Processing the Harvest

Just popped in to say hi - been busy doing all kinds of stuff, so much is so beautiful this time of year (here). Last night I could not even stay in bed at 3 a.m. thinking of how aesthetically marvelous it must be out at the harbor at this one time of night when absolutely no one will be about........So I netted 8 pogies and went out to see the sights. Amazing; stars and sea just going on for ever. I stood out at the end of the harbor wall; 200 yards down that narrow walkway, and under the bright light that lets one see into the water. Trout were 'popping', making a sucking pop as they chase tiny anchovies and shrimp across the surface - one of those sounds that is the very essence of night seas. The inevitable night heron was watching wile trying to appear inconspicuous against the fence siding in the darker bit, and below in the water small fish swim, some so fast they cannot even be seen between spurts, others lazily, and some skittering across the top with trout popping behind them. Occasionally a shark will swim past in the slow, sinuously manner they have - so perfect in their form and beauty.

And with those 8 pogies I caught 6 legal specks (over 13 inches long) in a half hour - but I just got a call and must go. It is just so beautiful out; I have to be outside most of the time as it calls me - making my trails in the woods, on the water, in the garden.........and tonight I have a friend going fishing with me from 9p.m. to 3 a.m.

And I did realize I was doing a diary here - and not conversation. So I will be not here much - I have jam to make from garden frozen fruit; to clear space in my tiny chest freezer, and will talk of that and try to get back on topic. When I look at a blank screen I just have too much to say, every day is too full of thoughts and sights and doings that I ramble on.

 

It sounds as if you had a good night Colne.

 

Envy you that passion Colne,
Jenny

 

Nice to hear you banging on again Colne You carry on mate, it's coming up winter her so we need something to read

 

I have just gotten back from visiting some friends who garden at the local farmers market. One is not allowed to sell fish caught under a sport fishing license, or barter them either - but I do give them to friends, and they do give me things they grow. I consider it a friendly sharing of things we do and produce, rather than barter, which is selling without cash. I only give fish to friends - no strings attached - and give fish to librarians and others with no expectation of anything back.

We were given some crowder peas (Southern field peas also called purple hull peas - a starchy pea cooked fresh after shelling - usually cooked with some bacon or ham hock) okra, and pickled okra - my okra has finished and I do not plant row peas



Also a jar of habanero jelly. I gave some friends some trout and crabs and in a bit will be off in the boat to fish for some trout, and when the incoming tide gets running well, to throw the net for some shrimp.

And outside it is perfect; the weather is beautiful - as is the bayou, the woods, gardens, chickens, pond, everything. This is such a beautiful place - and on the water it will just be more so with birds everywhere, ospreys, pelicans, several kinds of herons, seagulls, egrets, - fish jumping all about, big and small, a blue sky with just the right amount of clouds and the very familiar rocking of the boat, fishing and netting and cruising all about with the silent electric motor.

Just have to plant my Swiss Chard seedlings and some collards, then I have the tackle together, bait made up (shrimp bait I make from pogies I canned, cheap dried cat food, corn meal, and chicken layer pellets) and some bait shrimp netted so we can get right to fishing. Now days we are eating fish, shrimp, crabs, 5 days a week. Last night though, I bought some good buns and had hot dogs with macaroni and cheese and Waldorf salad for a change; and enjoyed it very much, wile watching the movie 'Patton'.

So a quick planting and off to the bay...

 

Again every day has too much to write of - but I will mention one thing. The red rooster I got three and a half years ago as a chick. He grew to be the archetypical rooster - if one looks at old Dutch paintings there he is, sitting on a fence or walking the farm yard. Red with long curved tail, long brilliant hackle feathers, gold and scarlet wings, and head and tail held completely erect.

He was my main rooster, we ate the others keeping him for his beauty and poise, and was the father of my big white rooster. The big white one he always terrorized if it got too confident; usually waiting at night at the door of the hen house baring him from entering till all were on roosts and red would join them, and then the white rooster would dare enter. But two days ago the big white one turned - he had finally grown his fighting spurs at 18 months old, and just in one moment used them to fight. Roosters have one and a half inch long horn spurs on their lower legs - needle sharp. To fight they pull their legs forward against their body and leaping at their opponent thrust down with their powerful legs and stab them. They are actually quite formidable and will kill each other - and if a good rooster will rush to the attack if a predator is getting a hen.

