, broccoli and zucchini from their garden, parmesan risotto plus she made homemade blueberry pie with local Maine blueberries for dessert! Everything was delicious! She is a Renaissance Woman for sure!  And what a night of conversation, just a joy to have them here!

Well, I think that is the most pictures in one of my blogs!  Did you have to get a second beverage? Hope you enjoyed!

We have friends Cindy and Dave from Connecticut that were our neighbors.  They moved into the hood the same time I did and it was the first home for both of us!  I started dating Steve and we became very close friends with Cindy and Dave.  Ok I did digress a little but there is a connection!  The next group were Dave and Cindy – this is the 2^nd “Dave and Cindy” that have been to visit Seguin and it reminds me of our neighbors! I need to send the Blog address to them.

Next was a group of 5 young men, the Colorado Boys!  I guessed 25-30 years old based on our guys,  but they were 21-23!  Yikes.  All super friendly, interested in the info I had to share and very polite.  I told them about the special picture I can take in the tower where the background is flipped and I took that picture of 4 of the 5 guys plus Steve took a group photo outside the Tower. But one of them was supposed to give me his cell to text the picture, but we both forgot! (Update: Eventually they reached out to Carney who does our Instagram and I was able to send the photo on the right to them – yay!)

Well today was tour, tour and more tours – somewhere around 8 groups. Powerboats, sailboats, young/old, dogs – we had it all today!  I thought today was a busy day. I didn’t know what was coming!

Tonight, was another Mount Washington night.  I tried to get a little more creative with the edges.  We also saw a lot of firework displays, up and down the coast but they were pretty far away.

Monday, July 4th – Happy 4^th of July!  Sunny, currently calm.  Perfect! Check out the clouds behind the flag – looks like eyelashes!  First tour of the day, Peter and Dorothy, again, very nice folks.  Everyone is so willing to share, chat, ask or answer any question.  We’ve met so many fun and interesting people, definitely a perk of the job.  They are starting to sail a lot as they were able to accelerate their retirement.  Their kids are in college in Canada. Really nice couple, might see them again in August as they sail back through the area.

Finishing up the morning daily chores, one of which is to filter some more water using our Sawyer filter.  We picked this up while we were in St. Thomas.  They were handing them out in an effort to encourage the general population to use this vs buying cases of bottled water. Instead they could run their faucet water through the filter.  The filter only lets water molecules through!  It filters out Cholera, E. Coli, Streptococcus, Salmonella, Typhoid, Dysentery, Botulism, and it goes from yucky to crystal clear drinking water!  We knew our water was not potable and that we had to buy our drinking water and carry it up.  This filter allows us to filter it and use that water for coffee/ tea, rice, pasta, etc.  Here are two pictures, one of a jug of water before and then a pic of a pan with the clean water!  It’s amazing! And you just periodically backwash the filter and it will last and filter like a million gallons!

Since we don’t have any way of knowing when visitors come up the trail, we try to do tasks around the house and Tower so we’ll see them.  Even still, we find we miss a group or two when they first walk up.  So, I continued to work on putting sand in the sidewalk by the Tower.  I used up all my sand!  These two pics show a section of the Tower walkway where I’m done (around to the west) and a pic of the next task, the sidewalk out front leading to the flagpole.  It’s time consuming but very rewarding as you can see your progress! 

Walking up from the Cove, we noticed the sun was passing through the lens.  Made it look like it was on!  Tonight’s dinner was swordfish, cumin cauliflower and roasted butternut squash arugula salad with toasted pepitas, chopped figs and maple vinaigrette and yes, she remembered to take a photo!

Spent some time down in the whistle house researching flights to try and get Colin (our younger son) and Aliese (his girlfriend) here for a few days.  Oh my, flights and times were crazy trying to get from Richmond, VA to Portland, Maine.  Then it’s a bus ride to Bath, then an accommodation if you’re in the late evening, then a ride to get the boat in the morning!  Yikes.  I’m crushed as I really wanted them to visit.  

Tuesday, July 5th– Relaxing morning.  Weather report – squinty!  We ate breakfast on the porch as usual, took our time and rallied about 10. Decided to continue working on the front sidewalk since that is what visitors see right away.  All done!  This won’t take as much sand as the back sidewalk. 

Well, our first guest came up, it was a single person by themselves.  I’m always amazed that people would boat by themselves. That seems a little risky to me. He was followed by a group of 9.  This was a group of three adults and 6 young people.  Captain Jeff and Liz Armor run “Different Drum Sailing Adventures, Educational sailing adventures in Maine, Chesapeake Bay and the Bahamas for teens, adults, teachers, schools, scouts and families.” ( www.differentdrumsailing.com ) The group was very interested in the Tower and they were very polite and courteous.  Liz and Jeff usually run 4-6 trips a summer up the Maine coast and almost always stop here at Seguin.  So, I will be seeing Liz again! They stopped in the gift shop to buy some swag and I pulled out my little glass full of shells that have an opening if you want to wear one on a necklace or hoop earring.  I said to the young women, you have to select one that speaks to you.  They were very excited to select their very special Seguin shell from the Cove to wear!  That was pretty fun! They headed on their way and I headed down to paint the stick sign.  It didn’t take long and was definitely in need of a coat of paint.

Last but not least, we have our first zucchini in the garden!  Nothing else in my notes – how can that be?  Oh, not going ashore tomorrow, weather is not cooperating.

Wednesday, July 6th – Overnight it was pretty stormy and rainy which was perfect timing as the garden was in need of some water and we also started the foghorn. Steve took a walk down the main trail towards the Cove looking for some snail things that hide in the moist grass.  He was using them for bait, but wanted to collect some so he could tie up to a mooring and fish a little bit.  Once he got on the section of the trail that has a little bit of a canopy, he found a bunch.  He put them in a container with a little grass and poked a few holes in it.  Not sure you would have guessed what they were by the picture but to me they almost look like garbanzo beans except for the grass!

Once he got to the Cove, he noticed a good size seal on the beach pretty far up.  He came back up to the house to get some gloves, a broom and a few other things to see how we might get him back into the water.  He found phone signal and looked up how to help a beached seal. First thing they said was to be careful as they will bite.  By the time we got back down there, he was just swimming away, but there was a small powerboat in the Cove and a man standing on the beach! 

The weather started clearing a little bit but it was interesting to see the fog going by as well as the sun being out. I had a video of the flag with the fog rolling by, the clear sky above and the fog horn going, but too much work to put it on YouTube to then put a URL here. Oh well, use your imagination…

Next was a group from Harpswell, which is around Cape Small and up a little.  Harpswell is the next ‘finger’ of land.  It was a mom, Jessica, her three kids, Eloise, Adair, and Augusta and her parents, Amy and Nelson, in a 15’ Boston Whaler!  Even though the weather had cleared up, the wind was blowing and was expected to get worse.  Turns out they own a farm in Botetourt, VA near Roanoke.  The grandmother got a little wet coming over so she had left some of her clothes drying on the beach.  Gave them a tour and they were all excited about being here. 

I was trying to build my acronym but I said I can’t do with without a vowel!  Someone pipped up and said well, we do have an Elizabeth – still too many letters!  Anyway, Charlotte was the little person and she was so well behaved during the tour.  Up in the top of the Tower during my lens discussion, she politely raised her hand and said, “Can I see where you live?”  I said absolutely you can when we finish up with the tour!  I took her over to our side of the house and gave her a tour.  I pointed out my sea glass collection and asked her if she wanted a piece and she said YES!  We selected a curved piece of frosted clear glass with which she was very excited. Then we rejoined the group in the giftshop.  I also pulled out my shells for them too!  Some of them selected their favorite one. Lastly, I mentioned while in the gift shop that there is a picture of a Mr. Webster painted by someone with the initials ABW in the lower right.  They were going to check and let me know if that Webster was related to them!

When they headed out, I headed down to check the Clivus then joined Steve and we headed off to clip the South Trail and spray some PI (Poison Ivy).  It was beautiful!  I don’t remember walking this far out on the South Trail.  I definitely want to go there on a low tide day as I’ve seen some cool pictures from someone that must have climbed down and took pictures looking back up! Also today, for the first time I saw 2 sets of baby seagulls up close.

As we came back, you could see Cobblestone Beach.  The waves were crazy! Also, when we head out like this to do a few things around the island, we have a whiteboard we hang on the door to let folks know where we are or when we’ll be back.  When I came back, I finished up the second half of the back walkway with sand.  Now the back is all done!

As I was waiting for Steve to pull around, I was walking around and saw a pretty plant that was flowering next to some rocks on the side of the road at the Fort Popham Historical State Park. I have the “Lens” feature on my google phone which looks up the picture and tells you what plant it is. It’s called Common Milkweed. Didn’t look like that to me. I thought milkweed was the thing we painted in crafts at school and it had all the little seeds with light feathery things that blew away in the fall. Anyone know what I’m talking about?

Next stop at Cyndy’s to give her our trash and she has a bell for us to hang somewhere that visitors can ring to let us know someone is here!  From there, it was the laundromat.  Steve headed out to get water and he swung by the fish store and the produce place to see what they had to help us with our shopping at Shaw’s. 

We left the Bruno’s Pizza and stopped at the P.O. to drop off some birthday cards.  Mail Mike was working and I heard him mention to a person a few people ahead of me that the price of stamps was going up to 60 cents.  Here’s two perspectives for you.  I still think it’s a deal that you can send a card clear across the U.S. and it will get delivered in a few days, for 60 cents.  I shared out loud my thought and the woman ahead of me replied, “it all goes up and the service goes down.”  She went on to explain that she has to come in to get her mail and drop off her mail.  They no longer deliver or pick up where she lives.  Guess I never really thought about how there might be a lot of folks in rural areas that don’t get any U.S. Postal services due to increasing costs, less staff, etc.  Something to think about next time you walk out to your mailbox. 

Ok – so off to the dock to meet Ethan.  Did the usual, unload Carol and all the stuff and Steve parks the car.  I carried everything down to the floating dock (yay!) to wait.  At the back of Ethan’s boat, he has a fiberglass tank that holds his haul.  The lobsters in here have already been banded and are ready for sorting.  When they pulled up, they needed to unload the tank and put them in the lobster “cars.”  This time he filled three of them.  He still said his haul today was light. Once he fills them, he puts them in the water and ties them off in his skiff slip till he comes back after dropping us at the island.  Then he drives them to where he sells them to a distributor.  It’s a long day for a lobsterman!

We got everything in the dinghy, onto the beach and up the first set of stairs. We were deciding what needed to go up and what could stay and low and behold a Boston Whaler pulls up to the beach!  His name was Yash and today was his birthday.  He took the day off from work and his wife suggested he go for a boat ride (another boater by themselves).  Really nice person – he helped us carry our stuff up to the house!  I gave him a tour, which he very much enjoyed.  He works for Hinkley (the boat people) but he works in their power boat division. Missed taking a picture again!  I’ll probably learn to remember taking one about the time we’re due to leave!  I went back in to put our shopping away and Steve went down to help him leave (push his Whaler back out) and 2 more groups came in! One didn’t have time for a tour but the other did.  So, back in to host mode! But I did get a pic of the group that had time for the tour.  Oh, and Mom sent me a pic of her in her swag – looking good Anne!

The second group that came in was on a large catamaran – S/V Thirsty, beautiful boat.  You’ll see a few pics tomorrow.

I finished up around 7 and luckily Steve had started cooking dinner. We seemed to have found our balance between who does what.  Many times, if I’m late with tours, he starts cooking dinner, which is awesome! Tonight, was fresh haddock, red potatoes and salad.  I’m tired just typing it all up!

Friday, July 8th – Good Morning! Breezy, with some clouds that look like wispy eyelashes! We sat out front with a fruit plate (nice, since shopping was yesterday although the cantaloupe doesn’t look like it faired too well in the transport!)  I took a picture of the guest log book.  We have a subtotal through June of 119 and you can see the tally for July so far is 114!  Things are picking up!!!! 

The other boat I mentioned yesterday, ‘Thirsty’, their crew came up this morning for a tour.  They were Shamus, Amy, Bob and Barb.  They are sailing north for some races and ultimately up towards Roque past Bar Harbor near Jonesboro. We chatted with them for quite a while. It has been super interesting to hear of various peoples’ stories, their journey, what brought them to Seguin, etc.

Saturday, July 9th – Happy 91^st Birthday Joan! (Steve’s Mom) Many of you may remember my effort last year to send Joan 90 birthday cards for her 90^th birthday and we were very successful in that effort and already another year has gone by!

We had a yummy little breakfast and remembered to take a pic with only one piece left.  It was homemade sourdough bread, a little pesto, greens, tomato, smoked trout and a little kalamata olive.  Almost bite size pieces as if you make it whole, then try to bite it, everything falls off!

Weather is beautiful, a little cool and wind has settled a bit. We took a brief walk down to the Cove just to check on what’s going on.  Here’s a much better picture of the Rosa Rugosa’s on the way down the main trail.  We had two boats spend the night. 

Back up to the house to get ready for the day. We had several large groups today.  Usually there is a couple of people in the group who have been here before bringing new friends to come and enjoy the beauty of Seguin.  When we have a bright sunny day, you can catch some amazing pictures in the Tower as the sunlight comes through the lens and creates a prism on a wall or the floor.  Today was one of them!  The capability of the whiz bang cameras on the phones today seem to enhance the brightness and intensity of the colors in the prism.  These were taken around mid-day today.

