Short strokes.....

6:14 am - Thursday - May 24th - Southwest Harbor, ME - 41º F (9º colder than yesterday morning), 100% humidity, wind 2 mph out of the northeast.....clear blue skies....forecast high for today is 54º F.

When I got up Wednesday morning the weather report was forecasting rain for 3 pm.  I would say, so far, the forecast for Southwest Harbor has been correct less than 25% of the time, so I really didn't know what to expect.  At least 3 pm is the end of our workday, so we had that going for us.  

We began our workday getting all the trashcans in the campground turned right side up, and lining them with plastic bags.  Next up was the first cleaning of the bathrooms this season.  They employ a very different cleaning system here at Smuggler's Den than I have seen in the past.  It is a three step system.  First we spray (using a hose) a soapy solution on everything......sinks, toilets, the floor, shower walls and floors, urinals.....everything gets a coat.  Once that is done we use brushes to scrub the sinks, showers, toilets and urinals.  Next up we rinse everything off with fresh water, and then, finally, we spray a fine coat of disinfectant on everything.  Once that is done we wipe down (dry) the sinks and toilet seats.....that's it.  Normally, before washing everything, we would vacuum, but that was done last week.  In all it takes less than an hour to do each bathroom (men's/women's).  Once the park opens this is done once per day at exactly noon for the women's, and 1 pm for the men's.

Our next task was to deploy 6 picnic tables in the entertainment area (right next to the pool)......there is a stage there for performers.  Then we moved 2 more picnic tables over next to the playground.  By the time we finished with that it was 11 am, and time for lunch.

You can tell by the kind of things we did Wednesday that we are on the home stretch to getting ready for opening day on Friday.  The campground is looking great, and now it is just a matter of taking care of a few small things to make her sparkle.....we are definitely down to the short strokes.  

After lunch Tony and I were assigned to paint a small shed on the back of the restrooms where the restroom supplies are kept.  When we first arrived Smuggler's Den back on the 12th Todd had dismantled the front of the shed to reinforce the floor.  He was finally able to get to putting it back together, which involved some fresh lumber which needed a coat of paint.....since we were painting the raw wood, we went ahead and painted the entire shed.....it needed it.

 Before

After.....kind of a robin egg blue

......next up.....we got some rock rakes from the 'garage' and spent about 30 minutes smoothing out the new gravel that was dumped in 5 sites right across from our site to make them more level, and remove any low spots.  Todd had spread the gravel out pretty well with the front loader, so it was just a matter of getting rid of a few high spots and removing all the tractor tire evidence.

By the time we finished with that task it was closing in on 2:30 pm, and we were becoming aware of the big, dark clouds moving in from the west.  I still wasn't convinced it was going to rain, but then I heard the thunder....okay, maybe it is going to rain.

Since we had 30 minutes left on our shift, Tony and I made a dump run.....we loaded up the company pickup with our trash from the day and hauled it over to the 'transfer' station, which is less than a mile away.  Just as we were pulling out of the transfer station it began to sprinkle.....I looked at my watch to note that it was exactly 3 pm.

We were back to the campground in a couple of minutes clocking out for the day.....as TLE and I began our walk back to the Newell it began to rain a little harder so we began to trot toward the Newell.  By the time we were rounding the back of our site it began to rain harder and our trot had turned into a full out run....we had just gotten under the patio awning when skies just opened.  The rain came down in torrents as we entered the Newell.  Whew!  We made it just in time.

It only rained hard for about 25 minutes and then we were seeing the sun again, and by 3:45 pm it had stopped completely.   I took the opportunity to deploy most my rope lights, and our wind chimes, so I guess it's official....we are staying for the summer....lol.  More lights will be deployed Thursday after work.....once they are all out I'm not planning on putting them away for 5 months.

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Another day in paradise......

6:15 am - Wednesday - May 23rd - Southwest Harbor, ME - 50º F, 93% humidity, wind 7 mph out of the south by southwest.....cloudy with a chance of rain this afternoon.  Rain was forecast for last night and early morning today, but it never materialized.....dry as a bone out side right now. 

Tuesday was another workday.  I reported for work at 8 am and was assigned to work with Tony again.  We were given one job to complete in our six hour shift.....reinstall the screens on three of the Deluxe cabins, which had been removed so stain could be applied via a spray gun a week ago.  Each Deluxe cabin has a screened porch with 7 separate screens, plus a screen door which would have to be rehung.  Additionally we were tasked with checking the screens on the other 5 cabins and repairing any that had issues.

