Processing the Harvest

I am up at 6:30 a.m. right now, back from walking the dog pack.

And I have just managed to lose most of what I wrote here - talking of hunting and what that means when more is not needed - lots of stuff on various topics - just blipped away somehow, computers sometimes do this, becoming capricious censors.

. Fortunately I enjoy processing shrimp and crab sitting in front of the TV, and Netflix, and just zoning out so will be busy tonight with 50 pounds shrimp and a couple dozen crabs..

The sky is a lurid yellow as the sunrise is a bit of a light show right now. Like I said, I wish I was headed out. I know where they are, But just do not need more - may catch more to give away. Most people have no idea how to throw a net, let alone where the shrimp are.

I have not looked at Netflix UK in a good wile - since back when UK Netflix showed the end of Breaking Bad before USA. Because I have a VPN I am able to have an IP from anywhere so can watch other countries output. Is there any new stuff on it? (different countries Netflix have different content, USA has by far the most, but one has to have a local IP address to enter another countries system.)

Now I plan to get better at various different way to cook my seafood. Tonight should be a good curry.

Last night we pulled the crab traps, which is fun, walk down the road pulling the 5 traps tied to the bank - taking the crabs out - letting the small ones go, then re-baiting using 2 - 3 of those large pogies I netted yesterday. Here is lasts night haul, pretty typical. They are steamed and in the refrigerator with 6 from the night prior. Should get another dozen today when it is time to pick the meat.

Campbell's Soup here does a can of concentrated 'Cream of Potato' soup for $1 (add one can of milk to can contents and heat) I add a handful of peeled shrimp and a good piece of frozen crab meat, small bit sautéed celery and onion too sometimes. Fantastic instant seafood soup.



Spotted sea trout
, no relation to UK seatrout (specks, must be 13 inches long, limit 15 per day). - but very easy to catch this time of year. These are the ones I filleted last night, and then had for supper.

 

Jane, Can you give me your recipe for chutney, or tell me how it is. I need to make some, it is not really available in the shops here.

I finally looked at the video of my big mower making a trail in the woods and put together a couple minute Youtube - the thing will cut chest deep wild rose thicket, or trees and brush up to 4 inch diameter - it will basically cut a trail through woods and thicket. We scattered a bit of the wildlife food plot seeds (20% ea, oats, rye, winter peas, wheat, and (clovers, radish, turnip mix) on the trail although it is too shady to do much - most pines so not bare trees when the leaves fall - but the seed is plentiful. I am adding some milo for the sunny bits. That is what I have to do next, mow some of the scattered parts where grasses are, micro glades, for birds - my chickens and wild ones, rabbits, and hopefully one day, deer. The deer were all killed by Hurricane Katrina and have not found their way back yet. Also I plan on hatching some native bob white quail and letting them free range with my chickens.

 

I am pulled different ways today, go back out shrimping - I do love it, still very warm but nights cooling off till air conditioning is not needed at all so fall will begin just suddenly one day and the hot weather I love will be over. One gets completely soaking wet throwing a net, holding it against your chest and legs as it is gathered over your arms, dripping from being pulled from the waters. In this fine time being as soaked as if having been swimming is comfortable....not for long though, as fall is coming soon, and we are spoiled about not having to wear waterproofs and rubber boots.

I remember back in England at 17, I had left school and was working outside 40 hours a week - I cannot remember wither the pay was £ 5, or £15, a week - but then we made tips, working for executive or upper-class clients. Our outfit was donkey jacket and rubber boots or donkey jacket, rubber boots, and a waterproof; year round. We has a small shed with a kettle and a feeble electric heater for when the rain was really lashing but otherwise were outside. And it did not bother us at all. Raw, frozen hands, not a problem.

One fun memory of it, and there were many, was when the King of Greece was my client and we went around with his patron, some billionaire Greek, and afterwards the king held out his hand; I assumed to give me my tip, but he shook my hand instead. And I thought - ha, so he thinks shaking his hand is better than a tip. But very soon I realized it was. Shaking hands with a King is definitely worth more than the five or ten bob I would have gotten from a regular client - the money would have soon been spent; but I still have that handshake.