After looking through the picture book Lightkeeper Michael made, I have a new perspective on some of the views around the island.  For instance, we walked over to a rock where a seagull was standing where we’ve never seen a seagull before.  Then we remembered that was where a large group had their picnic lunch today  and figured maybe there was some piece of bread or something.  We never found anything, but it’s amazing how the bird knew to come here and check it out.  When I walked up there, I thought well this is a cool angle of the house and tower.

Sunday, June 26th – Beautiful day!!!  Woke up early and saw another sunrise.  Took a picture out the front window upstairs, a slightly different view. We decided crab cakes with eggs benedict would be a great way to finish the last two crab cakes!  Boy were they good.

Four seemed to be the popular number today.  First group of four was “RADD” – Ron, Alicia, Dave and Dave.  They are a random group of friends from MITA (Maine Island Trail Association).  Most have been here before, but they decided to put in nearby and come visit again.  We saw them coming in towards the Cove, then we actually saw them going around the island!  I hope to see the South and West side of the island someday.  Ethan said he could take us around it at some point.  Anyway, they finished going around then came into the Cove.  I of course gave them a tour and we both spent additional time having an interesting conversation with all of them.  They hung around for a while, did one of the hikes, had lunch, then headed on their way.

Next group of four was a family that was from Southport.  The next obvious question, was if they new Diane and Dave.  Turns out they were very familiar with them.  Janeen (not sure I’m spelling correctly) knew both of them as D&D are often out in their Boston Whaler taking pictures when the youth have their sailing races.  Their parents don’t really get the ‘see’ that part as they are out in the Sheepscot River. We chatted with them sometime about our experience so far, how we got here, etc.  They came to Seguin for a picnic lunch.

Next group of four were from Boothbay Harbor, but they had a limited amount of time as it was just a quick stop and just a brief tour.

Things slowed down a little, so I went over to where we have one of those sign posts that say how far places are, like North Pole ‘x’ number of miles.  It’s amazing to see how the paint has worn away, but more interesting is how the board has worn away from the wind and what was painted is raised up and hasn’t worn away.  The paint maybe off, but there is more wood.  See if the pictures explain. I updated the paint on some, added Richmond (number of miles was as the crow flies). The top ones I couldn’t reach without a ladder. Task for another day. I think I should add the North Pole…

When things are not crazy with visitors, I offer to some visitors, a special, free of charge, photo op of them through the lens.  I have to go up and walk around to the other side and I guess I look pretty funny (like a fun house mirror), but because the angles of the glass lens, it becomes a prism and it flips the scenery behind them upside down.   I’ve already posted these two pics, but look at them again and you’ll notice the background behind them!  It’s very cool – well I think it’s cool.

History Lesson II

• How about a few more historical nuggets.  In 1817, Winslow Lewis installed a new lantern in the first lighthouse, but reported the original wooden tower had gone to pieces so badly he wasn’t sure it would stay in place.  Congress acted, authorizing $2500 for a stone tower that was erected two years later. 
• In this second lighthouse, the light consisted of 15 Argand lamps with parabolic reflectors, 21 inches in diameter.  J.P.Lewis, Inspector, recommended the addition of nine lamps which would make it capable of being seen 19-20 miles in clear weather. 
• It was a a fixed white light and as it still is today (meaning it is not a rotating light).
• Extreme weather conditions led to the demolition of the 2^nd light. 
• In 1853, the Lighthouse Board reported that the station needed to be improved and because of the importance of shipping on the Kennebec and Sheepscot Rivers, recommended that Seguin should be a First Order Station.
• Stay tuned for info on the current light.

Although not from Seguin, here is a pic of what the Argand lamp and parabolic reflectors arrangement looks like.

Another amazing night of star gazing – this is just like sunsets; they never get old and they never look the same.

Side house topic – We have a sump pump in the basement that has a level switch that clicks on when the level gets too high and pumps out to a leaching field.  It’s for our kitchen and shower water.  Steve makes checking the sump part of his daily rounds.  It’s a fussy switch, but this morning he moved a few things around and now it appears to be working on its own without having to give it a daily jiggle!  Yes, we get excited of little things like this!

I mentioned a Steve drawer project and today it was finished.  The two “catch all” drawers in the kitchen, do collect everything small and random.  They are the drawers under the microwave. Well, I asked him to make some dividers in the drawer to the right and it already had some cutouts for pieces of wood.  He put the right to left divider in, lived with it for a day or two, then I decided I wanted a least one divider that went front to back.  So, he added that.  It’s perfect.  Instead of searching for the tools I use all the time, I can find them lickety split!  Ok, stop laughing, again it’s the little things we do to make this house our summer home!

We took a walk to Cobblestone Beach.  This is one of my favorite places… actually the whole island is my favorite spot.  There isn’t one place I don’t like!  It was still very foggy.  Found a pretty nice, fairly new 5-gal bucket down there.  Steve opened it up and found a special “surprise” in it.  So, I took a look and put some ocean water in it, swished it around and dumped the contents out.  Yep, I think it was poop!  Who would do that then throw the bucket overboard?  Anyway, I just rinsed it some more, swished some seaweed around and it was as good a new.  You can always use another 5-gallon bucket. You never know what you’ll find on the beach for sure! 

Turkey meatballs for dinner with some, you guessed it, fake pasta.  The sauce was jar sauce but we doctored it up with loads of veggies including sauteed mushrooms. And we treated ourselves to the “dipping” sauce we make with EVOO and spices to swipe up with my homemade sourdough.  Delicious!

Well, that’s a wrap for Monday!

They did a most excellent job in packing light! One small backpack each.  Gave them a tour of the keepers quarters (they stayed in our 2^nd bedroom), showed them the ‘operation’ of the Sun-Mar toilet and gave them an orientation of the museum. 

We talked about a walk and I shared info on all the trails.  We picked the North Trail to walk.  On this trail there is a little trail that branches off to an overlook of the Cove.  It’s a little side trail with very different vegetation. Lots of pines grow here and some interesting ground cover.  Looks like something from the lily of the valley family.  Back to the main part of the trail out to the North point.  Still, lots of seagulls squawking and protecting their new little ones so we did not go all the way to the tip of the island.  We did see one twosome of newbies – little and furry.  Too far away though to get a decent pic. We stopped on the way back for a picture from a vista on the trail.

Came back for some lunch and they decided to take a nap.  They were up early this morning to travel and meet up with Bill, the person that brought them out. I went out to the garden and noticed some weeds coming back. I weeded the area and then walked around to collect some dry grass clippings to spread around more area of the garden as that seemed to help keep the weeds at bay.  While I was doing that, we noticed we have a zucchini coming in!  How exciting!

Then on to some more weeding of the sides of the back side walk… making progress. We sat out front enjoying the view and noticed a pretty large boat going by.  Steve checked it out on one of his apps (Marine Traffic) that gives you some info on the boat just by where you are and what boats are in the area, then you click on a boat and it gives you a few nuggets of info.  After a while you can tell which boats are pretty large in the expanse of the huge ocean!

As I was doing that, Steve was doing some additional mowing and clipping down under the tram and out the Cove and Cobblestone trails then up the main trail.  Done for the day.

Side note is AJ and Sean showed up and were spending the night in the Cove.  AJ is the person that is installing the new roof on the main house the end of July and Sean is a friend of his who is an amateur photographer here to take pictures of the Lighthouse and the stars / milky way tonight!

Well, bet you can guess what we had for dinner!  Lobst-a, salad, tots and brownies!!!!!  Then to top it off – it’s sunset bench for a special moment taking in the 360-degree beauty of Seguin including Mount Washington.

The last picture I want to share is a picture Sean took with his drone of the sun setting through the 1^st order lens in the Tower. He was kind enough to share it with us so I could post to the blog.  Sean can be found on Facebook – Sean O’Connell Photography/Midcoast Maine Drone (here is the url but not sure how it will appear in the blog (www.facebook.com/Sean-OConnell -PhotographyMidcoast-Maine-Drone-Imagery-100960558669563/ )

Gwen and Jim are not in a super hurry to start the journey home, so they are going to join us for breakfast.  But first we have to stop at the transfer station and as always – check out the free section!  I picked up some small Ziploc type of food storage containers as I don’t really have any small ones.  All in great shape!  Gwen was excited to find some Tervis glasses! Win-win for everyone!  On to Winnegance….. I would have bet money that one of us gave the phone to Chloe, our waitress to take a pic, but no one has one!

Steve had an egg sandwich on an English and both Jim and Gwen had an omelet.  I had a special of peach and raspberry glazed sourdough French toast with maple butter.  I haven’t had a breakfast like that in I don’t know how long.  But how fun to sit at this place enjoying a yummy meal with great friends.  Life is grand! We parted ways and headed on to Bath to start the round robin of laundry, groceries, fish store, etc. and they headed on their journey home.

Today we had some extra time as we didn’t have any other stops to make.  We decided to spend some time walking around downtown just enjoying the pretty day.  The town was decorated with banners etc. in preparation for July 4^th. As we walked around town, we thought of getting a growler of some Bath Brewing so Steve went off to taste it and I went over to the tattoo place.  I wanted to talk to them about my Seguin tattoo!  The name of the establishment is Old Bones and there are three artists.  I explained what I was looking for, where, size, etc. He suggested I go on line and look at the work of the three people to decide who would be best.  I’ve looked once, but need to look again as I’m just not sure.  But since I only have so much time, I want to plan ahead and book an appointment.  Here is a pic of their building.  They are on the 2^nd floor, standing outside is Shawn the artist with whom I chatted. It should look familiar as it is next to Best Thai II!

Next stop was the Kennebec Meat Market downtown.  Steve thought it was a BBQ restaurant based on the logo, etc., so we stopped in.  It was a real meat market with a butcher and some crazy cuts of meat!  They also carried a bunch of locally made Maine only products for people who don’t have a brick-and-mortar place.  Super cool.  We chatted with a few patrons and some employees and of course we said we were the keepers this year at Seguin Lighthouse.  It was fun to talk to everyone. We decided not to get lunch today as we had a big breakfast.  That way we’ll be hungry for dinner!

We were there a few minutes early actually!  Steve dropped me off in the circle near the pier and dock.  It’s high tide so that means, what?  You’re catching on, we get to use the floating dock!  Yay!  I started carrying our bags out on the floating dock and a person walking by asked if I needed help – I said sure.  His name was Marty and he used to own a place in Popham for 16 years but sold it a few years back.  Now he just comes and stays at his neighbor’s house because his neighbor can’t come anymore.  We chatted about a few things, he’s from Hancock, NH and we talked about Ethan still bringing the caretakers out, etc. Then he shared some people fishing in the river today (the river being the Kennebec), said they saw a couple of tuna!  Holy cow – that’s pretty wild to see tuna in Maine!!  Anyway, nice guy! Should have snapped another photo!

When Ethan pulled up, Sam his summer helper, was on the boat and they needed to separate today’s catch into hard and soft shell, put them in the lobster cage and then tie it off next to his skiff.  We loaded our stuff in and we’re off.  Back on the island (I love how that sounds) we waited as the Wednesday Warriors came out and we pulled in their gear, put ours in the dingy and we rowed ashore.  We unloaded, carried up from the beach then covered the dingy. Then we regroup some of the items and decide what needs to be carried up right away and what we can leave in the donkey engine house till another day.

As we’re climbing up the main trail and I get to the sidewalk in front on the house, I see a powerboat coming back to the island?  Is it Ethan? Humm, did someone forget something here?  I texted Cyndy to see if anyone had left anything here and she responded no.  I headed down to the cove while Steve was starting to put fridge stuff away.  Turns out it wasn’t Ethan but it appears we’ll have some visitors!  So, I headed back up to help Steve.

Ok – good day all around.  Decided to try my “shrub” and mix it with some bubbly.  The Shrub was the raspberry artisan drink mixer.  Dinner was fresh salmon, beet greens and I put the little beets in some cooked quinoa and I remembered to take a photo! Phew – on shore days are always busy!

Thursday, June 30th – Well we’re getting ready for the July 4^th weekend.  I just checked my phone and didn’t take a pic all day!  How can that be….oops wait a minute, I took one.

Steve headed off to whipper snip the Cobblestone Beach Trail including the sides.  What we’re finding is that the trails are getting walked on almost enough but now the sides seem to have stuff growing towards the trail.  I went down and tended the Clivus, the public “restroom” on the island down by the donkey engine house.   Just as we were getting ready to go back up, a foursome came into the cove.  They had a center console boat and he whipped it around, three jumped out onto the beach, then he took the boat to a mooring and paddled in using a paddle board.  They were Bill & Lynn (Freeport) and Dave & Pam (don’t remember). We stood there chatting for a bit and they offered to help us bring our stuff up!  How awesome! 

While they were walking around on a trail, I did some Blog work and loaded some pictures.  They came back and I gave them a tour – super friendly and very engaging.  Next guest was Paul, from Madison, CT and he is up in Robinhood.  Robinhood is a popular marina many folks stop at or stay at as it is well protected.  It’s up the Sheepscot River, then you cut over just past Five Islands and you’ll arrive in Robinhood Cove. A picture of a map might help….. I’ll have to find one that will work in the blog.

Well, that’s all I have in my notes!

