OK, so those of you who didn’t make it this year didn’t miss much on Saturday. Cold, drizzley, dank, cold, wet, and cold. Productivity was modest, mostly Hurricane Sandy cleanup, (Beth, Kate and Madge faced the worst poison ivy) and the best thing we did was start a nice fire mid day. We did have our annual LLC meeting early Sat evening (official minutes to follow before long), and of course we ate really well, thanks to numerous cooks and providers, shoppers (Annie and Amanda), and overall facilitator and orchestrator Marietta. I think that the official count was 17, including 7 over 60 and 4 under 10. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that overnight was c-o-l-d.
Sunday dawned much nicer that expected, sunny and just cool all day. There were only a few short fair weather showers, which added a bit of spice to some late afternoon beach walking. Lots of mowing (Nat, Nanna and Joe), high wire house painting (Brian), Owl maintenance (Clay, Glenn, and Jim), and float launching (ensemble). Kitty carefully refreshed the peeling ’65 Evans’ sign paddle. Madge and others refreshed the peeling front porch bench. Amanda was a good natured and very popular camp councilor, who impressed with a really challenging row back from Rocky Island with a full Hoot-load of boys, into the teeth of a ripping northerly. More shopping (Annie and Marietta) for the hardware and paint stuff that Uncle Podger needed, and as always, vast quantities of really good food, served with a smile by a small army of cooks. The strawberry cutter-uppers were barely able to keep ahead of Ann Kress, who at 16 mo’s appears to like them. A lot.
Monday was gorgeous, and greeted by literal squeals of delight by the same Ann Kress. Nice to be reminded by such a consistently cheerful little explorer/adventurer what a totally cool and unique place Haversham is. We rolled Owl back upright before the crowd began to thin, finished a bunch of details (Annie and Madge varnished everything in sight), and I think all got safely home, some to go right back to work and rest up. Limited data indicate that our Aleve consumption varies very directly with age.
Unfortunately, for a good part of last summer it was hard to bail Owl fast enough to stay ahead of the leaks, and she was challenging to love. A repeated ‘haul, caulk, re-launch’ cycle last August got her to the point where she didn’t appear to leak at all, and there is a decent chance that she still won’t this summer, either. She is now tee-d up, looking good, (fresh paint covers a multitude of sins!) and ready to go. She is 65-ish years old and tiring, however. At some point we will have to consider replacing Glenn’s favorite boat, but I hope not quite yet.
The new shingles look very spiffy, especially with their nice copper flashing, and the new gutter and downspout over the back porch steps should be a big step forward. We now have not one, but two sets (don’t ask!) of new outdoor shower grates to replace the rotted ones that had turned challenging/dangerous. Nat’s contribution of ‘Pierre the power washer’ should help keep the mid-summer ramp slime less treacherous once Jim (duh!) remembers to bring the nozzle. Nat (and Craig’s List) have also provided a very reasonably priced (free) Mistral boardsailor, along with a number of sails of varying sizes, that presumably won’t sink, and should be fun for a range of abilities once we find a mast step.
Haversham should be active and full from early June through late September. Bring it on.