07 July 2011 Starting the Week Right

Darcy chose to get the week off to a good start (Amy and I count the weeks Wednesday to Wednesday now) by yakking on one of the throw rugs.  He has acres of island, and plenty of wood floor in the house, and he picked a 2’x4’ rug to puke on.   Finding a pile of half-digested dog food on a rug, and watching the dog try to eat it, is not my favorite way to start the day, but it’s what I had.

Paddling Dory ashore to her new home

On the plus side, Dory is now on the island.  Father & I loaded her onto the back of Lovely Linda yesterday afternoon and brought her out to the new home.  In what I took as a good omen, the weather was perfect, and Dory slid right up the ways on the boathouse like she belonged there.  I didn’t even need to use the winch.  For all of you nautically inclined readers, I will not be launching her re-named Dory, I am simply using that as a place holder until I find her a proper name.

Hauling Dory up the ways

While Dory lay on the ways drying out, Amy & I spent the day thinning the garden, which incidenteley led to our first harvest of beet greens, sautéed in garlic they were delicious, and mowing.  Our paying guests in the Museum Quarters were a little miffed with the mowing- they were hoping for a “quite island day”.  Little do they realize, the Sounds of Seguin cd is simply the foghorn alternating with brief periods of two & four stroke engines droning in a never ending cycle.

The garden grows

 Apparently I made up for the mowing with my mandolin playing, much to my surprise.  One of the woman is a contra dancer, new some of the tunes I hacked my way through, and indicated her approval of my playing.  There’s a first time for everything I suppose.

Watching the grass grow taller every passing day, I very much have wanted to get all of the trails cleared, as the longer I waited, the harder it would be.  All that was holding me was the nesting birds; I know that when I am a parent, if Big Bird comes through the nursery with a weed whacker, Oscar and the Snufalupugus will be shy one friend.  As the hatching progressed I was able to get three trails open, but the North Trail, also the longest, remained shut.

Look to the NW, a view not seen yet this summer

 Today I was willing to wait no longer.  I got my gear, Darcy came along to protect me from the vicious gulls, and I went to.  Three hours, one gallon of gas, and about twenty four feet of cutter line later, I had savaged the undergrowth on the north end, and stopped only 50’ short of the termination point, due to an overheating Stihl Weed Cutter.  Darcy & I were covered head to toe in clippings, I was bleeding from thorns coming off the cutter head at 90mph and sticking into my legs, and the gulls were spun into a frenzy.  But the North Trail, for the most part, is open.  The Loop part of it seems to be lost to overgrowth, but I’m gonna find it or cut a new one in the next couple of days.

Aside from trail maintenance we were kept busy entertaining the thirty-odd guests who came to see us today.  One group anchored their 46’ ketch to come ashore, but thoughtfully found a holding ground between the NE point of the island and Seguin Ledges, where they wouldn’t be anywhere near the cable.  If you are reading this, you know who you are, THANK YOU.  That is the way to anchor at Seguin.

At the North Point of the island, watching a fisherman ply his trade

The weather stayed pleasant all day, overcast for the most part, but warm enough I took a swim to wash off the detritus of trail work before lunch.  The wind was NE’ly most of the day, veering to E’ly this evening.  The barometer is holding steady around 29.88”, and we’re expecting clearer weather tomorrow.    

09 July 2011 Dory

The forecast for this morning included patchy fog- apparently Seguin was a patch, because the foghorn never shut off all night, and when we arose this morning visibility was around 100 yards.  This curtailed my ambition to an extreme, as well as Amy’s, so our activities were limited to making coffee, reading, and listening to a man with a burning alternator cause massive confusion on the radio by calling “any Coast Guard Station” for help.  By the time order had been restored on the airwaves, the visibility had cleared, and it turned out this joker was only a mile to the south of Seguin.  For the furor he caused, he looked to be making good time under power, and did not take the most direct route to shore either.  I’m suspicious of the extant of his distress.

After the mayday that wasn’t, the weather improved rapidly, with the fog clearing out completely and the temperature soaring into the high 70F’s.  I spent the bulk of the afternoon working on disassembling the dory that Dad & I brought out on Wednesday.  Like many fixer-uppers, my little dory is turning out to be a bigger project than I anticipated.  I found that the transom is delaminating quickly, and the athwart ship stiffeners are pulling away from the hull.  Given I don’t intend to put this boat to extreme use, I probably will fix most of this with Marine 5200.  Fun project aside, it would be nice to actually launch the dory from the Boathouse and use it, before the summer is over.

The only break I took was to assist a few of our visitors; they had come ashore at low tide using an inner tube.  I looked up from fighting with a stubborn screw to see them debating how to use the small piece of floatation to traverse the bulk of the Cove (it was now high tide) while battling an adverse wind…as predicted the wind had freshened to a moderate NW’ly breeze making the Cove quite choppy.  Needing a break from the task at hand, I volunteered to use our dinghy to row them back to their boat.  This turned out to be a winning proposition for everyone, as once on their boat, they gave me two cold Shipyard Summer Ales, the island a $25 donation, and due to the beer I returned to the dory with more patience than I had previously.

The evening was so beautiful I moved out to the porch to practice mandolin, thus sparing Amy & Mr Darcy, and getting to enjoy the view of the Atlantic to boot.  I managed to talk Amy into leaving windows open tonight, as the clear skies and dying breeze is making for very pleasant sleeping conditions.  With the barometer at 29.9” and rising, and the temp in the high 60F’s, I’m looking forward to another beautiful day tomorrow.