The first cabin took almost two hours for the 7 screens, but during that time we kind of developed a system which sped up the process on the two remaining cabins.  We decided to leave the reinstallation of the screen doors for the end of the day.  By 11 am (lunch time) we almost had the second cabin finished.  We returned at 12 pm to finish the second cabin and then began to work on cabin 3.

By 2 pm we had finished all three cabins, and fixed 4 screens on other cabins. Now it was time to rehang the three screen doors.  This was a little trickier as, apparently, the three doors had all been put in one place, and we had to figure out which screen door went with which cabin.  At any rate by 3 pm we were putting away our tools in the 'garage' and heading back down to the office to punch the clock.

TLE spent her day working in the office with Rain, and Alexis to get everything set up for opening day such as computers, as well as putting store inventory on the shelves, and in the coolers (they do have a small store in the office where they sell t-shirts, candy, water, wood, ice cream, and soda).  By the time Tony and I arrived to punch the clock it was looking a lot more like an office/store.  TLE clocked out at the same time I did and we walked home together.  

We had some papers which needed to be notarized, and as it turns out, one of the summer employees, Cindy, is a notary.  During the week she works at an insurance agency in town so we got in the VW and drove into town to get our documents notarized (thank you Cindy!), then drove another mile down to Gott's CITGO station to fuel up....their price for unleaded premium is just $3.25/gallon compared to $3.46 at the local Shell station.  On the way back home from Gott's we stopped off at the USPS to put our documents in the mail.

By the time we got back home it was a little after 4 pm and time for a nap!  We spent the evening watching the finale of 'American Idol' (recorded from Monday night) which was won by our favorite, Maddie Poppe.  We liked her from the very beginning audition, so it was nice to see her dream come true.

That's it for Tuesday.  Two more days to get the campground ready for opening day on Friday.....no stress here.....just tell me what to do, and I'll do it.....another day in paradise, right?  

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'Some' assembly required......

6:17 am - Tuesday - May 22nd - Southwest Harbor, ME - 55º F, 52% humidity, wind 4 mph out of the east......cloudy with a forecast high of 62º F.  Rain on the way Wednesday.....90% chance.

Monday was one of those days you compare all other days to for the rest of your life.  It was literally balmy, the skies were clear and blue, the temp was 68º F, and there was a slight breeze.  I stopped often to just breath in the fresh air and enjoy the moment.  The light breeze kept the bugs at bay, which by the way, have not been bothering me at all.  Usually I am the first one who gets bit, but so far zero bites.  

I reported for work at 8 am (my first 6 hour day) to find out that my work partner from Friday, Alex, had broken his arm Saturday while skate boarding, and will be out 6-8 weeks, so Tony and I worked together for the entire day.  Tony retired from correctional work New Jersey a few years ago and moved to Southwest Harbor for his retirement.  Like me, he can't be retired all the time and will be spending his third summer working here at Smuggler's Den Campground.  

We began our day by collecting some treated lumber out near the entrance to the park and transporting it to the 'garage' to be cut to length, and then used to repair half a dozen picnic tables in the campground.  Once Todd finished cutting all the wood, Tony and I took it in the company truck to each table requiring repair, which took the better part of two hours.   Of course, there were power tools involved as we had to drill holes in each board in order to attach them to the picnic tables with carriage bolts.  Then it was time to paint the raw wood BLUE.  Tony and I ended up not just painting the raw wood, but repainting the entire table in each case.

By 11 am (lunch time) we had painted a couple of tables.  We decided to do the final four after lunch.  I headed for the Newell, and Tony headed for his home to have lunch.  We reconvened at the site where we left off and continued painting the rest of the tables, which we finished in about an hour.

 Love this shade of blue!

Then it was time to assemble two of the 7 new BBQ's.  These BBQ's came in large boxes, completely unassembled, and there was no way were were going to put them together without using the instructions.  It took us an hour per BBQ to do the assembly, and that brought us to 3:15 pm, and time to clock out for the day.

