Processing the Harvest

Ah, Harvesting......The ultimate metaphor;

"Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."

That is the harvest we should most conceder ourselves with, the spiritual harvest - but then being gods creatures we are expected to busy ourselves with the mundane processes of living firstly; I assume. My sister said that it does not work that way anyway - what if a rain destroys the crop? And I assume rain falls both physically and metaphorically, so what about that? But instead of thinking of this bi-existent rain, this Schrodinger's cat's rain and so of our works and so our harvest; I am off instead to go shrimping. The day is so lovely that I feel the call of the boat even though it is mid afternoon so not a suitable time for the shrimping - I was going to do some more work on drawing structural features on a project but cannot help myself.

Some crabs I processed last night

 

I loved your poem, the cranking out rhymes on topic like that amazes me - what a brain it takes to crunch through tens of thousands of variables to grab the fitting word wile holding onto both the big - and short, immediate, picture.......It is like being a chess master; or rapper.

I spent 6 years throwing steel overhead 12 hours a day, living on the road (this is how I went from a penniless drifter to a property owner - at 40 years old I decided I had to make money quick because time was running out. So I basically worked two jobs full time for 6 years and made a bunch of money (I once worked 8 months 12 hours a day, with commuting on top, sometimes 13-14 hour days on the ladder - without 1 day off - I even worked Christmas). And it was basically all black men on my team - mostly young Jamaicans (a couple ex yardies too) so I listened to lots and lots of soul and hip-hop (rap). (is why I own property and have no shoulder tendons left) (also we were part of a large national company and my crew was by far the top in the USA, we were phenomenal - I was lead.)

So 2pack - old school but still classic; about his mother

But fishing is where I am at right now - it is the time of year, and also draws on our powerful hunter and gathering genes, and to be a creature again.

And especially the water in this best of all seasons - completely warm at night (my favorite time on the water or in the woods) with fish splashing, night birds, cicadas singing, light on the water making it glow and seeing fish, it is all wonderful. So yesterday I popped out to check the shrimping and caught a few, but not enough to shrimp - so kept them alive for bait after dark when the white trout come out under the big light at the harbor mouth. There was quite a crowd there - about 15 fishermen (and women) around the light pool on the water, maybe 6 foot between each fishermen, some right in the light pool, most on the perifery. One can see the white trout swimming slowly near the surface, very beautiful. Occasionally you see a shrimp on the top, but that gets chassed soon and goes skipping across the surface into the dark.

I have not said so, but I am the best fisherman I know - and it is a slightly guilty thing, but I always catch the most whenever there are others fishing, and gloat a bit. I credit it with my really learning to fish in London. I was a member of a good sized fishing club with some great leases of river and lake waters. There I learned to fish what is called ultra light in USA. Fine lines, thin wire, small hooks, natural presentation especially, but is what one has to learn to fish London fish. America is a much cruder style of heavy gear - and it tells.

Anyway I kept about 36 shrimp and caught 20 white trout in an hour and a half, it was great fun. My wife just watches, but she enjoys it apparently as this is how we have done it for 30 years and a thousand fishing trips. I also enjoy the other fishermen, always a rough bunch, but inevitably polite and friendly. You hear about fights in these tight fishing situations but I have never seen it. People are basically nicer than one thinks - and the crowd would be self policing to a good degree.



White trout are very tasty, and so easy to fillett. We have a dozen crabs to pick and these to clean then I have to go to the city planner's office for a permit application. Tonight is a dinner and class on growing wildlife food plots, given by the State, we will be going to. Two hours long, and dinner - free! I want to grow some rape plots - or milo, or whatever, for wild life food - I plan to establish native quail here as there are none. And my semi feral chickens would love it.

 

My wife does not do hot - oops, after so many key strokes this site slows down so much it stops - so have to quit writing. This took a minute to do and has almost stopped completely - I guess I have hit the 'paywall'.

 

Soo........ the results of the talk on wild life plots; which was for large land owners of pine forests who want to grow large bucks for hunting. Mississippi has 2,000,000 deer and way too few does are being shot. One is allowed 5 deer per year, any sex and the season runs from now to February. We need to get to know some spot in the local National forest, where public hunting is allowed, for some token amount per year, the forest is about 30 miles from us. It is over half a million acres - 810 square miles, hiking trails, camping, horse trails, canoeing, fishing hunting.....USA has vast amounts of National Forest and they are open to the public. The southern States have about two million acres each.


