April/May 2025 Island Trip – Day 1

I am becoming a refrigerator jujitsu expert. We basically empty the mainland fridge upon our departure, minus condiments, plus items specifically purchased for the trip, housed in the garage fridge, and Tetris it all into Stella’s much smaller fridge. Yeah, we have the larger fridge in the barn for overflow (its teeny freezer is at capacity), and somehow it’s a challenge I rise to 😏. Mission accomplished! But when I open the door, single serving guacamoles attack. 😂

The drive up was punctuated with tortured caterwauling. 🐈‍⬛ He finally settled down after an hour. When we got into the ferry line I took him in his carrier out to a table and bench thinking he’d enjoy the smells and sights. I think he did, but he talked about the great indignity he’d just endured. As usual, once set loose in Stella he strutted around like he owned the place, which he kinda does. Today is his 13th birthday 😻.

After disgorging the car into Stella, and having lunch, I spent three hours mowing. The grass is hearty… The mower is too after its second repair! And I’m driving it carefully because while it’s essentially rebuilt, it’s not new. There’s probably five more hours of mowing, made easier because the areas that Miguel mowed aren’t 2’ high!

Tomorrow after breakfast we’re going to have a (permitted) burn. I’ve been loading up the burn materials over the last year on a large stump of a former alder. It took too long to realize that the way to knock down the mostly rotten stumps of the long gone alders is to have the burns on top of them. This is in a very wet area, so I’m not worried about roots catching fire and spreading. And if they did, it’s field.

It’s good to be here. The neighborhood noise is so much quieter. For the last week on the mainland there’s been a very noisy (paving?) project going on. It’s loud at our place. What must it be like for those who live next door 😢. Here, cars going up the road are audible, a voice caries on the wind, and a large vehicle on the ‘main’ road below are heard from time-to-time.’ Right now the frogs are singing a symphony. My DH found one hanging out on one of the propane tanks when he went to turn them on. Nice neighbors.