There have been other changes as well. Most of the "summer homes" are showing signs of life and nearly every buoy in front of the houses have a boat tied to it. When we first moved in, the number of empty buoys set out in our area of the bay impressed me. Seeing them occupied is really cool.
The downside of all the new population is the decrease in the wildlife. Most of the species are still around but are very shy. We haven't seen the seal in a couple of weeks. As a side: the ocean tribe of Orcas (killer whales) visits Hood Canal (a bay in Puget Sound) in the spring. They usually feed on a couple of harbor seals and then move on. This year was different - they stayed - and decimated the seals. It is estimated that half of the resident seals have been turned to Orca kibble.
Crabbing doesn?t need a crab pot or trap. At very low tides you can walk along the beach and catch the crabs by hand, a rake or by using a small net. This last week we?ve had a full moon and consequently a very low tide (?3.4 feet) with the low occurring during the middle of the day. The picture at the top of the page shows one of the neighbors and his grandson hunting for crab. That same day there were a fair number of people crabbing. I later talked to these guys and found that they had caught a couple of crabs but that the crabs were too small and they were skunked. They did say, however, that others they had talked to had gotten keepable crabs and that they had found a dollar bill in shallow water.
We finally finished with phase one of the beach cleaning. The pictures below show the before and after scene of the beach and clearly shows a difference. The logs that are left on the beach are a barrier against the storms next winter.
The neighbors are used to seeing rolling logs down to the beach, but they had to shake their heads when the next phase is to start rolling logs back up the beach.
The trouble with living on the beach is the sand. Sand gets into everything: shoes, socks, pants, hair, etc. As the summer dries the beach; sand near the house gets very soft and hard to walk on. The solution is a boardwalk. If you
Crabbing this week was good, but I have to tell you that we're getting a little tired of fresh cracked crab. Nancy has been experimenting with new recipes, and has discovered some pretty good dishes based on crab. Crab quiche, hot crab on toast points, crab cakes and a crab dip so far. The crab photo is of 5 crabs - a one-day limit. Ummm! - Good!
Nancy has been continuing with her knitting and spinning and enjoys the amount of time she can really spend on spinning. Not only is she spending time on her own projects but the she has become involved socially in the "fiber arts" community. In a fiber arts group she sparkles and the people here love her. She has taken her natural charisma, coupled with a storehouse of technical knowledge and added her stash of techie tools and fibers. A powerful combination that is somewhatoverwhelming. We're going to take some photos of some of Nancy's finished work and put it in the next letter.
Nancy is teaching the craft shop owner how to spin right now. She's going to go to a spinning and weaving conference next week in Tacoma and take a 3-day knitting class from a nationally-recognized teacher and is very excited to learn a new technique. She'll be rooming with her friend Joy. Two friends from California will join them in the dorms - Shirley from Ripon and Judy from Stockton. Shirley was the graphics lead for the conference and Judy is one of the owners of Gilmore Looms, where Nancy's loom is at "loom camp" while we're in Washington.
Jerry's Mom, Velva, is getting a little bit better as they are trying different doses of her medication. Last time we wrote, she was in a sort of semi-sleep induced state, and now she's up and walking around again. Much improvement. We figure it was the drugs that was making her sleep all the time.
