I found this great website via Kirk Lombard, the Sea Forager:
HI THERE!
My name is Hank Shaw.
“I write. I cook. I fish, dig earth, forage, ferment things, brew beer, raise plants, live for food and chase God’s creatures. I drink Scotch or Bud, eat burgers or dine on caviar, depending on my mood or what day of the week it happens to be. I spend my days thinking about new ways to cook and eat anything that walks, flies, swims, crawls, skitters, jumps – or grows. This is my story.”
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post “#shelterpublications world headquarters. #publishi…“:
Might interest one of your adventuring readers:
https://www.charitytoday.co.uk/national-trusts-new-farne-islands-ranger/
Could you be the National Trust’s new Farne Islands ranger?
Fed up with the rat race? With no running water and thousands of puffins as your only neighbours, a new National Trust vacancy promises the ultimate escape.
it’s a wildlife enthusiast’s dream – promising jaw-dropping sunrises, a one minute commute and one of England’s largest seal colonies on your doorstep.
This job isn’t the normal 9 to 5. Being good with PowerPoint isn’t a priority.
“We’re looking for someone with a passion for wildlife and conservation – and who wants to share that passion with others.
Applications for the position of ranger close on 7 February, 2017. To apply visit:
https://careers.nationaltrust.org.uk/OA_HTML/a/#/vacancy-detail/46353.
Or 118% of what is usually stored at this time of year. See the comment below from Steve.
Above chart is from: https://cdec.water.ca.gov/cgi-progs/reports/DROUGHTSUM
It was giving the evil eye to the chickens. (They’re safely enclosed by aviary wire.)
I think this is a young hawk. I climbed up a ladder with my telephoto lens, was maybe 10′ away from him — he wasn’t alarmed. Come to think of it, maybe predators are more in attack than flight mode.
Last night I saw 2 different coyotes on the highway. One is there pretty much all the time; I hope it’s not due to people feeding him.
We’ve had 1-1/4″ already today. We’re way beyond the last few years for this date. Everyone is worried that it could be like a few years ago, when we had a lot of rain through December, then practically nil the rest of the rainy season. But it feels like the low pressure systems are moving in regularly, not getting blocked by high pressure. May it continue. The soil in the woods is soaked, the fungi are lovin it.
I always think of this song when it’s really raining:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1u7YY-jQ0XU//
Another Toots song (look at these guys!):
Bernie Harberts and his mule Polly were featured in the “On the Road” section of our book Tiny Homes.
“I’ve sailed alone around the world, traveled across America by mule (twice), pedaled a ten dollar bike around Tasmania and walked across Newfoundland with a mule. Most recently, I sailed a wood ketch from the Falkland Islands to South Georgia Island, off Antarctica. From there, we sailed 3 weeks across the iceberg laced Southern Ocean to South Africa.…
For the Lost Sea Expedition series, I traveled 14 months across America in a wagon. Just as I did in North Carolina, I explored things that are particular to an area. This time around, it was horse breakers, Lakota elders, sod hut dwellers, ghost towns and a vanished sea that caught my eye.
I filmed the whole voyage myself – a first ever for a cross-country wagon voyage.…”
Lesley’s been watching the chrysalis every day. She just came in to tell me it had emerged when I was on an important phone call so I handed Evan my iPhone and he shot the pic. Note the shell of the chrysalis at right; how did the butterfly ever fit in that small enclosure? Stunning, and it’s the kind of thing that’s going on in the natural world every moment. As Leonard Cohen says, halleluja!
This is the most informative I’ve found, a text report by the National Weather Service:
https://forecast.weather.gov/product.php?site=NWS&issuedby=MTR&product=AFD&
Anyone who fishes (or clams or collects anything from the California coast) will love this book. In fact, anyone on the west coast of the USA, from Baja California up to BC, will learn how to catch, gather, clean, and cook fish, clams, mussels, eels, crabs, and seaweed from this witty and complete fishing compendium. Kirk Lombard worked for 7 years as an observer for The Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission before becoming “The Sea Forager” in the San Francisco Bay Area. He conducts fishing classes, does demonstrations, and sells sustainable seafood. IYou can get info on all his coastal activities and buy the book at: https://www.seaforager.com/
Full disclosure: I’ve been to one of Kirk’s fishing demos, attended a seminar on making pickled herring, and went fishing with him for night smelt (caught 15 lbs. that night, netting them in the surf).) I’ve gotten a ton of useful info from him, including tonight, when I used his technique for getting the skin off horseneck clam siphons (slit lengthwise, soak in warm water for 10 min.) before making clam fritters (below, left).
He tells you how to catch salmon, halibut, rockfish, striped bass, and 8-10 other kinds of fish, how to gather 15 different types of shellfish, how to pickle seaweed (I’ve got a jar of pickled kelp in the frig right now, and I put ground-up dried seaweed on omelets, potatoes, anything hot). He’s big on the small fish in the area — herring, anchovies, smelt, grunion, and mackerel — because they’re low on the food chain, super healthy, and take pressure off the popular fish.
He’s got a sense of humor, plays in a band (his oldest kid is named Django), and has fun with his work and teaching.
The book is very nicely illustrated by Leighton Kelly.