I just read an article in the Telegraph of an East Enders actress who had finally quit her chemo and wishes to have enough time to have one last Christmas at home; and I felt floods of nostalgic memories of England, London especially, at Christmas and winter. She had made her decision on 'The Glorious 12th'. An almost photographic picture is in my head of high summer where we would fish on the banks of the Colne River right by Denham Old Town, and that time I was struck by the sheer beauty of the perfect day, that feeling of aesthetic wonder being so strong it is preserved in me forever. Grasses and flowers were waist deep, butterflies, cows and birdsong, the sun and greens and river like a painting in their beautiful afternoon. And soon we would pack up and walk to The Green Man in the fourteenth century town (right across the park from the pub was Rodger Moor's gated mansion) for pints, and all was such a perfect English day that it remains my archetypical ideal of a glorious afternoon.

And so I think of how I like it here, how it is easy and how big it is here; and how being back in England to visit is cramped, and cluttered, and soon wears - but even after these 35 years of being in USA, how I still think of England as home. This article of Michelle Collins's mortality, and her final wish, did bring out such poignant memories and feelings, so distant from shrimping on a hot afternoon; and thoughts on ultimate matters, that I am off to walk in the woods and reflect on existence and pick something to do - but walk about with my dogs for a wile first. I have become a bit maudlin writing here now.



The Green Man

 

Oh It would be awful to pave up the greenbelt! not that the HS2 railway isn't demolishing the countryside. Ah, even Christ said "the poor will always be with you" , for the tides of humanity washing into the greenbelt will be ceaseless, unending. Think of playing king of the mountain, an exercise in pure aggression, and then, wreaking untold collaterol damage, historically, and you think it is every human's right? Our brains are not good at this problem. Man is a pestilance, and also a king, a scourge on the earth, and its consciousness incarnate.

 

You remember things with such clarity. And they are interesting things. I could be maudlin too, if I had such memories.

 

The article is referring to actress Lynda Bellingham.

 

Colne, there's a saying that can be adjusted for the situation, in this case I think it's....' you can take the man out of England but not England out of the man'. Appropriate for your present feelings I think.

 

Well, let that be a lesson on mortality when I can't even keep that straight.. Genesis.. 3:19 ("...for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.")

Well several cities - most, solved things by going vertically. Ancient Rome was all 3-6 floors high with 4-5 being the norm. No vehicles were allowed in the city during daylight, even the Senators having to walk; it was a termite mound. All lived in rented apartments with the majority being very shoddily built, extremely cramped - and so noisy at all hours is was thought no one living there ever got a whole nights sleep.

London is an awkward place because most of it was built without lifts, gas central heat, and proper plumbing. So the 'terrace' or row house dominated. Each housing unit needed a micro back yard for the outside toilet and coal shed. That means every dwelling ran from ground to as high as stairs within a dwelling was practical. A very sprawled density for urban layout. The ancient Romans lived as modern apartments are - on a floor; the higher floor the lower rents, the smaller subdivided, and the worst squalor. They managed it because most did not heat, or do their own cooking - the urine was deposited in tanks outside for some industry (dying?) and the night soil went to agriculture. Chamber pots and public toilets solved the plumbing needs.

Wait......I was headed to talk about green belt but suddenly have to run off........ An appointment has cropped up.

 

I realized how bad this sounds on re-reading. England is a shock to visit the way it shows how socially and culturally bland town life is here. I just am an extreme outdoor person - yet am interested in history more than anything perhaps, more than nature possibly; and USA has none of that which interests me. One thing which really shocks me is the occasional realization that after my parents do not have their London house; I will probably never return to England. The costs would just be too high - and that door, which has all my life been open, will close.

Man is not a pestilence himself, but in some acts; but is the consciousness incarnate. A crystal cave which is never seen has no beauty. If god did make man it was not to be a pet, but with free will, to be a sentient appreciator of good and aesthetics - for otherwise existence would be nothing.

I remember the tanning and dying pits of Fez, the amazing colours and breath taking fumes.

