Late Summer 2019

You can hear the difference as it winds down. Or most of you can.

This summer has been noteworthy for me as I have dealt with a blockage in my left ear for nearly the whole season. Fluid in the middle ear has pooled and remained caught there despite several attempts at treatment. I have some hearing some of the time; I have little hearing from time to time. Hopefully a Mass Eye and Ear visit in October will resolve this trick or treat aural nuisance.

The second noteworthy mention is that it is the first summer without Haley here. She is doing a term in Australia, Brisbane to be precise. November will see her return before wrapping up Junior year back at American in DC.

So it has been different. Quiet for both reasons described above. We took up puzzles to break up the time and that has been fun.

The Quarterdeck was one of the projects.

                                                             














Another was old Volkswagen Bugs in Cuba.

The most recent was a puzzle of classic books.

Reading a wide variety of books has been the main activity here. Mysteries, histories, novels, general non fiction. The highest recommendation would be for a history of the 1936 American Olympic crew team called the Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown. This was an amazingly well told story, deeply sourced, heartfelt right to the end.  Well worth your time to take a trip back in time with this writer and this subject.

An engineer has been engaged to at last evaluate the structural integrity of the lantern room here at Scituate Light. There had been several false starts as contact was made but appointments were never held. Rivermoor Engineering has sent its best to help us out. More on that project will be shared as it evolves.

The last few weeks has also seen attention paid once again to the web cams. There is a new one labeled Harbor 180 that can pan and zoom from the edge of the light to Jericho beach. I was thrilled to get the deal I got on it and thanks go out to Johnny C who came through with the ladder I needed to make it happen.  

The placement of the Harbor 180 camera meant that I could repurpose another one. That is now the Uptop 4 Way Camera. That offers four perspectives from the Lantern room.  The user name remains viewer. The password is history.

From the Harbor 180 camera.

From one of the Up Top 4 Way camera views.

School is back in session on Tuesday with the meetings that kick off the year. Wednesday we see some students and Thursday we see them all. 

Rockets Red Glare

Her is a little slice of the bombardment of the South Shore on July 3, 2019. Imagine if fireworks were legal in Massachusetts. The pictures below were taken by Julie - neat stuff.

And here is a brief video of the action.

Bringing You In the Loop

We have a had a very productive time here at the Light over the past few months. Some needed steps have been taken to keep the house tight and some needed repairs arose that were handled beautifully by a crack contractor.

 The banners went back up and in a new spot. I put the story of the house all in one place for people to read and to photograph. It also took them away from a window where I sit commonly to read. The banner detailing the Society's work find a home nearer the Edgerton Bell.

 Stone that was not used to  settle the boardwalk was used all around the property to clean up edges.

Several of the stair began to crack after 207 years of ups and downs. My great brother in law fixed them in a matter of a few hours and I have begun the staining and poly process.

Part of the plan I worked out last summer for residing and shingling the house took a next step when we had half of the main house reshingled. The other side is in pretty good shape and will be power washed in the next couple of weeks.

I got a long wanted upgrade when all the ridge boards on the house were replaced with pvc. No more painting on the high parts of the house and a much better look from the window upstairs.


Flag Day saw the house decorated from corner to corner.  A nice addition was a flag commemorating the D-Day invasion 75 years ago.


The gardens have been treated to the perfect growing season weather. Without all the clean up of last year they were set to flourish from the start.  I took the step of planting grass seed outside of the kitchen which has led to some teasing about the new back lawn.  I am going to call it the putting green.

 The first open house was on May 19th and as we were preparing to open on a rainy day, a knock came at the door. A mom, a friend, and two elementary school girls were on the step. I got them in out of the rain and they explained that the older of the two had a school project involving researching the Light. Our tour began early and with a wonderful resolution. This week the family returned with this note and some delicious baked goods. Also the amazing peonies you see below. This is a good, good gig.

Tonight's Moon

A brief clip of tonight's moon rise. You get the flag and the red light that marks the north jetty too.

News Flash!!

The keys to the cameras have been found and I believe all of them are up and running. I mulled it over for a couple of days and figured out the step I was missing. I worked through the process and voila, we have cameras live once again.

The user name if prompted is "viewer". The password is "history". Thanks again to the Stahr family for their ongoing support and to the support of the Scituate Historical Society.

Camera Headaches

I wanted to share that I am aware of the broken links to several of the web cams and have put in some time trying to bring them back up. I replaced my modem and the result has been that the Walkway, Sunset, Seawall, and Inside the Tower cameras are the only ones working. I will keep on plugging away at it until I figure out which setting has gone sideways.

I can access them on my local network as you can see from this shot taken this morning but I can not find the switch that lets me pass them all along down the line. Thanks for sticking by while I figure it out.

We are two weeks from vacation and from installing the boardwalk. With the beach in as good a shape as it has ever been here, it should be a breeze.

Best Winter Ever

When I think back to a year ago and the mess that 9 high tides had made, and when I look around today at how clean and ready for Spring we are, I am thrilled to know that I have a lot of available hours that I might have had to use cleaning up.

This spring will see some sweeping and some splitting and replanting of perennials, but that is small potatoes compared with what we were up against last year. I was wearing out wheel barrows and rakes to try to get the beach back to a width where it might bear the boardwalk. This year there is one small hole to fill; otherwise all is well and strong back willing the boardwalk will go in for Patriots Day instead of Memorial Day.

I may mess around with one of the cameras as well to get a shot from the front of the Tower looking both out and down. It is the only blindspot we have here and I think I have figured out a way to fix it.

Sum it up as the best winter ever. All good here on what would have been my dear grandfather's 128th birthday. Thank goodness for Patrick Delaney. 

Knocking on 10

It has been nearly 10 full years since the blog first began. What began as an impulse while driving has become something far more solid; something you can point to, use, and go back to for reference. The cameras have become a focus for many and they were only a tiny flicker in my imagination when this started. Thanks go out again and again to the Stahr family for their support of that flicker. I spend quite a bit of time now thinking of ways to improve what we have here and to better share the house and the experience of being here.

Here are two from yesterday when the first high tide/nor'easter hit. Something of a dud to tell the truth as the wind never got too big. There was a fair amount of overwash but not a bit of stone with it. Easy way to start off the new storm season.

Work has been completed on the big jetty just in time for this storm. The machines began to be pulled out on Thursday.  I was told they were slightly hamstrung by budget but the most ruined section of the North Jetty is fixed. They made the far end far more solid than it had been and cleaned up the rolling rubble to make a more polished face along the distant third of the ocean side. 

The crew were very good neighbors throughout. I am looking forward to reclaiming the biggest part of the parking lot and restoring the traffic pattern. The fencing has not interrupted the crowds who visit here at all and I have wondered about their safety as the project has stretched into January and past its initial December date.

I will offer on Christmas picture to the mix here. The wreath has become an easy to do project and this year it was especially so. This is a neat shot using the Walkway camera. Hope you visit here throughout 2019 until the time comes to put one up again.