Tuesday I drove up to Petaluma to look at a fishing kayak.* The hills have changed from green to dried-out golden, almost white in the bright sun. Lots of growth due to late rains, grasses waving in the afternoon wind…Speaking of which, we’ve had a week of early morning low tides, but also winds. Took my kayak across a local bay a few days ago, the wind was coming up. I thought about turning back, but it started dying down.
No luck getting horsenecks, but I got a mess of cockles plus 2 nice rock crabs; good way to spend the morning…steamed cockles last night, but they wouldn’t open after 15 minutes steaming, tough little fuckers, and steaming them this long made them tough…gotta figure this out, these aren’t the compliant commercial clams you can buy…seaweed was thick on the beach, so loaded my truck up, it’s getting rinsed and added to compost pile…just ordered a rod and spinning reel for stripers…my ongoing food-from-sea endeavors sure are fun, plus with the kayak, I’m getting a workout…
I’m sure I’ve mentioned it before, but check out https://www.monkeyfacenews.com/, Kirk Lombard’s writings on fishing the Pacific Coast. Just found this video, go to 3:22 to see him catching a mess of herring to great music and with ayuda from a fellow fisherman…I’m goin’ fishin too…
*I’m pretty well settled on a 12′ Tarpon 120 by Wilderness Systems. It’s another world from my 20-year-old 12′ Scrambler by Ocean Kayak (which I’m gonna sell cheap). Having such a great boat will be an incentive to get out there often…also getting a sail (Wind Paddle Scout Sail) — minimal, will only go downwind…
Rick Gordon has built it and we’ve been tinkering with it for a few months, and finally it feels ready to go. Whereas my blog is all over the place, The Shelter Blog will focus on homes, building, carpentry, gardening, farming, foraging, fishing, homesteading and the home arts. Check it out here:
Note: it’s theshelterblog.com, not shelterblog.com. You need the article the.
I’m really excited by this. It’s as important — maybe in the long run more so — than one of our books. We have no competition here, since we have feedback from our 40 years publishing books on the subject of shelter. Plus we can share brand-new incoming photos and stories rather than wait years to get same into a book. It’ll be complimentary to our books.
We guarantee at least one new post per day, hope to get multiple posts daily as we get rolling.
I’m swamped with stuff to do lately — all good — not much time for blogging. Went clamming Friday via kayak. Got 8 horsenecks, 2 Washington clams, bunch of white cockels. Finally got my clam gun working. I like the idea of getting to the mudflats by human power. Clam cakes for dinner last night…On Friday I dropped off a copy of Tiny Homes On The Move at Kevin Kelly’s house, and he wrote:
“I read it cover to cover tonight. What a joy. It’s the most aspirational book you’ve done, making me say, I really should do *that.* Reading it is a lot of fun. Dwelling + Travel. What’s not to covet? Great job on the book. Def a cool tool.”…Also on FridayI bought my dream camera at Keeble & Schuchat in Palo Alto (my fave camera store in USA and that includes BH Photo in NYC) from my camera guru, Gary: Olympus OMD M1, with an ED 12-50mm (24-100 mm) zoom lens (built in macro)
(camera nuts see below*)…Heading 3 hours north along the coast right now to hang out for the week with my pal Louie — will be blogging re aventuras.
My fishing/hunting/foraging/preserving books
*I can use all the lenses (full set) from my Panasonic Lumix 4/3…NO shutter lag…Compact in much the same way the Olympus OM1 film camera was, maybe 1/3 smaller than the Canon and Nikon honkers…I could have saved about $100 at Amazon (out of $1800), but talking over all the options with a human expert is way worth it…
I went out last night with my new fishing guru, Kirk Lombard, netting night smelt. These are beautiful little fish. They come in to sandy beaches after dark during the quarter moon to spawn and there we were with our triangular nets (based on a Native American design). We hit it! I ended up with 16 lbs. Gonna fry some up for lunch. Only thing is, as I was rinsing them off, a rogue wave knocked me over—soaked to the skin, waders and all. This was like 9:30 PM, but I was so stoked I didn’t care. Changed into dry clothes and off to home with my bounty.
If you live in the San Francisco bay Area and are interested in fishing—or getting fresh fish—here’s his website: https://www.seaforager.com There was a long article on him in the SF Weekly here.
I just read a really nice article he wrote on the Wiyot Indians of Humboldt county here. The guy can not only catch fish, but write!
