Glad to be Back On Mayne Island

This started out to be my Friday evening "Grateful Post," but it has taken longer to do than Friday evening. We most certainly have a lot to be grateful for, and coming back to Mayne Island tops the list. It has been four weeks now since we set foot back on our island property.

On Friday June 25th we had ferry reservations for the 6:00 pm sailing back to Mayne Island. 

Stopping at the Quay Market, we picked up a couple of slices of vegetarian pizza before boarding the ferry.

On board it felt to us a lot like being on a cruise ship. The ferry was loaded mostly with people who were on holiday enjoying the trip... and for the moment we felt like we too were on holiday!

As we were walking laps around the upper deck to get a little exercise, a young lady kindly offered to take our picture with the two of us together.  

I watched this super ferry gaining on us, and as it was passing us, I caught it with Mt. Baker proudly showing off in the background. 

The red and white light house on Mayne Island was a welcome sight. We were almost home again!

As soon as we got home in short order we started unloading... and used the tractor to save a lot of lifting. I never anticipated how much the tractor would help us.

The width of the tractor bucket was just 2 inches less than the landing at the front entry, and with Shirley's guidance I drove as close as possible and never left a scratch on anything.

I think our first night here was the hottest night we have experienced in a long time.

The sunset is always awesome... 

But the second night we opted to set up the blowup bed on the deck to beat the heat. I was awakened just after 12 midnight by the brightness of a full moon... which could easily be mistaken as a sunrise! Each night became cooler and cooler, until we were so chilly sleeping outside we moved the blowup bed into the living room and slept there until the Big Steel Box arrived with our favourite bed.

The next day, being Sabbath, we went for a little drive around and took a very enjoyable tour of Mayne Island's Japanese Garden... about which I will do a separate blog post. It is amazingly beautiful!

The Big Steel Box with most of our stuff did not arrive until July 13. We watched it coming from our deck. That big white box on a Totem truck was right on the front.

The tow truck driver was amazing. He had to back up the hill from our front gate so he could drop the box and still get out. He did that 500 feet without stopping to readjust for the curves.

What took us the better part of a week to load up, we were able to unload and stack into the house in a day and a half.... thanks to Mr. John Deere.

We never planned to unload this by ourselves.... but the tractor took the hard lifting out of the job. I kept track of how many loads it took to empty the Big Steel Box... it was 32 tractor loads. The last 21 bankers boxes we took three at a time with a wheelbarrow.

Unfortunately, the tractor died one trip short of emptying the entire box. It took me longer to figure out how to get it running again than it did to unpack the Big Steel Box.  Turned out there was an electrical short at the battery. Even after cleaning the battery posts and the clamp, I didn't realize there were two small wires that connect the starter to the side of the battery clamp. When all else failed I took them apart and scraped them clean. At last it finally worked! 

Praire Coast Equipment, the John Deere dealer, has an amazing service... they have retired service men with many years of experience who work remotely to help diagnose problems. He sent me diagrams. He helped me find more fuses than the main fuse box, and all of them were good. Ben told me after we finally had it running again that he usually doesn't spend much more than half an hour with each customer... but since I was so remote from a John Deere dealer, he stayed with me longer than usual. He was Great!

While looking for the "in line" fuses, I discovered something very unusual. I found a hammer that appears to have been lodged in the engine for many, many years! See the rusty hammer head?

It was wedged between the firewall next to the fuel tank and the engine... and it was difficult to remove. So I put a rope around the handle and pulled sideways on it, eventually getting it out.

Once removed, it became apparent that it had been there a long time rubbing against the flywheel. A notch was carved out of the fibreglass handle as well as the iron hammerhead, but it didn't seem to affect the running of the tractor. Pretty crazy, eh? I have no idea how it ever got there.

Our life here has new adventures every day.