(picture from web)

When I worked in the textile mills of Georgia and South Carolina I would be around the vast mordant and dye machines - hundreds of feet long of boiling heat and ammonia. In one dying mill the air temperature was as high as 140F, 60C, around the equipment - the employees tending the process stood on grates under heavy down drafts of outside air, standing in a vertical wind column - which in summer was 100f outside air, but cool compared to taking one step from under the blowing duct. The time you could spend out in the hot air to work on the gear (which we would be doing) was measured in minutes. The smell of urea could be very strong indeed.

I am back and am thinking of going off quickly in the boat, that, or going fishing when my wife returns from her two hour job, but time to feed the chickens regardless. And last night was trout and shrimp almandine - excellent, with Waldorf salad, peas, and to finish, a brownie (with weevils - the walnuts had weevils but I am cool with that - I would not have used them but only noticed after they went in. It is a very good brownie with lots of pecans, walnuts, and baked with a chocolate syrup topping - and later microwaved quickly and then with vanilla ice cream)

(As a child our mother would often have to float the weevils off the rice before cooking it - or the house boy would more likely; so they do not hold much of a horror for me.)

 

What a lovely day it is outside and inside I continue my tax madness with a letter from the Mississippi Department of Revenue which goes..........

Please do not ignore this assessment of tax or penalties...payment not received on or before November 21......we must take other steps to collect the money due..... Penalties, additional costs, interest........We may claim on your property, bank account, income, .....Failure to pay will result in loss of your Homestead Exemption........

For information on bankruptcy, appeals, filing see back of letter........

And so I did, and after talking so some MDR officials in Jackson (state capital) I finally got the word that there are no appeals. Pay up, what's the problem? letter not clear enough?

And so I did, online. But with my confirmation number in hand I am over that and it is a relief... Now just my Federal tax penalty appeal (IRS) and I think they have a more liberal way about them. From the president down they always instruct the IRS to not be too aggressive, nitpicking, and to show a bit of a human face - those are voters remember. The State apparently is not so worried.

And I am reading a history of the last Crusades, till 3 a.m. last night; the rise of the Spanish and Portuguese empires and the dreaded Ferdinand and Isabella - the Reconquista of Granada, and the wrecking of the new world; and in all that is Tax, and yet more Tax; half a million galley slaves at any moment, expulsion of the Jews or enforced conversions (which rarely worked out very well), burnings, sacking, and always money. And so I take this letter in a good light. It is the legitimate harvest of the state.

And Mark 12:16
"Shall we pay or shall we not pay?" But He, knowing their hypocrisy, said to them, "Why are you testing Me? Bring Me a denarius to look at." 16They brought one. And He said to them, "Whose likeness and inscription is this?" And they said to Him, "Caesar's." 17And Jesus said to them, "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." And they were amazed at Him."

 

So I have tentatively invited my mail-man (post man) to go out shrimping tomorrow when he finishes his route at 2 p.m. He does throw a net but is without a boat - and only can throw from the land places during the busy times, which is not much fun. They are wall to wall people nights and weekends. And when my wife gets back in an hour we plan to head out and explore shrimp in the boat - if the rain holds off.

I have just planted 30, 6pack, seed trays with: kale, broccoli, turnips, sweeds (rutabaga in USA from some European language), kohlrabi, chard, collards - two kinds, beets, cauliflower, peas, mustard, and stuff I probably forgot - and nasturtiums and dill. Then in the ground I planted carrots and beets and two kinds of onions. Very sad onions from a bag of sets that was mostly empty husks - but was reduced to $.25. This is my third attempt at a winter garden - first planting the garden, it sprouted and some bugs ate most of the sprouts, then the bad chickens finished off any survivors. Then the second planting the same as the first. Then I am putting them into seed trays till they get bigger and I sort out the chickens, and whatever. But at least I have not given up. You can see a couple kale, broccoli, beet, survivors in this film because they are beyond the chicken range, so far, in the far small bed.

