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!

Then I took a quick walk on the Cove trail, passed through the ‘campsite’ and the trail ends at the rocks.  I climbed around the rocks for a while, which is fun looking for any special treasure that may have become lodged between the rocks.  No treasure today.  Looked back up and you can just see the top of the lighthouse.

Well, we walked back up as it’s time to do a little work.  Sunny today, so we headed out to the North Trail.  About ¾ of the way out, the trail makes a loop.  Usually, we split and Steve walks out towards the end and I start at the beginning. We keep going until we meet each other.  Here is a view looking North and yes that is Steve (that little navy pin dot on the edge where the land meets the sky) and you can see some of the trail in the foreground.

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.

Challie and Jeff are due to arrive around 1ish.  I knew we’d be busy with them since they will only be here the one day.  I baked some birthday brownies for Challie, she just turned 50.  She donated her long locks and went super short.  Can’t wait to see it in person!   I rowed out to get them in our dinghy as well as to bring in the lobsters we had Ethan drop off for dinner tonight.  It’s always an interesting challenge rowing the dinghy out, with the waves, the wind and we’re trying to look like we’re old hats at this!  Yipee – they are here!! I was like a bumble bee just showing them around the property, the house and of course the Tower.  Another opportunity to practice my tour speech!

Once they got settled, we decided to take them on a hike down Cobblestone Trail, along the rocky shoreline and come back in on the Cove Trail. I took the previous picture of the island map and marked up our route, along with a blue X marking the house and tower. Challie said it was like doing a rock scramble. It was super fun and reminded me when we would come up with our sons, Gary and Colin to York, Maine and climb around all the rocks at low tide looking for treasure.  One time we did find a huge lobster claw.  Ooops, I digress again!!

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.

Here’s a view of the Tower from the “beach.” And here’s some seagull eggs in their nest.  Turn 180 degrees and you’ll see Canada geese (mom and dad) with their goslings – standing perfectly still…. Oh, you blend alright!

Well after our big hike and seeing all the sights, we had some delicious ‘sters’ (aka lobsters).  Challie has had lobster before but not just getting in on your plate where you need to crack it to eat it.  It was fun showing her the ‘ropes’ for eating lobster.

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 9thSame 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.

There are three overhead fluorescent lights in the room but everything except all the solar stuff and a room fan is disconnected.  The room does get warm with the batteries so the fan just exhausts into the rest of the whistle house (aka maintenance shop).  I mentioned to Steve, can you get me some light in there?  Well, he took a look at the lights and we decided to reconnect them to the power used to run the fan. In the picture, to the left is the solar related instruments and electrical connection “stuff” and the plywood you see to the left is where the bank of batteries for the solar system is. After taking out some no longer needed conduit and connecting the wires – we’re in business – let there be light!  Now we just need to clean up and put all the ceiling tiles back.

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!

While we were down at the Cove, I decided the side of the trail just as you come up the stairs from the beach is starting to grow into the trail so I clipped lots of branches to widen it a little. As all this was going on we could see a group of kayakers coming into the Cove.  There was 5 of them – a professor from University of VT and 4 of his students.  They are in an Ocean Expeditions Program. Steve, the professor, brings a group here every summer.  I gave them a tour of the Tower.  There is a platform at 28 steps up the tower and today, as it was early, the sunlight from the lens created a prism on the wall as it shone through the stairs. Once we finished our tour, they decided it was time for some food. Here they are in full dry suits and opted for the picnic table as their lunch spot.

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!

Last pic, decided to make the Garlicky Shrimp Tomato Stew that Mary Rose (and her husband Frank) made for the Cousin Fest in Florida this past winter.  It was super yummy and it has lots of flavor. Then once you add a toasted piece of homemade sourdough bread – it’s a full meal.  Also, a shout out to Mike Martin (Steve’s cousin Cathy, who just had the birthday in last weeks blog, her husband) gave me the starter for the bread!  Well the real story is I had the stew recipe from a previous text but it was missing ingredients and some instructions.  Since it was Americas Test Kitchen, you can’t see the who recipe on-line without paying for a subscription.  Eventually, we made it work and Mary Rose sent me a new pic for the stew and here it is…. Should have taken a pic of the food gosh darn it!

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

5 thoughts on “Week of June 5th – 1st Friend Visitors, 1st Kayak Visitors, Full Compliment of Moorings and Snacks on a Beautiful Vessel

  1. Loved reading of your time there so far, Carol! As always, you are having a grand adventure! What lucky visitors to have you host them!!

  2. Keep up the great work! Sorry we can’t be there this fall but we’re at Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse until October. Very different scene. Seguin — our first caretaking gig — will always be very special to us.
    Tim and Lynne

    1. Hi Tim, this is Carol – thanks so much for reading the blog and following our adventure here – its amazing!

  3. Wow, so wonderful. I love the wildlife pics and sunsets. Can’t wait to get there in August!!

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