Week of May 29  – Visitors, Lobsters, Sunsets, First Trip Ashore and Losing Power!

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.

Monday, May 30th – Busy day as we continue to work around the house and the lawn, weed whacking etc. At this point I think I have typed weed whack at least 100 times!  We have been going non-stop for several days and today, Steve, I think his body is still recovering from COVID, needed a nap.  I suggested he take a blanket and lay down on the leeward side of the house.  He did and he took a nap for at least 2 hours!  Good for him!

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.

Well, here we are at the end of another day, but no additional visitors, oh but wait!  We like to walk down to the Cove around 5 just to enjoy the scenery, talk about the day and discuss what’s on the agenda for the next day and low and behold Greg and Jan walk up from the Cove.  They are on their way home to Portland and decided to stop and give the dog a little exercise.  They have a very cool boat that is made in Finland, it’s called “Axopar.”  They were very nice and have been here many times, so no tour needed.  They walked a trail for a bit then headed down to the Cove and on their way.  Here is a pic of their boat.  

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. 

I then cleaned those same spots off the walls, dusted, cleaned the floor (which has the little white dots from spiders) and vacuumed the rug.    I took the books out of the bookcase, vacuumed the top of them, looked at what they were in case I’m in need of some reading material but that would require me to sit still! It’s that wonderful feeling when you’re done – it just feels clean.

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.

Wednesday, June 1st – Hope you all remembered Rabbit, Rabbit – if you don’t know what that is, remind me next time I see you and I’ll explain!  I can already tell this will be a big blog day, so grab a beverage and maybe even a snack!  Started off with another Seguin Sunrise.  This picture was a little after 5:00 a.m.  It was just beautiful and the way it shined into the LR.  Oh, the living room, I don’t think I’ve shared a pic of that, so here is what our “office-computer-music-“TV”-library” room looks like!

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.

Down we go to the Donkey House (I need to take a pic of that one day, maybe I should make a post that is just the buildings, etc. of the island….) I digress!  When you walk up the stairs from the Cove (or in this case walking back down to Cove), you come to our Welcome area. It has a map of the island, rules while on the island, a pic of the New Caretakers Newsletter, etc. plus lots of random lobster buoys that wash up around the island.

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.

Thursday, June 2nd – Good Morning – today started out pretty cloudy and a little chilly so we’ll be doing some inside tasks at least this morning.  We have a picture of Steve using his new mug!  In case it’s hard to read, his coffee cup says “YOU are my sunshine…. my only sunshine.”   That’s my “B+” husband Steve!  If you see him with his buff on his head – it means it’s chilly in the house! We opened up the futon in the LR because it was all wet!  Best we can figure is one of our bags coming up from the boat yesterday had a wet bottom!  Wet doesn’t dry too quickly here.

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.

Well before you know it, it’s the end of the day.   Dinner becomes the next order of business.  Put on some music and begin to prepare Chicken Stroganoff over “fake” pasta.  My go to recipe is in my GE Food Processor cookbook at home. I have a few recipes from this cookbook, but no longer have the food processor! So, Steve looked up one or two on the internet.  He stood near the front window where he can get a little service.  Fake pasta is the pasta made with chickpeas…..It’s really pretty good and very filling.  It turned out delicious!  It had a few different ingredients, which fortunately we had, compared to our go-to recipe and we may even like it better!  I know your salivating and I should have taken a picture – sorry didn’t think of it!

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!

It’s pretty chilly today and all our mowing and weed whacking are done for the week.  Steve spent part of his day just checking the systems (cistern, sump pump, solar battery) and reading his current book.   The one he is reading now is Pieces of Her by Karin Slaughter.  I saw a boat out in the water going by the island and though that would be a lot of guests to visit Seguin as it was a little cruise ship that leaves out of Portland.   Then I headed off to the whistle house (the original fog signal building, that would make a good post) as I needed to get on the network and send Cyndy my blog and some pictures.  Coast Guard did not make it today.  Oh well, they will get here eventually, I’m sure.

We watched the movie Dunkirk in the late afternoon as all our work for the day was done.  It was towards the end of WWI.  Pretty depressing actually – the story followed a few people throughout that phase of the conflict.  Then we prepared dinner and had a “picnic” (that’s what our kids called it when they got to eat dinner and watch TV at the same time)!  We pulled out an electric blanket as it is still pretty chilly in the house and watched Aladdin on our laptop, we love the adult humor.  Eventually the house will begin to warm up once the air temp warms up which will be when the ocean starts to warm up a few degrees, so it could be a while!

Saturday, June 4th – Busy day around the island today.  For some reason I was awake at 5:00 a.m. again.  I do love to see sunrise if there is one – can’t remember if there was as I don’t have a picture!   I worked on a blog post and the corresponding pictures.  We are making some progress but still haven’t been able to post one to the website. From there, on to cleaning our stairs to the second floor and a small enclosed porch on the front of the house. 

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. 

Steve mowed the main property around the house.  He does like riding the mower!  I worked in the gift shop, setting things up, folding the swag, putting them in bags, etc.  As I was pulling out the inventory for the shop, there was this gray plastic thing…. Any guesses what it is?  I finally had to text Cyndy as I couldn’t figure it out!  Had to pause my efforts in the gift shop as a group of four guests came up the trail, a set of parents, their son and his girlfriend.  She had not been to Seguin before, so it was all new to her – time for a tour!  Fun group. Trying to remember to take a few pics of the guests as we are meeting people from all over.

Last activity today was to start clearing the garden of the weeds, etc.  Next thing you know, the 5:00 whistle blows and we stop for the day, grab our beverage and off to the Cove to watch mother nature! Before I sat down though, one last task.  I needed to rake the Clivus, that is our public “bathroom.”  It’s not really a bathroom, but I agreed to do the maintenance for this building.  Today, we saw a group of ducklings, I counted 10, swimming with Mom and Dad.  As the evening progressed, the sky remained clear for another spectacular sunset, including Mt. Washington – just beautiful

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?