So the 4+ minute film, can't recommend it, but here it is anyway - the first picture is the freezer with bagged, peeled, shrimp. I have been giving it away - and eating it, but it keeps coming. I have 10 pounds in a freezer at a house I watch as well......but the shrimp almandine is good, and so simple - as is the rolled in cornflour/corn meal and sautéed till brown in a small amount of oil - and shrimp fried rice (which I am not good at) and curry. My goal is to remember how I used to do Mongolian Shrimp - ha, not a traditional dish I bet - with green onions, soy, brown sugar, water, cooked onions, sesame oil, garlic, hoisin sauce, that was good. The bag of bagged stuff in the freezer is crab meat. I keep getting a couple dozen a week and picking the meat - crabs will disappear till the hot months soon.

Then a picture of the above seed trays ($.25 for the 12 tray kit includes the big tray too - closeout sale, I would be too cheap to buy them otherwise.)

And a walk through my pond edges taken a bit ago after feeding the fish.

 

So we popped out yesterday evening to net some shrimp in the boat - first catching loads of jellyfish and few shrimp - and then I did something very stupid, I let the boat drift near where a snag was reputed to be, and threw my net on it. The water was about eight foot deep and the net was completely stuck. I ended up fighting it for a long wile, finally getting some lead line up, cutting it, and bringing up the net torn in half. It was an old net, and very heavily used, 9 years old.

I have netting needles and would have laboriously spliced and knitted it back together other than it has so many repairs the net is a real challenge to throw anyway...



(picture from web- my needle is much narrower for 3/8" mesh)

A satisfying process where ones hands finally take over, tying the knots, making the stich, tying again, dipping the needle to pull off another length of line; but not for this worn out net - I could use another, new, net to last for years hopefully. In the 35 years I have thrown nets (different sizes and kinds for different fish and situations) I have owned about 10 nets, only 4 proper ones though, and when young would have dived for this one (which is dangerous in case one got tangled in the net or brill lines - but not too much). Talking to the old time seamen here, and anywhere, making nets was a part of their life. Usually one hears about uncles or mothers/fathers who were particularly gifted at it.

Then in the evening I took my four foot net (not included in the 'proper ones' - just a cheap, $13, tiny, bait net - but which has done very well for me for years, and is in my throwing for pogie videos - I have also had old ragged nets I have found in the not proper list) And caught about 80 small shrimp in the bayou grass edges and we went to the harbor for trout. Not the aesthetic time it usually is. The Vietnamese family was there as always, catching white trout after white trout to presumably sell, but then an extended family of 6 rednecks who normally would be fine company - but these were barging in the way, crude, just made it less pretty with their charging about and coursness. Still a good time, just not an excellent time as it typically is. A good wind had the water choppy so one could not see the fish, and the fish were not hitting well. But I got about 20, and have to fillet them and freeze (they are on ice - fresh fish you buy has typically been on ice a week to two weeks). And I am off to the largest local chandlers who have an 8' net for sale - the only place on the coast that has one in stock, due to the shrimping frenzy. $69.99 I have looked on-line and this appears to have only about a $6 sellers premium compared to discounters; soon made up by shipping and handling charges. It is a net a cut above the most cheap brands.

 

Well, dashing off but thought a quick poem by Sultin Suliman The Magnificent would be just the parting shot

Veiled in airy webs, bespangled with each good and evil star;
Every evening fickle fortune winds me in her wanton hair;
Still alone, a lonely stranger, In strange lands I roam afar,
Wile around me march the sullen guards of grief and pain and care.

Till I've read life's riddle, emptied its nine pictures to the end and
never shall I, Sultan Selim, find on earth a faithful friend.

Everyone should read on the final crusades - wild times as the world under went one of its largest paradigm shifts. Although not immediately apropos to shrimping; which I am off to do with my new $70 net. Just a quick jaunt but enough ice being brought incase they are there - although the word here is very much that the shrimp are winding down.

 

So an odd trip. Very pleasant and all, but after tying up, throwing out my shrimp bait, giving it a short wait, I cast, and then retrieving my new net, the line popped free of the net in 14 foot of water. I finally managed to snag it with a hook I had brought and gave up on shrimping today; mentally composing my case to the net company on the back way in.



The swivel connects the wrist rope to the net - and failed completely. But the net company was excellent! They are sending me a new net, this picture being proof, and I also have mailed in the paper warranty that comes with it as instructed (just bought the net yesterday)