And in that fight, which happened in the hen house, I saw the results when letting the chickens out, left both bloody. The red rooster blind in one eye and both with bloody combes and heads - but now the white rooster would chase the red. I was out doing some planting when the red rooster was chased to hide under a table by me - and wile he looked away I reached down and grabbed him - and how he called out - and bashed him over the head with a 2X4 bit of lumber - and that was the end of it.

I was very tired when I went to bed last night but stayed awake for a long wile thinking about it all.

 

Your rooster wasn't like this one was he Colne?

 

Take it you don't have vets in america then Colne

 

The rooster is vaguely like that but being a banti cock has his tail and head totally erect which gives a sort of Prussian officer effect. But here is a video of the chickens. The first picture is of the previous days chicken feed of veg and some pogies taken in the potted plant border of my driveway with weasel dog - I have masses of those ornamental peppers, so pretty with their hundreds of scarlet and yellow and white fruits which never seem to age but keep fresh looking.



And last evening I popped out with some shrimp bait and soon netted 100+ shrimp; see my floating shrimp tank - made from a clothes dryer found on the road; then a friend and I went out to the light way down the pier and I caught my limit of specks (15 over 13 inches long) by midnight - so took them home, got some more shrimp and back for another 2 hours and caught 10 more. After midnight one can take yesterdays catch home and then you get a whole new days limit. I iced them with about 20 pounds of ice which I make in a freezer of a house I watch, and in my freezer - and now I am to clean them. 25 specks and a dozen white trout, should take me two hours; and package them in 14 ounce bags in boxes of 9 packages. To guess I would think this will be 10 pounds of boneless, skinless, fillets. I will have a freezer full soon. But we eat seafood 5 days a week so can use it - and give lots away.

My fishing friend, who I am teaching to fish, wants to go out again tonight. he only catches half what I do, standing right beside me with the same rig and same bait. This is almost always the case; and then he still catches way more than anyone else fishing there. Like I have boasted - I always catch much more than any if other fishermen are present. This is true from many, many years of fishing where I made a serious study of it. In my years on the road fish was always a very large part of my diet and I take fishing very seriously - and I learned fishing in London; very smart fish!

You see, as I explain it to people, it is a percentages thing. I use lighter line, 10% more bites because it is less visible and disturbs the bait presentation less. I use special very thin wire hooks from Japan I order on line, same again, another 10% more bites.........and soon I am catching twice as many - these %'s compound. So someone right there doing the exact same thing is not really - also I am skilled at hooking a bite and getting a fish in - and knowing where to cast and when....

Planted: chard, 2 kinds collards, turnip, beets, lettuce, kale, onions, garlic, cauliflower, nasturtiums, and some others.

 

We do but they are expensive (not as much as English vets!) - I mostly home doctor animals and am very good at it usually. I did shoot one old dog and although it was very well done and humane I now use the vet to euthanize them, I found it disturbing to do it - although needed as the dog was very old and its time had come. Something about them looking you in the eyes and being so trusting and affectionate and you blowing them away... I am a very hard person but that bothered me.

 

Lovely chooks Colne. No bald bums there so why is that ? What drives them to plucking feathers out of each other's bums?
Jenny

 

Last night fishing report...........Not good. My friend and I just watched empty water; a very rare trout popping the surface, rare small pod of them swimming in the lit water. I did catch 20 - 30 by sight casting to any I saw, dropping a live shrimp on their head, but all but 5 were under the 13 inch keeper limit. Specks do, like most fish, travel in size/age groups and these were 10 to 12 and 15/16 inch long except for just a couple minutes when 14 inch ones passed through and we caught 5 keepers - and all the rest of the fishing only got 1 more. (my friend only got 1 keeper)

The 12 and 15/16 inch is true. The fish and game cops (they are licensed State police with a pistol and full arrest and ticketing powers) have zero tolerance. If checked they will lay your smaller fish on their ruler and if any amount less than the required length exists it is a $150 fine, they take your rod, and if you get another ticket later it gets bad. And they will check you at some point, they are serious - and really enforce the laws on commercial fishermen too, one always sees them in their boats, or on foot when on the water. They are the reason our fishing is good.



The State fish and game cops also police emergencies and disasters. American police are only cops in their city unless specially deputized for a emergency; wile fish and game are licensed for the entire state (In my town, when it was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, we had New York police and Mississippi fish and game police in town as our police were scattered with their families because they had to evacuate as their houses were destroyed.

