First Night in Stella!

Also know as October 2020 Island Trip Day 1. My truck was so full of things for Stella that the doors barely closed. Yes, I could have packed better, and my last couple of weeks of work, plus mainland house activities didn’t leave me any time to finesse my packing job. 

My Amazing Neighbor arrived right after I did and put me to work immediately. We went over what he’d been up to, including tucking the boat under a big fir tree, and suggested I start moving metal mysteries from where they were on the north side of the lower barn to an existing scrap metal pile. He went to take another alder down (and two more before the end of the day. With his track hoe and chainsaw, he can fell a tree in about 3 minutes. He limbed it and I cleaned up the small stuff. The pile burned all day.

After he headed out, I unloaded the truck while waiting for the appliance guy. The oven in the house needs a new igniter, again. I got the truck emptied and turned my attention to the lower barn where the small “keep” stack of boxes are. I needed plates, silverware, and some sort of vessel to drink from. I found the US Army surplus stainless-steel cups, which match Stella! I quickly felt the familiar over-whelmed feeling, probably because I’ve been through some of them three or four times, and so stopped. The mower looked at me with a wink, and we were off!

Of course, the appliance guy showed up within 4-minutes. He’s going to price the part and get back to me. I went to town to buy 150′ of water hose to get Stella hooked up to the pump equipment’s spigot, called my DH while I had cell service, and returned to mow around the house, most of an acre.

At 5 Stella and I reconvened over a cup of wine to get organized. The Amazing Neighbor returned. That’s when the two additional trees came down. The fire was going good when he left me in charge of it… I kept my eye on it while continuing to unpack. After things were looking good in Stella, I walked back over in the mostly dark, scaring a deer from its sleeping spot, and tossed branches back into the center of the now much reduced fire.

Dinner and some Stella manual study made for a good conclusion to a busy and productive day.

Tomorrow my DH walks on the boat. I’ll pick him up at 10, give him lots to do, and will have dinner with Tim.