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.