Sunday July 19, 2015
66 degrees w 2 mph winds
Day 66

Thunderstorms last night, fog this morning with the fog signal sounding.  By 8:30 we could tell the sun was trying to break through the fog…only thing is…now it’s getting hot for the first time since we got here.  Even my ladies that are normally cold are getting warm!

Our overnight guest next door said they had a good night, they have been using the little vestibule area by our front doors as their dining room…pretty smart!  This morning they look like they are ready to go exploring the island.

My girls did great last night over on our side….only thing is I had forgotten to get blankets brought over here, but we did fine.

Mary woke saying, “I smell Blueberry Pancakes!”…yep…Larry was down fixin breakfast.  He spoils me and now he’s spoiling them.  He has also known these ladies since he was 11.  We sat around talking about things that happened on our street….births, deaths, school and its events….about momma burning the bridge! That’s another story.  
Momma cleaning

Momma was telling us about when storms/hurricanes were coming to Seguin…they would have to “Batten down the hatches”….this meant that they would tie ropes and cables from the metal rings and post that are sticking out of the rocks…to put over the diesel tanks because the storms could sometimes blow them away. 
Me, Jo Nell and Mary on the catwalk

Jo Nell and Mary
We took the girls up to the tower to walk the catwalk…they loved it…well Mary and Jo Nell did, Darlene and Momma said they had to stay down and take photos of us from the ground.  While we were up there, a group of five guys came up to see the island….they had come by their own boat.  They asked the best place to fish around the island…I told them what the other guys had said…they toured the museum and went down to get in their boat and go fishing.  I told him I hadn’t seen any lobster boats today…he told me that they don’t go “lobstering” on Sundays in July and August, and maybe September…I learn something new every day.
 
Our only visitors today...they are ready to go fishing
Lunch…it was a hodgepodge of leftovers…Hotdogs, chicken potpie, pork loin…then there was a little dump cake left so we had to finish it off.
Enjoying the views

Today we are going to tour the basement…momma’s going to tell us about everything down there…what was the same and what is different.  There are four cisterns and we only use one…there were oil drums in the basement, she’s not sure what they were used for and she isn’t sure how the radiators worked.
My living room...full of company

The girls moved back to the other side, made beds, cleaned.  We wanted to go back down to the cove about 6:30, but the fog is thick, it’s wet outside and it’s turned cold.  We played cards while Larry “tried” to take a nap!  We can’t help it if our laughing and giggling was too loud.  We enjoyed chocolate bars!
Jo Nell in our guest rooms



Mary and Darlene in the other guest rooms
Momma in the guest rooms
We are having Spaghetti and Meat Sauce with garlic toast and salad (from my garden) for supper.  It was fabulous and when we were done, the girls went to cleaning the kitchen….talk about a great life…Larry cooks and the girls clean…I’m here on Seguin with my love and momma, what more could I ask for!


Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father.    Matthew 5:16

Saturday July 18, 2015
61 degrees w/14 mph winds
Day 65

The seas look rough and it “looks” cold outside.  The sun is trying to peek through the clouds.  So I don’t know what the day will look like. 

The girls are up, coffee and conversation, giggling and laughing….this is good, I needed this.  By the way, we have solved all the world’s problems! 
The overnight guest after their tower tour

Late evening yesterday, we walked down by the Whistle House/Fog Horn Building….Mom said they called it the Engine House…she also told us about the three generator engines….Waukeshaw engines (sp?)…she told how when you would turn them on and off, you would have to raise one lever while at the same time lower another lever.  Once dad and the other two keepers were court-martialed because the diesel “froze” and the generators wouldn’t work, so the light was out….really??? like they had or could do anything about keeping the diesel from freezing.

She said the well house wasn’t here when we were here.  Our fresh water came from boats coming along the NW side of the island and then they would “shoot” a line to us and we would fill the cisterns.  She is still in amazement of all the vegetation on the island….there was nothing…just rock!

Larry got up early and started breakfast…Breakfast Burritos and picante sauce.  As always it was gooooood!!
Its almost 10am and it’s started raining…guess it will be a day of card games, eating and good family conversation. 
Momma telling us about the room beside the tower

These women who have come with momma are neighbors that I have known since going back home to Texas at age 2.  They have loved me, spanked me, and done amazing things for me….they are my other momma’s!  Their children are the same age as Larry and me.  We went to High School together, were part of each other’s lives, football, baseball, band, and weddings, etc…  We played “hit the dirt”, which meant when a car would be coming down the road, we had to “hit the dirt” and hide…we would leave our homes early in the morning and not go back home till late evening…we drank from water hoses, etc...
Momma coming up the tower stairs

Moving the girls to our side now…cleaning and changing sheets and making sure it’s good to go for our overnight guest coming with Ethan this morning.

About 11 am the fog horn went off…momma almost laughed at the fact that it isn’t making the sound that it used to.  I told her that the USCG had said it was only working at about 25% of what it was suppose to.  It is louder than it had been.  But this was the first for her and the other girls to hear it…a moment in time!

Larry has gone down to greet our overnight guest…it’s sprinkling, hate that they are having to come up in this weather.

I’ve been showing them “all” the photo’s I’ve taken since we got here…the good and the bad.