Friday, July 1st – Both of us were awake early today.  We actually slept with the window open last night – how refreshing is that compared to a month ago!

I’d like to pause a moment here as Steve’s Aunt Marie (affectionately referred to as Re-Re or “Misery” as Steve called her when he was small) passed away this morning peacefully. She was a very loving, caring and warm person.  We were the lucky ones to have known her. Always there with a quick remark “Well praise be to God for that….” or “Well, you know I’m almost 90.” She would always be there with a plate of food if you were hungry.  A few years ago she moved into independent living and began taking painting lessons!  Turns out she has a real talent and painted many paintings for friends and family members.  Most recently, she wanted to paint something for Steve and I.  She checked with Steve’s mom Joan who suggested she paint the lighthouse, Seguin, for us.  Marie said she didn’t have a picture.  So, Joan sent her one.  And low and behold when we were in Florida this past March, Cathy (her daughter) wrapped up the painting and gave it to us!  What a wonderful gift!  We were so touched and moved by her beautiful painting!  It hangs prominently in our home and will remind us of her kind and gentle soul.  Here is a pic of Marie and the painting. When I look up at the sky tonight, I will find a new star and name it ‘Re-Re.’

I headed off to whipper snip and clip the Cove Trail.  The campsite, which is in the middle of the trail was already mowed but I needed to get to the edges.  I met the campers and explained my plan.  They were fine with it.  Also, I wanted to grab a lobster trap I noticed on this trail (that had washed up at some point). I was pulling the trap through the campsite and they came to help.  Yikes it was heavy!  They helped me carry it over to the old ramp that leads to the tram.  It seems our signage is not enough.  “Tram Unsafe – Use Path” the sign says.  I figured it might act as a deterrent to walking up the tram.  Time will tell.  John and Katie said they would like to come up later for tour. 

Saturday, July 2st – We got up about 8.  Kind of late for me.  I like 7ish – that seems to be a good time to start the day.  I decided to make more banana bread.  Sometime the bananas say “we want to be bread, we want to be bread.”  That usually happens when we have too much fruit and they end up getting a little too ripe for just eating.  Well you know the recipe and I used a glass loaf pan which worked much better.  However, we don’t have a cake rack (yes I’m putting on the GW list).  You’ll see a rack under the bread but I’m not sure how that one is supposed to be used. What I like about this recipe is you can melt the butter/shortening and mix everything with a spoon – no need to break out the mixer and then have to wash it! Once it went into the oven, made Steve a fancy breakfast.

While I was down there and since I reference the Donkey Engine House, I thought I’d take a couple of pics and share a few nuggets about the tramway and the engine and their roll here at Seguin.

• The original tramway, a 1006-foot-long railway built on trestles, was a valuable asset used to haul coal, furniture, heavy equipment, food, supplies and people to/from the top of the steep island.  Currently the trams stops at the top and no longer continues towards the fog signal house.
• Little is known of the early history of the tramway.  It may have well been powered by oxen or mules.
• During the period of Lightkeeper Elson Small (1926-1930) and his wife Connie Scovill Small (author of “The Lightkeepers Wife” – an excellent read), the tramway was condemned as unsafe and a new one was built. At that time it was powered by a mechanical engine.
• In 1995, the tramway continued to be operated, powered by the 1953 GMC diesel ‘donkey’ engine with four large levers that control the direction and speed of the wire cable attached to the ‘car’.
• While extremely useful, the tramway is also dangerous. As a result of an accident in the 1950s when the cable broke and the wife of one of the keepers was seriously injured (and another keeper’s dog died), the Coast Guard prohibited tramway use for passengers.
• As recent as our arrival trip to the island, 2 diesel mechanics spent a good portion of the day, working on the engine.  They are trying to locate a new water pump.
• FOSILS is repairing the structure a few “bents” at a time, as funding permits. If you are interested in the Tram project please call Cyndy at the FOSILS office. (207) 443-4808 Thanks!

Ok – here’s a picture of the yellow squash in the garden and it too is bearing fruit!  That’s pretty exciting given our conditions here.  The cucumbers didn’t make it and the tomatoes look like they have started to adapt! Here is Steve enjoying the shade on the front porch – but check out the clouds behind him.  I have learned so much about the weather by being here.

We headed down to the Cove as Steve was going to row out to one of the moorings in the dinghy and try his luck at fishing again.  It started to get pretty breezy in the Cove and it was spinning him around.  He decided to come back in.

We walked back up the house after bringing the dinghy in and covering it for the night.  Grabbed a beverage and headed back down for our Cove Time.  Just as we got to our usual spot of sitting in front of the boat house, a small cruise ship went by.  We’ve seen it a few times, but this time it looked pretty close.  I believe it leaves from Portland and heads up to Boothbay. Sometimes it’s just nice to sit on the rocks and absorb the heat from them – here is Steve enjoying the sunshine, a warm back and a cold beverage!  Once the sun goes down behind the tree line on the western side of the Cove, the temperature starts to drop and we start back up the hill.

Hope you all are enjoying the blog and the stories of our life on Seguin.   Thanks for reading!

Sunday, June 19th – Happy Father’s Day to all the fathers reading our Blog!  Today’s early weather report is cold and breezy with some rain expected a little later.  Before the rain, I went down and picked up some more tumbled red ‘bricks’ to place them as cairns to mark the shape of original lighthouse as well as some small rock / sand mixture to put in a gap in the sidewalk outside the kitchen door where I have removed the weeds.  Here are some pics of the cairns.  Kind of a dreary day but you can still see them.

William Lithgow of Massachusetts headed a list of 55 signers on a petition to the General Court of Massachusetts in June of 1786 asking for a lighthouse due to the significant trade of the Kennebec River.  “If there was a Light upon this Island many Vessels would be saved from Shipwreck, and many Persons preserved from immature Deaths…”

It was almost a decade later when the Commonwealth of Massachusetts passed an act of cessation of 10 acres of Sequin Island to the United States for a lighthouse. 

It was built in 1795 at a cost of $6000. The structure was built of wood on a foundation of rubble stone.

The lantern was a fixed white light shining toward the ocean, with the land side being dark. Going forward I will try to include a few facts about various aspects of the island.

I headed down to the whistle house to pick up the pieces and parts of the towel rack that I painted yesterday and we put it up today!  It works great!

Gave my mom a quick call and her cousin Linda was visiting.  We chatted for quite a while and she had all sorts of questions about being here on Seguin, when we go ashore, what are our jobs, etc. Last time Diane (my sister) was at Mom’s, she shared the blog with her so she could see what we do, our pictures, etc.  She’ll be 95 in October; she’s doing great!

Gary and Colin did call Scuba to wish him Happy Father’s Day – one last photo.  Another picture of a Mount Washington sunset.  Are you sick of these yet?

Monday, June 20th – Another day to do some work on the Blog.  But let’s talk about what we did today. I mowed this morning, which is the area around the tower.  Steve did the under the Tram, the Welcome area, the Cove and Cobblestone trails.  Another big day of clearing.  We continue to keep the trails wide and not have anything growing into the trail. No pictures here – figure you’ve already seen enough of the trails.

In the afternoon, I sat down and started to clean out the weeds in the rock area near the side entrance to the tower.  It was easier to take out the rocks, clear the weeds, then replace the rocks.  It’s like a puzzle trying to get the rocks to fit.  I was planning to do just this area, then Steve sat down with me and we continued to clear the rock walkway to that side entrance. I keep forgetting to take a ‘before’ picture.  I always remember the ‘after’ one!  Here is a pic of an adjacent area that was similar. 

Early afternoon, we decided to row out to get the crabs in our lobster cage.  We think we have 8 of them.  Then we cooked them and put them in the fridge to clean them tomorrow.  I think it is easier to do it once they have been chilled.

Last part of the evening was a step outside to look at the stars.  Another Milky Way night (and we can actually see the Milky Way too)!  It’s just amazing to see all these stars. Of course, it’s too hard to capture it on the camera, so you’ll just have to imagine the perfect National Geographic picture and that’s what it looks like!

Tuesday, June 21st – Happy 1^st Day of Summer – the Longest Day of the Year.  Steve and I worked with this gentleman, Jack Quinn, who was an engineering supervisor and every year he would make reference to this day and point out how the days were going to get shorter from here on in.  Of course, in December, he would mention that now the days were getting longer by a minute every day.  Crazy what you remember!  Ok, back to Seguin.

Today I worked in the area next to the kitchen and there is a bunch of mint, chives and something else which I think is a weed.  So today I ripped out a bunch of the mint.  I don’t eat mint; I don’t like mint and I don’t even like Girl Scout thin mints!  I wanted to move the basil so I thought I would clear out this area as it doesn’t get sun all day, just in the afternoon.  The garden for the most part gets sun all day.

We have been monitoring the tides to watch for a super low tide so we can have a ‘burn.’  The Town of Georgetown requires you obtain a ‘Burn Permit.’  You have to log in after 9:00 a.m. on the day you want to have the burn, fill out the information and you’ll get a permit emailed to you.   So we got one for today as our burn pile in the house is getting quite large.  We walked down to the beach and you are required to have it at low tide and you have to remain near it until the tide comes up and over it to extinguish it.  We had a lot of stuff to burn (a lot of empty Cheez-it boxes)!  It was amazing how quick we ‘burned’ through everything.  Here is Steve at the burn pile! 

As we were standing by the burn pile making sure nothing flew away, a small Boston Whaler pulled up in the Cove.  Then a little while later as larger boat pulled up with 6 or so people on it.  He had a dinghy and went to the other boat to pick them up and bring them onto the shore.  However, as they got close to the shore, the boat turned and a wave came right over the side soaking everyone!  They all took it in stride.  Turns out they were a group of college graduates that get together every year in Southport and take a trip – this time to Seguin.  Here’s a couple of pics of them coming in and a team photo.

Their plan is to take a hike down to Cobblestone and back around to the Cove, then came up to the Tower for some tours. Steve finished up the burn, really didn’t take that long and then came back up to the house.  By then the group was ready for their tours.  We split them into two groups as about 5 people at once is a good number for a tour.  He led the land tour and showed them the gift shop.  They all had a great time but it was time to start heading back to Southport. 

Took care of some business with some of our Marriott Vacation Club points today and made some reservations for Savannah in November.  It’s going to be a busy fall. I headed out back to rip out some more mint and clean up around the rocks along that edge.  I also walked around the property picking a few wild flowers to put in a vase in the vestibule between the two front doors.  Adds a little homey touch!

Ok back to the crabcakes.  That bowl of crab made 6 good size cakes.  We each had two with our edamame – delicious and she remembered to take a photo (actually Steve did)

This morning we needed to do the South Trail.  We both loaded up with gas, extra whipper snipper pieces, safety glasses, gloves, clippers, etc. and off we went.  I started at the beginning; Steve started at the end.  As we were walking back to the beginning of the trail, we met some visitors.  When we leave the house like that, we place a sign on the door as to where we are.  These folks were glad we did.  They found us!  They continued on the South Trail and said they would love a tour.  When I meet people, I like to come up with a way to remember their names.  Today’s group was GMP, kind of like GNP except I changed the National to Max.  Their names are Gale, Max and Pete.  Gale and Max are father and son, Pete was a local friend. As I walked back up to the house and looked North, it was a pretty view and there were a bunch of different clouds – so I took a pic.  GMP returned and I gave them a tour.  They were very interested, asked a lot of questions and really enjoyed the Tower and the museum.

Up the trail comes another couple – Lance & Shawna.  They were interested in a tour, so I put on my ‘tour’ hat (figuratively) and gave them a tour.  They were going to do a hike but we said we’d be down in the Cove around 5ish.  She said maybe you’ll want to come out to the boat – well heck ya!

We went down to the Cove and sat down in our spot by the boat house.  It was a pretty calm evening.  She yelled in from her boat and asked it we wanted to join them.  Sure, we said!  She came in using her dinghy which was very cool as it is a fold-up boat that lays flat next to her paddle board!  How cool is that.  We went out there and sat for quite a while chatting and learning about them.  Lance just recently retired, but she still has her business as a bookkeeper, as she can do that remotely.  They used to live in Napa, CA.  But now they live on their boat full-time as that was always their dream – to sail.  Great time listening to their story, seeing their boat and we had Dark & Stormy to drink – how yummy.  They have done a lot of work on the boat to maximize their storage.  Very nice people.  And yes, I have their contact information so who knows!  Here’s the pic of her and I in the dinghy coming back in.

We walked back up to the house, it was a little later than usual, but again another unique picture of the house and Tower.

Friday, June 24th – Well today is our son Gary’s 30 birthday – boy just how did we get here! A quick walk down memory lane

Oh, so we opened our ‘mail’ and we had a gift from Challie and Jeff some neoprene bottle holder / carriers with straps.  It’s perfect for when we go weed whacking (oops whipper snipping), we can carry our water bottles with us! – Thanks C&J!!!  The other package was from Catherine and Melissa (the PA folks).  It was a box of locally made products like lemon vinaigrette, dark chocolate raspberry jam, a peach ginger chutney, sour cherry jam and a bottle of Shrub.  Yes shrub.  It’s like a tart raspberry liquid that you can add to seltzer, champagne or make a drink out of it.  I’ve tried the Shrub and the raspberry jam – all yummy. Thanks C&M!

