Lots to talk about so let’s get started. First, we need to discuss the elephant in the room.

Many of you have noticed the new subscription button on the home page and sent a payment. I thank you and am negligent for my lack of explanation. Word press charges me a bunch of money every year to keep the blog ad free. If you have ever read a blog, where there are ads constantly popping up, you will appreciate why I pay to keep the blog free of the nuisance. It was brought to my attention that having my readers subscribe and pay a small amount of money every year is no different than if I sold home made gift cards, or candles at a craft fair. I was encouraged to at least give my readers the option to support the blog and so I did. Many of you have, and I thank you.

Next order of business. You wanted to see the baby quilt I made.

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I have now finished sewing the quilt top for my daughter’s queen bed. I still need material for the back and batting to finish, and, until there is the unlikely opening of a fabric store on the island, I have to wait for it to get shipped here. I can set the quilt aside for a couple of weeks and deal with the stash of island apples and pears on my kitchen counter. Apple pie filling and pear jam, I suspect, will be added to the pantry this week.

Then I need to get started working on the winter edition of the island newsletter. The newsletter takes me a couple of weeks to finish.. There is a lot of hounding of people and waiting on articles that goes on.. With any luck it will be ready to mail out in November. With the pandemic limiting the social activities on the island there isn’t a whole heck of a lot to talk about. It could be a very thin newsletter indeed.

Our community fundraises for the island volunteer fire department and also for emergency medical supplies. In addition to the fire truck and equipment, we have a couple of AED’s, and a backboard, among other things. We also fund first aid training to willing islanders. Yesterday, E and I had a refresher course. A Red Cross instructor came over to the island for the day. We had already completed a four hour on-line segment and then yesterday eight of us had another five hours of in person instruction. I guess the ultimate goal would be for everyone on the island to have basic knowledge of what to do in an emergency. It was after the first aid course I went on three years ago that I bought a tourniquet to keep in E’s chain saw box.

E was able to get his Covid Vaccine booster yesterday. So that is three Moderna shots he has had. He never had a reaction with his first two shots. This one has made him kind of tired but no real bothersome side effects. Theoretically, in two weeks, he will be as safe as any of us vaccinated folks, although we will continue to stay close to home for a good long while.

Now to what you really want to know. The water! How did we make out with the water? That little rain storm we had on Friday gave us 1200 gallons in 24 hrs. Our tanks are now sitting at 2600 gallons. Needless to say we have been having a lot of bubble baths this weekend. A few more days like that and we can close the full tanks for the winter and not have to talk about it any more.

You know when drug dealers give you the goods for free at first, to get you hooked, and then when you are hooked they start charging? Well, that is kind of what I did with the blog. I gave you the first 862 posts and ten years free and now you gotta pay. Well, you don’t actually have to pay. I am not going to cut you off or anything. It is all voluntary and I appreciate you following whether you

subscribe or not.