Jim Morrison said that it wasn’t until The Doors released a record that he was free to get on with creating something new. Now that Tiny Homes On The Move is finished, I’m looking out on the horizon for what’s next. Right now, it looks like this:
Blogs Rick has almost got The Shelter Blog up and running (with a Word Press template). My son Evan is going to manage it. Lew, Evan and I will post stuff on it. All shelter-related, unlike my eclectic blog. The idea is to do online what our book Shelter did in 1973: showcase owner-builders and the lifestyle that a bunch of us share. Providing as much of our own food and shelter as possible (you can’t be totally self-sufficient; self-sufficiency is a direction). As opposed to Dwell magazine, homes rich in color, utility, and good vibes. We intend this to be station central for people of the owner-builder persuasion.
We’ll post all the stuff we are now getting from people who have been inspired by our books to build something. In this sense it’ll be different from other blogs in that much of the material will be original and unique, not a pastiche of what’s floating out in the web-o-sphere.
At left: crab snare; you toss it out with a fishing rod, wait 15 minutes and reel it in. It snags crabs in the loops.
Yesterday I went on a 3-hour tour with Kirk Lombard on the shores of San Francisco Bay. He demonstrated catching crabs with crab snares, how to throw a net to catch herring, and how to catch eels. Kirk is passionate about the ocean, sustainability, and getting your own food. He leads tours of various types, takes people clamming or herring-catching, and has a seafood subscription service. He says there are numerous small fish in this area — smelt, sand dabs, herring, sardines — that are overlooked by commercial interests and perfect for the get-it-yourselfer.
I’ve poked around on the local coast all my life and come from a family of fishermen — all sport fishermen except for my grandfather, who had a bait and tackle shop in SF around the turn of the century — but I learned a ton of things. There’s a 300-foot deep channel under the Golden Gate Bridge carved out in old times by the Sacramento River. You can make a pudding from a type of seaweed. Fish that is touted as “local” often comes from boats that spend over a month at sea, with 65-mile long longlines.
There were two 12-year-old boys in the group and he was the perfect teacher. He got them reeling in crabs, throwing a herring net correctly, and poke-poling for eels. If you’ve got kids in the Bay Area,this is a wonderful learning experience. If you’re a city-dweller interested in bringing in some of your own fresh seafood, check him out. 6-star.
People keep saying “Beautiful day,” and I grit my teeth. Yes, the sun is out and sky is blue, but the weather is creepy. C’mon low pressure, move back in and let those storms blow in from the ocean. This photo is the end of a weak front that brought only 1/10th inch of rain…article in NYTimes titled “Older Mind May Just Be a Fuller Mind,” saying that the older you are, the bigger a library of memory you have to deal with, the longer it takes to access it. I’ve been saying to people for years that memory is not infinite and that some stuff has to get pushed out for new stuff to get stored — how’s that for rationalization of all the things I can’t remember now?…Also in NYT an article on sloths; they discovered that sloths have moth living aboard (in their fur) that create algae and a large part of sloths’ diet consists of eating this algae. Efficient or what?…Right now listening to Bach Sonatas and Partitas by Chris Thiele, mandolinist from The Punch Brothers. There’s something about the ringing tones of the mandolin that are perfect here, different from the sound of a violin or piano or harpsichord, and the musicianship is stunning; dazzling runs, lovely interpretation…Come to think of it, the whole point of the Llewyn Davis movie was not the film, but the concert film, “Another Day, Another Time,” made in New York in September; way better film…Last night we ran across a documentary on the Smithville Fiddlers’ Jamboree and Crafts Festival in Smithville, Tennessee, and was it good! It’s hard for us (east or west) coastal people to remember that there’s a huge part ofAmerica out there that’s not really on our radar. These fiddlers were so good, tons of them, quiet and unassuming and excellent and the clog dancers were a delight; I’ve got it marked on my calendar (July 4-5, 2014), and I might just go; maybe a road trip across America, maybe about time…Went eeling a few days ago and nada, maybe the big surf of late sent them into hiding…going to take my kayak to Tomales Bay this afternoon in search of horseneck clams and cockles…I’m on a campaign to get more seafood…had pasta with mussels last night…last, and the big news around here, is that we’re almost finished with Tiny Homes on the Move and I’m pretty thrilled with it.
No luck getting horsenecks, but I got a mess of cockles plus 2 nice rock crabs; good way to spend the morning…steamed cockles last night, but they wouldn’t open after 15 minutes steaming, tough little fuckers, and steaming them this long made them tough…gotta figure this out, these aren’t the compliant commercial clams you can buy…seaweed was thick on the beach, so loaded my truck up, it’s getting rinsed and added to compost pile…just ordered a rod and spinning reel for stripers…my ongoing food-from-sea endeavors sure are fun, plus with the kayak, I’m getting a workout…