Off to the post office to mail a few cards and then to the laundromat.  Made some plane reservations for Savannah, sold some Seguin swag and did our laundry.  A fairly productive stop there!  Steve went off to get water in our 5-gallon jugs and get the car washed. Since we have some extra time, we decided to go the Maine’s First Ship exhibit in Bath.  Just a few weeks ago they had a ‘launch’ of the “Virginia” which was the first boat built in the U.S.  It is located in the Bath Freight Shed on Commercial St. downtown. Instead of me trying to accurately recount the story, I’m pulling the following from their website. “The pinnace Virginia was the first ocean-going English ship built in the Americas.  She was built in 1607-1608 at the Popham Colony which was founded by the Plymouth Company in August 1607 and abandoned in October 1608.  The colony of about 100 men and boys was founded to exploit the wood, animal, and mineral wealth of the area and find the northwest passage.  Virginia was built to use in this exploration and to show it was possible to build a ship using local materials in the Americas.  When the colony was abandoned, Virginia was sailed to England, and in 1609 sailed to Jamestown, the Popham Colony’s southern sister colony.” It’s a very cool free exhibit and worth the stop.  Here are some pictures of the boat (which is not quite yet finished) and some of the close sail work.  All being done by volunteers in a very cool building with all tools of the era.  Very informative and amazing!! (Check out the internet at https://mfship.org – not sure if this will show up as an active URL)

Then we both did shopping.  Seems like every other week it’s a big trip, aka more expensive.  We did buy a lot this week and it has been 10 days, so that’s how we justified it.  Maybe it was just because Cheez-it’s were on sale!  Then a brief stop at the fish store.  We checked and they wanted $16 for an 8 oz container of picked crab – yikes!  Well, we got a deal there as Ethan gave us those ‘on the boat’ (get it? on the house?)  We finally got a chance to talk with Gary and wish him Happy Birthday.  He’s not been feeling well the last few days and like me, he never gets sick and has never had Covid. They gave him a Rx to help him as they thought maybe bronchitis.  But after listening to him and where he’s been, I think we all agree it was Covid.  He just sucked it up… Well, we talked with him until we ran out of service, which happens when we get close to this area of the world.  Spotty coverage.  I’m glad he finally went to make sure it wasn’t something else.

 So now we’re at the dock and it’s very low tide.  We stage all our stuff and I said to Steve we better use some rope to lower some of these bags, we just can’t hold them over the ladder and drop them to Ethan!  Here’s Steve with our pile of stuff this week followed by a picture looking down the ladder.  Ooo- wee that looks like a long way down. 

Well just then, Ethan pulls up in his pick-up truck and says, he thought it would be better if we put our stuff in his skiff and we’ll take that out to his boat on his mooring.  I like that plan a lot better until I see the skiff!  It looks like it was built with leftover porch wood and the engine only goes forward! Always an adventure! Oh, and the last picture is where the Popham Colony (the one we read about at the “Maine’s First Ship” exhibit) was located.

The ride back was awesome, took a couple of pics of the wave splashes next to the boat and Steve took a pic of me.  I love a boat ride! Like a kid in an amusement park!

When we got into the Cove, Ethan pulled up the mooring and there was some kelp / seaweed on the line, bright green.  He pulled off a few pieces and said here try this.  I thought it tasted pretty good.  A little salty of course.  Even Steve tried it!  As we’re enjoying our seafood delicacy, we’re watching the two volunteers that came out today, pull the dinghy into the water and try to get in.  The waves were rolling in and oh no!  They ended up turning sideways, then the stern was facing out and a little wave came up and over into the boat!!!  The second pic is them having to stand the boat up to get the water out!!!!

So, resting in our boat house spot having another local summer ale!  Followed by another Mount Washington sunset.  Life is Grand here on Seguin!

Saturday, June 25th – Good Morning everyone.  Well, this morning is an example of living without the best internet can be a challenge.  Yesterday we made some airline reservations with American Airlines (AA) and put them on hold.  We went to pay for them this morning and when you are using a travel credit, you need to call.  They said the wait was over three hours! After brainstorming, we decided I would go on line, get a new reservation and see if I can use the travel credit.  In the meantime, yesterday I emailed AA to see if they could extend two travel credits we had that had expired at the end of April.  They were kind enough to reissue them.  This email said you can use them on line or you could call.  So, I took the computer down to the whistle house to make the new reservations while Steve continues to sit on hold at the house.  Then I go out to make the reservations and pay for them but now I can’t use two travel credits for two passengers.  Yikes, I have to cancel that process and start all over again.  One reservation for Steve and one reservation for Carol. OMG, what an exercise in frustration but we got there. I remember the good old days when you could call and talk to a real person.  What a concept. Ok, I’m done complaining!

I stayed a little longer in the whistle house and worked on the June 5 post.  I added the pictures and published it.  Yay!   I’m trying to catch up and only be a week a behind.  I’m typing this on July 2!!!!!

Ok, now on with our regular day.  It’s Saturday so I’m sure we’ll have some visitors!  Speak of the devil, I come out of the house and here come two people up the tram!  Son of a gun! I kind of jumped on them and said “You didn’t come up the tram did you?”  Because of where they were standing, maybe they just walked down the little section to look at the aluminum cart sitting on the tram.  NO.  They had walked up that way and said they didn’t see a sign for the path and if we don’t want people walking up the ramp why is it there?”  Our biggest concern is that if someone gets hurt, it’s not our job to help them get back to their boat and it would be a challenge if you were hurt.  Honestly, we just don’t want anyone to get hurt on our watch!

I took a breath and all worked out fine.  They are local people from Popham, he’s a retired Bath Iron Works employee and she was a school teacher, Scott and Marion. They said it was there first time here and they really did enjoy the tour, etc.  Here’s a pic of them in the Tower that I took and emailed it to them.  This is my favorite place to take a picture when I have a small crowd because the background behind them is reversed because it is being taken through a prism!! During their tour, I also took a pic of the prism you sometimes get in the Tower when the sunlight is just right.

Another group of two came up Andy and Heidi.  They too are local and have never been here before. Forgot to take a pic of them!  They were very nice, enjoyed the tour and then went on a hike.  In the meantime, “Window” Rich arrived.  He is a friend of Cyndy’s and he came to look at the windows in the house.  Many of these need to be replaced and Cyndy wanted his input as he has replaced many historical windows in his own home.  It’s a challenge to replace things as you have to go through the State Historic Preservation Society so that the integrity of the house/tower is maintained.  Steve spent a significant time with Rich walking around and looking at all the windows.  Wind started to pick up but I headed to the sidewalk again to keep pecking away at it.  It’s nice on the back side of the house even if it’s windy as you’re in the sun. I wrapped up my sidewalk effort for the day and joined them in the museum and we walked around the various rooms and chatted about everything from A-Z including life as a keeper! We also referred several times to Cyndy’s copy of Seguin Island 200th Anniversary book that was printed in 1995 which is full of interesting nuggets!

Well Rich was planning to stay over in the Cove so we asked him to join us for Cove Time! The three of us headed down and today we had a little visitor!  It looked like a young seal and he was just playing in the water.  We sat there for quite a while.  Rich got a call from his daughter and grandson and he was sharing the view of the seal just riding the waves in and out and playing around the rocks.  I guess I should have drawn a circle around the seal in the middle pic. Oh well, I’m sure you can see him if you look close!

Well, I took a sunset video which I’m not going to load as I’m not sure that will work.  So, I bid you adieu for another week!  As always, thanks for reading!

Then on to finish cleaning the steps with my bleach wash and the white bench at the top of the tram.  We have three memorial benches here.  Nice way to commemorate special loved ones.  Then I washed one of my sun shirts in some Dr. Bronner soap as it got pretty dirty over the last few days.  I scrubbed the spots and viola; the shirt came clean.  Never heard of Dr. Bronner? Well check it out.  It’s one of those do everything soaps! The label is packed with all sorts of information.  It’s also supposed to be good if you come in contact with PI (Poison Ivy) and you scrub the area right away…..you might not even get a reaction.  Well, how about that!

We saw a family of ducks swimming in the Cove tonight and a Seagull just standing on the beach.  Both a little unusual.  The group of ducks had four adults and their little ones.  So, are they a family with sisters and brothers or do they just hang out together?  The seagull was just standing at the edge of the shore, not sure why.  It would be interesting to learn about their habits and the basis for some of their behavior.

Monday, June 13th – Today we had our first “paying” guests.  That means they have purchased a membership to FOSILS and have paid to stay here in the Guest Quarters which are above the museum.  They are from Pennsylvania and drove up here just to spend two days on the island.  They are professors from two different colleges on sabbatical.  I needed to finish doing a little tidying up on their side before they arrived.  They were supposed to come in with Capt. Tom, but turns out he had boat issues, so they arranged transportation with Capt. Ethan.   We rowed out in our dinghy to get them and bring them in.  They had done a good job of bringing all their own stuff, water, food, even charcoal for the grill to cook dinner.  When we walked up from the beach, we gave them a grounds orientation, helped carry up some items up the trail and then a tour of the Tower.  However, it was pretty foggy so you really couldn’t see much from the tower. Since they were here for two days, another tour during the day and one at night was on the docket. The weather didn’t change during the course of the day. 

I spend a lot of time on the blog.  Trying to catch up to current day – I always feel like I’m behind…. Which frankly I am!  Anyway, I sent out the email to my email group of all the peeps that want to know when the Blog is launched. Ta-da!

Steve worked on my towel rack.  I don’t have any place in the kitchen to hang the towels to dry (even the stove door handle is snug against the door) …. So, we came up with a plan – you’ll see pictures in a future blog.  It came out awesome! I made more rosemary sourdough bread today as we were getting low.  Plus, somehow it just seems right to be making bread from scratch here and it fills the house with an aroma of days past…The starter is holding up well even though the temps in the house are not conducive to fermentation (aka putting it in a warm, draft free place doesn’t seem to exist here)!

We had another couple of visitors arrive from Ogunquit, ME.  They were on their way home and stopped in.  Tower and property tour, the usual.  As dinner time was approaching the weather began to shift.  Sometimes we check out our couple of weather apps like “Tides” or “Windy,” it will say the rain, temp and wind direction.  Then it shows clouds and rain for an hour or two, the wind shifts and the sun comes out the next hour.  Darn if it isn’t right on the money!  But the pics today are of the crazy weather that came in.  I’m leaving them on the larger size as it was just amazing.  It started to rain and the wind she began to blow.  Here’s the sequence:

A couple of hours later after the rain and wind died down a little, sunset at 8:17

but we could see a squall, with thunder and lightning to the East at 8:20,

then a quick selfie (I am ready for foul weather) and a view of the tower, both at 8:21,

Tuesday, June 14th – Flag Day! Headed out to raise the stars and stripes and when I turned around it looked like an Osprey on the railing of the catwalk on the Tower – oh man – no camera!

Well, I need to do some more starter so I figured it did so well yesterday, I can make another batch of bread, which means another batch of crackers (which we absolutely LOVE).  When you feed your starter, you take 120g out of the jar and add 120g water and 120g flour.  You then normally throw out the leftover starter…. That was what originally turned me off of bread-making (plus the carbs in bread…) But Bread Mike shared a couple of suggestions of things to make with leftover starter, one of which was crackers.  You just add some melted butter, a couple of tablespoons of your favorite seasoning you’d like in your crackers and a little salt.  Spread it out very thin on a Silpat or parchment paper on a cookie sheet and bake in a low oven (325 ish) for about 45-50 mins checking every 15 or so. OMG – they are fantastic!  I made a batch yesterday and today, but they do go fast!  Next time I make some, I’ll take a pic.

Wednesday, June 15^th – Shore Day! Due to the full moon, the tides are super high and super low! Beautiful day – and we’re meeting my sisters for lunch.  The routine begins – get up and head down to the Cove to wait for Ethan.  We don’t usually get a chance to really eat a breakfast so we grab a banana or apple and we’re off.  Once on shore, we stopped at Winnegance (that should sound familiar from the second blog) for Steve to get a coffee.  We have the normal errands but today we want to be done by noonish as we’re meeting my sisters, etc. at Mae’s Cafe & Bakery for lunch.  So, I did the laundry and Steve headed off to Rocky’s for a few things, the fish store and the nursery to get some tomato plants and a couple more herbs.  Then we went grocery shopping together. We are becoming more familiar with the store and we each took a cart.  I head to produce and Steve gets most of the other items.  If we lollygag, we buy more so we try to be crisp and not buy off the list.  It’s very tough.

Today, Ethan had a helper with him, his three-year-old son Griffin, very cute!  Tides were in our favor so we were able to load from the floating dock.  Pulled up to the loading dock and there was a lobsterman bringing up his lobster cages full of lobsters.  I made a polite comment, like ‘wow looks like a good haul’ as the cages were full and very heavy.  He said nothing, not even an acknowledgement.  Ethan said, ‘oh you met Mr. Grumpy!’ Couple of pics of Griffin – I guess the hum of the engine was music to his ears as he started to doze!

Lather, rinse, repeat right…. We pull up to the mooring, the Wednesday Warriors come out in the dinghy, they share any nuggets we need to know about, etc., we load up the dinghy and row ashore.  Just like Michael rowed the boat ashore…. (whose singing….)  Unload, carry to the beginning of the trail, pull the dinghy up, cover the dinghy and start the trips up the trail. But neither of us had to stop at the bench or pause this time – yay!

