Processing the Harvest

That did not go smoothly. We pushed the boat in and loaded it for me to go off shrimping - my wife had stopped between driving jobs- she has 3 today, then yoga on the beach till almost dusk so will not be coming - or may stop there, a dock is close by and I could go there to pick her up. (I have her cell phone and she has her work phone.)

AND found I had charged the wrong battery. The deep cycle car battery I have for driving the electric boat motor was half charged - but last night I had put a old dead battery on charge in the dark by mistake and just discovered it when hooking up the boat motor. I then also found out the boat motor did not work. So the right battery is on charge now (only a 6 amp charger) and I tore the motor apart (I am an electrician and also do low voltage) and fixed it - but have both my motors on the boat now, and have taken the battery from my wife's car as backup (she took my truck), the motor that has been duct taped back together is the fixed one. These 12v motors are great - will push the boat at a brisk walking speed for about 5 miles, or a couple hours, on one charge. Also I bought both from boot sales for almost nothing. I have a powerful gas motor but never bother with it anymore (needs flushing with fresh water and taking it on and off each use which is a chore - weighs 80 lbs) (it is for my zodiac, a bonzi watercraft I used in the North and still have)

this was taken 15 minutes ago - and the dark storm clouds are gathering for a good lashing - just when the battery is charged enough probably. The shrimp grounds are 2 miles, 40 minutes by electric motor, and out in the bay.



You can see the dark reflected in the water, in the front is a cooler with tons of ice for the supposed loads of shrimp - but all the time boats are massed over where they say the shrimp are - it is the talk of the town.

I got a letter from my mother in London just a bit ago and it was about the grim programs my father has been watching on the depleted seas - she included a clipping of a man who has just swum 7 seas and said he did not see a single fish over 30cm - he is bringing his portfolio to Cameron to press for marine conservation. Apparently all the Indian coasts are fished out to the last sardine.

My mother was just telling me how amazing it is to have such a healthy water as we have. Mississippi does work very aggressively at maintaining its inshore fishery - and for all wildlife. Sportsmen are the first consideration, commercial next. It is how it should be, but almost never is outside of USA. UK has a terrible attitude to inshore fisheries and recreational food fishing. All the EU does. It is like they think the public being given a big quota of the catch is sick, like they regard fox hunting - stick to your computer games inside. The fish are saved for the Spanish scorched earth destruction fleets. I remember way back in the 1970's the massive Spanish mackerel fleets anchored off small West coast Scottish harbors and the tales of their wiping out all before them. It is 100 times worse now. The EU has an evil fisheries policy and UK surrendered its sovereign waters to them. Swine.

 

Sorry, forgot to reply in my aggravation of the wrong battery - no banana flower stalks yet. The very heavy freeze killed off the trunks last year, it is just roots I planted, or had survive. Bananas are biannual but I do not know if having the root be 2 counts - if so I should get plenty. The flower stalk is huge and cannot be missed - here are some bananas and sweet potatoes from the garden last year, delicious!



This would probably be October, I do not remember when the flower stalks should appear. Flora dog, she is a special dog, off in her dreams.....


edit - I am off, I have oars - did I mention I once man-hauled a boat hundreds of miles? That was the trip I stopped shaving and never have used a razor even once again.

 

thanks for the banana update. No Colne, you haven't told us about that** yet,
Jenny

 

My camera is so annoying - I cannot see the screen in the sunlight, I think it is very pale, or weak - so have to just film and hope for the best. It does not work well. (I also download at poor resolution to speed it up)

What I always forget is its default position is about %25 magnification and so it all is jerky and never is focused on where I think it is, but just below - its cone of filming greatly reduced. So annoying!

But I did go shrimping, leaving 3pm or so, and getting back 6pm - the trip out and back just lovely. The water is full of splashing fish, pelicans diving, ospreys diving (I have been amongst eagles a lot - our eagle is a fishing bird, and they swoop and grab - ospreys plummet in feet down and grab the fish with their talons and then fly off from being on the water like a pelican.)

