"And like a good neighbor, The Average Angler is there....". It's been a while since The Boat House, whoops, The Guide House, has been shown any love. And the yard hasn't been mowed and raked for some time. The last thing I want is the town to eminent domain this place due to the ongoing revitalization and rebirth in the neighborhood. Like across the street, and soon next to and behind me. So being a good neighbor is important. Today I paid the price.
With feel-like temperatures like 1,000 degrees I pulled out hat tools I had. The two biggest were this old battery operated Ryobi weed hacker, which wouldn't draw blood if you ran it across your neck, and an old American brand 14" push mower.
I left my old gas powered tools when we sold the house, because, why would I need them? well, here you go. While I thought I was done with good old gas I might have to rethink that as I broke my ass with the above set-up today.
I spent four hours in the heat getting the jungle under control, and it didn't go unnoticed. Town hall is just a block over and several town vehicles slowed down around the curve, it sits on a corner lot, to see what activity was going on on the corner. Nobody stopped, but all gave a wave before moving on. No doubt it was somebody's talk at the coffee maker back at the office.
In the end the best I could do was weed whack the grass in the yard. They have different grass and weeds down here and if you let it go the stalks became almost high and stick like which is too much for the push mower. If I allowed to get back there today I'll have to rake it all out before running those sharp blades across what's left.
The skiff sits where I left it and I need to finish up with the sellers as far as getting the documents that go with it. I'm not worried as it was registered in Georgia and had a tag on it,
although a little outdated. I'll have to send the SCDNR my application to get it water legal before I use it which hopefully is sooner then later. At some pint over the next few days I'll have to get down to some water and scout around. The Full Moon is August 28th so this week is a good one for flood tides, which could mean tailing redfish somewhere.
While the yard work was noticeable I wanted to hang something to let the neighbors know this place will soon be full of life. So I went inside and pulled an old wooden fish that was hanging on the shed up in Cape May. It wasn't much, but people notice even the smallest things.
The place is now marked as something-fishy-is-coming and when I find the right wooden board or plank I'm going to make the first The Guide House sign to hang outside. It won't be much, more like the finger painted "For Sale Coming Soon" sign like I planted on Route 29 which
proved to be key in selling our house before it went to market. So maybe a sign like that will start The Guide House off with some good juju. I'm thinking I might run the idea past some Martha's Vineyard artist to see what he comes up with. Anybody know any like that up in the Vineyard?
These posts, like getting away from packing and moving, are fun to write as they will tell the early days of The Guide House and my adventures down here. There's so much water, so many fish, and so much to learn. I'm gonna ride and enjoy this wave for as long I can upright.
And to circle back to Captain Nick Stanzyck, who was struck by lightning last week and suffered cardiac arrest, well, he's now back home recovering. They say lightening doesn't strike twice and we hope for Nick's sake that is true.