Thursday, June 16^th – Well today was a busy day all around.  Due to the weather the last few days, we need to catch up on our mowing and whipper snipping! The plan was to start with the Cove and Cobblestone Trails, then do the South Trail after lunch.  First a little primer on tides.  We use an app called “Tides” and here are a couple of screen shots.

The tides are currently extreme due to the full moon.  The screenshot on the left shows the low tide as -1.5ft.  That means it’s 1.5 ft lower than mean low tide.  The number on the right is the high tide at 11.3 ft.  It also shows the full moon was on June 14.  The next picture shows similar information in a slightly different format.  Very handy app plus you can click on the cloud/sun icon on the bottom and it will give you the weather for the location you have selected.  We use Hunniwell Point which is at Fort Popham (even though my screenshots show Boothbay – oops!).

A family of four pulled into the Cove and came ashore.  They did some hiking on their own and said they would then come up for a tour.  Their plan is to stay overnight in the Cove as it is supposed to be a little stormy.  They were Eric and Valeska and their two boys, Theodore and Elliot.  Very nice folks and the kids were very well behaved and inquisitive!  Gave them a tour which they really enjoyed and the kids were fascinated. 

We took a break for some lunch and two guys came up, John and ? (drives me batty when I can’t remember their name or I didn’t write it down)! They were headed to Tenants Harbor / Rockland area for a race.  Very interesting as they had both worked on a restoration project for the Boston Harbor light a few years ago.  Someone was searching for parts to reconstruct a 1^st Order Fresnel lens.  That someone even went to Tasmania to try and get some of the sections.  One of these days I’ll do a blog on just the Tower, just as if you were here!

After they left, we decided to do the North Trail to get it done as the weather was starting to turn and the temperature was dropping.  A couple of pictures here of the local irises in bloom.  I think I mentioned them in a previous blog.  At first, I thought someone planted them, but it turns out they are local to the island.  And then here is a pic of the Cove from almost the end of the North Trail.  That means we did all the trails in one day!  Phew, I’m exhausted.

Next is dinner – salmon, roasted vegetables and homemade corn bread.  Yummy!  I know, where’s the pic.  I’ll work on that.  Pretty tired today!

Friday, June 17^th – Well today was a big Blog Day.  I am posting the blog now.  So I write it in Word, resize the pictures so it doesn’t take so long to load them and generate the post in WordPress on the actual site.  Here it is June 17^th and I’m caught up to May 29th – whoop-de-do!  I’m on it and I’m determined!

Then I took the next four pics one right after the other and you can tell the flag was confused!

We have a weather station that tells us all sorts of information including wind.  However, the speed of the wind part is not working.  So I called Davis Instruments in CA.  Guy was really nice.  We talked about how to test to see whether it’s the transmitter or something else.  He is going to send us a testing cable.  Gave him all the info and we hung up.  Then we checked the folder in the manual box and low and behold we found one of the test cables in there.  So I called him back to tell him we don’t need the cable. We ran the test and got nothing.  That means it’s the transmitter.  I took all the data from him and put it in an email to Cyndy so she can bring it to the Board.  There were a couple of options so it really depends on how much they want to spend.

Received a phone call from a Sailor John Stenquist.  He is a local sailor and was thinking of coming over late in the day after he pics up a friend, stay here overnight and head back to the mainland sometime in the morning.  He asked if I had anybody that wanted to come over as they could come with him.  We didn’t have anyone waiting to come over but it was nice he offered. He chatted with Cyndy and she suggested he reach out to me.  Thought that was nice.

The weather cleared up and the sun came out! Steve headed down to the Cove to try fishing.  Capt. Ethan gave him some fly’s and other fishing items.  He tried from the beach, the rocks and even rowed out and tied himself off to the mooring with our lobster cage.

No luck – not even a nibble! We watched a little “TV” meaning a Netflix series Steve has been downloading to his iPad called “Call the Midwife.”  Thanks Theresa, I think you recommended it.  We’ve enjoyed it, acting is good and the characters are interesting.

It cleared up so much that we decided to step outside and check out the stars.  Holy cow, with no light in the tower and no other light pollution it was incredible!  Definitely like the milky way level!!!  The longer we stood there, the more we saw.  As I watched, I believe I saw the ISS (International Space Station) go by!  Any other Space Cadets (you know who you are) set up to get communications for their summer residence?  I usually have emails or texts set up for NASA to notify me when I can view it in my area (either VA or Florida) and I thought I had set it up for here, but have yet to receive a communication (I checked later and I hadn’t completed the confirmation part).  Also saw a shooting star!  And off to the ESE, there was a storm of some sort with lightning in the clouds, yet straight up here on Seguin, it was crystal clear.  No pics though….. you’ll just have to use your imagination!

Saturday, July 18^th – Up early today, about 5:40.  Pretty cloudy and breezy (sure would be fun to have the wind speed working).  Although we are getting pretty good at estimating once we hang the flag.  As the wind blows the flag, the lines holding the flag are either close to the pole or when it’s > 25 mph about 6 inches away from the pole!  When I’m up this early, I think through my “to do” list and pick something that’s appropriate for 5:30 in the morning. Today it was to sand the pieces for the towel rack we’re making.  Then I can paint them and then we can hang it up!  After sanding them, I did some yoga to warm up the muscles and said “time to start the day.”

We walked down to the Cove to see if we had any visitors or if John Stenquist had come over.  Yep for visitors, there is a beautiful sailing vessel in the Cove, but no to John.  Two were rowing ashore.  Turns out they arrived late yesterday afternoon and stayed the night.

Down to the Cove for 5:00. Nothing of note today.  I just brought up some tumbled red bricks that I’m using to create some cairns for the footprint of the original 1795 Lighthouse.

Well, another week for the history books.

Sunday, June 5th – This morning we both spent some time catching up with our mom’s.  I try to talk to mine on Sunday’s as I know she’s just hanging by herself. I would love for her to see what I’m seeing.  We used to use House Party but now I have a Google phone so we try to use Duo.  Problem is I’m not sure what she is supposed to do on her phone to “answer” the call.  I need to call when my sister is there so she can help her.  Did some yoga and my PT exercises. Ready for the day!

Today was a beautiful day, so it was easy to sit on our bench and just enjoy the view.  Temperature is already warming up. Steve already enjoying the warmth.  Took a walk down to the Cove to see if anyone is here…. No one yet, but I did spot a snail sunning himself!  These are all over the place. Oh, and how about the view from our luxury bathroom down here. I’ve near been in a pit toilet with a view like this!

Finally, I arrived at the beach and it was very busy in the water fowl department. Everyone was in the water swimming, like they were all heading to an event or something!   And if you look at the eastern point, we had a seal sunning himself on the rock!

Shortly after we got back to the house, a group of 5 came up the trail.  Very nice group.  I gave them a tour of the lighthouse and then a stop in the gift shop.  One of the women was Leeli and she has a place in Bath but lives in NH.  We kind of hit it off and she shared her email with me and suggested I email her sometime to meet for lunch on our trip ashore.  A new friend!

Nothing of note to report from the 5:00 trip to the Cove, so next on the list is dinner.  We are having lamb kidney chops – a little bit of an extravagance but just cause we’re on an island doesn’t mean we can’t live it up once in a while! Here’s Steve at the grill!  Sometimes it’s hard to keep the grill going with the wind!   Another beautiful sunset with Mount Washington.  I don’t think I’ll ever tire of this picture and it’s different every time!

Last note of the day is Cyndy called to let us know we’ll have to move our shore day this week up to Tuesday because a tropical storm is coming up the coast with winds and seas expected to pick up Tuesday afternoon.  Oh bummer, our friends Challie and Jeff are coming tomorrow (Monday) and they’re were planning to come in with us on Wednesday morning.  Now we’ll all have to go ashore Tuesday.  

Monday, June 6th – Today our friends arrive around 1 p.m. We need to be done with our tasks by then so we can enjoy the rest of the day with them.  I texted Challie as we asked her to pick up a couple of items for us.  Then Steve decided he wanted to borrow a pair of rain pants from Dave (my sister’s husband that is up here in Southport for the summer) as we may need them with the storm coming.  I put Diane and Challie in touch and they met in Boothbay to get the pants and some dishtowels she was giving me before they headed to Bath to meet up with their ride to Seguin.  They met up with Captain Chris Grill just down the street from Bath Iron Works and the Maine Maritime Museum. 

Here’s a pic of yesterday’s sea glass stash.  Some pretty pieces along with a few of those shells I wear on my earrings.  I’m going to keep a jar of those in the gift shop in case anyone would like a free Seguin souvenir! Steve continued to attack the weed overgrown garden.  He’s turning it over, let the area dry a day and then shake of the dirt and toss the weeds.  Seems to be working quite well!

While we were doing a few things around the house, the Coast Guard arrived!  Yay!  Maybe they can get the Light working.  There were three of them – Bob, Jonah and Steven.  They went right to work after they made a few trips up and down with their tools and equipment.  Turns out they were not able to fully restore the Light to operation.  One of the solar panels was totally damaged so they took that one with them.  They reattached the other two, but they are not producing enough power for the LED bulb inside the lens so they disconnected those panels. They mounted two LED auxiliary lights on the two platforms above the catwalk, added a little solar panel up there and two batteries as well to power those lights.  I’m not sure we’ll get to see the full brilliance of the light before the end of our tour here.

A few pictures to share. First one is a picture Steve took of the three of us on a “waterfall” of quartz and then I took a picture from our perspective.  Once we noticed this vein of quartz, we found a few more on our scramble.

They brought us a gift (how sweet) – it was a game that we can play called Pandemic.  And guess what, it came out years ago – how bizarre is that.  It’s a very cool game as you work collaboratively with each other to beat the game.  I don’t think I’ve ever played a game like that before….. We played for a while, but there’s a lot too it.  I’m sure we’ll get together with them on our return to play more with them.

Tuesday, June 7th – Well, today is our onshore day…. We got up around 6 and got our stuff together to head down to the Cove.  We packed as much in with them as we could!  Here we are heading down, Steve rowing them out first and then our ride in.

Now what do we need to get done as we have a short day!  Winds are expected to pick up this afternoon so we need to be crisp in our errands.  Stopped at the “transfer station” but we never noticed that it is closed on Tuesday.  Oh well!  Actually, Challie & Jeff offered to take it with them and leave it at the Airbnb.  We don’t have much trash as we recycle/return what we can and we can have a “burn” pile on the island which takes care of a lot of the trash. Next, I was dropped off at the laundromat.  As laundromats go, this one is very clean and Amy is always tending to the floor, or folding, etc.  She is very friendly with the patrons.  I changed my mind on adding the selfie in the laundromat – not a very attractive pic!  I’ll include one another day that’s better of Amy and I!

Ok, we wrapped up the laundry and Steve had already done the grocery shopping, now we needed some lunch.  Stopped at Best Thai II (should sound familiar).  I had Panang Curry and Steve had the Evil Tofu this time.  Both yummy – we talked a little with the owner Juianda (I’m sure I’m not even close here to her spelling), but that is how it sounded.   We stopped at a little roadside stand to get a few plants for the garden (green and yellow squash) and we headed to Fort Popham. We checked and it’s low tide (which means what everyone?  Whose been paying attention).  It means we have to climb down the ladder to the boat and load our stuff which thankfully this time wasn’t too heavy. 

Here we are waiting for Ethan to tie off the boat. And we’re on our way home….(yes that is a Beatles song). Saw lots of seals on the way back, but it’s hard to see them in a picture. Since we’re back on the early side we opted to do some more work due to the pending rain the next couple of days.  We worked on mowing the area under the tram (near the donkey engine house) and then more clearing of the garden.  I was beat.  Took a shower early and then I, yes Carol Pietryk, took a nap!!  Sorry no picture.  We had cod for dinner and watched Pirates of the Caribbean (the last one).

Wednesday, June 8th – Stormy weather…. Lots of rain and wind but not too cold.  Pretty much an inside day.  Plan was to cook some bacon, make some sourdough bread, some sourdough crackers and turkey meatballs.  On the menu plan is a Chicken Roaster for dinner.  Spent the rest of the day down in the whistle house (where I can be on the internet) working on the blog, resizing pictures, paying bills and going down a worm hole on two on the internet.   What no pictures?????

Thursday, June 9th – Same storm still lingering, so another inside day.  I worked in the gift shop, putting out inventory and organizing.  Then I took a pic of the sign where our plaque will be as Caretakers for the 2022 Season!  Pretty cool to be part of history.

Later on after it stopped raining, we opted to take a walk down the Cobblestone Trail to look at the waves crashing in.  I love it when the ocean is angry like that!

However, by the evening, the sky’s had cleared up.  I went out to take a picture of the lighthouse with the auxiliary lights on.  I used the ‘night sight’ on my phone.  Pretty cool picture!! I thought it deserved the whole width of the page!!

Friday, June 10th – Well today I’m making up for no pictures on Wednesday!  I warmed up the day with some yoga stretching.  Always feels great, but I’m also pulled in several directions when I get up early, write blog notes on previous day, write up the blog to try and catch up, pick up around the house, make oatmeal for breakfast and the list continues.

We had some early visitors – a group of four, Colin (Portland), Airie (originally from Japan, now in NJ), Greg (lawyer from Portland and boat owner), and Conrad (Germany).  Greg is taking several groups on sailing weekends ultimately ending up in Nova Scotia, I think!  Gave them a land and tower tour.  Very nice group!