Such a beautiful trip, just over a half hour with the electric motor - so almost silent boating - and all the weather visible on the bay is there dazzlingly, wildlife all around, the attractive houses - or woods lining the shore......Netting is under a bridge so the noise of vehicles is startling at first, but not enough to dampen the mood. Several casts (I am using a big net - one bigger than most can throw - not my little one) I would get pogies in such a mass the net would be swimming off as a huge silver bag - a couple hundred pounds of them. Naturally I would not lift them, letting them out in the water with any shrimp.

I cannot help myself and am heading again out shortly, I have caught about 80 pounds of shrimp so far - If they had not quit when the pogies moved in yesterday I would have had a 100 pound total. But I sat in my boat talking to the other netters - everyone is very friendly on the water, and I had some ice cold diet colas to pleasantly re-hydrate with. The daily limit for recreational cast netters is 50 pounds a day and I had 30. The Fish and Game do check in their boats out there, everywhere actually; so be careful - they write tickets first, let the judge ask the questions later.



A terrible film, but a bit of a look at the water here. Every single house out there was destroyed by hurricane Katrina, some just flooded to the ceilings with doors and windows blown out - others just gone and since rebuilt. Virtually every dock destroyed too. 27 foot of moving water. Keeps the real estate prices low. My property is 1/2 mile up the bayou from the bay and the waterfront part is 3.5 foot above mean tide, .5 foot higher than our 3 foot highest tides. My highest bit of land here in the woods is 6 foot elevation (other than the pond spoil piles.)

But the thing is modern construction can take it, just evacuate and carry flood insurance and every few years one comes along - not like Katrina though, which was the biggest ever, the normal hurricanes not enough to flood with current building heights.

 

shrimping still, yesterday I went out again but the shrimping was poorish - and all around were storms - and when there was a sprinkling of rain and thunder closer I gave it up and headed home. I dislike being on the water in a boat during an electrical storm, although one never did hit right here. I had run around trying new spots with zero luck so had gone back under my bridge and was just getting about 6 per cast - a cast with a 8 foot net (8 refers to the radius) in a boat is some effort - especially as my net is 12 years old with a lot of use, and is in rags. That means a lead from the perimeter rope is always going through a hole and so it snags and the cast becomes a twisted mess for being out of balance. This is every fourth cast. Next year I hope to spring the $65 for a new net - one has to be careful though - or one will spend more money than justified. Getting more seafood than the costs of gear and incidentals is hard, and I pride myself on doing it.

So it was fine out in a spectacular weather viewing way. Sheets of rain visibly falling to 3 sides, birds everywhere - great blue and green herons all about, pelicans massed as always, and diving on the pogies, ospreys, king fishers, gulls, - fish jumping, shrimp jumping on the still bayou waters, a cooling breeze in the baking hot sun. September is one of the very hot months and is a big hurricane month; late August being the main one. I love the heat and sun though.

And another cooler of shrimp to clean, we will give lots away. Most people do not know how to shrimp, or anything about it. I have been freezing it in 1 pound bags, head and tail gone. The shrimp had a very sharp unicorn horn, and triple spines in its tail end, so will puncture a bag unless those are removed - plus do it all at one time in front of the TV and it means a just quick job removing the shell girdle before cooking. Now I will start 1/2 pound bags, finally 1/4 pound bags. I would like the catch divided equally between those sizes. Crab picking too today, we do love our crab and shrimp soup.

Garden at a standstill - the bad chickens got in and ate all my lovely bean plants! And the beet and green seedlings. The greens can be replanted, but I fear the beans will be too late. One made a raised bit in the fence and they just ducked under - swine.

And I have a short video where I paid attention to the camera being on partial zoom, and took scenery shots - 3 minutes, and am downloading in higher resolution just now to see how that goes. I am off to feed the chickens their watermelon rinds (they love that, eat it all) cabbage outer leaves, and pogies meanwile. Should be downloaded when I return. The bananas in the front garden I just made this April are 14 foot tall and dense!

Downloaded - back from an adventure and feeding the chickens



Mostly I show these to show how pretty a place this is, I have been in small boats all my life and when I am going out I feel a real nostalgia and love of the water in boats.

