Saturday, January 26, 2019

2019 JANUARY IN EASTHAM and introducing THE PRE-QUELS - 2009 - #1 & #2 - North to Eastham, The Trip

Winter sunset
Soooo, it's January, 2019, and it's "quiet time" on Cape Cod, my favorite season, a time for a rejuvenating rest from the busy summer and the holidays, a time to reflect on what we've learned, and a time of planning for the next season.  In particular this month, I've been reflecting on our adventures getting to Cape Cod, and in re-reading them seeing how much we've already forgotten as we've filled our days with a brand new life.  So, I'm going to start the new year with something I meant to do a long time ago, fill in the story of how we got here in the first place.  This journal began as a promise to friends and family in Virginia that I would keep in touch and tell them about this exotic place I was going to live.  Honestly, if I hadn't kept a journal, I'd have forgotten many of the details that have colored this ongoing adventure.  So, in honoring the request to keep in touch and describe what it's like to live here, it has become a gift to myself, as well.  In contrast to the later posts, the Prequels are full of wonder and discovery at everything new.  After nine years, there is still much to discover, but my wash-ashore status is noticeably less.

January is when the bluebirds come back to take advantage of our heated birdbaths.
This year's crop arrived Saturday, January 26th.
Last month was the 119th Annual Cape Cod Christmas Bird Count, which has been described as Citizen Science at Its Best. The goal is to record as complete a sample as possible of the wintering birds in a 15 mile circle to keep track of wintering bird populations over time.  The Cape and Islands has six of these counts in different locations, including Eastham.  There's some friendly competition among the hobbyists to see which location can record the most species.  In good years, a local count may tally over 130 species in one day.  These are dedicated birders who do this rain or shine. 
[Taken from The Weekly Bird Report on WCAI]




As the land mass narrows going north on Cape Cod, the three main roads converge at a rotary that connects the town of Orleans and Eastham.  When I moved here nine years ago, I found that there were many residents who lived in towns south of the rotary who considered anything north of it to be the wild unknown.  In fact, historians show that the rotary was at one time a body of water called Jeremiah's Gulch that required a boat to continue north.  So it's only fitting that one of the first places you come to as you enter Eastham is the appropriately named Wild Care, which started when a local woman and a few volunteers began taking in and helping injured animals at her home. It officially became a non-profit organization in 1993 and moved to the current Eastham property in 2004.  Through contributions and fundraisers, they now boast pools, a heated Jacuzzi, x-ray technology and 3 cameras to monitor the recovering animals.  Approximately 27,000 wild animals have been assisted so far with a 46% success rate, and there are more than 230 volunteers and 8 full time staff.  275 different species have been treated, including sea birds, reptiles, mammals, birds of prey, and others which are brought to their attention by people who happen upon the wild animals in trouble and call the 24/7 helpline. [Information taken from The Cape Codder]

Learn more at:  Wild Care Cape Cod


It wouldn't be January if the subject of weather didn't eventually come up.  The jury is still out on what kind of winter it will be here.  Although storms have weekly been  causing havoc from the west to the east coast, and then north, we've yet to see more than a flurry and a scant inch on the Cape.  Disappointing for me, but a relief for many others.  We still have pansies blooming, but it's too early to predict if I'll get to wear my snow boots.  In the meantime, here are some fun science facts about snow, courtesy of the Marie Mitchell Museum on Nantucket that you can enjoy in total comfort whether you have snow, or not:      
FUN SCIENCE FACTS ABOUT SNOW
Sure, it’s fun to play in, to throw, and to make snow angels – and maybe not so fun to shovel – but, as hardy New Englanders, snow is part of our winter landscape. While you’re watching those flakes come down this year, here are some interesting facts to think about.
1. Snow is translucent, not white. Snow is made up of ice particles, which are colorless.
2. Each winter in the United States alone, at least 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 snowflakes fall from the sky.
3. Not every storm that produces snow is a blizzard. In order to be classified as a blizzard, winds must be at least 35 mph and visibility must be reduced by snowfall to less than .25 miles for at least three hours.
4. Other types of snowstorms include snow squalls and snow bursts.
5. Snowflakes always have six sides. The water molecules that form snowflakes can only fit together to form six-sided crystals.
6. In 1988, Nancy Knight, a scientist for the National Center for Atmospheric Research, observed two snowflakes that were exactly the same. The snowflakes came from a snowstorm in Wisconsin.
7. Snow is a mineral, according to the National Snow & Ice Data Center, because it’s a solid that is naturally occurring and inorganically formed.

A beautiful January afternoon on Cape Cod Bay
Although this is supposed to be the quiet time, we've hosted three groups of guests this month, all just looking for a break from their daily routines.  One couple even came from Florida and probably passed many Cape Codder "snowbirds' on the road escaping the cold in hopes of some Florida sunshine.  