Wind and tides creating quite the surf down in Cobblestone beach… Steve worked on the South Trail and we did some more work in the garden including planting our first two plants, the yellow / green squash. 

Then Steve and I headed down to the whistle house to work on the internet. I sit in the battery room with my laptop and connect to the router there via an Ethernet cable. The router sends data to “Solar” Rick on the mainland. It works pretty well. However, I only have a window with glass blocks and during the late afternoon or evening, which is when I’m usually here, it’s not very bright.

Cove time! – No water fowl birds/ducks etc.  Just a calm rolling sea into the shore. Oh, but wait, what’s that bobbing to the left? It’s a buoy from one of the moorings!  Might be hard to see in the pic.  Yikes, hope it doesn’t float away – mooring peeps coming tomorrow!

We made plans to have a beverage call with my sister Diane and her husband Dave. It’s fun to chat with folks while we are down in the Cove. And they just live across the way a bit in Southport. Kind of fun! We headed back up to prepare dinner.  Oh, and the garden is all cleared and we’ve planted basil and the two squash plants. Next trip ashore we’ll pick up some tomatoes and a few more herbs….

Today’s final picture, at dusk, the Tower!

Saturday, June 11th – Well I woke up kind of early this morning, around 6ish.  I tend to walk around, put dry dishes away, tidy up blankets on the futon if it was chilly last night, just general straightening up.  I had a bucket of bleach water I was using to clean some of the stairs up to the front porch as they were a little moldy yesterday but decided a few needed another round.  No time like the present to finish that up as the stairs were in the sunshine so they would dry thoroughly.  As I’m scrubbing, I hear a gentle “Hello?”  It was a nice man named Martin.  I didn’t have my camera on me and forgot to take his pic…. He had kayaked over from Perkins, he said he left about 5:30 this morning!  Yikes, nothing like getting your exercise in early!  I asked him if he wanted a tour and he said sure if it’s no trouble – that’s what I’m here for!!!  We had a wonderful time and he was a very pleasant person.  Steve finally came out a while later and could hear our voices but didn’t know where we were, the he looked up and we were at the top of the Tower!

We decided to walk down to the Cove to see what was going on down there and the mooring peeps were busy working on putting in the rest of the moorings.  Steve rowed out to Jim and Hazel to give them some mooring balls that we had on shore. Martin had brought in the one that was bobbing around in the west side of the Cove last night (the previous pic with the yellow arrow).  Jim was dressed in full wet suit dive gear (water is like 50 degrees – burr) to return us to a full 5 moorings status, Yay!

We had another couple come up the trail Kathleen and Don.  They were from NH and were on the boat with his sister.  The sister and husband stayed in the Cove as they are avid sea glass fans and were panning for it down at the beach.  Since they had been there before, our tour part was brief, but Kathleen came into the gift shop and purchased two hoodie sweatshirts.  She was so excited to get them as they are usually here later in the season and there is none left.  Glad we could make her day.  Spent a bunch of time chatting with them about some history, our garden, their property in NH.  Really nice, down to earth people.

After they left, Steve and I decided to have lunch. It was a warm day so we decided to eat on the porch on our side as it was in the shade.  After eating, we headed back down to see if anything else was going on in the Cove and cover up the dinghy.  When then headed off to clip (not mow, not weed whack) the Cobblestone Trail.  Again, some of the plants and shrubbery is starting to grown into the trail.  When we returned to the beginning, we met Dave and Cynthia.  As we came back, we saw their boat in the Cove.  A beautiful 47-foot Gozzard named S/V Dreamwalker.  They had been up top when we were eating lunch and somehow, we missed each other!  Note to self to eat lunch where we can see if someone comes up the trail!  Long story longer, they asked if we wanted to have a beverage and snacks on the boat.  We said sure, that way we wouldn’t miss if someone new arrived!!  Here are a few pics of the boat, them and even one of us!

Well that’s a wrap for this week! Stay tuned, more to come!

Sunday, May 29th –Well it’s Memorial Day weekend, it’s a beautiful day and we’re ready for visitors….. and visitors we got!

Today, Cyndy, our lightkeeper “trainer”, heads back to the mainland.  She says we’re good to go!  We carried all her belongings down the trail to the Cove.  While we were waiting for Capt. Ethan to arrive, we brought the chainsaw down to the beach as a large driftwood tree was in the way of walking up the stairs from the water.  Steve made 6 different cuts and then we had to roll them end-over-end to get them out of the way and high enough so the tide wouldn’t take them back out.

Just about the time we finished, Capt. Ethan arrived so Steve took Cyndy and her stuff out to the boat and we waved goodbye! However, we asked Ethan to leave us 3 lobsters in our floating lobster cage for dinner!!

Since it is such a beautiful day, we’re expecting we’ll have some visitors.  We are excited to start our “job” sharing the beauty of Seguin Island and it’s history with our visitors.  Not sure how many boats we’ll get as we currently have only 2 moorings + the Coast Guard mooring. That’s the interesting part here, is we don’t have any idea how many may show up!  They lost a couple of moorings over the winter and the mooring peeps will be out soon to re-find the anchor points so they can attach some mooring balls to them.  We’ve heard that many folks will raft up on one mooring if it gets busy.  Time to walk back up the trail and have some lunch.

We were continuing to do some work around the place when some visitors came up to the house!  It was very exciting.  First it was a group of 3 – a family stopping by to walk around the place.  I began to give them a tour / orientation of the property and then up the lighthouse.  With that, a group of 5 or 6 with a pair of dogs came up the trail.  Others in the group came up the tram which is a no-no!  The tram is old and not safe to walk.  We shared that with them as well as the rule is all dogs must be on a leash.  Not sure they were very happy about either of those rules!  As I finished up, another group of 4 came up.  So now Steve was headed up the tower and I gave a land orientation.  As we entered the tower, another group of 4 came up!  WOW, all these visitors at once!  It was a great way for us to sample what is coming during  July and August.  Looking at the guest records from last year, they had one day where there were 80-90 visitors!  Tag teaming seemed to work very well, but with 80?  I’m sure we’ll figure it out.  The afternoon sure flew by and we figured if today was busy, it’s likely tomorrow will be too. 

We decided tonight would be a great night to have our lobsters to celebrate our visitors today – so we broke out the lobster pot and steamed them!!  They were definitely hard shell as they were chock-a-block full of meat.  I picked the bodies clean! Dad would have been proud of my efforts.

Once he woke up though, he felt the need to make up for that time.  I had asked him to build me a spice rack of sorts so I could put out all my spices on the shelf, see the labels and yes, put them in alphabetical order!  Most of you that know me know that’s how I roll!  But it’s perfect. Simple, yet very functional.  Then, he fixed a kitchen chair.  One of the chairs looks like it has a solid seat, the other looked it was made of pieces for the seat and one of them fell out.  He glued it together, put some clamps on it and we’re back in business.  As I write this blog, weeks later, the chair it holding its own.

Tuesday, May 31st – Weather today was pretty cold and a little rainy to start not much to do except work inside.  I attacked our Dining Room.  

Cleaned the window frames to get rid of those tiny little brown dots that spiders leave behind, cobwebs in the corners, dead fly’s, etc. – no one has been here for 8+ months. 

While I was cleaning the DR and other spots, Steve was practicing his violin. He is working on the Lighthouse Keeper’s Waltz. It’s sounding pretty good!

Late in the afternoon, the sky cleared and the sun came out, so we ventured down to the Cove.  Steve took this cool photo as late in the afternoon there is often several contrails from planes flying overhead. After the sun passes down behind the trees of the Cove, we walk back up as the temperature starts to drop.  But once we got back by the house, the sun was still pretty high as it doesn’t set until after 8:00 p.m. We took this pic of the house / tower, just a different angle.

Big day for us today as it’s our first trip ashore.  We need to bring our trash, recycle and laundry along with our grocery store, Rocky’s ACE Hardware, goodwill and fish store lists!  But it’s very exciting to see how all this will work! Last night we took some time to menu plan, look at what we still have, what do we need and try to buy just those supplies.  Why?  Because we have to carry it up the trail when we return.  It’s a little bit of a challenge to not over buy or say “hey let’s get some of this to have around.”  We try very hard to just buy what we need for the next week.

We have our stuff down by the water already to go. Capt. Ethan will pick us up and drop off the Wednesday Warriors (the group of volunteers) who trade places with us each week to work on other projects here on the island. It’s the same group that came over on the 1^st boat trip on the day we arrived.  They bring supplies like gas for the lawn equipment, gas for our cooking stove, inventory for the gift shop and material they need for their projects. 

I’m ready and I have my special boots on to keep my feet dry when pushing off the beach. At least that’s what I had hoped.  I miss calculated a little wave as I was pushing the boat out and swish – up and over into my boot!  Well, at least I had other shoes to wear when we got to shore.  Capt. Ethan was setting his lobster traps on the way back so we got to see the fish head being loaded in the trap and then dropping over the side.  I found it interesting as I thought each trap had a buoy but he would string three traps together with one buoy.  Efficiency!

Another view of the Cove from the water side.  We don’t see this view very often so on a beautiful day like today, time for a pic!

When we arrived on shore, it was low tide. Oh no – we can’t use the floating dock, now we have to climb a ladder up to the pier and pass up our gear – just another part of the process of going ashore!  Too afraid of dropping my phone, so no picture! We bring it all up, walk to the parking area at Fort Popham and Steve heads over the Popham Chapel to get the car. I proceed to empty my boot full of water and dry off my foot. However, when carrying our bags up the ladder, we noticed the backpack was all wet on the bottom and this is where we carry our electronics, aka mainly our laptop!  I start to panic as everything I’m doing (writing blog entries and pictures) is being stored locally on the computer because of our limited internet access!    I take the laptop out and the ports were facing down, but the inside doesn’t appear to be wet.  Won’t know till I get to the laundromat and use their Wi-Fi. 

Our first stop is the transfer station for trash, recycle, etc.  We drop off our stuff and there is a little “free / exchange” area.  Items that still have useful life are left there for people to take.  I actually saw a Brother sewing machine – I was tempted but Steve said no!  Found a few cute little glasses – that’s for my B&B, sea glass collection, etc! We headed to town (Bath) to get a coffee at Café Crème.  Steve got a cappuccino and a cinnamon bun.  Pretty yummy (the bun, not the coffee – I do tea). Off to the Garden Island 24 hr. Laundromat.  Well first time for everything, as now you need to look at all the machines and figure out what’s what. Then, I’m trying to get on their Wi-Fi so I can do some bill paying, etc.  The computer doesn’t respond immediately, but eventually, I got there, phew! While I’m doing laundry, Steve heads to Rocky’s ACE Hardware for a few light-keeper items, the water place to fill our 5-gallon water jugs and then to the fish store to scope out what they have.  Nothing too exciting in the picture department here. Maybe a pic of the fish store would be fun, it is Maine after all!  Steve returns and we head to Goodwill again to look for a few specific things.  A few more small glasses, a couple more wine glasses as I already broke one, some fun place mats and a cute little lighthouse-stained glass candle holder of course I had to get that!!!!

We grab some lunch at Jersey Mike’s then went to the new Hannaford’s supermarket in Cooks Corner.  This was a big trip for groceries as we only bought what we needed for the first 5 days and we were sharing food with Cyndy.  Now we are getting some additional staples. Supermarket was beautiful, a little bit more expensive than Shaw’s but it has the draw of being the new supermarket – so people tend to go there cause it’s the new shiny object.  Checking out was a challenge as we’re packing all our stuff into a few bags. Again, trying not to over buy, but $300 later we walk out of the store and loaded everything in the car.  Then we stopped back at the fish store and got some salmon, swordfish and smoked trout!  Yummy.

Before you know it, time is up and we need to head back to the dock to wait for Ethan.  Except now the tide is high enough to use the floating dock.  Yay!  Here’s a pic of my sweetie on the ride back followed by a pic of our goodwill finds!!

We each made three trips up the trail to bring all our stuff up. We leave our water in the Donkey engine house (there it is again – I need to take a picture of that building) and then walk down to refill 1 or 2-gallon jugs to bring it up to the house.  I’m getting tired just typing all this up!  It was a busy day for sure.  Fresh swordfish for dinner.  While we are cooking, we found a plug-in heater and decided to have that by our legs in the dining room.  Hasn’t really warmed up yet and the house is not much different in temperature than the outside – did I say we have no heat or ac?  Anyway, dinner was fabulous and we’re both a little tired.  I head up to take a shower with our cistern water, which is pretty high in iron and not really potable, but you can wash dishes in it, shower, brush your teeth etc. 

While I’m in the shower, we lost power.  Wasn’t sure if it was just the light bulb in the bathroom or the whole house.  I yelled down to Steve to see if he lost lights and he did.  He unplugged the heater and I was done in the shower, but it was VERY DARK!  A few minutes later, the house lights came back on.  Found out that the heater was a huge load on the house load circuit and my shower had kicked on the hot water heater – oops!  Oh well, now we know.  We’ll just make do without the heater.

Today I started to clean up our guest quarters as our friends Challie and Jeff arrive next Monday for two nights, very exciting! I started to do a linen inventory as some items get mixed up between the caretaker guest room and the paying guest quarters over the museum.  I hung a few linens out on the line to freshen them up as the sun is shinning and the wind is blowin’.  Since it has warmed up and sun is out, we moved the futon mattress to a railing outside and unzipped the cover – now it can really dry out. 

