The Lightkeeper's Blog

The end of November and the beginning of December bring a list of chores to the Light.

There is winterizing to do with windows to dog down and furniture to put out of harm’s way. There is a wreath to hang for the holidays and when the wind blows other jobs come along with the gale.

In the days that followed the last post we had such a wind. It broke the flagpole line and required some problem solving. One approach is to take the pole down and restring the line through the pulley at the top. I have done it before but chose not to this time. I went back to another strategy which is to rig several pieces of wood together, tape a hook to the top and gaff the broken line down to hand high.

The trick this time was to include a fish hook at the top. It caught on the line immediately and the job was done. MacGyver has nothing on me.

Two weeks later it was time for another chore up top. The copper that covers the lantern room has been in place since 1930. Several years ago I recognized that leaking I was seeing in the Tower was due to that copper failing at the seams. A project was proposed, costs developed, and funding approved for replacing the copper. The headache that emerged was that each engineering firm I approached did not respond to my calls. This went on for some time until I was able to get a very skilled engineer named Anne Gilbert to take on the evaluation. What was discovered was that the damage extended beyond the copper to the structure itself.

The Scituate Historical Society has brought forward a plan to restore the Tower. The committee hearings on the project have begun. In the meantime the lantern room has been reinforced as I described here in an earlier post. What I have done over the past few years in an attempt to minimize the leaking is to tape and spray a sealant over the copper joints.

While you are out there on the catwalk you got to take a few other shots.

With the seams addressed and (hopefully) sealed up for the winter, the next step was to vacuum from top to bottom. The Tower is as tight as it can be and as clean as it can be until this project gets all the needed approvals and work on restoration begins.

The wreath went up on Thanksgiving weekend. Each year we take a ride to R&C farm on Route 123 and pick up a wreath and bow. I have become adept over time at rigging it up. The ropes are clipped ahead and some zip ties keep the bow in place. I use the flagpole line to hoist it up, clips go on and with some adjusting I get it centered. We tie it off at the bottom and cross our fingers. The wind has dinged up this year’s wreath a big. It is more of an oval now than it was on day one. Thanks go out to Ronnie and Cindy for all their help over the years.

At the end of November the parking lot was paved to finish the sewer line project. The lot has not been in such good condition since the park was built in 1991.

Yesterday morning I headed out to find a crew preparing to line the lot. Another chore off the list.

The final picture (and the featured image up top) to be shared today is of a trunk; but not just any trunk. This was my Grandmother Delaney’s trunk that has moved from Marshfield to Scituate. It is surely a treasured possession and triggers a ton of stories. Glad to have it.