Opening of the Privy - Volunteer Day
Just like when Geraldo Rivera opened Al Capone’s crypt to much fanfare, I eagerly anticipated opening the privy (outhouse) on the Craighill light. It had been sealed shut for more years than I’m aware. Of course, unlike Rivera, I expected to find nothing inside, only hoping for a stable floor. I was delighted to find the full bench seat still intact after Hobie and Tony, volunteers with the Chesapeake Chapter of the US Lighthouse Society, pried the boarded up doorway open. I held my breath and waited as the last nail came out and the ‘door’ was wiggled out. “There’s a skeleton in there!” they joked! Nope, nothing - just a bunch of paint dust. With a couple upward whacks of the hammer, the seat even lifted up, revealing the drop to the water below. Too cool!
Memorial Day weekend got kicked off with a great volunteer effort provided by the Chesapeake Chapter of the US Lighthouse Society. We accomplished a ton in 7 hours time. I’ve nominated the lighthouse for a donation of windows and doors through JELD-WEN’s lighthouse program and as part of a follow-up questionnaire, needed to provide detailed measurements of all the windows and the door. Hobie and Tony set to work doing that before the task of opening the privy. Meanwhile, other volunteers set to work scrubbing and scraping in prep for painting the keeper’s quarters with the paint my husband and I hauled up the day before after moving the ladder that had been hanging under the inaccessible hatch (shown in the dead osprey picture in the previous post) to the platform in order to provide a stable boarding system.
The guys managed to wiggle and work the hatch until it was able to close. One of the hinges rusted through the strap and will need to be re-welded or replaced, but it’s functional and I was able to install a lock clasp finally with some help cutting a notch for the hinge to fit through the gap. Security - check! I also secured the ladder to the platform and reorganized cables which will be useful for pulling boats along the outer diameter of the lighthouse - at least on one side. Next time, I’ll add loops to the cable to make clicking the boat in quickly easier.
Al, Jeff, Sherry, Anne, and Donna painted the keeper’s quarters and part of the railing and she looks beautiful with her new facelift! Cathy (not me - Captain Howard’s wife) scrubbed and cleaned out the extremely full gutter trap. An amazing effort by all that accomplished a ton in one day! Huge thanks to Captain Howard and his boat, Audacious, for safely transporting the volunteers and getting them on and off the lighthouse. Nobody fell in!
Of course, I left with a list of things still needing to be done and things to buy to keep out there (like face masks). The day was perfect except for the ants, which are as bad as ever. I was attacked just prior to disembarking after I slung my son’s backpack around my shoulder forgetting he had left a banana in the front pocket. I wondered what was poking out of the backpack all over and pricking my arm. I looked down to find my arm covered in those tiny ants! Pest control… absolutely necessary next time!
Thanks crew for a job well done! I’m impressed some of them came all the way from Pennsylvania and New Jersey for the day of exhausting manual labor, but hopefully found it well worth it. Everyone was impressed that the lighthouse had a basement.
