August 3, 2020. Western Head, Nova Scotia. More Progress.

Sometime before I leave at the end of September, Corror the playboat will be gone. I feel sad about it but Connor has seen better days and is no longer safe to keep in the yard, let alone the children get onboard to play. We imstalled the boat 20 years ago. Kate named him and Bud made the letters to install on the stern. Ken painted him the first time with bold primary colors. And the grandchildren loved him, as did the rest of our friends grandchildren. When the Ely grandchildren left behind toys, we found toys of boats, soldiers and little indian figures. Not a dish in sight. The last time the boat was painted, he said that the next time Connor needs painting, we needed to take an axe to it. Now the boat is falling apart. Even the keel is split. Darrell, who repairs the bicycles, will bit by bit take Connor to the dump. He promised me that the boat will be gone before I leave town. This morning, while I was still in bed, I could hear scraping. The paimnter and his helper had started the long process of painting the house. The first and most important task was to scrape off all the old paint. It will take them several days of scraping before it is time for a primer. After two coats of primer, the painting goes quickly. After two coats of paint, the house will look perfect. Shingles a devilishly difficult to scrape because you must scrape between every shingle. Gill was smart by just leaving her shingles alone where it has aged a lovely dark grey color. Buit our house was already painted white so we pained the new section and repainted the old. We have been painting it ever since. The new painter guarentees his work for 6 years and thinks it will last ten, even on the shore. It is interesting to walk around the house. The north and west side are perfect, almost, while the east and south walls have half the paint gone. No telling how long it will take to finish the job but one thing I know is that it will be done before I leave. This Spring I had a new roof installed and now the house will have a new dress. Progress has been made.