From the Keeper’s Desk – May 21

Greetings!

There is never a dull day at Eagle Bluff Light.

Frankie has electrical boxes installed and wire pulled in the summer kitchen. Masons Zak and Jordan arrived to build the chimney in the summer kitchen.

Today Frankie worked on wiring in the barn. Mike and Billie continued with building the cupola for the barn. To me the cupola will be the crown on the barn. Mike was puppy sitting and Maverick graced us with his attendance.

Starting the chimney build

Frankie gets conduit from the breaker panel

Supplies and materials

Maverick is back!

Adding a chimney section

Building the cupola

Notching chimney section for stove pipe connection

Every good boy gets a treat!

Bending conduit

Maverick is tired – time to go home!

Josh and Deion have the inside tower wall cleaned up and plaster repaired so it will be ready for painting. They scoped out what needs to be done on the oil house and then got to work at the privy. We knew the privy pit needed some work but the back wall turned out worse than expected. Bricks totally fell out. It is amazing that the top of the wall was still intact. They cleaned out lots of leaves and other debris from the pit and began the task of installing bricks. They also determined that the supports for the floor were beyond repair and will have to be replaced. The floor was at the point where one might fall through.

Deion and Josh has been cleaning and repairing the tower walls

Looking up from the tower window. Walls are ready for paint.

Privy pit is falling apart

Crowrbar goes right through!

Privy pit is worse than we thought

Missing mortar

The oil house will also need some tuck pointing where mortar is missing on some of the lower courses of brick. The paint on the roof is starting to wear off. That is not a problem because it is the wrong color. It should be the same red as the lantern roof on the lighthouse. We know this for a fact because a 1909 Lighthouse Service Annual Inspection Report says all the roofs at the light station were red. The door will need cleaning up so it can get a fresh coat of black paint.

Ed