We've been out to Keewaydin twice in March, and there have been 4 Nor-easters. Bob and I went out  for the weekend between the first 2 storms. I went out for a few days this week during the latest storm, to make sure everything was still okay. A big (dead) tree from the front yard had fallen over the road and wires in the first storm (March 2-3). The town had cleaned it up and left the branches and trunks in the yard. If we lost power, it wasn't for long: the ice cream was still frozen solid in the freezer.
The Russian Olive tree/bush is now tilted, after the first storm. It was the worst storm of the four as far as wind and power outages I think.

There was snow from one of the storms before this week, that left snow on the deck. I brushed it off before I left. The deck had a thin layer of slick ice! Once the sun hits it, it will be gone.

The Kimballs were out for Kris's spring break in mid March, we walked on Nauset Beach in Orleans. That's Dave and Bob. The sand has washed way into the marsh. Iconic Liam's shack is now on the edge of the dune and will have to be taken down. Its septic system was all exposed in the sand. I think the paper said 45 feet eroded.

 I did the rounds of the beaches at low and high tides this latest visit. The waves on the Atlantic beaches were amazing. The storm brought wind rain and snow bursts. The force of Nature was very evident. The grass filled rope barriers put up in January are now falling off the cliff.  

 This used to be a walkway to the beach. The straight edge is where the wooden path or stairs was washed away. This is about 5 feet from the edge of the parking lot!!! There is a 'hurricane' fence blocking access to the beach all along the lot with warning signs not to go near the cliff edge.

If you zoom in on the center of this picture at Coast Guard Beach, you can see that the ocean has left sand where there used to be a dune. It is at the entrance to the drive up to the parking lot.

And then Friday morning at dawn, I am greeted with a serene pond (yes, the northwestern sky is pink)

and a calm First Encounter Beach on my morning walk.

On my way home, I stopped again at First Encounter at low tide (10:30 am). 

Our February visit was busy and fun. Saturday we spent the morning cleaning up the front, front yard (by the road):  hauling brush, raking, shoveling, and moving sand from the scar left by the installation of the water pipe to the house. We'll see if any grass comes up in the spring. There is literally only about 3 inches of topsoil before it's just sand that makes up Cape Cod soil!

But the weekend was not all 'work'! We started the Birthday puzzle (from Kathy and Chuck), complete with sorting trays!

And hung the finch feeder on a post on the new deck. We'll see if any birds find it before spring! 

We plan to hang more hooks for wind chimes and flowers.

Bob also worked in the basement - organizing and investigating 'new' tools from Paul's collection: thanks, I think. Paul and Vicky stayed overnight last weekend to see a production in Cotuit of a play Vicky will direct this spring. Jen and Matt also stopped by to see them, after a weekend at the Kimball's!

The weather was cloudy and not too cold on Saturday, but rainy on Sunday, so we stayed in and painted some more trim in the kitchen. Bob got the first coat on the window in the eating area. I'll have to get to work on finding or making curtains! 

The January thaw was wonderful, but short-lived. We arrived at Keewaydin in 55 degree weather, the pond ice was melting and there was a mild southerly breeze. Saturday morning we woke up to even less ice on the pond, balmy!
We did some errands and stopped by First Encounter Beach, Nauset Light beach, and Coast Guard Beach.

 The ice is halfway across the pond, the wind blowing away from us.

 First Encounter at a very high and wavy tide.

 Nauset Light Beach. The the stairs and the bath house are totally gone! They must have been removed late in the fall. The fencing is at the edge of the parking lot, and the dark line is a dirt barrier at the top of the cliff.

 Nauset Light beach looking across the parking lot to where the bath house and stairs used to be!

This is Coast Guard Beach. The wind is blowing to the east. Not the usual direction. It was kind of strange. As the day went on, the sun came out, the wind shifted and the temperature dropped.

The ice shimmered at the edge of the ice sheets like diamonds! And the wind shifted to the North, northwest. We spent an hour with Janet who stopped by on Saturday afternoon. It was a nice visit. We walked her home 'around the pond'. That was a short but cold and windy walk.

