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The Daily Routine

 

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This is merely a continuation of the “keepers duties” although I felt it best to make second page just so people won’t have to scroll.

As previously mentioned we stood watch 6 hours on and 6 off. Being realistic about this I don't think anyone ever stood the watches with that sort of regularity. Things were done differently with different people living on the island but because most of the time there were 4 adults, we simply did what had to be done. We all knew what to watch for and if the visibility closed in someone just started the light and fog horn or the girls would get one of the guys to do it. The biggest reason we didn't need the regular watches is that in most cases someone was up and around most of the time. At least from shortly after daylight to 10 or 11 at night so we mostly made sure that someone was up the rest of the night. We all knew the importance of keeping the light on during periods of low visibility and at night and made sure this was taken care of. The weather was logged every 4 hours and because the house was a duplex with a common hallway inside we would leave the logbook there and made sure we arranged for one of us to call in the weather reports to be sent to Portland.

The Coast Guard never provided any instruments to check wind speed or anything of that nature so we had to try to guess at it and do the best we could. Needless to say without instruments, not even a working anemometer it was almost a joke although we took it very seriously and tried to do our best.

We used rainwater only and this was collected from the roof and kept us supplied and we never had to take on additional water during the time I was there. If it began to rain everyone on the station would make sure that someone got the pipes into the cisterns to catch the water. Usually we let a small amount wash over the rocks to allow the dirt and salt from the roof have a chance to dissipate before putting any in the tanks

The allotment was 25 gallons per person per day. This sounds like a lot of water but with children in diapers and people that aren't used to conserving water this is actually quite a small amount.

The Officer-in-Charge or the keeper sent some monthly and quarterly reports to the Headquarters in Portland. Supplies were ordered quarterly and like most government operations I was instructed to use all the allotment so it wouldn't be taken away. During my time there this allotment went from 180 dollars a quarter to 120 dollars per quarter. The price paid for most items was quite minimal so we always had adequate paint, soaps, brooms, and other supplies of this nature. The only other things I ordered which we used a large amount of were light bulbs. We almost never shut lights off in the station part of the structure although we turned lights off in the dwelling just like anyone would in their own home. The Coast Guard furnished everything except food and personal belongings. The government supplied the dwelling and all the furniture. I do remember that the light bill ran about $250 per month being slightly higher in the winter which is normal.

On somewhat of a daily basis we swept the hallway between the building and what I call the station and some of the higher traffic areas. That and checking the water was probably about all that was considered to be imperative in that we needed time to get water if necessary and we tried to keep the station clean just in case some brass came from the support station or Portland.

Each family was responsible for painting and cleaning their quarters, which is pretty natural. Each day we did try to paint or repair or do some small thing around the station and we did keep things cleaned up quite well. There was a cement walkway that went to the buildings and also a large cement patio so there was a very small amount of dirt or gravel that got tracked into the building. In the winter we didn't really go outside much anyway. We cleaned the windows on the light tower on most sunny days and pumped fuel from the large storage tanks to the furnace or boiler tank with a small hand pump frequently during the winter. We also had a generator but we seldom used it and we almost never had to add fuel to that but that also had a small hand pump when needed.