The Lightkeeper's Blog

Some catching up to do after a long stretch of long days.

There will not be a wreath on the Tower at Christmas going forward. The rail on the catwalk is not of the same strength of the one it replaced. I also do not want to scrape up the paint job which always happened when I hung a wreath. The last few years I figured out how to put bumpers up there but those bumpers made the wreath more exposed to the wind.

On the topic of the wind. A check of the weather station (linked on the home page for this blog) would tell you we had a recording of a 74.2 a little more than a week ago. Everything moved and there is a barrel that was by the driveway that is just plain gone.

We are grateful once again to Mike Breen and the Scituate Department of Public works for helping with the flagpole that is in the parking lot. I had brought a new line to that pole as the line in place was fraying but was not able to get the new cord through the turnbuckle at the top. The header could be seen but the wind gave me a reason not to pull out the big ladder and try to finish the job myself. Bob Chessia took up the job and got Mike and the lads to take us to the goal line.

The same issue with the rail on the catwalk also means that a flagpole will not be returning to the top of the Tower. The engineers for the renovation project could not sign off on a flag subjected to winds that visit here going back up. In 2018 the flagpole broke into two pieces and that was with a customized mount built into a heavier railing.

I remember feeling pretty lucky that the rope held and that the pole didn’t break any windows on the Tower, on the cottage, or on our cars.

That said there will be a flagpole! It will be in the yard about 4 feet off the runway and 8 feet off the fence. It should rise to the height of the railing and, as it will be secured with a concrete base, will allow for a larger size flag to be flown. The location was chosen after many walks around the grounds and the final choice was made as there was already a light in place to shine on the flag as the flag code requests. Look forward to that in the next two weeks weather permitting.

The tradition of a Santa Clause visiting light stations goes back 95 years. When the pandemic hit that tradition was halted at Scituate Light and it will not be restored. New conditions surrounding safety for the Flying Santa crew and any visitors led the neighborhood group that coordinated the event to decide against continuing. None of required changes were unreasonable; most were beyond the responsibility of a small group of neighbors.

There are floors that are over two hundred years old here in the cottage. With one or two exceptions they have held up to the day after day traffic perfectly. In one room of the cottage the floor was replaced. When that happened is not known but it is that newer floor that needs some attention from time to time. This week it got that attention with a wipe on goop and some wax.

This project is now complete and that faded side is history. A little elbow grease and the floor comes back to life.

The boardwalk came in to the yard for the winter about three weeks ago. The weather that day was on my side. It is stacked and labeled for a return to the rocks in the spring. We will see how much reorganizing of the beach is needed to keep it level and safe.

When the skies clear out and the wind is not blowing, this is possible. Day and night.