August II 2023 Island Trip – Day 8

The day was a weather blessing in that it didn’t rain, and didn’t get August hot. I don’t know that I’ll be able to see the Blue Super Moon tonight… fingers crossed!

I finished everything on my long, but not complicated list today. It started by moving weather proof things to the wood shed from the upper barn and lower barn overhang, now that the shed has a little room in it. Next up was addressing the plum tree. I am unsure how many pounds I picked, but one basket was effortful to pick up. The electric fence remains in place as there are lots of plums left for next month’s picking. Just over 8-dozen apples came off the one tree that didn’t get completely decimated by the tent caterpillars! Twice what I thought there was, so probably one batch of apple butter, and one of sauce., but no cider.

Mid-morning, acquaintances stopped by and picked up all the pipe remaining on the south side of the lower barn. They also ‘shopped’ the truck for other pieces of metal. A win-win: They have materials they need/want, and I have another place cleaned up. Alas, my AN didn’t have time to load any of the big scrap into the truck. He’s still Amazing!

I did battle with two wasp nests… One was indeed in Stella’s stove vent where it exits the trailer. The other was behind one of the rock guards on Stella’s curved front windows. I am happy to report I won both battles unscathed, and the front windows are much cleaner! The only casualty, other than wasps, is the light over the stove (the vent and light are all in the same space). As soon as I 1000% know there are no wasps behind the lens for the light (there have been), I’ll tackle that mystery.

My other wildlife encounter was far more pleasurable. My DH and I BBQ’s a small boneless leg of lamb last Thursday night. We enjoyed two meals and had scads left over. My next chance to enjoy it was last night. 5-day old rare lamb is a little too old for me… Today I cut it into raven sized pieces, and wow, were the birds delighted!! They did their usual hopping on the woodshed roof before grabbing the goods and flying off. This was an expensive way to feed our friends. Next time I have a hankering for lamb up here, I’ll get chops.

I wound down my work day by taking our serious wire cutters to the remaining metal pile where there is heaps of tangled fencing. Anything I can get out of there is better than nothing, and as it turned out, there were some actual solid metal pieces I was able to extract from the pile on top of what fencing my hands were up to dealing with. The wire cutters go through most gages of wire like butter, and they’re 18” long and heavy.

My tenants have plums and apples. I’m hoping our buddy who sharpens our knives is still going to stop by this evening to bring me mom’s mushroom hunting knife, but it’s getting a little late (that’s ok), and I’m feeling pretty good about catching the late morning boat, rather than the mid-afternoon.