De Soto National Forest Ranger District Office in Wiggins, Mississippi
De Soto National Forest is 518,587 acres (810 sq mi; 2,099 km2) of pine forests in southern Mississippi. It is one of the most important protected areas for the biological diversity of the Gulf Coast ecoregion of North America.[2] It is a nationally important site for protection of longleaf pine savannas, pine flatwoods, and longleaf pine forests. More than 90 percent of this ecosystem type has been lost in the United States[3] [2]. The wet pine savannas support rare and endangered plant and animal species, such as the orchid Calopogon multiflorus, gopher frogs, and gopher tortoises. These habitats also have large numbers of carnivorous plants, particularly pitcher plants;[4] Buttercup Flats has an international reputation in this regard.[5]

It also offers year-round opportunities for outdoor activities including camping, canoeing, bird-watching, photography, hunting, fishing, and more. There are two nationally significant wilderness areas within DeSoto: Black Creek Wilderness and Leaf River Wilderness. Black Creek is a popular stream for canoeing, camping, and fishing, and is Mississippi's only designated National Wild and Scenic River. Two National Recreational Trails, the Black Creek Trail and Tuxachanie Trail, offer more than 60 miles (96.6 km) of hiking opportunities.

This is where the wildlife experts giving the talk told us to hunt. Also I was told to scatter oat and rye seeds around in my forest for the chickens and wild life, it will come up this time of year and the lucky ones will grow well. No tilling needed!. This week I will go to the farm supply store and get some.

My papaya is flowering wildky - but it is pretty late, the plant cannot stand cold temps at all, and is so big I will cut it mostly down and try to over winter it, I expect unsuccessfully. Here it is, see the resident praying mantis? Large with eggs, they eat their mate by the way, truly monogamous creatures.

 

That's a large amount of deer for one area Colne. Is the area considered to be over populated with them? Why do you think that to few does are being shot? If over population is an issue then surely hunting should be restricted to taking does for a certain amount of time.

I think I have said before, that my son's in-laws have a home in West Virginia, his father-in-law hunts and is allowed to take three deer per season, this obviously differs from state to state and may have something to do with the deer population in any particular area, would that be correct?

 

beautiful harvest Shiney. Do you grow banana peppers? They are one of our staples - both hot and sweet. I use about 4 of them most days from July 1 to Nov 1 in my daily soup - with some of my mild jalapenos and bells. Peppers are the easiest of the easy to grow here, few pests and long season, and just basically thrive. I wish my wife did not dislike hot foods and I would use more hot ones - but 3 sweet to one kind of hot is about all I can do.

Sheal, Mississippi is probably about the area of all UK and has the 2 million deer - and is overpopulated with deer, but not horribly. People do not shoot enough does because of the antler thing of bagging a big buck. And yes, every state is in charge of regulating fishing and hunting except for migratory birds like ducks. The states have different bag limits and seasons for different regions as needed. Mississippi is Agricultural with soybeans, cotton, and especially pine lumber. Millions of acres in planted pine forests. A 10% value is made each year from the value good trees increase with growth. It is a very sustainable agricultural with harvests peaking at 45 years for the big long leaf pines - for telephone poles and wood pilings, plywood, and lumber, but also at much earlier times for smaller trees.

I am back from the feed store, (farmers supply) I bought 50 lbs layer pellets, 50 lbs mixed chicken grains, 50 lbs crushed oyster shell (needed for the egg shell), 25 pounds wild life feed seeds (to grow wildlife feed plots), a large bale of pine shavings, (for use in nest boxes - lasts me a year) a potted raspberry, and a three pack of broccoli plants for where the chickens ate mine started from seed. That was $90.

The wildlife seed was the highest$37 for 25 lbs and is 20% rye, 20% oats, 20% wheat, 20% winter peas, and the remainder - 2 types clover, rapeseed, turnip, and radish. It is a mix for broadcasting instead of tilling in, and is seed, not feed, grain. I plan to take my brush cutter out and make some cleared spots and trails and scatter this and hopefully get some good winter wildlife and chicken foods growing in the woods.

Also - all the pictures people post here have such clean kitchens. And such pretty views of English gardens through the window. It reminds me I need to get back to London and visit my parents - anyone want to dog and chicken sit?