Momma told us of the phone in this house…it was only to contact the other houses or the CG Station on Popham Beach.  If you needed a real phone, you had to go next door to the head guy’s house and use that one.

We have been talking and laughing and eating…its been a great day.

Around 3 pm the temp is the same, but the wind speed is now up to 18 mph….the fog horn has stopped…our ladies next door are settling in.  They are wanting to grill tonight...hopefully the weather will be kind.

Larry gave the guest a tour of the tower, they are enjoying themselves.  We went up afterwards…the first for everyone except momma.  Mary wanted to sweep the tower…so she did…from top to bottom!!  Can I saw wow…she is 87 and I only hope I am going and doing as well as she is…I think she’s lying to us.
Mary sweeping the top level of the tower

All the way down...every step!
Mary finishing the tower sweeping...memories!
We started preparing for dinner as well as our guest…Larry helped them with the grill, helping them with something to put their steak and salmon on, getting a spatula, etc…  After their food was finished, he put our meat on the grill…he fixed pork tenderloin that he had marinated, I picked lettuce and spinach out of the garden, then we also made some “smashed” potatoes…cooked, smashed and grilled potatoes.  
Three of our four overnight guests...with Larry entertaining them with some "Texas" humor.

The first products from my garden...lettuce and spinach
The ladies are complaining!  They wanted to maybe lose a pound or two walking the island and here Larry is fattening them up.  A little dump cake for dessert too!
Momma pretending to work...the other girls just finished washing dishes and cleaning the kitchen

The ladies have all done some jobs around the place…sweeping, cleaning the bathrooms, washing dishes, hanging out the damp towels, folding and putting them away…..I want them to stay!!
 
Momma sitting in her old kitchen...the photo next to her left side is a photo of when we were here in 1960

We didn’t have any other visitors except our overnight guests.  It was a day to relax and not have any outside work.
Friday July 17, 2015
Day 64

63 degrees w/ 8 mph winds…its going to be a beautiful day.

I woke at 7:30 and could hear all the girls talking and laughing…it was a good sound.  Mary who has trouble seeing now is loving outside…it’s bright.  She’s also a water girl…she and Wendall, her husband taught us how to water ski, they loved the water!
Mary enjoying the morning, the sea breeze, and the sea gulls

Larry got up early and has started breakfast….Blueberry pancakes and bacon.  Momma was a little sore yesterday from coming up the hill, but says she feels great this morning. 
Blueberry Pancakes

We ate and got ready to enjoy outside…first I had to add some inventory to my gift shop…they had a few purple and lime green ladies shirts!  They want to do a trail…so I took them to the South Trail.  It was difficult, but they did it.  They are enjoying this island so much and I would keep them here for the rest of our time here on the island, but they think they have to go home. 
Girls getting ready for the South Trail

At the vista part of the South Trail..they are loving this, they might not go home and that would be ok
The trail was a little rougher than I remembered...Momma gonna kill me for putting this on the blog...I'm proud of them all
At the end...now we have to go back....WHAT
So very proud of them all!!
We sat and rested and drank our ice tea on the front porch.  I knew Ethan would be here soon, so we were watching for our visitors.  Ethan only had about 10 today and they all enjoyed their visit. 

I did my tours of the museum and gift shop and gave info about the trails, while Larry went up to the top of tower for his tours.  Mom and the girls went in and made them some lunch and I joined them a little later after Ethans group went back to the cove.  We had a couple of individual groups come up.  One couple showed me a photo of their Maryland license plate…SEGUIN….They slightly love this place…I asked when they were going to be keepers…he said as soon as they retired!

A couple of large ships, cruise ships I guess came by and I was able to show the girls. 

I just found out I’ve got overnight guest tomorrow night.  I’ve got to get my girls moved over to my side and change sheets, etc… 

I have leftover marshmallows from when the gb’s were here so mom’s going to make fudge….YEAH!

We had a late visitor today….Brett Auclaire, she was the one who swam from Popham Beach to Seguin yesterday.  She has done this three times, doing this every ten years.  She came back by Kayak today to get t-shirts for her husband, plus she wanted to come kiss Seguin…she love it here! It was good to meet her, she talked with my girls and signed some papers for them to give to Mary’s gb’s.
The girls with Brett Auclaire...and bandit

The girls had not seen the cove except for coming in at high tide, so we went down and looked for sea glass, shells and rocks to take back to Texas to grandbabies.  They had fun.  
Larry helping Jo Nell, my momma and Mary find sea glass

We headed back to the top and started dinner.  As we left the cove we saw a sailboat coming into the cove, I waved a couple of times, but wasn’t sure they saw me.  I thought they might come up, but never saw anyone. 

Larry cooked grilled sausages, so we had hotdogs, baked beans, and chips.  Later we had dump cake.   Missed sunset visiting and listening to stories…some people might call it solving the worlds problems.

We played cards, this is something I wanted to do while mom was here simply because that is something that they did almost every night back when they were in the early 1960’s.  This was something they did to “help” the one on watch to stay awake.  One guy had to be on watch a night to make sure the light stayed on and that if the fog came in, they would have to go down and start the fog horn.   I came in here to do my blog and Larry took my spot at the cards….I heard mom say she hasn’t really played cards since she was here…no counting playing with the gb’s.