Only four more to go

While were working on the picnic tables and BBQ assembly, Todd worked on installing some new pool equipment so he could get the pool running in preparation for Friday, which is our opening day.  Things are gradually coming together and it looks like we will be ready for Friday.  The nice thing is, I am not in charge of anything, so there is no pressure....I am loving it.....if we are ready by Friday, cool......if not, we are not.....I am enjoying being a 'worker bee' once again....I just do what I am told to the best of my ability, and spending no time looking at the calendar......😊

And, thus, another day in Southwest Harbor has come and gone......life is good!  Thanks for stopping by!

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Cadillac view......

6:18 am - Monday - May 21st - Southwest Harbor, ME - 52º F, 70% humidity, wind 4 mph out of the west....clear blue skies once again....forecast high for today is 69º F!  Promises to be a beautiful day here in Smuggler's Den!

Rain pitter pattered on our aluminum roof the rest of Saturday night, and into the early morning Sunday.  We awoke to intermittent showers, and heavy overcast, but it was not very cold.  Since we were not working Sunday we lazed around most of the morning not really doing much, but by 1 pm we decided we needed to get out and do some site seeing....even if it was still raining.

Our initial destination was Northeast Harbor on the other side of Somes Sound, which meant we had to travel up ME-102 to ME-3 to ME-198.  We are learning that the distances here are not as great as they appear on the map.  We arrived in Northeast Harbor by 1:30 pm in a moderately heavy rain......

.......there was this group of kayakers heading out on a paddle in the rain.....these Maine folk are made of better stuff than I......

Northeast Harbor

....from there we continued our drive around the east side of Mount Desert Island to Seal Harbor where the rain had begun to abate......

 Seal Harbor

......by the time we made it to Bar Harbor it was well after 2 pm and time for a bite.  We stopped off at the Thirsty Whale.....just down Cottage Street from Finback Ale House where we ate a few days prior......Yelp gives them 4 stars on 572 reviews, plus several people had recommended them to us, so we really had no choice, right?  We both ordered their Demon Stout by Black Bear Brewing.  To eat I ordered their Fried, Blackened Haddock Sandwich and a cup of their Clam Chowda while TLE ordered a bowl of their Clam Chowda for her entree......

 No, TLE is not really 'two fisting' the stouts.....😋

......we were grateful once again that we were able to visit Bar Harbor on a Sunday before the summer crowds descend enmasse.  We were able to find parking easily, and walk right into the Thirsty Whale and get a table.....the second to last table, but a table nonetheless.

Next up was our first visit to the summit of Cadillac Mountain.......we stopped a couple of times to snap a couple of pictures on the way......

.....we eventually reached the summit which was totally socked in with clouds.....I manged to get a couple of pictures, but not that for which I was hoping, so we descended back down the road to a turn out and were rewarded......

 Too many clouds on top of Cadillac Mountain this day

......the view was spectacular.  Eventually we will take the hike to the summit of Cadillac Mountain, as well as the many other peaks on Mount Desert Island!

.....our last stop for the day before heading home was Jordan Pond House and, of course, Jordan Pond......

Jordan Pond with and without people

 ......we arrived home just before 5 pm to clearing skies and the promise of a beautiful day on Monday!

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'Snap' it up!

8:02 am - Sunday - May 20th - Southwest Harbor, ME - 50º F, 100% humidity, wind 14 mph out of the southwest......heavy cloud cover......rained most of the night, and is supposed to rain more this morning.  Forecast high for Sunday is 67º F!

I mentioned in my prior post that I would be helping TLE and Sam deep clean cabins Saturday morning.  They were able to get 4 of the 8 Deluxe cabins (kitchen, bathroom, heater, sleeps 5) deep cleaned Friday in about 5 hours.  Management wanted them finished by Saturday, so I was assigned to help them get the last four done.

Sam, who lives in Bar Harbor and commutes to Southwest Harbor to work here, met us at the garage (looks more like a barn to me, but we call it 'the garage') at 9 am to help us pick up the cleaning supplies, we then walked down to the office together to pick up a one of the Club Cars, and then drove over to our first cabin.   In all it took us a little less than 3 hours to clean the four remaining Deluxe Cabins.....makes a big difference with one extra person.  All that remains now is the cleaning of the four 'Rustic Cabins' (heater, small dorm size fridge.....no kitchen, or bathroom.....just bunks).

We clocked out about 12:07 pm and headed for the barn.  When we began our workday it was sunny, and almost balmy if you can call 52º F balmy....it's really all a matter of perspective.  By the end of our 3 hour shift it was getting windy and quite cold....you could tell the weather was changing, and that rain was in the offing. 