Shiney, do you just eat a chili like a radish? Here a cayenne hot sauce is on every table - and then Louisiana has Tabasco sauce, from fermented tabasco peppers. Also do you make Buffalo style hot wings? One of our regular dishes, although more often is legs made the same way (I do them in the oven) That is one way my wife likes chili sauce; that and Southern hot sauce on her fried catfish.

 

I'd volunteer to dog and chicken sit for you Colne but for two issues.....I couldn't stand the heat there and I won't fly. A bit of a problem I think! The hottest it gets on this island is 25C/77F and that is a rarity.

 

Why would anyone not fly, Sheal?

Today I tackle my back room which has become a depository of things which were not needed but not thrown away - I have thoughts of making it an office! You should see it - daunting is the word.

And to plant my raspberry, and re seed what the now bug pests have grazed off. First the bad chickens get under the wire and eat my seedlings, then re-planted and some bug has eaten all but the cut off, tiny, stalks sticking up. Slugs? cutworms? sow bugs?........This organic thing may well take a sort of break. Fall planting is hard because unlike spring there has been no winter to kill of the bugs.

I was looking for a Shakespeare line on time I could not remember and googled quotes on time and what fun:

""One today is worth two tomorrows.
Lost time is never found again.
Time is money.
Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that's the stuff that life is made of.
You may delay, but time will not."
- Benjamin Franklin

I hope this will be my guide for this day; I hope, because I have become terrible with time - just letting it slide away aimlessly.

And then Ecclesiastics whom all of my generation remember - from 'The Byrds'..."To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:"

Or Dylan

 

Because I fear flying and suffer a certain amount of claustrophobia.

Tackling the back room is a rainy day job Colne, why waste a good weather day by being inside.

 

Ah, flying - I still remember as a child flying over, what I suppose are an arm of the Pamier mountains, going from Teheran to Kabul, in an old DC-3. The plane would climb steeply and hitting an air pocket would plummet down like a lift with a broken cable..... then slowing in decent and a shuddering climb steeply again - and so across those trackless mountains. Every person on the plane was sick, using the re-washed sick bags wile the stewards lounged in the isles talking and joking with each other. But glorious sights through the windows.

And going into Tazlina glacier in a small Cesna float plane crammed to the limit with three in the seats and solid baggage behind - and yet two big dogs to go. The bush pilot, Bart Bartly - I still remember him, especially from the dreaded fish hook event, just flung the dogs into the back of the plane where they perched on the gear in a crouch with their heads level with ours, between ours mostly, as they also watched out the windows with us, at the crevasse and glaciers below.

Then - how does one get a dog out of a float plane? Balancing on the very narrow track on the float with the cargo/seating door at upper chest height - To grab a wriggling dog and try to carry it down the very narrow float to land would be beyond me. So I grabbed the first one by the collar and with a hand under the chest flung him into the almost freezing water - Splash, and the dog swam to shore, shook its self off and thought it all was great fun - the second dog right behind. Flying can be a real lark.

Once my parents were on a flight on a 747 from Miami to London and on a whim bought flight insurance covering any disaster. The plane ended up landing in New York on two engines of the four still working - And they were both on the same side! And landed to a wall of fire engines on each side of the runway, who then fallowed the plane with all sirens blazing - the emergency doors popped and air bag slides deployed and all slid down. Then hours in a featureless room with stale sandwiches and finally another plane arrived and all boarded for the finish trip to Heathrow. They never bought flight insurance again, tempting fate is a losers game.

But I am sidetracked - I logged on to talk of the bush whacking I am doing on a goodish scale, loppers, chainsaw, and bush hog. Tomorrow I should have video of it.

but then tomorrow has been earmarked for casting in the big bayou grass edges for shrimp from the boat as my wife rows. And tonight for using live shrimp at the harbor for white trout. And first thing after signing off now is to pull the crab traps - good hauls lately!

 

I take this as a kind of personal advice, I do talk too much of my past - but the other part, I have only offended one guy here enough for him to send me a couple personal messages saying how rude I was and that he would not read my threads again. Not bad for me; where on a general topic forum I would have offended about everyone by now. And I am learning moderation even in real life - like the way I am so moderate about the neighbors chicken killing dog, and although I got a bit shouty at the planning/permit office about the new foundation rules a couple days ago (outrageous!) I calmed right down when my wife poked me in the ribs and gave me a meaningful look.