Midden Mussels

We finished our patrol around 9AM today.  The tide was up pretty high and the driving was a bit rough around the erosional parts of the beach, and around the boneyards (areas where the beach is overtaking forest leaving complete trees fallen and dead).  Strong winds out of the east brought 17 balloons today, several crab pot buoys, plastic bottles and various other garbage.  Five of the balloons we found today and yesterday were Happy Mother's Day balloons.  Two of them found today were tied together and had messages to a mom in heaven.  While I appreciate the sentiment, there's no reason to intentionally set balloons free into the air.  Oddly, they both had an address on them.  Kate and I plan to mail them back with a friendly reminder of the harm they cause.  The crab pot buoys we're starting to collect to make a string of them to decorate the turtle shed with.  We both feel the urge to pick up all the trash that washes ashore, but it's endless, and just can't be done.


Kate was beat when we got back to the house around 10.  Probably because we only had oatmeal for breakfast.  Our neighbor Eric has chickens and hopefully, we'll be able to get some eggs from him regularly for more substantial breakfasts.  Kate napped and I spent the time diddling around the house.  After she woke and we had lunch, we went down to the dock and tried a little fishing.  We had no luck.  You can see a live web feed off the dock.  You can't see us in it today.  Next time we'll dance in front of the camera.


Since we couldn't catch any fish, we decided to go on a small adventure.  Front the dock we headed northwest down Cane Patch Road.  After a short drive we came to a sign that said the road was closed to motor traffic, so we hoofed it the rest of the way down the road until we came upon a rickety old bridge.  There we found a treasure we've been looking for: mussels!  They were all about in the tidal creek below the bridge.  We didn't have the right stuff to harvest any, so we had to go back to the house and change shoes, pants, and get a bucket.  We got back to the bridge in no time and climbed down into the mud.  We sank right in and had a bit of trouble moving about.  The horse flies where on us right away and we had to act fast. After filling our bucket we climbed out of the marsh and continued down the road to Cane Patch Island, which "was once a large prehistoric shell midden.  Shell mining for tabby construction in the 19th century and road maintenance has destroyed the vast majority of the midden".  It was a really interesting area and will undoubtedly be explored more in depth soon.

A few horse flies bites proved well worth bearing.  When we got home, we cleaned and cooked more mussels than I've ever had in one sitting.  Mussels marinara over angel hair, with steamed mussels for an appetizer.  It was excellent and will likely become a regular meal.  Along with whelk fritters, we are starting to learn to live off the land.  Hopefully soon, I'll figure out how to catch some fish.