I had thought about going for a bike ride in the afternoon, but had no desire to fight the wind and/or rain so I opted to stay home with TLE.  On our door step when we arrived home was a package I had ordered from Amazon just a few days earlier......a case of Snap-E-Tom Tomato Cocktail 6 oz. cans...... 

A case of Snap-E-Tom.....one 6 pack is already in the fridge cooling

......I have been consuming Snap-E-Tom since I was a little kid......my Dad loved it, too.  It never occurred to me that Del Monte would ever discontinue this item.....after all it had been available for my entire life.  We ran out of Snap-E-Tom sometime during our 1 month journey to Maine and hoped to either find a local supermarket which did carry it, or order some from Amazon as I had done several times in the past.  After none of the local supermarkets had it in stock I decided to go online to buy some to replenish my supply.  I was shocked to find out that it was no longer in production, and that the last case of 6 oz. cans was on Amazon......no one else anywhere had it in stock.  That last case of twenty-four 6 oz. cans cost me almost $50......ouch!  I will keep searching to find another case out there, but in the interim I will cherish every single can I have left.

So, I guess the Snap-E-Tom era has come to an end.  Don't get me wrong, I do like Spicey V-8, and will probably begin buying it again, but Snap-E-Tom reminded me of my Dad every time I took a sip, and I will dearly miss that.

We spent the afternoon staying warm.....around 3 pm one of my favorite Spaghetti Westerns came on AMC.....The Good, The Bad and the Ugly.....this movie, uncut, and without commercials is 3 hours and 7 minutes long......a very long movie for 1966.  Well, I watched the entire movie....haven't done that in a long time!  One of my favorite movie lines comes from this movie......"There are those who have loaded guns, and those who dig..."  (Clint Eastwood aka: Blondie to Eli Wallach aka: Tuco).

After the movie I lit the Sea-B-Que and grilled up some more carne asada for some more street tacos.......life is good!

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Sticks, leaves, BBQ's and refrigerators.....

6:57 am - Saturday - May 19th - Southwest Harbor, ME - 41º F, 84% humidity, wind 1 mph out of the east by northeast......clear, blue skies with a forecast high to day of 55º F.....40% chance of rain in the late afternoon, continuing into Sunday with a 70% chance of rain.

The extended weather forecast

I reported for work at 8 am Friday.  For my four hour shift I did a little of everything.  Each of the 14 cabins here has its own gas BBQ.  After a couple of seasons they begin to wear out, and must be replaced.  Along with Todd, Alex and I helped inspect each one, checking to see if it had a full propane tank, and if it would light.  About half of the BBQ's failed the test and were loaded in the back of Todd's truck and taken to the barn where we will, in the future, remove some of the common parts saving them to repair the remaining ones, if and when they need repairing.  In the mean time we will be taking delivery on 7 new BBQ's later in the week.

Once that was done Alex and I headed for the group area to finish the cleanup which had been started a few days earlier.....picking up big sticks, and then using leaf blowers to  corral the leaves into large piles so they can be transferred to the large leaf compost pile in the back of the property.

We loaded all the sticks and stick debris into the 'dumper' at the rear of the electric 'Club Car'.  In all we hauled two cart loads of sticks and debris to the stick pile.  In between the first and the second load Alex and I helped Todd move a few refrigerators around before returning to the group area clean up to haul the second load of sticks.

Once the sticks were removed we each donned a leaf blower and began to 'herd' the leaves into large piles.  By this time it was 11:20 am and I had just 40 minutes left on my 4 hour shift.  The last 40 minutes flew by quickly and I left Alex to finish creating the leaf piles which will be moved Saturday, or Sunday.  We have just one week left until the official opening of Smuggler's Den for the summer season.

Speaking of 'summer'.....the weather right now is anything but 'summery'.....while we are getting our fair share of sunny days the temperatures have only climbed out of the 50's one day since we have been here, and over the next 14 days it looks like there may be another 4, or 5 days which may creep into the low 60's, but there are at least 7 days with rain forecast.  Personally, I'm enjoying the cool weather.  I know it will get warmer soon enough, and there will even be days later this summer when I will long for these cool, bug free days of May.  

TLE worked until 2:30 pm Friday cleaning cabins with Sam, and that is where we (TLE and I) will be working on Saturday.  They managed to deep clean 4 of the 14 cabins with just two people....we'll have four people, hopefully, on Saturday so we should get a lot further along in the process by the end of of the day.

