Overwhelmed

The Rotarian work party was absolutely incredible. The amount of work done in a short time, given the challenging weather conditions (strong winds) was fantastic.

I drove up to the property yesterday with a group visiting the island to show them the light house and was blown away by how fabulous the old buildings look. My grin was ear-to-ear. The buildings absolutely gleam and the red doors are great.

Although there is still some painting to be done, the majority has been finished including the small pumphouse, the former boat house from Ross Island - the shed Grimmer Ingersoll used as a workshop, and the keepers house. The boat house beside the keepers house is not painted because a crew started working rebuilding the southern end which had greatly deteriorated. A new sill is in place and corner posts have been cut to replace the rotten ones and it now needs to be resheathed, cedar shingles applied and the doors reinstalled. We hope to get this done in the next two weeks so the building can be enclosed for the winter.

We will be posting photos and other information about the work in the next few days.

Florida Rotarians

The time draws near (next Friday and Saturday) when a group of Rotarians from Seminole, Florida, will be arriving to help us with the buildings on the light keepers property. The paint has been donated and we have arranged for scaffolding. The group will help paint the two buildings at the top of the hill and also the light keepers house, beginning with that building on the weather sides (north and east) and seeing how much they get done.

We are overwhelmed that people from as far away as Florida would take time from their busy lives to help us. The Grand Manan Rotarians will be having their meeting on Friday morning next week instead of Thursday so these Rotarians can attend. There will also be a dinner at Castalia Marsh Retreat for a more casual interaction with each other that night. The following evening, dinner will be at the Inn at Whale Cove and hopeful an evening sail with Whales-n-Sails to see the light house property from the water and the sunset.

Anyone interested in joining in the work and play can meet Friday or Saturday morning at the Swallowtail property.