 

So the adventure I just had - I was going out to feed my chickens as I mentioned above when I saw a truck parked at a spot up the road where I throw a crab trap - so I went up cautiously and filmed them emptying my crab trap, then back to put the camera in the house wile I confronted them, in case.

And the first truck came out and I stopped it and asked if they stole my crabs and the two kids driving said they had not - and I could look in their coolers, which I did, no crabs. Then the next truck came along so I stopped it and it was a neighbor who lived down the main street from me!, an older, country guy. Those were his grandkids. And he had my crabs......I told him to just go and take them.

Stealing crabs from a trap is pretty serious here, it is theft - and so I did not just call the police because I did not want to get some dumb kids into that much trouble for just being stupid - but just give them a real telling off. And I am glad I did not, I like to get along with all neighbors - I have feuded with neighbors over things and everyone is a loser in that; and now am much easier going.

So he just came back now with a jar of home canned pears and figs and said it was penance for being stupid - and I told him I will eat them tonight. I am glad it all went so well and no problems, no police. Excellent.

and here they are, and look good, they are from his garden - photo taken off my porch 10 minutes ago.



I always noticed my traps sometimes had crabs and sometime not.....

The bananas taken just now, 15 foot tall, planted, I think, in April. More bags of leaves to put down under them.



just fed the fish, piranha like



And I just opened todays mail and there is a letter from the IRS demanding $195.00 in penalties. But it gives an address to challenge that - and if you know me - I challenge everything. No matter if I have any case or not. I am composing the letter in my head as I write this.........

 

Glad you settled your altercation peaceably Colne. That was a nice touch - bringing humble pie to your door.
If only keeping this world running sweet was as straightforward....
enjoy those fruits,
Jenny


oooh - you'll be able to lean over the balcony to pick bananas...

 

4:30 a.m. here and I had remembered I had not tied the boat onto the mooring whips so went down with the dogs and it is very nice out, very quiet, everything has run down and the insects and frogs have quit their songs. All is very bright, if you remember the harvest full moon was Monday so today is a waning gibbous (getting less yet still over half is visible) one can walk in the woods easily without a light - if used to the woods. I spent years living outdoors, but also did a very large amount of night time hiking (mostly hunting) in forests without light - I am completely at home in the woods at night, actually find it really pleasant. All the signs of modern stuff is gone and sounds become so much more distinct, and one is a creature again rather than a outsider human.

The night herons are out, also the regular herons who do not sleep like other birds. Two nights ago during my night walk the barred owls set off their mad chanting. They are a very large owl who lives in groups and one will set off a WHOOO HOOOHOOO and then another will join in, and another and they get faster and louder and wilder - it is the essence of the night call but massive. Then a distance group of barred owls will answer, and so it goes again. I have one group close, and also the largest owl - the Great Horned owl. Chickens roosting in trees soon are taken here.

I have had a lot of owl times - in the Bush in remote interior of Alaska, in a huge forest fire burn, a Great Horned owl stalked me for miles going from tree to tree along with me - a particularly distinct feeling in the black forest trees and ground, alone with no person for many miles - and this huge predatory bird stalking me for some unknowable reason. I have had owls fallow me a couple times - I have pictures of a barn owl who stayed with me for half an hour - just right with me, from tree to tree watching me - he photographed well because he was always right there peering down at me with their emotive flat face craning on the 360 degree neck. A lifetime in the woods coupled with half of my life as a hunter makes me a creature too - hunters know the environment as no one else could. You see the feed plants, note aspect and compass bearing, moon phase, habitat, shelter, trails, scat, and learn to shut up, keep silent, with complete stillness, and watch and listen. One becomes a very trained observer of nature.

So I tied the boat to the whips, high tides with this moon and the boat was cranked over from being pinned under the edge of the dock. A excellent walk. This is my old tame heron, Fred. he was a good bird and stayed on my property a whole winter and would rush to he when he spotted me - he would be waiting. I would take my net and get him some mullet. Fred was a human wrecked bird, probably one who hung out at a marina up in the North and had lost the inclination to fish - and so I fed him, learning a lot about herons. The Great Blue heron is about the only bird which can, and has, killed a human. They are not safe to handle - one plunge of their closed beak will skewer a big fish as cleanly as a spear - they fish this way for large fish. There are always herons on my property - but only one Great Blue - they will not tolerate the sight of another one in the wild. That is why a fake one will repel blue herons from goldfish ponds. They also have one of the best vocalizations - the absolute sound of a pterodactyl.