When we were in Ellsworth on Tuesday we bought a couple of filet mignons to grill later in the week, and 'later in the week' had arrived.   It was a very nice evening with no wind so while I heated up the Sea-B-Que I also laid wood for a fire.  While the steaks grilled we sat by the fire sipping some Pinot Noir.  About the time I flipped the filets two of our neighbors for the summer, Linda and Terry, came over to introduce themselves.  They keep their 5th wheel here at Smuggler's Den during the summer and come most weekends, and on occasion will stay a week at a time.  They are very nice people and we will enjoy interacting with them throughout the summer!

The steaks came out wonderfully.....a perfect medium rare.  TLE added a side mashed potatoes.  We sat by the fire eating our dinner......our first meal outside.....enjoying the early evening air.  A nice way to end our first week in Southwest Harbor!

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Workaday man......

6:15 am - Friday - May 18th - Southwest Harbor, ME - 46º F, 53% humidity, wind 11 mph out of the north.....clear, blue skies with a forecast high for today of 58º F.

Work day 2 began at 8 am for me Thursday, while TLE began her day at 9 am.  Day 2 was a much better day for me physically.  My ribs hardly bothered me for my four hour shift.  My job was to spend the morning cleaning all the chaise lounges (10) and chairs (14) in the pool area.  They had been kept inside the restroom during the winter, but there is still cleaning which needs to be done.

In order to mold proof them for the summer Todd had me use an air pump sprayer to apply white vinegar to each chaise lounge and chair.  None of the chairs had any mold on them, but the white vinegar apparently not only will remove mold, but when applied will prevent mold from growing.  When you live in a cool, humid environment mold is an inevitability, so preventative action is important.

Once the white vinegar was applied I took one of those 'Magic Erasers' to clean all the surfaces (vinyl and metal).  The vinyl was pretty clean, but the metal (coated in white rubber) had stains, and paint scuffs which the magic eraser removes so easily.  It's obvious these chairs have been taken care of over the years (they are 5 years old) as they still look almost new.  Apparently at the end of each season in October they take time to clean all the suntan lotion off the vinyl before they are put into storage for the winter.  If I hadn't been told so, I would have thought they had been purchased within the past few months.

After cleaning all the surfaces I then rinsed each chair with water so they would not smell like white vinegar.  In all it took me almost exactly 4 hours to finish the job.....Alex, and Tony came over about 11:30 am to help me finish the chairs, otherwise there would have been 5, or 6 of the 14 chairs left to clean.   We knocked out the final 8 chairs in about 15 minutes.

I was off just after 12 pm and on my way walking back to the Newell feeling much better than the day prior.  Hopefully after 2, or 3 more four hour days I will be ready to move up to 8 hour days by the time the park opens in a week.  

According to Todd and Rain (our employers) we will be busy over Memorial Day, but then things will quiet down until the 4th of July weekend when things will get very busy, and it will stay very busy until after Labor Day.  A very similar pattern to Tahoe Valley Campground where we spent 3+ years working.

I needed to buy some rubber boots for when we are power washing the bathrooms, and other situations, such as cleaning the pool chairs, where regular shoes would get soaking wet.  I had been told there was a West Marine in town, and that they had rubber boots, so TLE and I headed over there about 1 pm.  As it turned out they had several brands ranging in cost from the high $40's to over $100.  The ones I chose were the West Marine brand which happened to be on sale (40% off) for $47....they don't have to last forever.....just 5 months, and I think these will last well beyond that........

.....TLE and I owned a Columbia 26' sloop rigged sailboat from 1992 to 2004 which we kept in a marina in Long Beach, CA during that time so I very familiar with West Marine, as most boaters are.  While in town we noticed a lot of businesses are now beginning to open, or have signs up advising they will be open sometime this week, so the summer is beginning to get underway here in Southwest Harbor.

For dinner TLE had me grill up some pollo asado for tacos (yay for me!) around 5:30 pm.  I believe we've used the Sea-B-Que at least 4 times since we arrived here at Smuggler's Den.  I think the last time we filled up our 5 gallon propane bottle was back in May of 2017 while at Tahoe Valley Campground.  I am amazed we are still using that same propane almost one year later.  We have a propane company coming to fill up our 60 gallon tank on Friday, so I think it would be a good idea to fill that 5 gallon bottle, too!

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