10 July 2011 Vistors & Visitors

I was awoken early this morning by an agitated puppy growling in my ear- he may have had to pee, or he may have been hungry, but either way he was not going to let me sleep past 0600.  Amy got stay in bed for another hour while I got up, let the dog out, fed him, and made coffee.  I finally concluded he mostly wanted attention as once I was on the couch he immediately crawled into my lap and flopped on his back, demanding tummy rubs.  I got my revenge on him though; after twenty minutes of pats I performed the neglected chore of cleaning his ears of hair and impacted Seguin goo.  He gave me a disgusted look and left me alone for an hour afterwards.  Success.

Despite my annoyance, he chose a good morning to get me up early.  The sun was shining, no fog, and light winds.  A perfect day to have visitors, and family, come to the island.  Mom & Dad were coming for lunch, and bringing my Uncle Neil, cousins Chris & Megan, and Chris’ lady friend Katie.  I filled in the couple of hours I had prior to their arrival by continuing to work on Dory.   Once the Fam arrived, I took a morning dip to rinse off, and helped all ashore.

We managed to get about an hour of hanging out before the masses descended on us.  Really, we had a total of 52 visitors today, which is our new record.  Amy & I swapped off giving tours and being friendly, while Dad & Mom got the charcoal lit and started grilling lunch.  Fortunately there was a lull in the visitors at about the time lunch was finished, so we sat down to steak tips, grilled veggies, lobster salad, and fresh bread.  All of us, that is, except for Megan & Chris, who are vegetarian, and ate Boca Burgers.  Their loss.

The day ended as it started, with Amy & I alone on the island, working on Dory, and giving Darcy Dog an undue amount of attention.  Still full from lunch I opted to make a bowl of popcorn for dinner.  The weather remains nice, however the wind has freshened to a gentle S’ly breeze, and with a falling barometer, I expect tomorrow will not be quite so nice.  Perhaps we’ll have a quiet day on island.

11 July 2011 Eating From a Pot

After almost seven weeks I have given up.  Although summer on an island evokes visions of red coals under the grill continuously, Seguin is simply not that kind of island.  The weather is always too cold, too windy, rainy, or so forth, and if it is good grilling weather there is a mob of visitors, which precludes lighting the grill (being prone to grass fires, open flames need constant supervision here).  It is just much easier to throw everything in a pot, turn the heat to low, and let it cook.

As well as easier it tends to be satisfying to the belly too.  Much like when I’m backpacking, even on the hottest days, there is nothing quite like ending the day with a huge bowl of steaming- .  Soups, stew, pasta, curry, you name it, it is good.  And so it is on Seguin too.  I made risotto tonight, we have soup and curry on our menu for next week, and a wistful look at the grill recipes in the weekly paper Father brings out, we couldn’t be happier.

Looking back at the North Trail, cleared for use

 Aside from cooking dinner, my afternoon was occupied primarily with sourdough.  Another batch had become ripe so I started cranking out English muffins, mostly to stock the freezer with, but leaving some out for breakfasts this week.  As it was a hot and sunny day, we also mowed the grass and got the North Trail more thoroughly cleared.  We had two boats of visitors today and otherwise worked uninterrupted.  I got to see a couple of gull chicks on the North Trail; they are growing and moving fast now.  I also located the osprey nest I suspected was on the east side of the island, looking back from the North Point it can be seen clearly.

A solid day of activity left Amy & I pretty tired.  We played a game of cribbage with dinner, made a couple of phone calls, and called it a night early.  The wind has freshened to a moderate S’ly breeze and the clouds are closing in; we’re expecting higher winds and seas in the morning, and maybe some thunderstorms as well.  It’ll probably be an inside project day tomorrow.    

12 July 2011 Island Life According to Amy

As a general rule, the following equation holds true: Sun + Seguin = Lots of Visitors.  The proof lies in the numbers. This week we had 159 visitors, which averages out to 26.5 per day. Consequently, I have cultivated an exceptional farmers tan with limited to no opportunity to even it out.  Something tells me the Friends of Seguin would not be impressed if they caught wind that their Keeper was skipping about in a bathing suite and refusing to give tours because she wanted to work on her tan. 

During the course of a normal summer, I wouldn’t mind. I’m not a sun worshiper, and I’ve never been one to actively “lay out”. There’s a reason Nate affectionately refers to me as Casper.  Here’s the problem this year:  my wedding dress is strapless, and the wedding is Labor Day weekend. 

I’m not sure if it was due to the menacing weather forecast, the hot and muggy air, or the distant rumblings of thunder, but we did not have a single visitor today.  It was also gloriously sunny. I’ll give you two guesses as to what I did today, but I’m pretty sure you’ll only need one.

Nate also took advantage of our sunny yet visitor free day, much to Darcy’s dismay.  Puppy’s broken hip lead to something of a reprieve for him in the realm of haircuts.  Today that reprieve ended.  Nate bathed, dried, and clipped the dog.  To give you an idea of how much Darcy Dog hates this process, I’ll also share that once Nate was finished, Darcy took what we’ve come to refer to as a “stress poo.” A stress poo is an astonishing amount of liquid poo that typically ends up all over his backside and occurs any time Darcy Dog feels particularly stressed. Being lowered down seven feet to Ethan’s boat is another example.  

The clipping process wasn’t as amusing as the first time, and Darcy Dog looks far better the second time around as well (Nate is becoming quite the accomplished poodle barber). Darcy did, however, spend a good chunk of the morning frolicking around with only his front right side and rear left side shorn.  You have to get your kicks where you can.