I needed to walk down the main trail to the Cove to get a few items that didn’t need to come up yesterday plus my wet boot!  Trying to strategically place it in the sun to get a warm breeze to help dry out the inside.  On the way back up, I decided it would be fun to share some pics of the trail so you get a feel for the terrain.  There are five pictures.  First one as I’m walking up, second one is about halfway up looking back down at the trail, third one is looking up the trail from the same point, fourth pic shows the steepest part before you go under the tram and arrive at the lawn in front of the house, last pic.

Then I figured, since I’m here I would take a couple of pics of the unsafe, not working tram.

I did think of taking a picture of the lighthouse though tonight. Oh and in case you’re wondering, the futon did dry out and we remembered to bring it in!

Friday, June 3rd – Well let’s see …. On today’s docket is to do the deep clean in the guest room, work some more on the blog, possibility the Coast Guard will come today after they go to Boone Light to assess the situation at that lighthouse.  Well to start our busy day, we need some solid nutrition.  For breakfast we enjoyed some smoked trout we picked up at Plant’s Seafood when we were on shore. We had some homemade rosemary sourdough bread, greens, tomato, a little cream cheese, homemade basil-parsley pesto and blueberries!  We are livin’ large here at Seguin!

Off I went to clean the guest room.  I spent the good portion of the day moving furniture, vacuuming cobwebs, cleaning the floor around the legs of the furniture, wiping everything down and making the beds!  Oh, so maybe a picture of guest room would be appropriate here!

Mostly clearing cob webs, cleaning windows, sweeping, etc. you know the drill.  Since it was such a beautiful day, I hung some additional towels and two bedspreads out on the line to freshen them up.  As well as I’m still drying out the inside of my boot – I’m almost there!

Then I was off to the “paying” guest quarters to start looking at those rooms and inventory what they have.  You can become a member of FOSILS (Friends of Sequin Island Light Station) and then book those rooms to stay overnight.  So far there are three potential groups coming this summer. 

Well, that’s a wrap for this week. Oh, and by the way the gray plastic thing is one of those widgets that help you fold T-shirts the exact same size every time!!!  Who guessed it?

Sunday, May 22nd – Well the plan still looks like we’re going tomorrow.  We understand that Cyndy will be joining us till Friday but we won’t be coming back in until the following Wednesday – June 1.  Holy Cow June already?  Since we had only planned to be in the hotel a couple of days, we now need to do some laundry and get some clothes out of the “island” bags.  While doing the laundry I thought I should reach out to our friends Sharon and Brent, who live in Norway Maine (NW of Bath) and see what they were doing for dinner.  They were available so we made plans to meet them in Freeport for an early dinner as we really, really are expecting to head out to the island tomorrow!

It was a beautiful day so after laundry we decided to walk to town and become more familiar with what is actually in Bath.  It’s a very quaint little town with a lot to offer.  I had suggested yesterday that maybe we should go to the Maritime Museum, but then totally forgot!  We walked down by Bath Iron Works and saw this framed entryway, like you’d see in the front door or a local home, just propped up along the side of the road.  Kind of odd, but kind of cool at the same time. 

As we walked into town there was an organic grocery “Bath Natural Market” we noticed they had lots of potted herbs for sale – figured we’ll pick one up on our way back.  We walked down to the park along the waterfront, lots of people out and about.  The park is full of pairs of Adirondack chairs so you can just sit and read.  Walked by a blooming cherry tree and Steve shook the tree.  Looked like it was snowing!  Kind of hard to see in the pic, but very funny in person. Well time to turn around and meander our way “home.”  We headed back up Front St and walked by the “Friends of Seguin Island” office.  We stopped in to see if they had any maps outside the office, but no luck.  Took a pick of their sign as I thought it might help me with my tattoo design.

Here is the Crazy Story part!  We have walked around a couple of times and have noticed that many of the homes with a small front porch are supported solely by metal rods.  We’ve walked by a particular home a couple of times over the last few days, that is redoing their porch.  Neither of us could figure out why there wasn’t any footings as these rods surely weren’t strong enough to support the porch weight along with people sitting on it!  So, we decided to walk back by the house where the two guys were working on it and ask them.

We chatted for a while and caught up, explained why we were in Bath Maine.  He shared he is picking up a boat in MD later this summer and would definitely come out to Seguin.  How random – they were working, we chose to walk down that street and strike up a conversation.  He actually brought us to some neighbors two doors down to explain who we were – we all still can’t believe it.  Even now that I’m typing this up, it seems very incredible!

We wrapped up the day with driving down to Freeport (about 22 mins) to meet Sharon & Brent for dinner.  We had such a great time and it was fun to see them.  I met Sharon in the STT airport in October 2018 when I was on my way home to see my Dad.  His health was failing.  She is a PT and we just struck up a conversation in the airport and immediately connected. We ran the 8 Tuff Miles (a run/ walk race in St John) with her and hitched up with them again when Brent came to Saint John’s in March.  Very genuine, down to earth peeps!  We had a wonderful meal at Linda Bean’s Topside Market – some local brews, fresh fish tacos, sandwiches and a wonderful beet salad.  And guess who had the salad?  Steve !!!  I had the fish tacos with Sweet Potato Fries (yum, yum)

Lastly before I forget, a shout out to Paul, Joan and Betty at the Marriott Residence Inn in Bath.  They were fantastic people and as our reservations kept moving out, they were very helpful.  Betty ran the morning breakfast and she was on top of it!  I’ve never been at a hotel that included some many toppings for either oatmeal or yogurt! Besides fresh pineapple and strawberries, she had walnuts, pecans, almonds, brown sugar, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, raisins, cranberries, granola, and more.  But everyone there was great!

Monday, May 23rd –  Yay!  Departure Day has finally arrived!  We got up at a reasonable time and left the hotel about 6:45 a.m.  We needed to be at the dock by 7:30 as some of our stuff was going on the first trip out to the island.  There were 6 other people going out who were going to work on “their” projects out there as well as assisting us in getting acquainted with the various systems on the island.  As we left the hotel, we got behind a school bus, stopping every ¼ mile to pick someone up!  After they turned off, we were behind a large dump truck that appeared to have asphalt in it.  Then we came upon the paving operation!  Yikes – It was like we couldn’t get there!!!!  It should have only taken us 20 mins to get there…… Finally, we arrived at Fort Popham and unloaded our stuff onto the floating dock!

The first crew left.  Lots of tubs containing items for the museum, equipment, supplies, food, tools, gas etc. 

As we were driving back to the Fort, Captain Ethan called to say he was on his way back.  Popham State Park has this amazing stretch of beach.  I’ll try to remember to take a pic when we head in some time – It goes on for miles!

We’ve arrived at Seguin! The plan is when we get into the Cove, someone from the 1^st group needs to row out in the dinghy to pick up us and all our gear, tubs, supplies, food, etc.  After four trips in and out we have everything on the beach…. Now everyone pitched in to carry our stuff up the steps from the Cove beach to the “Donkey House” (that has the engine that used to run the tram).  Two of the guys on the first boat trip are engine mechanics working to try and get that engine running again.  There are 7 of us making trips up to the Lighthouse!  It’s about 200 steps on the path, first some grassy trail, then some with rocks here and there, till you walk up under the tram, and turn to the right and there she is!  The light keepers house and the Tower! Love at first sight!

Well, we all had our jobs. Where to start! There’s cleaning and sweeping, carrying our bags up to our room on the keepers’ side of the house, then I emptied the tubs, coolers, etc. and started organizing our kitchen.  Steve was getting his training on the solar and water systems and power equipment in the maintenance shop (also known as the whistle house).  Then he was off on the zero-turn riding mower!    About 3:00 we started to help carry down empty tubs and other supplies that were going back with the crew on the 1^st boat trip.  In the pic, we have “Water” Greg, “Solar” Rick, “Project Guy / Historian” Chris, “Roof” Tom and Scuba (oops, guess Steve got cut out of the pic).

Now it was time to switch gears as the sun was setting.  We had a beautiful sunset.  I don’t think you can zoom in on the image but to the right of the rocks in the water in the center of the picture is the profile of Mount Washington – 90 miles away! When the sun sets, it’s behind the mountain and it silhouettes it.  It was gorgeous!!!

Then the strangest thing happened, as I walked towards the north side and looked towards the mainland.  I couldn’t believe my eyes.  It looked like a fire!  The smoke was very black and you could actually see flames!  We couldn’t quite figure out where it was.  The next day, my sister Diane that has a home in Southport (pretty close by), found out the fire was in Boothbay Harbor.

The Boothbay Register (newspaper) serving Boothbay Harbor, Southport and Edgecomb since 1876 reported on the fire. (Beach Cove inn fire cause undetermined | Boothbay Register)

Let’s wrap up our 1^st day…. After we saw sunset, it was time to prep dinner.  Cyndy brought some delicious cheese and crackers.  For dinner we had little falafel patties mixed in with my quinoa that had peppers, onions, and zucchini topped with toasted pine nuts.  Cyndy brought some sweets from the Bath Sweet Shop.  Then we played 3-way cribbage and called it a night.  Busy, busy, busy!

Tuesday, May 24th –  Guess I’m excited to be here – I woke up about 4 a.m.  Tossed and turned for a while and got up at 5.  Before I start my day, let’s check the sunrise.  Not sure what time that happens but low and behold.  There is was! 

Time to pause for just a minute to reflect on where we are and how lucky to have this adventure ahead! 

We were having trouble with the battery sleeve that you insert in the gas stove so you have a “clicker” to light the burners and the oven.  So, I attacked that first.  Put in 2 new batteries and reinstalled worked!  Yay!  Just where is the multi-meter now so I can check the batteries I took out as well as check the 30+ batteries that will go in the smoke alarms!  Don’t need one to start beeping, as they “talk” to each other and if one starts, then they all follow suit. 

Next task was, now that I could get the oven to work, to make my favorite “Honey of an Oat Banana Bread.” This comes from a Bed & Breakfast Cookbook a friend gave me over 30 years ago – but it’s a fun cookbook.  But one note, it’s not a very “healthy” recipe which means it’s awesome!  It comes from Aunt Polly at The Cornell House in Lenox, Ma.

Yowzah does it smell and look good!  Today we mow, weed whack and mow some more.  Lots and lots to mow!  This is the first cut of the season and some of the grass is 12-18” tall!  Steve did the South Trail, Cyndy did under the tram and the ‘campsite’, yes we have a campsite!   

Then we had to mow the “front” lawn, which has a slight hill.  If you use the tractor, you can’t stop, the pull mower is difficult, weed whacking – grass is too tall.  Steve use the weedwhacker to take some of the height down, then I mowed with the push mower R->L.  Took a long time.

We came back to the house to have some lunch – got to feed the help as we’re burning calories for sure. 

We headed back to the South Trail as Steve had only been able to weed whack so far as it was difficult to tell where the trail went,  but we walked the rest of the way.  Saw some Canada geese and their gosling – trying to teach it to fly!  Ultimately, he/she made it down to the ocean to join Mom & Dad.  The geese have hatched but now comes Seagull mating and hatching season so on both the North and South trails, we’ll NOT go to the end as that is their area now.  This will last till about mid-June.  Next, we walked down the Cobblestone Trail.  If you come up from the Cove to the donkey engine house and the welcome sign you’ll a sign for the Cove Trail (which passes through the campsite) or the Cobblestone Beach Trail which takes you to a rocky beach.  The pic is Steve walking towards the “beach” part – it’s all rocks but the rocks here are different, rounded and very smooth….

Well, that’s all the mowing, weed whacking for today.  Went down to the Cove to just sit and watch the waves lap at the tiny beach that is now home.

Just to get a sense of where we are when I talk trails, check out the pic of the trail map

Talked to my sister Diane for a little bit.  She is trying help me find a captain for our first guests.  They arrive in Maine June 4 and planning to come out to the island sometime during the week they are staying in Boothbay.  I spent some time in the battery room as we’re trying to figure out the wi-fi associated with the router that is used to send data from the solar system to the mainland. We even called US Cellular – not very much help.  We’ll figure it out eventually but with little cell service, all my pics can’t get to google photos!  I’m working on trying to figure out a new process for writing the blog and including pics.

Next was to move out the various benches on the property.  One at the top of the tram, a couple facing due west for sunsets and one facing east.

Then Cyndy and I walked around the tower (aka the Lighthouse) a little bit.  Here is a pic from the catwalk facing north.

Did some minor work in the Museum getting a few things ready, learning a little about tours, cleaning the shelves for the shirts, learning the process for sales, etc.

Well, we had dinner and enjoyed chatting with each other, learning more about each other’s background.  I decided to go out and take a peek at the night sky.  The lighthouse isn’t working as the solar panels that power the light had some damage over the winter.  Hoping for a star-studded sky, I walked out and saw the light was lit!  It was pretty dim, but it was still lit.  I texted Cyndy and she was surprised and came out to see.  It was like a nightlight!  Still kind of cool. 

