The team of Barb, Tom, Rich & Cathy headed to the island on a foggy Saturday morning to open the station for the summer. They found things in good order with only a few limbs down from winter storms.
In their first few days, they’ve commissioned water and solar systems, mowed, opened up buildings, and begun installing an “on demand” shower system.
All trips are, of course, weather-dependent but here’s what we’re thinking. We hope to have continuous occupancy from early June through the first week of September. Do come visit! We love sharing this work we’re passionate about and engaging others in the project.
Our season opening is planned for the week of June 6.
The week of June 13 hosts our inventory and cleaning team and will get a start on interior painting.
The June 20 team plans to continue lead-remediation on the Assistant Keeper’s apartment used for volunteer housing, complete window restoration in that apartment and construct the final removable window covers for the remaining first floor windows that are currently secured with plywood and multi-purpose screws.
June 27 is dedicated to landscaping projects; trimming, trail maintenance, et. al.
Our “engineers” team is scheduled for July 3, continuing work on the lantern room, lawn mower maintenance and hosting a plaster repair contractor to work on the 1867 lighthouse ceilings and walls. If you’ve followed our Facebook feed, you’ll see they’ve been at work this winter preparing parts for installation. <–lantern room work was suspended and plaster work cancelled as well. The team will instead start the “lean to” and various other projects.
The July 11 team’s key focus is replacing boards on the boathouse using hemlock that was staged last summer.
July 18th’s team will paint the boathouse and continue with interior painting. They also plan to clear moss from the Assistant Keeper’s roof and treat it with a deterrent. A donor has provided funding for foundation repairs on the boathouse.
July 25 will work to remove residual tile from the 1867 Lighthouse kitchen floor. Other projects may include stripping doors in the Assistant Keeper’s and completing open projects from prior team’s efforts.
August 1 is currently unstaffed due to cancellations. Sorry, we’ll be unable to give tours this week without prior coordination.
August 8 brings the Carpenter team out again with plans of adding a “lean to” to the storage shed to help provide streamline access for seasonal tools and equipment. There’s also picnic table repair and the ever-present landscaping projects.
August 15 through September 5 hosts team Rollins, our initial “camper keepers” from 2015. They will be restoring door hardware and refitting doors throughout the Assistant Keeper’s as they did for the lighthouse years ago. They also hope to pick up some of the work from the cancelled August 1 team.
Season closing will be on or about September 5. As we’ll be closing up buildings and winterizing equipment, if you care to visit, best to do it prior to this date.
Buildings are secured. The flag is down. The closing team has returned home.
We’re thankful for an excellent season.
Sandra White photo.
Jim got to work caulking and painting the workshop trim he replaced on his prior trip. He also installed the station sign above the door.
Others on the team continued with grounds work. The lighthouse is increasingly visible with this season’s hillside brush removal.
The season closing team of Sandra, Linda, Cathy, Tom & Jim headed out this morning. If plans hold, they will return Tuesday afternoon.
One of the remaining projects was repairing this broken window pane on one of the tower windows.
The team scoped this out on their prior trip, allowing appropriate supplies to be procured. While glazing can be patched in place, removing old glazing & glass and reinstalling new is best done on a flat surface.
Unfortunately, it was the top sash with an issue, necessitating removal of both the upper and lower sash in the frame.
Once out, the old glazing is removed. A layer of bedding is laid, the glass set, points installed and then glazed. It’s actually the points that hold the glass — the glazing make the window watertight. Here’s their work station in the second story hall.
Note the new paint in this area courtesy of Kathy Sanders and her team a few weeks back!
Ben is inserting the stops that hold the upper sash. Once secure, he inserted the lower sash and the stops on each side the hold both sash against the frame.
Meanwhile, James has been at work mowing, weed-whacking and edging. One can see from the color variation on the sidewalks that he removed a lot of extraneous material. Not only does this look nice, but it will help minimize water accumulation and freeze/thaw damage.
All photos courtesy of Jim Greenwell
The grass will need to go for awhile as there’s a gap until the closing team arrives in early September.
Ben’s been working on the summer kitchen floor repair for several days now. The “soft” floor was even softer underneath. After all the old material was cleared away, he could start to rebuild the supports. Trying to remove as little historic material as possible, he had to angle and piece wood to create a stable base.
And here’s the result!
Meanwhile, Jim’s been replacing a badly cracked soffit.
Close up:
Another job nicely done is shown below.
Everything these last few days has been up high or down low. That makes hard work even harder. Whew!
Great work, Team 7! Your work is appreciated.
Soffit reconstruction and painting is complete. Doesn’t it look nice?
Ben continues reworking the summer kitchen floor. As yesterday’s photo showed, there was a lot of rotten wood to clean out, supports to be rebuilt and only then can the flooring itself be repaired.
James meanwhile has been clearing behind the 1867 Lighthouse and Assistant Keepers Quarters.
The team is finishing up the soffit work and starting on their next challenge — floor and foundation repair in the summer kitchen.
The original construction is all “true dimension” lumber so repair parts will need to be fabricated to fit. This is another of those “bigger than a breadbox” projects one runs into maintaining historic buildings.
Photo credit: Jim Greenwell
The “carpenter team” arrived noonish and started in immediately to complete work on the rear soffit around the gutter. They had replaced the majority of the soffits on their earlier trip this summer. In this corner, they reconfigured a troublesome downspout connection but needed some specific wood to complete the repair properly.
James (left) and Ben on scaffolding. Jim Greenwell photo.
The team plans to spend a week working on a variety of projects.