And, there's a lot of this going on here in January:
The New England Patriots head to their ninth Super Bowl
And now, the Prequels Part I & 2


    
     December 2009 - North to Eastham – Part 1 – The Trip



The definition of the word travail is ‘painful, or laborious effort’.  It is also the origin of the word travel, a word we more commonly associate with much more pleasant connotations.  Although reaching our destination of Eastham, MA has proved to be all we had hoped, the actual move from Richmond, VA epitomized the word, travail.   It is not without noting that from the time we fell in love with our new home to the day we signed papers and were presented the keys, it took close to 9 months, and also felt very much like giving birth to a new life, complete with labor pains.  It took selling 3 homes in the worst real estate market of our lifetimes, settling an estate, and transferring way too many possessions in a caravan which consisted of a 24’ moving van, 2 additional vehicles, 4 people and 2 bewildered cats, a distance of 500+ miles through several large cities on I-95. 

Our last weekend in Virginia was spent partly in Alexandria at my niece’s wedding.  We should have been home preparing for the move, but wouldn’t have missed the family gathering for anything.   We had spent the week before moving down all the boxes of things that had been banished to the attic while showing the house, and trotting back and forth to the Fedex office with more and more forms that the settlement company came up with, daily to sign, notarize, fax and overnight to them.   On the Monday after the wedding, we closed on one of the two houses that should have settled that day, picked up the moving van and began loading.   On Tuesday, at the last moment, we closed on the other house and continued loading, but it was apparent that due to the constant interruptions from the settlement company, we would not be finished by the end of the day, nor would we have enough room to take all of our things.   The weather forecast for Wednesday, our scheduled day to drive, was torrential rain and gusty winds, all the way up the coast.   A quick call to our realtor and a lot of begging bought us another night at the house from our buyers, most of which was spent trying to finish loading in the already pouring rain.  With nothing left to sleep on, we finally checked into a motel in the wee hours of the next morning for a few hours of rest before the drive.  We returned to the house with bleary eyes to resolve loading and dispursing the last of our possessions, which was only accomplished by abandoning many of them.  Two loads to Goodwill, a load to the dump and many disbursements to friends and neighbors-later, we collected the cats and got on the road about 3 p.m.   This, after only a couple of hours of sleep…

Our caravan consisted of Ron, driving the moving van, fortified by a cooler full of Starbucks Doubleshot Expressos, our friend, Mark, driving Ron’s pickup truck, which was also fully loaded, and my son, Doug, driving my car, with me and two, very upset cats.  After watching their world shrink for 8 months, first to stage and show the house, then the rest packed into boxes and disappearing one by one into a truck, then stuffed into a loud and vibrating car, they were not at all sure about the outcome of their predicament.  With several stops for gas and food, coordinated by cell phones, we managed to pull into our motel in Hyannis by about 2 a.m., only to find that despite the information on the website, the cats were not welcome.  The clerk was kind enough to find Ron & I a room down the street that would also take the cats, so we left Doug & Mark there and returned to the car.  Unfortunately, the door to the cat carrier sprang open on the way, releasing Newfie, the black cat, to streak across the parking lot into the bushes against the motel, which were full of thorns.  Thankfully, he decided that the car looked like a better bet than me stomping and cursing through thorns, and he willingly returned.  As I gazed up at the street light in the parking lot, it began to flurry.  That, somehow, made the very long and tense trip feel fresh and hopeful again.  Several hours later, in the Barnstable Courthouse, with Mark and Doug cat-sitting, we signed the final papers, got keys, and finally went home.



North to Eastham – Part 2 - Honey, We’re Home
It took 2 days for Ron, Mark & Doug to unload everything, and my time was consumed by emptying and flattening boxes as fast as I could and placing things where I was most likely to be able to find them again.  My inherent tendency to create order from chaos definitely had me in my element.   While I plowed through the stacks they left me, Ron took the guys for a brief tour of our town’s First Encounter Beach on Cape Cod Bay, where they learned the joy of letting the stiff wind support them, with arms outstretched like airplanes.  First Encounter is named for the Mayflower Pilgrims’ first meeting with the native Wampanoag Indians.  Not wanting to take unfair advantage of my helpers, who had worked both tirelessly and cheerfully, we took the next day off to show them some of the reasons why we had chosen to live in this place. 

We all piled into the truck and drove down Cape to Provincetown, the farthest point north, passing through the scenic towns of Wellfleet and Truro.   The quaintness and constant proximity to water is what draws everyone to this area, mostly in the summer, but we find that winter brings its own special beauty and peacefulness to the small beach towns, and year-rounders have plenty of opportunities for entertainment of all kinds.   We had a delicious lunch at JoMama’s,  cruised for bargains in the most eclectic of shops and contemplated the wild beauty of the ocean at Race Point before returning to eat lobster rolls from the local Stop & Shop for dinner.   We never take for granted that our days now begin and end in a place that most people come to for only a week, or two, and wish they could stay longer.    It took about a week to become acclimated to the feeling that we would not have to leave, too. 

