July 2026 Island Trip – Day 2

At some point in the night I started dreaming about a beep, high-pitched. The dream wrapped itself around the noise. Don’t ask what the dream, was about 😂. At beep #6 I opened my eyes and realized it was the smoke detector. Why, WHY do those fuckers lose their battery power in the middle of the night?? I rummaged through the drawer where we keep batteries and didn’t see a 9-volt, so I put the unit outside on the storage box to the right of Stella’s front door, and went back to bed. I could still hear the blasted thing. I brought it in, took the battery out and went back to bed feeling fairly sure this would not be the night we’d have a fire. After I returned from a trip to town this afternoon, resupplying our 9-volt supply, my DH found a package of them 😏. Guess I don’t see so well in the middle of the night when annoyed.

After a farmer’s brunch, we went out and did farmer things. I got, probably, a third of the mowing done, and my DH fired up the big line trimmer and is as always, my hero 💜. After this I made the town run, and he worked on LJG getting ready for tomorrow’s work day.

Another thing I picked up in town was bug spray and citronella candles. The mosquitoes, before we arrived, figured out how to get in the sealed trailer… The cat is not interested in chasing them. We have killed a solid dozen in the last 24-hours. 🦟

I scrubbed the algae off the west side of Stella today, including getting into the edges of the horizontal trim pieces. She looks SO much better! I’ve been hesitating to do this because our well water is full of minerals. I’d be trading algae for hard water spots. But maybe not… It was time to do something, and the outcome is pretty stunning.

My DH set up our professional grade (rather than garden style) croquet set in Stella’s field! This was a wedding gift from a friend and we’ve (shhhh) never used it. Only because we don’t have enough space to set it up at our mainland home. It’s very cool to have it here, and ready to enjoy!

The cat agreed to go for an extended walk later in the afternoon! We explored quite a lot, and he settled on a nice grassy patch to nibble. He then hung out with us in front of Stella where we have a Temu rug (a gift from Tim), chairs and a camp table set up. During this time of year, it’s nice to have this setup. It’s an auxiliary livingroom! It was great the cat was so chill.

Stella’s slope is sporting a few good plants: three lavenders, two cat mints, rosemary, a spreading lamb’s ear and a vigorous creeping ceanothus. The bees are all over the lavender and cat mint, but are zipping around so fast that I barely got a clear picture of one.

Tim update: He’s still not up for a visit, but we did have a brief chat this afternoon. While recovering from this affliction is not easy, at least he is now struggling with the opposite problem of a bowel obstruction… This, if it keeps up, has its own challenges, but it’s far better managed than being stopped up. His son and daughter-in-law traded care giving places today. As worried as I am for Tim, my heart goes out to his kids as I know they’ve set their lives down to do what they need to do to support Tim. Tim is 1000% cognizant of their dedication, and lets them know.