On this trail there is a path that is over some areas that can get wet, so you walk on boards that have been mounted to another board.  Kind of a boardwalk but the boards run parallel to how you walk.  And all along this path there are some irises just starting to come up!  Can’t wait for them to bloom – think we need a little warmer weather.    When whacking, you have to shut off the machine to change the line as they are not self-feeding.  We had pre-cut several to take along with us as well as a pair of plyers to pull out the nubs.  Anyway, as Steve had stopped to change his, I moved my weed whacker out of the way, but didn’t do a very good job with situational awareness and wacked his chin!  Ouch!!!! Even through his jeans there were still marks!  Sorry honey! 

Also, while on this path, we came across a small rock wall.  This wall marks the last 10 acres that were deeded from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (yes it included a good portion of lower Maine) to the Federal Government for the building of the lighthouse. They only thought the island was 20 acres when in fact it was 65!  A little nugget of history!

Took a break for lunch, but not for long – off to more ….. wait for it….. you got it weed whacking!!!  This time Steve headed off to finish the Cove trail and I went off to finish the South trail out as far we can go being mindful of the seagulls and they DO NOT like humans very much!  Cyndy and I started working on the weather station.  We checked the battery and it was till good.  Had to pull out the good old manual and read the steps.  We made it through all the setup but it’s still not showing the wind speed – and that’s one of the most important items we’d like to know.  It’s still not registering as I type this and one of these days I’ll give them a call to find out what we missed. 

I think I’ve mentioned that the lighthouse is not really working up to full brightness.  Cyndy connected with the Coast Guard and they are stopping to repair a few other locations and plan to be here on June 3.  So we’ll see.  She went off to sweep the tower (lots of dead bugs, etc.). But here are some cool pics of the lens and the view and the not so perfect solar panels that power the light

There will be a post for sure talking about the lens as it was a revolutionary development in lighting the shores of the U.S.  The design made the light (whether from a flame or a bulb) shine 500 times brighter.  Before the LED, the bulb used was a 1000-watt bulb and it would shine out to 20 miles.  I digress….

To wrap up the night, we watched “A Knights Tale”, thanks to Kate and Steve!!!  Cyndy said it was a special event as she had not only not seen the movie, but had never watched a movie on the island!  Well leave it to the P’s to go out there and do something crazy!

 

Steve worked to fix some balusters on the front porch on both sides that were loose and started posting some trail signage.  Cyndy and I headed to the Museum and gift shop for more learning and the deep clean. Yep, sweep, vac and wash the floor, clean up all the little white dots you get from spider droppings in the corner, vac up cobwebs off the brick, etc. – by the end of the day the placed looked awesome!  Then she showed me all the things we sell in the shop and their prices.  Took a pic of the price list as she needed to take it with her and update it. 

And as the day rounded up, Cyndy noticed 2 people coming off the North Trail.  Well wait a minute, where did they come from!  Our first guests of the 2022 season – we’re officially open!  

 Of course once you look down, I then looked up and Steve and I both decided to vac the rafters of the winters decorations (cob webs, dust, etc). 

Busy first week!  Feels great to be out doing physical work as then there is no need to do any other exercise!  We’ve both been tracking our steps and Steve’s also been checking how many calories he’s burning.  Thanks for hanging in there and reading this blog – it was a big one!

Week of May 15 – The Journey North and Prep for Departure, T-minus  7 days and counting…..

Time to rally around the new plan!  Luckily, we did get to see Colin before we left.  We met for lunch outside and he filled us in on his clinicals for the fall and spring, all very exciting for him and us as his fall one is in Short Pump!  And it looks like his Spring one will be in CA in San Diego!   Yup – not too far from Steve’s family! 

The new plan has us leaving Wednesday, May 18 to head North, taking the Northwest route to avoid the usual crazy spots – DC, Baltimore, NYC, etc.  We’ll stay overnight in a town called Clinton, NJ.   

Then Thursday, up to the Tappan Zee Bridge (which is now the Governor Mario Cuomo Bridge), through Danbury CT, Hartford, CT, Worcester MA, Portsmouth NH and on to Bath, Maine.  We’ll get there a day early and spend the day Friday orienting ourselves on the grocery stores, laundromat, dump, etc.  All those places we’ll want to know where they are so we can maximize our time when we come to the mainland each week.  

Wednesday, May 18^th – Leaving a little later than planned.  As we headed slightly NW up towards Front Royal / Strasburg area to pick up Rte 81.  We traveled the Blue Ridge Turnpike, yes turnpike not the Parkway.  It was a beautiful ride and we decided to make a brief stop before we got on Rte. 81 as the rest of the day would be spent on the highway.

We stopped at Rappahannock Cellars, in Huntly, VA.  A winery and a distillery and an event space!  We enjoyed some snacks we brought and actually relaxed for a bit.

Ordered small Caesar salad, mussels, oysters and tuna tartare.  All was delicious – I was scarfing up the mussels as the liquid they were in was fabulous!!! (that’s my food word). Room was great and we slept very well.

Thursday May 19^th – On the road again. Got an earlier start today which was good.  Thought we had stayed about half way, but turns out it wasn’t quite halfway, plus we ran into construction around Hartford, so we took a different route and drove by where we used to work for Northeast Utilities in Berlin, CT.  A little bit of a memory lane drive. Then we ran into some congestion/volume issues around Merrimac, Lowell and Lawrence when we were on 495.  Just too many cars trying to get on the highway and it was only 3:30!  Then we had some rain, needed to get some gas etc. More rain etc. as we entered Maine – couldn’t see the Lobster Tank (an oil tank on the side of the road just after the Maine/NH bridge that has a big red lobster painted on it), so I took a photo of our exit off the Maine Turnpike.

Arrived at the hotel around 5:30 – phew, little bit of a long day, but it’s done!  The trip odometer says 800!

Tomorrow will be an easy day, explore and orientation.  During our conversation earlier with Cyndy about trying to get some of our stuff to a person heading out tomorrow, who is scoping out the roof replacement on the main house, we all agreed it would be best if we did a COVID test tomorrow to ensure that we’re negative for the ride out on Saturday.    Makes sense, but we were a little nervous as Steve was not yet back to his usual happy-go-lucky self.  I still had no symptoms.  We picked up a couple of tests for tomorrow.  Couple of beers to celebrate we are here!!!

Tonight, we decided to grab some take out from Best Thai 2 in Bath.  We’ve eaten at Best Thai in Boothbay and its good.  No one else was in the restaurant so we decided to just eat there.  I had Evil Tofu and Steve had Red Curry with Tofu and wide rice noodles instead of rice.  Yummy! While we were waiting, I went next door to Old Bones Tattoo as guess who is looking for a tattoo before this trip is over????   Turns out they weren’t open.  A little bit of TV and we were off to sleep.  Hotel (Marriott Residence Inn Bath / Brunswick) was a great room.  Full fridge with icemaker, little LR area and our bedroom and bathroom had a door to separate.  Really nice!!  

PS – Shout out to Cathy Martin (Steve’s cousin) today is her birthday.  I had made here a birthday gift but had to send it to her because we didn’t see them cause of the COVID thing.  But her husband Mike sent a photo of her in the birthday present. 

Friday, May 20 – Alright so today is explore, grocery shop and meet Diane and Dave (my sister and her husband) for dinner at Bath Brewing Company. Right across the street is a Shaw’s.  Before we head out shopping, Steve thought we should do our Covid tests.  Might make a difference on what food we need to get.  Steve did his first…. Drum roll please.  Yippee!  He’s negative and me too. 

Now we can continue with our plan to go shopping.  We’ll be sharing our meals with Cyndy.  Earlier, she and I chatted about what each of us would bring.  So off we went to grocery shop and brought our big canvas bag.  We needed to get food for about 4-5 dinners plus breakfast and lunches.  We were very impressed with the selection of food available, but there is the challenge of figuring out what’s where when you’re in a new-to-you grocery store!  Steve got the app for the Shaw’s Loyalty Program since this will likely be our main stop for groceries.  Wow!  All of our purchase fit in the one bag we brought (which was pretty big).  Then we stopped at Rocky’s ACE Hardware as we needed to get some RV TP for the bathrooms on the island.  They have an account there so we just charge it to them and Cyndy gets an email!   Back to the room to put away our food and got ready for dinner.  Plan is to meet Diane and Dave around 6 at Bath Brewing since we’ll be up and out early.  Supposed to meet at the dock in Popham Beach at 0730.   

In the car leaving the hotel, we got a call from Cyndy.  Weather delay, not heading out tomorrow! Oh no!  May move to Sunday or Monday!  Another flexible opportunity, what else can you do right?  But we decided to meet Cyndy for breakfast tomorrow at Winnegance Restaurant & Bakery.  We actually had lunch there last August when we came up for our “interview.”  Well, we’ll hear what the new plan is then, maybe!  So we had a great dinner and listened to some good music at the brewery.  It was great to see both of them again having just seen them a couple of weeks ago at James’ (their sons) wedding.  I usually only see them a couple of times a year.  Diane and I had the Quinoa Bowl – I added the tofu, she went solo. Yummy!!  Just finished those leftovers as I’m typing this too.

Saturday, May 21 – So we met Cyndy this morning around 10.  Steve and I shared the lobster omelet (yes we’re in Maine).  She had the seafood medley omelet.  But first I had to get the blueberry granola scone.  It was so yummy and I ate it so fast I forgot to take a pic! 

We met Mark, a friend of Cyndy’s that works at the local ReStore. Then we met Michelle and Bob, also friends of Cyndy’s.  Nice people that live locally and also in Florida. 

By the end of breakfast though, we learned we’re not going out tomorrow, but Monday morning! We are so anxious to get started on our adventure, but each day we are still learning about the area.

Then down to Bath to walk around, listen to a little band, met Irene in the Made in Maine store, Reny’s for warm socks and water shoes for Steve. We then met Amanda Director of Main Street Bath. We talked about captains to help, she shared her contact information and I said I would share with Cyndy and be back in touch.  I realized a little later I had left my water bottle somewhere.  I retraced my steps and though it might be Reny’s.  I called and I was right. This time though I decided to walk down and pick it up.  Turned out it was only 2 miles.  I passed the time by chatting with my Mom (Anne) who lives outside of Boston and will be 95 in the fall.  An amazing person! As I was talking to her, I came to this plaque in the side walk on the corner of Front and Centre Streets.  Rather interesting I thought as my maiden name is Thompson. How ‘bout that!

 

We decided to have pizza for dinner tonight.  There are 3 local pizza places and we selected Bruno’s Wood Fired Pizza on Front Street.  It was hoppin’!  We took a seat at the bar and ordered a couple of local draft beers and some pizza.  Yes, mine was cauliflower crust, with pear, fig drizzle spinach and just a tiny bit of cheese!

Hello and Welcome to the Seguin Island Blog!!!

We are Carol and Steve Pietryk, the 2022 caretakers for Sequin Light Station.  We are very excited to have the opportunity to experience life on an island and take care of this precious piece of history.  First, just a little background on us.

We are both originally from Massachusetts, lived on the eastern shore of Connecticut for 15 years and have spent the last 20 years in Richmond Virginia.  We have two grown children; Gary, currently living in Colorado Springs and Colin who lives in Richmond while attending a graduate program at Virginia Commonwealth University. We are both mechanical engineers (very – MacGyver-like individuals), and worked in construction and the power generation industry. We chose to retire in 2018 when we found an opportunity to caretake an estate in St Thomas, USVI. We applied and were selected as the caretakers for the 2018 – 2019 season.  That year long experience was an extraordinary way to begin retirement!!  Our family and friends shared in the adventure through our extensive blog.

We are soooo excited for this opportunity to experience living on an island (slightly smaller than St. Thomas) and one that has a lighthouse!  Thank you to FOSILS (Friends of Seguin Island Light Station) for this awesome adventure.   If you’ve not met me (Carol), I write like I speak.  We try to capture the everyday nuggets so you can experience this adventure just like we are.  There’s a lot that goes on everyday – we hope you enjoy reading our journal and participating with us all the little details!

The Packing!

Well, we’re almost off again. This week the focus is packing, not really packing but pre-packing.  Where do you begin? We begin with our “Packing List – Extended Stay.” From here it was whittled down as the Lighthouse already has lots of stuff.  Just like St. Thomas – once it arrives on the island, it doesn’t leave!  There is a picture of the packing list, all marked up of course. Some of the notes may seem silly, but there is a lot going on in our minds and it’s best to have it written down! The back of the list had many notes too, but you get the idea!

Now on to the actual packing.  Here’s a couple of pics around the house!  The dining room table gets stacked with items, the bedroom has piles and then there’s the pile of bags.  We need to be able to carry these items so we’re trying to keep them on the lighter side vs a “tub” which can get pretty heavy pretty quick. 

But wait till you see the car all packed up! It won’t look like so much stuff.

Tomorrow is Friday.  So I’m off to the Goochland Animal Shelter to volunteer then the weekend to wrap up a few more “friend” visits, we’ll see Colin on Sunday and then we leave Tuesday mid-day to drive to Steve’s cousin who lives just outside of Philly.

Humm, that was the plan, but as we know we need to be flexible as the plan can often change.  Ours did. We attended a fund-raiser on Wednesday (5/9), I went to the Shelter on Friday.  However, come Saturday, Steve was not feeling himself.  He did an at home Covid test and it was negative.  Ok…. plans to meet friends at our golf club for dinner was on.  Sunday, different story.  Really didn’t feel well. Went to CVS and guess what, yep he had Covid.  So our plans to hang with Colin and go golfing, and all the family and friend visiting on the way up  – now a no go….Spent the day figuring out a new plan.