August Island Trip – I

I spent Friday through Sunday on the Island. Tim was a lovely host and we engaged in our often written about, and occasionally acted upon fish sacrifice. I bought a whole black cod Thursday, filleted it Friday evening at Tim’s (never filleted a black cod before. Did OK!), and bake/broiled it. It was stunning. Suffice to say we ate well. I brought the other half of it back home, and my DH and I cooked it on the BBQ last night. Again, stunning. No wonder it was my father’s favorite fish.

The trip, of course, had many facets. The most important was to sign documents with the new tenants. They are lovely, childhood best friends who both work at the local hospital, and were referred by my outgoing tenants. They are excited about the gardening potential on the property.

I mowed, a lot. This mow job should last until the rains start again (late Sept/early Oct). I am SO appreciative of my eldest daughter’s gift of Jane’s riding mower. Having the ability to take care of mowing the two acres closest to the house, easily, is a pleasure. I do need to hire someone to take care of routine mowing as I can’t run up every two week to mow ;->. I have some referrals.

I spent a lot of time going through boxes, particularly when the temperature advanced Saturday and Sunday. I got through a dozen boxes, and was able to sort them into three categories: Keep, sell at the estate sale, and sell at the Island high end consignment. In the last 3.5 years I’ve packed up and out mom’s Mainland house, her Island house and her AL apartment. Having all of those boxes, finally, in the same place feels like an accomplishment. Going though them with a new outlook is mostly such a lighter experience than packing them up.

I replaced a piece of trim in the master bedroom between the wall and ceiling. Years ago my dad decided this 3/8” by 3/4” trim should be removed from the house. He stopped the project in the bedroom, but left a piece that was snapped off leaving a jagged edge. My DH created a replacement piece for me, and predrilled it for me. I found some antique caulk and did my best to blend the trimmed original end of trim and the new piece. It’s a big improvement. After painting the new trim piece, I wandered the house and touched up the walls. I fought my compulsion to repaint, not that I had time to. I think these walls are going to look mottled (from smoke damage no matter how well I cleaned them) until there’s 10 coats of paint on them!

I took the larger weed whacker into the local equipment shop for repair (it’s priming bulb is a goner), and gave them a credit application. I don’t really want an open charge account with them, but this is the only way I can maintain their records of my parents equipment repairs, which is now my equipment. Having the history is important. Having an account also allows me to authorize others to take my gear in for repair, which is very convenient.

From there I filled up my mower gas container at the one place on the Island that sells gas without ethanol. This means I can be a shitty equipment owner and not drain my equipments’ gas tanks each winter 😜.

After almost 4-years of trying I found a family who was eager to adopt my parents full-sized upright freezer. It’s an avocado colored fixture of my childhood. I was as thrilled as they were. I was also able to give away some fencing stakes over the weekend to a young couple who really needed them.

A lot of time was spent moving things from one place to another in and between the barns. We’ve gotten them clear and clean enough to focus on that sort of detail. It really feels good!

I left earlier than I had planned. While accomplishment is a fantastic thing, slicing and dicing your parents belongings takes an emotional toll, and I had hit my limit. I popped into my nearest neighbor for a brief visit, and then put the truck in the ferry line. It was a good trip with the right amount of all accomplishments, social (distant) and work. We’ll be back in 10-days.