Ducks on the Pond
Thanks to everyone who has sent along condolences about Mavis. We are really missing her, especially Pearl. / We walk alot near the UMASS track facility and just close to where we park the car is a small pond that starts out very clear in the Spring and over the Summer becomes filled with some kind of very green algae. For a while this family of ducks was hanging around. They couldn’t be bothered by the fact that we were checking them out.
Essex Salt Marsh
Peter and I both had doctors appointments in the Boston area today, so we decided to head up along the North Shore for some clams. We have been to the Clam Box in Ipswich and wanted to try something new. Dr. O suggested Essex and we checked out Farnham’s first and decided to give them a go. This is the view from the picnic tables just off the parking lot. Very cool and windy today; lovely light and the clams were perfect. So far, our favorite location.
We Won! (fourth place)
Last Saturday at the Amherst Farmer’s Market Cris bought a raffle ticket for the 4th Annual Fort River Celebration Day Rubber Ducky Derby. It was in support of the Hitchcock Center and the Rushing Rivers Institute. Hey, $5.00; goes to a good cause. On our way to the event today she couldn’t find the stub from the form, but she thought our number was 426. When we got to Goff park, we checked the list and we were actually #258 which is a favorite number of ours. I was kind of impatient for the off, and as usual making rude comments to Cris. The organizers were telling all the kids to make lots of noise during the race so once the ducks hit the water, I started yelling 258 258 258 258…….Cris got as far away from me as she could.
We hadn’t seen our entry before the race and from a distance they all looked the same anyway. Once the winners were collected and brought to the shore, the organizers (with great fanfare) announced the winners. #251 came in first, then second and third were announced. The prizes were things we didn’t care much about, but 4th prize was a free canoe or kayak rental from Adventure Outfitters. Then they read the number and it was……258! We yelled like we had just won the lottery and as we were the only winners present, got a huge round of cheers.
So here’s the winner. They gave it to us to bring home. Some of the paint has worn off, so I am guessing this isn’t its first race. I like the Islands motif. We went to the ABC after and each had a Guinness to celebrate.
Connecticut River / Hadley, MA
The sun has not made an appearance here since last Saturday. In the winter time, it would most likely bum me out to have everything so gray, but this spring has been amazing. So many shades of green and the sky so subtle. It won’t last long, but it is just beautiful. / This shot is made up of 4 different images that I stitched together. They were taken on the levee in Hadley that overlooks the Connecticut.
Pearl
The Pearl and I went for a walk in the mist this afternoon. She as usual found some water to meander through and we had a nice time looking at ducks on the little pond and all the redwing blackbirds hanging out on the cat-tails. She is 10 now and the gray is starting to show up on her face and under her chin. She’s still the sweetest dog in the world, though.
Pound Netting on the Chesapeake
This is going to be a fairly picture heavy post. On a technical note, all of the pre dawn images, and most of the early morning ones were shot at an amazingly high ISO of 12,800. No flash, just the boat’s work lights.
Peter and I got to the dock at 4.00 AM to meet Robby Wilson who runs a pound net operation not far from Tilghman’s Island in the Chesapeake Bay.
We were on a scow that had been converted from an old houseboat, and his 2 crew were on a smaller skiff. We motored out of Tilghman for about 40 minutes and got to the first of 4 of his nets before 5.00 AM.
The two guys in the skiff had arrived some minutes before us, and were already hauling up the “pound”.
I asked several people where the term pound net comes from and there seems to be no consensus. It might come from the early American idea of a collection point for animals. The FAO has a pretty good description here.
The two boats work together to roll up the pound and then scoop the fish into the scow with the help of a winch.
The primary species Robby is fishing for is alewife. Many different fishes are caught in the nets, so the crew’s job is to cull most of the others, of which rockfish (striped bass) are the commonest. Some catfish and flounder are kept to sell as food fish. The alewife are sold mainly as bait for crabbers. After the first of June, the season for rockfish opens, and he is allowed to sell those.
It is wet, strenuous, and demanding work. It was unusually calm and clear yesterday, but the boat was still rocking, and water and fish scales were flying everywhere. After the cull, the crew would hop in the skiff and motor to the next set of nets.
The culling goes on until the pound is empty and then the crew moves on to the next location.
The process is repeated for each of the four sites. Travel time between them us usually less than a half hour.
Below is a good shot of system. Robby and the crew usually are out putting the stakes into the bottom around the first of March. They fell the trees and sharpen them in the off season. The depth of the water is anywhere between 7 and 15 feet.
Robby’s dad Clifford “Big Daddy” Wilson came out to help out. He is also a waterman; a few years ago Peter and I went out on his crab boat.
On the way back to the dock, the fish are shoveled into plastic baskets so they can be off-loaded into one of Robby’s trucks to be taken to Cambridge, MD to be sold.
They were nice enough to stop for a minute for a photo, but other wise they are constantly in motion.
The boats were back at the dock around 8.00 AM.
It’s about an hour to unload into the truck, and then the scow is cleaned up and made ready for the next day. It is pretty much a seven day a week job as the nets fill up pretty fast.
An amazing day. We are very fortunate to hang around with these guys and document their work. They couldn’t have been nicer or more accommodating.
Crabbing on the Chesapeake
Yesterday we were out on a crab boat with Roy and Colleen Sadler. We were on the dock by 4.30 AM, and on the Bay putting out lines by 5.oo. It is still early in the season, and when Roy started pulling up the lines, there wasn’t much action.
The sun was just coming up over the horizon, so the boat was still using the onboard lights. The technique is to attach small packets of razor clams to a line about every 10 or 15 feet. Roy and Colleen would drop the line, circle around and hope the crabs would chow down. The line would be strung over a roller, and any attached crabs would drop into the net Roy is holding above.
The crabs have to be over a certain size to be kept (I think it’s between 4 and 5 inches), or they get tossed back into the bay. Since the sun hadn’t come up, they were mostly inactive. But as the sun rose higher, more and more took the bait.
You can see the little orange packets of razor clams coming up over the roller.
Bait.
Roy and Colleen are amazing people. Roy has been working on the water his whole life, and Colleen works in a bank on the island during the week. She is usually on the boat at weekends helping out. The economics of making a living off the bay have changed so much over the years; Roy has said it would be very difficult to keep his business going without her income. A lot of what we are learning on this leg of the project has to do with the stifling regulations that the State of Maryland is forcing on the watermen (and women), and the ongoing change to the bay’s ecosystem which makes harvesting seafood such a challenge.
Peter Carroll
Peter Carroll and I are back on Tilghman’s Island to continue documenting Chesapeake Bay watermen. We were on the water by 5 this morning with Roy and Colleen Sadler.
Lake Champlain flood
I am in Montreal for a few days and decided to take the more scenic route through Grand Isle, Vermont instead of the 89. The level of the lake was quite high; the road was covered in a few places. I couldn’t tell if it was unusual, but a lot of houses seemed to be having issues with water. I’ll be curious to see what it is like when I drive back home on Wednesday. There is rain in the forecast.
Clingstone story in Old House Journal
The Old House Journal with the Clingstone story is on the newsstands. It is the May 2011 issue. Click here to see the online version. Please click on the photos to see them in a pop-out window. And keep in mind that the volunteer weekend is coming up . It is a blast.
Jon Crispin's Notebook 
2 comments