The teachers are coming.

We have had several days of just the three of us and it has been restful.  Yesterday morning we finally had a real rain.  It rained for several hours and we received somewhere between two and half to three inches.  

Today we have a keeper transfer and the six teachers and support staff for our Maritime and the Great Lakes Teacher workshop arrive.  It is a beautiful day with a light wind from the west.  Should be a good mooring and a great introduction for new keepers.

Something we are trying new this year on the Island is making our own bread.  So far it has gone real well.  We are using the five minute a day method for healthy bread.  This means I make up enough bread for about four good size loafs.  You set it aside in the fridge or rather our ice box and take out what you need over the next several days.  We are using three grains at this point but having fun trying new combinations.  

Above is the big bucket I mix it up in with the wooden spoon mixer sticking out of it.  There is no kneading, just mixing and then sitting to rise.

After the rain yesterday I got this shot of the spider web and water drops on the window to the assistant keeper's house.  We have lots of spiders here on the Island along with a good amount of snakes and bats.  In fact when folks first come out we give them a talk on the three as they do not bother us and they do a great job on the bugs.  I guess you do end up with a spider web in the face but that is little to pay for the rather low numbers of bugs we have.

Susie spend her day working to get our front door screen in shape.  These are quite decorative as they were hand made by Terry our director.  He is quite a woodworker along with his comprehensive knowledge of lighthouses.  Check out TerryPepper.com for anything lighthouse.

One of our pass times is watching for and identifying freighters.  In fact the room we use to eat inside is the watch room.  This picture has the freighter off in the distance with the spindle of the dinning room chair in the left of the picture.  The stuff in the upper part of the picture is the fluff from the cotton wood trees stuck on the screen.  We log the freighters just like the lighthouse keepers of St. Helena did in the past.

Here is yet another angle of our lighthouse taken during the late evening walk of FeeBee.  The little building connected to the house on the back is the summer kitchen where we cook our meals. The small building that is not attached was formally the privy but is now where we keep all our outdoor tools.

Speaking of outdoor tools, for the last few days I have been trying to bring a lilac bush under control.  I worked for most of an afternoon and the next day when I went out there was a Cedar Waxwing sitting on a branch not four feet from me.  It did not fly away until I was within a couple of feet.  I went back to work only to discover while pruning that there was a nest buried deep in the center of the bush.  It was full of mama and babies so that project has been put on hold.

The keepers at St. Helena Light Station