The Lightkeeper's Blog

We begin today by stating the obvious. The number of visitors is growing day to day.

As I write it is midafternoon on a Sunday. The parking lot is 2/3rds full and families have been walking around the Point and around the Light since 5:00 am. Smithsonian Magazine named Scituate one of its best small towns to visit recently. This uptick could be connected to that as judging from the comments and the questions we hear, very few off the guests are residents.

The last post was from early May. Since there there has been a great deal done around the grounds. Russ Totman Enterprises repaired the beach and used material from the ocean side to do so. The result is that there is a safe way to gain access to the Tower from the Rebecca Road side of things and the boardwalk could be installed. That happened last weekend.

Installing the boardwalk took around 12 hours across three days. I want to offer special thanks to Peter Brennan for stepping in to lend a hand on Saturday. He helped me with several especially heavy pieces while his boys were fishing off the jetty. When they began to throw bait at each other it was time to call it a day.

I would also like to mention Susy Robison who vacations here each summer. She was walking the Point and we discussed my installing the boardwalk the next day. She went home and found volunteers to help me and dropped off six bottles of water. I did not take her up on the extra hands but was touched by her generosity. I also needed each of those six bottles to get the job done.

It was also the time for colors to arrive in the gardens. The Shasta daisies and the hydrangeas were putting on a show. Below you can see a before and after of the enlarged walkway garden. More work is on the way as the Beautification Commission has taken on enlarging and improving the plantings. The process began with the cutting down of trim limbs by the Department of Public Works yesterday.

I jumped in with the weed whacker later on and cleaned up this spot some more. Tomorrow the dying bushes on the left are set to be pulled out. There are already plants on site to convert a spot that was failing into one that is thriving.

Additionally planters are being added along the walkway on the ocean side. This should happen in the next ten days or so. The attention and care of the Beautification Commission is greatly appreciated.

One of my tasks has been to paint. The fence along the boardwalk is half complete. I need the wind to die down and the crowds to shrink some. The fences along the handicap spot and along the Army of Two sign are in the process of being restored. Here is another before and after story. Julie pitched in with the scraping and the painting. We also did the same in the runway. The rose bushes have been cut back to allow better access to the disabled and to allow us to paint. It may be that the roses bushes were all that was holding the paint on the planks.

Cleaning up the floor will follow the last few steps of the restoration project. The contractor has a punch list to address before the relighting. When he has finished that list I will get the floor in better shape. The relighting event will take place on August 7th.

A weather station link has been added to the front page of this blog. Wind speed and direction along with precipitation will be charted from now on. I have had weather stations in the past but not one of such a good quality. I also added a tide chart to that page.

A new camera has been placed in the runway. The image above of the painted walls is quite similar to what you will see with that camera. The bigger news is a camera that pans Scituate Harbor. In roughly a two minute span you will see what I see when I am standing in the yard. From Jericho Road to the open ocean and back again with brief stops going from right to left and one clean swing when going from left to right. Both can be found on the Stahr Family Memorial Web cams link. We remain very grateful for their ongoing support.

One unfortunate piece of news is that the spotlight on the flagpole was smashed. I did not have a way to light a flag and had to pull down Old Glory. I don’t like to do that. I like anyone who visits, no matter from where they visit, to have a chance at a photograph of the Lighthouse with the American flag. That fixture had not been previously damaged. You might think that with all the rocks available for the task, it would be a common occurrence. Thanks go to Bob Chessia for seeing that repaired.

Bob is also working on replacing the flag pole for the Tower. That process is underway. I will feel like the project is finally complete when the flag is restored to the Tower.