The cats, thrilled to be out of the car, and rediscovering their favorite furniture, smells and comfy spots, made themselves right at home exploring all the new nooks and crannies, smells and sights.  We’re all childishly delighted, after living at the bottom of a hill and surrounded by the forest, by now having a distant view of the Mid-Cape highway from our front windows.  The back windows look out on an open porch, surrounded by trellises covered in wisteria and roses, and birds, lots of birds.  I have made sure the bird feeders are full.  We tend to think of each window as a different T.V. channel.

Getting Settled
There is a delicate balance to changing from one location to another, and one must pre-determine this domino effect, or end up just spinning wheels.  For instance, the weather forecast was for snow, lots of snow.  The yard was covered with piles of flattened boxes, which were constantly being rearranged by the incoming Alberta Clipper, and needed to be taken to the dump before they got buried under the predicted 18” of snow.  But, one must have a town dump sticker for that, which requires proof of residency, which requires a new driver’s license and tags, which first require proof of new car insurance.  That took about 3 days to accomplish, which was just in time for the blizzard that covered most of the east coast.   MA is more prepared to deal with snow than VA, and though the snow was higher than my new boots, the promptly plowed roads were just fine to drive by the next day.   Luckily, with the help of our real estate agent, and new friend, Alan, Ron was able to find a great deal on a new snow blower just hours before the deluge. 

And now, a tribute to Cape dumps, or transfer stations, as they are called:  they are a recycler’s dream-come-true.  Not only is there a place to dispose of every possible item, each town has its own section to bring things that are too good to throw away, but aren’t wanted anymore.  Anyone can leave things, or take things, and they each have names.  Eastham’s is the Swap Shop, or Stock Exchange.  Harwich is the Treasure Chest, and so on.  They’re a great place to look for something you need, or to upgrade something you already have, not to mention get rid of things you no longer want.   I quickly found a bulletin board to replace the one I had to leave behind and dropped off several boxes of unwanted household items left by our sellers.

Another task was choosing a new bank and opening new accounts.  In our minds, there was no other choice than the Cape Cod Five, in business since 1855, originally The Cape Cod Five Cents Savings Bank.  The woman who opened our accounts was none other than Paige Pennypacker.   Talk about the right name for the job…

We chose the town of Eastham for its mid-Cape location and its lack of people-drawing commerce.  It is, however, only a mile and a half to the Orleans rotary, where we can find almost anything we want, or certainly whatever we need.   A word about rotaries:  they’re not as confusing as one first thinks after learning the simple rule.  Drivers inside the rotary have the right of way; drivers wanting to enter the rotary yield until they can take their place on the merry-go-round.  The beauty of rotaries is that if you miss your turnoff, you just go around again until you see the right one.  The danger is the out-of-towners who aren’t used to them.  ‘Nuff said.   Eastham’s main commercial area consists mainly of the Town Hall, fire station, post office, library, information center (open in summer), the Eastham Superette (wonderful sandwiches made fresh to order), Windmill Park, various restaurants, motels and rental cottages, and of course, the entrance to the Cape Cod National Seashore, created in 1961 by President John F, Kennedy, and run by the National Parks Service.  Our neighborhood is called Fort Hill.  It was never actually a fort, but boasts a magnificent lookout over Nauset Harbor, the salt marshes, and beyond to the Atlantic Ocean.  It’s a favorite meeting spot for year-rounders to come to sip morning coffee, take a lunch break or for quiet contemplation, or fitness walks on the walking and bike trails, anytime.  On the 3/10th of a mile walk from our home to the lookout, we pass the famous Captain Penniman House, a French Second Empire style home, built in 1868 by a whaling captain, and noted for the whalebone jaws in the front yard.

On Tuesday, all too soon, it was time to take Mark & Doug to Logan airport in Boston.  We had planned the early evening flights so that we could spend the day showing them the big city where we both used to live.  But, no one really wanted to leave Eastham before they absolutely had to, and our timing backfired as we were forced to brave rush hour traffic to get to their flights.  Next to South Koreans, Boston is known for its crazy drivers, and Tuesday was no exception.  Despite some close calls and an unscheduled detour on the Mass Pike heading west, we made it back intact.  

And, now that the holidays are nearing an end, our attention turns to finding good tenants for the rental units.  The B&B idea has sensibly faded into more of a seasonal or year round scenario, a work smarter, not harder philosophy, however, depending on availability of our guest quarters, we may dabble when it suits us.  Each day of sorting, rearranging and exploring brings us closer to feeling more at home than guests.  We like to think of ourselves as the current caretakers of this wonderful property that others have tended before us.  We look forward to seeing the surprises that each season brings and welcoming friends to share it with us.