The Lightkeeper's Blog

While something about this title might remind you of an Eagles’ album from the 70’s, it just sums up the last couple of months here at Scituate Light.

It is instead a long overdue blog post. It has been ultra windy and with a run of rainy Saturdays the weeds are ahead of my pulling them out. Not to worry I have been catching up.

A quick summary of the last few months would include:

A new flagpole

A return visit from the Lighthouse contractors to tighten up a few things

A wreath on the house at Christmas time rather than on the Tower

The boardwalk returning to the beach

A Mother’s Day event delayed by weather but coming off successfully later

An open house

A setting aside of our traditional neighborhood clean up 

A big help with a significant electrical issue

Reviving a carved up landing

Gardens already beginning to thrive

A quick run through with some pictures.

What do you see? A new flagpole installed inside the fence about 10 feet off the Tower. The flag had hit the top of the lantern room prior and this repairs that flaw. I was given two much bigger flags to fly. The larger will be for celebrations; the smaller handles the wind far better. Bob Chessia did all the leg work for this and I know I speak for many when I say I am glad to see Old Glory once again.

Anthony Fonseca of Pomeroy Associates reached out to me to follow up on the reconstruction of the Lantern Room. I shared out some observations about the windows, dehumidifier, and lantern room. Within 72 hours he had a meeting scheduled and within a week the issues were addressed. In this picture you can see some hardware that was installed to tighten up the lower level windows. The sensor for the dehumidifier was moved to the lantern room and has operated perfectly since.

The boardwalk was installed over three days during the April school vacation. Thanks go out to Bob Chessia for helping out with the tough and heavy stretch that runs closest to the Tower. Lots of good conversations and many offers of help. The weather was on my side and I think it was the only couple of days that the wind was not howling.

I love getting the place back in shape. In these pictures you see mulch placed around the Edgerton Bell in place of stone that mostly ended up in the driveway. Big upgrade with that switch.

There is a new raised garden in the small courtyard on the north side of the house. Just a little bit of color in a dark spot.

The Downton Garden is in great shape after an easy winter. The perennials are bouncing back and the annuals complement them just fine. Coleus is a plant that the rabbits leave alone. In several other spots, salvia was just about chewed to death.

I took some time last weekend to weed the walkway that takes you from the parking lot to the flagpole island. I also addressed the other islands but have not filled them in with mulch.

The mulch was delivered early last week and two days later caught fire. A stray cigarette had the pile smoking and thankfully it was noticed and the fire department responded. I will get it into place or the Beautification group will as they will be maintaining those gardens from now on.

I had a great conversation with a guest last week who wanted to know all about the Don’t Give Up the Ship origin. Her enthusiasm for her visit was fantastic. These conversations happen often but this one was especially full. She was here for more than an hour and read everything.

We also had an open house here in May with a great number of those conversations. Julie welcomed and I held court in the Tower. Somewhere between 50 and 60 guests came through in the three hour opening.

The annual Empower Her event was held and seemed to be a rousing success. Music, food trucks, and countless bags lit in remembrance. That crew really knows what it is doing. The site was spotless the next day.

Over a period of months we noticed lights flickering and our internet dropping out intermittently. Comcast came out and checked out that line and in the exchange I had with the tech, he mentioned it could be linked to the power issue.

Within just a few days the power was out intermittently in half the house.

Bob Chessia once again emerged as the hero. He made a call. The facilities manager for the Town of Scituate Cam McDonald called me. I explained the issue and within 30 minutes we had Cederholm Electrical here diagnosing the cause of the problem. Unbelievably nice guy.

30 minutes after he left National Grid was on a ladder replacing a connection that had failed. All was back up and we have not seen the internet drop out since. This was as smooth an operation as there has ever been here. Very grateful to all the parties.

A before and after shot. The landing got carved up in the occasions we had to shovel this winter.

The banner explaining the responsibilities of the Scituate Historical Society and how they came to be was placed back on the fence. It is a great reminder of how this group has served as custodians for the people of the Town of Scituate for more than 100 years.

Further down the walkway are the banners telling the story of the Lighthouse from its inception to the recent day. Soon to join those banners will be a summary of the restoration project. There is a QR code mounted there that directs guests to this blog.

Finally a note about the wind: Thanks to the weather station I can track the wind day by day, week by week, and month by month. The average wind for January was 7.2 mph with a high of 70 mph. For February the average wind was 7.6 mph with a max of 55.3 mph. For March, the figures were 8.3 and 65. For April, 8.3 and 67.5. For May, 7.4 and 66.6.

The official keepers here kept logs and did their best to record the tides and wind. When it blows here everything shakes and everything in the yard moves. Now we know when to put things away. Two different times the wind took the cover off the grill and blew it over the house. That was the replacement cover; the one I originally had was blown into the ocean.