Sept/Oct 2023 Island Trip – Day 13

We did a repeat… Stayed up too late and slept in. As well as the evening went, we needed our own evening after the elders headed out. We are going to adult tonight… It should be easy as we have abundant left overs and are both tired.

We continued to work in the buildings today, including bring one of dad’s darkroom cabinets over to the upper barn. This task was made easier with help from our AN who stopped by to help sort-out barn electrical, and show my DH how to daisy chain the abundant electrical outlets that need to be replaced in the lower barn. I think my favorite part was organizing/repopulating the shelving in the upper barn… One bank is all garden supplies. Paint supplies and caulk have their two shelves (paint is in the pump room because it shouldn’t freeze), cleaning supplies are organized from oversized, to household, to more industrial. My DH is setting his shop space up in the NW corner of the building, close to the stove where it’ll be warm in the winter. This is SO satisfying. Sure, I get that not everyone will get why. It’s like the follow up to the estate sale. The taking back the space that has achingly, slowly been heading toward you. Teasing you with its potential, and here we are. And has we thoughtfully repopulate the upper barn, the lower barn is emptying, leaving me wondering exactly how I want to set it up as studio space. My favorite moment today was when the darkroom cabinet moved from the wall, and I saw the water line our AN had stubbed out when he and his son ran water up to Stella. I am grateful.

We carefully loaded firewood in the truck up to the wheel wells, hoping to bring home my mom’s large, and devastatingly heavy oak bookcase. The case will fit in the back of the truck above the wheel wells. We got stymied on how to protect the bookcase finish if loading the bookcase face down, or protecting the back from getting damaged if loading it face up. Then there was the issue of the two of us being able to get it in the truck… When I realized I was on the cliff edge on an anxiety event over our lack of strength (we almost damaged ourselves getting it from the house to the barn in 2018) and ability to the protect the case from lumpy bumpy firewood, I suggested that we place it in the lower barn and I’ll work on hiring some muscle to load the shelf when I’m back up in a few weeks. We will need to hire help at our mainland home to unload too!

We paused for a snack, and then I walked over to my neighbor to the east to return a tupperware. We chatted for 30ish minutes. On my way back, I paused at the house to pick up a few things of mine the tenants had, put tools away, did a couple other chores, and have been hanging out in Stella since.