The Lightkeeper's Blog

This photo was taken last Sunday afternoon. This boat was hustling home as there was a forecast of a blizzard on the way. I will never stop admiring the work ethic of these guys who put out to sea for their living each day.

This video was taken about the same time. I had to wonder just how hard that north jetty would be damaged. In the end there doesn’t seem to be significant damage.

Early in the day was quiet. The snow did not hit hard until that evening. The wind was steadily in the forties from about five o’clock on however. The house shook on and off for about 24 hours. Every picture on every wall needed to be straightened out when things settled down.

I got up to check the first tide at 3:30am Monday morning. The pushover was not severe. No water came into the yard or down the walkway. That would not be true with the second tide.

It was the wind that made shoveling difficult. The gale would catch the shovel and pull it right out of the snow and almost out of your hands. The eye hooks that keep the storm doors closed did a lot of heavy lifting for that 24 hours.

Here is a look from the top of the tower on Monday afternoon. This second tide was driven by the wind more than the first had been. Make sure you have your volume on to hear that howl.

Power went out early Monday morning. After an optimistic wait of two hours I started up the generator.

This is a new generator to us. We have had had it on site for some time (the other began to belch flames) but had not put it into service. It ran very quietly, keeping the house comfortable and the refrigerator cold. I had picked up twelve gallons of gas on Saturday morning and did not need it all. Power was restored on Wednesday morning. The internet came back on Friday but went out again until Saturday afternoon.

Time on the generator passes differently. I was not certain at first just how long the machine would run on a full tank. The answer was 7 hours. I shut it down several times to cool down and to extend the supply of gas. The predictions for power being restored were all over the place and I did not want to travel as far as I have had to in the past to pick up more gas. On one occasion I had to travel to the HIngham rotary.

Monday night, when the relentless wind finally tailed off, I shut down the generator to cool it down before refilling it and picked up the shovel. Compared to the storm of two weeks ago this was easy work. The wind was out of the North it seems and that slight change in angle made a big difference. The moon had come out and it was pretty nice to listen to the neighbors’ generators while I pushed and tossed. I took the time to get this shot of the night sky before I fired up the machine for the overnight run.

Knowing the wind was not going to blow it all back into the driveway offered some peace of mind as well. The coating on the Edgerton Bell tells the story.

On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, this ice fell off of the house in chunks. There are just a few spots left that rarely see the sun and still have a coating. The pleasant temperatures of the last few days did a lot of clean up for us. Those temperatures encouraged me to go out and get this shot of the moon and the tower a few days later.

The pink lights you see in this shot are the cameras installed by the town during the reconstruction.

The last step (for now) was to clear off the road. With broom and shovel I pushed stones that had surged over out of the name lane of traffic. With the snow receding there is more to do on that project but that will have to wait until next weekend. I also cleared out a 30 by 30 square in the parking lot. The next step requires a wheel barrow and that won’t come out of the basement until April.

To wrap this up I will share one more picture. Even in very cold, very windy, very difficult weather, there is still life all around this place. The yard was punctuated by rabbit tracks in every corner.

Look for the next installment of the Etrusco series in the next week. Early March has been scoured for details that will bring you back to the time just before the big ship turned up on the beach outside.