 

Good morning Colne, having a cuppa tea and reading your post. A wonderful description of a night life that I have never experienced. Sounds wonderful and I can understand your mind and soul being in tune with all that.
Enjoy your day,
Jenny

 

I have bushes hanging against the strings that hold them up - laden with hot and mild banana peppers, bell peppers - and loads of mild cayenne and jalapeno I need a Chili jam recipe if you like yours......

I also need a good ginger, peppers, and green apple chutney recipe. Now it is prawn vindaloo and general curries time, I need some chutney, it is not easy to find in USA at all (very expensive Maj Grays by Sherwood at $5 a small bottle).

Last night we processed what I had called 30 pounds of shrimp - but find it was just 24 pounds - so much for my ability to estimate...... it is a universal with fishermen to overestimate the catch, it really is. So I need to down grade my catch totals. The ice mixed in makes it feel so heavy, and apparently I do not keep track well. So 11 pounds of shrimp meat frozen after a marathon processing.

I also cooked a batch of shrimp Cajun style for dishes like Jennie's - and we have some of the 3/$1 avacados from the local shop, - and steamed the five crabs that were in the 2 traps off my dock and point (obviously un raided) and redbaited all the traps with those pogies from the film yesterday. Today we will run the traps and pick what ever crabs we end up with.

My little lettuces, beets, cauliflower, and kale are doing well in the tiny bed I used unsuccessfully for canning tomatoes - out of the reach of the dreaded chickens, who cleaned out the main raised bed - bad chickens.

So wile out just now I downloaded a short video to try different resolutions trying speed of downloading - this one not worth it al all, and it is no faster either. But rather than just deleting it I am putting it here

 

Wow - look at all those chillies Colne. Your climate is obviously perfect for their growing needs. To make up a marie Rose sauce for 2 prawn portions , I only dip the knife into the little jar and dab it into the sauce. We like the taste a tiny hint of fire but that's all. it's a shop bought jar which says "Naga chillies 80%, vinegar, vegetable oil, garlic, salt mustard and spices. Not very informative - quantitywise but it does the job. I noted at least one large white fowl who, like me, declined to eat a pogie - not a fish lover ,me
Jenny

 

That large white fowl - the tall one with his back to the camera is a juvenile rooster and will be the base for a gumbo soon. With him will go a redfish fillet, 3 crabs, 2 pounds of shrimp, pound of okra, lots of peppers, celery, and onions, smoked sausage, a roux and finally some file-gumbo powder (sassafras). (guessing, I never learned to make gumbo - that and cubion, etouffe, and jambalaya - I have to work on that, I never really got into Cajun foods but love Soul and some Creole.)

http://www.allthingsfoodie.com/2013/06/cajun-one-pot-wonder.html

if you care for a bit on food here. I had a couple cubions (those are redfish in the article picture) that I did not care for - how would it be as a curry influenced dish? Or just made well. Most people are not great cooks. A staple here is a tomato sauce, a marinara or meatless bolinase kind but with lots of shrimp, that is served over spaghetti - I should definitely work on my local foods.

But tonight is avocado stuffed with shrimp and Marie Rose sauce minus the pepper jam as the center of a big salad. (Naga chili jam! Hot. Naga means snake. I once rode around Kabul on the back of a motorcycle driven by a Benedictine priest who was from Nagpur and I heard a couple great snake stories from him.) And a garden soup (the endless peppers and okra)

(as an aside, once the Archbishop of Isfahan was staying with us and sat on one of my snakes by a series of events - and he had a horror of snakes but never knew (I had been told to keep my snakes well away from him). I had it hidden under a corner cushion of the sofa where I stuffed it when they came in unexpectedly - and that was where he chose to sit. And it just stayed put. My mother was pretty annoyed when I later showed her where it had been the whole time.) I have had a lot of dealings with snakes over my life, but none more unusual than that.)