(also the power crews were Canadian - it was amazing - huge crews from every state, Canada and Mexico, convoyed here in their trucks and got the power lines back up, living in their truck cabs in the scorching heat, night and day - no place left for them to stay.Virtually every power line was knocked down. One drove streets that had to be cleared of the housing debris by bulldozers, and all the time one drove over downed power lines - for months. We had the National Guard here, fresh from a tour in Iraq and they could not believe the destruction - 80% of the buildings destroyed - houses on the Rail road tracks, in the middle of the streets, and huge numbers of them just ground to rubble and left in masses of lumber and waste, two houses had drifted half onto the roads (our houses are wood) and were cut in half by machinery so one could get through - and you could look inside the remaining half and see the furniture and stuff still inside like a crazy sculpture. Wild)

A side story - most of our police force sheltered in what they thought was a secure brick building so they would be in town when the storm passed - but it filled completely with water and they escaped onto the roof, in 100+ mile per hour winds, where they clung in a tiny bit of overhang and miraculously survived. We almost lost the majority of the police force as they had to move away - every single police car was lost - one ending up underneath a house. The police building - which they were smart enough to not stay in, was 100% swept away.

 

Not quite like that, fighting cocks are lean and not heavy feathered. More like this - very upright



My chickens do not peck each other because they live outside in the woods mostly so can get away from bullies, and are not bored to destructive behavior.

 

So a day to fill..so much to do, so much I should do....but probably will not. I was out fishing till 10:30 p.m. Going back to my roots and using very light gear indeed, and then getting great results - just lovely out too - but my wife came along and has to get up at 5 a.m. to go off driving her truck. And I went to bed at 1;30 p.m., then up at 5 to make her breakfast and coffee, will drag today.

And today should be a canning day. I want to can 24 quart bottles of pogies for next years shrimp bait, and to keep the chickens with a bit of pogies because I really feel they make better eggs with those pure, oily, high in every nutrient, fish. The fifty pound sacks of grey/brown extruded pellets that are called 'layer pellets' which every egg producer uses do not cut it with me. I froze two one gallon boxes of 14 ounce bags of pogies yesterday and plan on freezing another 4, with the canned, to get me through the winter chicken feed, till June, wile the pogies are off shore. (I bought 2 cases of quart canning jars at a yard sale for a couple dollars so have loads of jars - from 4 ounce to 32 oz.)

Then I need to use another 5 quarts of blackberries from the freezer to make jam and free up more space. jenny if you have any tips about jam drop them here - I do not want to go back and re-read to find them.

And I want to clear more of the woods with my big machine and plant food plots for wild life, fillet the 18 fish I have on ice and freeze them, and plant some more veg and a kioa blackberry I propagated, move a kumquat tree, and potter about the gardens.

And I really, really, need to do my structural drawings of the framing of a cottage. I so dislike using span tables I think I will just use one more pair of pilings than are absolutely necessary to make it easy. I always overbuild anyway. But then I doubt I will get around to that today - too nice out. And I got another letter from the IRS Monday demanding their $196 in penalties for underpayment - a computer generated one - so paid it online; then yesterday got the reply to my appeal against the penalties which I had sent off a month ago - and it was granted! Typical postal scene - get a bill reissued automatically, then pay it, then get the letter forgiving it the next day. Oh, well - I guess it will be applied to this years taxes since they all ready have it deducted from my credit card.

The brood of chicks I raised here - remember the $39.99 incubator I added the old computer fan to and made the wire egg turner for? That first batch of chicks are laying now; where does the time go? Lots of little eggs every day, banti/Orphington/Americana crosses. Now what to do with them?



Time.. Here is a picture taken 2013 December 31, the blackberry bed just made! remember 'Waiting for Godot'? Back in the early 1970's I can remember my Mother had just seen the play and was telling me about it, and absurdist theater as a concept, and how it all seemed pretty foolish - but time is a different thing for us when young


Have you not done tormenting me with your accursed time! It's abominable! When! When! One day, is that not enough for you, one day he went dumb, one day I went blind, one day we'll go deaf, one day we were born, one day we shall die, the same day, the same second, is that not enough for you?
SAMUEL BECKETT, Waiting for Godot