October 2020 Island Trip – Day 4

The day started with tea and hard boiled eggs accompanied with a list review.

I started by loading aluminum window frames into the truck. I never knew these existed. Our Amazing Neighbor unearthed them, probably, when moving the boat. He told me where to take them for recycling. I also moved additional non-aluminum mysteries to the other metal pile. This cleared the way for our neighbor to finish cleaning the lower barn’s north side overhang of ‘antique yard art,’ also known as rusting tractor parts.

The replacement heater for the trailer was a fail as its lowest temperature was 64 degrees. Our goal is to keep Stella from freezing (55 degrees in the coach will do), not keep her at almost livable temps when we’re not there. I packed it up to return it after dropping off the aluminum.

Once back from town I spent time closing down Stella and the buildings. The previous evening’s reading made emptying the grey water and water heater easy. Creating new routines for unhooking and stowing 150′ of water hose, dealing with all that had to be removed from Stella, taking care of items I wanted to put away, and making sure the shower was dry, took less time than I thought it would. I ended up bringing a LOT of towels, I had used to pack with, home for a wash. They all smelled musty. Now we get to choose which ones to take back… What’s kind of funny about the towels is we have matches at home to some of what was on the Island. Mom was always generous with what she thought was extra anything in her life. It’s like a reuniting of towel tribes!

I set the electric oil heater, I had hoped to replace, back up set on low, and went off to plant herbs for us and the tenant. Cleaning up my mom’s little raised bed felt good. I unearthed a healthy rosemary and added two more. Dad always said to have an excess in case a cold snap got to one of them. I also added thyme and found a couple of mints.

My last chore with Stella was to vacuum her. She is mostly carpeted. I predict a change in her flooring as carpet and the country don’t go well together.

In closing up the barns, I also set an electric oil heater up in the pump room. Good thing because it was 36 degrees on the Island this morning!

I spent time picking up the glass that had come out of those aluminum window. I’d never seen huge amounts of broken glass under the fir. There are a batch of very crispy 5-gallon buckets slated for the dump. Two are now filled with glass shards. I’ll use some of those now empty boxes for the rest. One can spend only so long on their haunches fishing glass out of the soil. If this chore is done in 8-months, I’ll be happy.

I had time to take a long walk around the property before heading to the boat. One of the apple trees had a piece of fruit hanging a short jump off the ground. It was delicious. My walk informed me, of course, of things I’d like to do. It’s very different from ‘city living.’ In town I want to remodel our kitchen, incorporate the atrium into the house, and finish replacing the windows in the house. On the Island I want to weed whack a area of rushes and clean up the hidden half rotten pallet the rushes are hiding. It’s 4-hours work, and in 6-weeks the area will look like it’s always been mowed field grass. I want to gather up all trashed fencing and dead lumber into a burn pile. I want to find someone who wants the huge downed fir for firewood. I want to pick up the things my folks couldn’t and make the place look like I think they’d have liked it to. And in that process it’ll look like is should. My take away from my walk was gratitude.