Maritime Heritage Alliance’s Champion delivered a crew to the island Tuesday and anchored overnight. An unfavorable weather forecast suggested it was best to return to Northport rather than staying out longer. Conditions at 0700 this morning were nonetheless lovely.
The plan is to return to the island Friday to pick up the volunteer team.
People may not understand how much work goes on behind the scenes to make island time productive. This post reflects this week in FILA.
Shown here: restored original window sash, recreated sash for missing windows, custom offset hinges for shutters, shutter dogs from “House of Antiques”, refurbished metal window stops for the skeletal tower….delivered today to the DNR from volunteers in Muskegon who coordinate many of our offseason projects.
Yesterday, a team of volunteers and Board members spent hours developing a plan to get lumber, cement and materials like this to the island. To put our efforts in perspective, this is our third set of plans after two earlier scenarios fell through. This place is hard to get to and restoration requires a lot of stuff. Suffice to say, it’s challenging.
A Board member from our “Sunday crew” is arranging to get landscaping equipment repaired and buying a new grant-funded blower to help improve sidewalk maintenance. (That’s an interesting story in itself…the station has an extensive network of sidewalks connecting the buildings….an assessment last year suggested the best thing we could do to extend their life was to keep them free of debris and water.) Toward this effort, another Board member donated an edger that went out Sunday.
A carpenter team from South Bend, IN made the final purchases of supplies for their team (to be reimbursed….we’re grateful for people’s labor but do offer to make volunteers “whole” financially for direct supplies for the island.)
Yet another team is meeting by zoom Wednesday to help make sure they have everything ready for their projects.
Am thinking there’s a team organizing paint supplies for our next trip.
Our thanks to the efforts of Mark, Peter, Carl, Doug, John, Karen, Cathy, Linda, Kathy, Phil, Jim, Marty & Tom whose efforts are reflected here.
Care to join us?
Joel, Cathy, Pete, Linda and Will accompanied captain Jimmy for an afternoon trip to the island via Bear, Manitou Transit’s new landing craft.
Linda writes: “Quite a trip out to the island yesterday! The good news is that all the buildings look great–we got a bunch of lawns mowed….did a quick survey of the buildings. Cathy brought the broken weed whacker off and we brought out the edger and planer, as well as a bunch of kitchen stuff.”
An assessment was made on a couple roofing matters with plans made to resolve. A partially downed tree over the Fog Signal sidewalk will require attention on a future trip.
Off to a good start to our 17th island season.
Plans are forming up. Look for our first teams on the island the week of June 5. We’ll have teams “on island” at various times throughout the summer. The grounds are open to the public. The buildings are open based on volunteer availability. If you are planning to go out, please shoot us a note at southfoxisland@gmail.com.
New this year: we are using a contracted landing craft for some of our trips this year. This may allow us to offer a limited number of slots to take visitors to the island for a day trip when we are doing team drop offs and pickups. We’re still investigating options as landing safely on the island remains tricky. Likely cost will be $200 per person. To be placed on our “interested list”, please contact Catherine at cya2356@yahoo.com or send an email to southfoxisland@gmail.com
Josh Cohen, Lead Ecologist for the Michigan Natural Features Inventory, a part of Michigan State University Extension, is out at the station with three other ecologists. They have a contact with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources Wildlife Division to conduct vegetative mapping and ecological surveys on state land on South Fox and North Fox Islands. This project is part of a broader effort to evaluate the ecological integrity of islands across the Great Lakes.
They are collaborating with the Natural Resources Department of the Little Traverse Bay Bands of the Odawa Indians who have provided their boat and boat captain to transport the team.
Josh reports “We are excited to visit South Fox Island. It is truly one of our state’s most amazing places.”
Some serious indoor prep…Kathy S is tackling the stairway, I scraped and painted the kitchen, and Cathy A attacked the blue room…it is scraped! The outdoor team —- Karen, Sandra, and Audrey —is making serious headway…cleared all around the fog signal building and Audrey is our tractor driver extraordinaire…
Team 11, the all women’s team comes out via member Tim Statler’s boat, replacing the “carpenters + 2 team.” Lot’s done this past week: two additional pairs of permanent shutters installed, painting, window glazing. maintenance barn “hardened up” and repainted, stone placed in barrels to help support the boathouse doors, skeletal tower stairway windows secured, lighthouse back steps repaired, fog signal doors painted, historic light pole stabilized, recreated stairway spindles installed, more of the lighthouse lantern room opened up, workshop screen door restored and re-installed. Every building got at least some TLC this trip.
Life is good, both for us and this historic lighthouse that is getting lots of attention this summer.
Team #10 is scheduled to depart tomorrow after a two day weather delay. Was reminded of Phil von Voigtlander’s admonition a decade ago the first time my husband was “stuck” on the island. “They are safe there. We are safe here. Let’s keep it that way.” That philosophy still stands.
Eric and Lorinda have enjoyed their time this past week. The “carpenter + 2″team (Ben, Jim, James, John & Karen) are anxious to get out and start their projects, completing the maintenance barn; installing restored windows, shutters and screen doors; and painting, lots of painting.
There’s tremendous teamwork in this group. Earlier this summer, Cathy Allchin stepped in to lead two teams when another team member had a close friend enter hospice. Two weeks from now, two friends will co-lead “her” team as she deals with aging parent issues. With Lightkeeper “down”, boater Steve Redding will do tomorrow’s transport with Joerg as navigator. Former board member, Tim Statler, will help us out the following week. Members have been delivering supplies to outgoing boats, greeting incoming trips, offering housing to out-of-towners….the list goes on. Thanks to all of you who help make this project happen.
Update from Lorinda & Eric Maki: “Coast Guard J-hawk paid us a visit this morning. Circled the station twice, then headed to the north part of the island. Rained a lot last night, but no high winds. Been very still the past two days.”
And yes, we do have a plan to get our keepers off the island, though the forecasted weather is causing us to adjust plans day by day. These guys are sports….giving a polite “thank you” to our updates and heading back to work.
Current keeper Lorinda Maki checking in:
“Good news, I HAVE CELL Signal on South Fox! Bad news, the boat lost an engine bringing us out yesterday and now we are sort of stranded. Oh well, time to get to work! First project putting window covers on the Assistant Keepers Duplex.”
And, they are, indeed, hard at work. They sent images of two completed new style winter covers on the Assistant Keeper’s west apartment parlor. Our goal for the season was two upgraded window coverings. Between Rollins and Makis, we’ll have 10!