 

Jenny, what is the demographic of this site? Are most visitors just transitory, opening a thread but not having joined GC so just passing on? I know people open Processing the H, and it makes me wonder - how large is the readership of GC? My main experience is in political sites where one makes some provocative post and the replies flood in; I have been life banned from two of the best of them so my political posting is now very curtailed - naturally here one is not provocative. This is a different place from what my postings have traditionally been about - kind of solitary. Like the Scotland thing, I have loads of Highland and Island Scott in me, my cousin is the head of the Clan, and I am not somewhere posting pronouncements on it - I have tamed down a lot lately. The only other posting I do is on the Middle East where I get a bit spittle flecked - you may have picked up that I have a background on Islam and the ME, and history there.

So I was talking to a neighbor the other day, he bought one of those big houses down the bayou - he was standing on his dock throwing a cast net in a kind of halfhearted way, and I stopped and talked; as I do with anyone who gets in range. We talked of fishing which he takes it much more serious than me, having a very expensive boat and using it a lot, and then of gardening. Apparently he has a big property in Louisiana that is covered in fruit.

He said his blueberry bushes are so massively productive that he freezes enough for his wife to eat them every day of the year, gives them away in bulk, and as he put it, 'you could have filled your boat a couple times over with the berries I just let fall because I could not use anymore.' And he told me I could have all I wanted next season. (June + July). Wow, a lot of berries! And he said his pears trees were so loaded he leaves them for the deer, persimmons too - and that word deer!

My wife and I used to shoot lots of deer but have not deer hunting here. My wife really tries to get me back into hunting, and I really should; deer season is coming fast - probably here for the early seasons (first archery opens, which most serious hunters do - bow hunting being totally normal and popular in all USA. The bow hunters get the first season when the deer are not wary and get to take bucks and does - this happens in almost all States.) Then muzzle loading black powder gun season, and finally any gun. Hogs are open for hunting all year. My wife likes deer meat because it is natural. No cruel farming, no chemicals and hormones, or GM feeds, low fat and very flavorful. Anyway, possible deer hunting if he is over run with them? So he is bringing me a bucket of pears. I will definitely visit him again - we need an outdoor friend.

Well, faute de mieux, here is a video of the annual Christmas tree burning on the beach, massive free bar and food, dramatic fire, lots of people to talk to.

 

Colne,
there are about 30 , almost daily regulars ( I post too much drivel and too many piccies) who come and talk about many things. We do touch on the contentious or political sometimes but genuinely try to avoid hurting each other. You would need to ask the Admin / Moderators how many people browse but do not register. You can look, but no contribute, unless you join. The site is free but you and I know there 'ain't no such thing as a free lunch so I donate as I know it costs someone's time and money to keep this site in good working order. I saw you reply to one of Sheal's posts but I note that you do not make a habit of posting elsewhere on the site. Why is that?
Jenny

 

No, I do not post outside this thread jenny,

I am afraid I am a rather dynamic debater, and have very developed views, so would not look for discussion on things other than the practical here. I have had a very odd life, been to odd scenes and gotten up to stuff - and naturally am widely read, and from that my beliefs in what is real rather than indoctrination from the silly media and educational industries differ enough from what is, correct, that serious discussion will offend those who have been more passive in acquiring their opinions.

But I am off shrimping with a friend in a couple minutes and am just taking on a cup of coffee before I dash - Yesterday I pulled the crab traps that I had baited with the large pogies shown on an earlier video - and here is a walk through, with a detour half way to check on the chickens who were being very vocal. That is mostly normal but sometimes means they have been upset - and the dog has been killing them lately. But they were fine, just being chickens.

The picture before the film is my steamer pot full to the very top with crabs, they are steamed 10 minutes - 12 with so many, then tonight we will pick the meat. The ones on the top are the smaller ones, the big ones on the bottom. I may film the processing because I find all the parts of harvesting interesting - and although I am not great at processing crabs I have done masses of them. I have never been taught how the best way is so have had to develop my own system, like almost all I know how to do - still, I can get through a pot full pretty quickly so someone just learning could get some good tips. Also the catfish is let go unharmed.