We also started painting the trim in the kitchen. Can you tell the difference?

On Sunday before we left, we went back to First Encounter to see if we could see any Snowy Owls. No owls, but we found ice floes instead! As the tide was coming in, it brought broken ice toward shore. It was actually moving up into the salt marsh. AND COLD! 26 degrees when we left.

Deep freeze and wind! pictures from Janet

Janet emailed and volunteered to check the house last week after the VERY windy storm on the Cape. She took these pictures. We're going out soon to see how the inside fared. Outside seems fine. The pond looks frozen over! It is in the 40's these next couple days, so I imagine the pond will open up before we get there. 

Kitchen part 2 and WATER

A busy weekend, starting on Wednesday evening. Cosmo and I arrived on a very windy afternoon and woke up to snow flurries. At 7:30 am the workmen arrived to bring town water to the house! And it snowed the whole morning while they worked.

 Can you see the ditch digger behind the spruce trees? They tunneled  (I think they called it 'shooting') the pipe 4 feet underground under the trees and from that hole to the basement wall.

 And then they drilled through the foundation and brought the water in. On Friday, the plumber came and hooked up the water. The well is still there, but un-attached to the pipes in the house. The water is noticeably clearer and tastes oh so much better!

 Cosmo was interested in the little Christmas tree. He had a fun weekend. On Friday night we woke up to the sounds of Cosmo racing around the house and little squeaky noises! No evidence that he caught any mice, but he sure was fixated on the bottom of the stove for the rest of the weekend!

 I managed to make the first batch ever of brot bulla at Keewaydin - as you can see it was good enough to devour.

 And we worked some more on the kitchen walls.  We  removed the wooden shelves (!) - did you know they weren't attached? The wood counter is, though, so we painted around that.

Done. A creamier yellow. Next, we MUST paint the trim a true white because it looks dingier than ever.

And I'll leave you with a picture of the pond edged with ice spray. Merry Christmas!

Kitchen project part I

The flower wallpaper is GONE! Underneath, a yellowy tan dingy color. We did get to paint it, I forgot to take pictures! It is now a creamy color. But - we're not done: we want to paint the trim a bright shiny white and add white curtains. And we hope to paint the rest of the kitchen the same cream color. It is a lighter version of the tiles and with the white trim, should look better than the current bright yellow walls in the kitchen area.

Roses in October

Along the fence!

Bob and I met with a plumber on Friday the 13th. Good luck for us I think. He'll send us a quote for the inside water hook up. This won't be an inexpensive proposition, but we're leaning towards doing it. The standing water in the toilet is stained with the iron in the well water again. And the water has that metallic taste that some of us do NOT like. We're thinking of having him replace/fix the kitchen faucet and leak underneath, the basement washing machine water source while he's here, and give us a quote on flushing and replacing the antifreeze in the furnace.

Bob and I accomplished a lot of other things this long weekend. 

• Bob put 'stove black' on the wood stove - a messy but very rewarding endeavor. The stove looks great. Remember, we can't use it until we fix the chimney and then when we do use it, it may smoke a bit from the polish.
• We also painted the ceilings in the little 'hallway' and loft stairwell. And cleaned that hall light. We think it all cleaned up nicely. Will anyone else notice?
• Bob finally took down the broken smoke detector. Did you know that the switch in the ceiling there turns it on?!? And the old detector just continually buzzed. So we'll see if we can find a new one to install for next time.
• I mowed the whole yard while 
• Bob painted the new gutter with the latest version of the green trim paint. 
• We cleaned out the main part of the barn/boathouse (sweeping the cobwebs on floor and walls!). We brought Paul's little boat down. It fits nicely along the side. 
• And there's much more room in the basement now! The deck furniture is all stacked to one side of the basement. Please use as you like! But return it to the basement, especially in the winter months.
• We took a load (in the Prius, no less) of metal - fence posts, bars, etc from the garage to the dump. We're slowly cleaning that up.
• And we even made time to read our library books, do a crossword puzzle or two, and work on a knitting Christmas project.