Sun, Beach and Crabs

Seven o’clock in the morning. After raining most of the night it looks like the sun is shinning through the trees on our road.

Debbie stands in the sun at Kayak Point County Park.  Lloyd, my ride out to the water, is down at the boat ramp launching his boat. He’ll motor back up here to the beach and pick me up.  My crab traps are in the foreground.

We’re on our way.  Lloyd is on the look out for crabs as he navigates to a spot to drop our crab pots overboard. Here in the Sound you can have two crab pots out and the daily limit for crab is five.

Well it takes about thirty minutes to motor out, drop our four crab traps, and motor back. Here Lloyd throws out a stern anchor to keep the boat in position while we wait for the crabs to fill up our traps.

Here is a view from our picnic shelter toward the pier and Lloyd’s boat.  It’s crowded with crab fishermen who throw their traps of the end of the pier. Our traps are a mile or so beyond the pier.  The big driftwood separates the rocky beach from the lawn and picnic area.

After a couple of hours its time to pull up the traps. They’re about 100 to 125 feet down to the bottom so pulling up them up is a workout. My first trap was completely empty. This is my second trap and it had three that were large enough to keep. Lloyd had two keepers in his traps. We dropped them down again and went back to the beach.

After lunch we went out the second time and pulled up the traps. I kept two for my limit and Lloyd got a couple more. Now its home to cook the crab and then we all met at Darryl's for a fire and gab fest.

Oh yeah. After avoiding the smoke for a while we moved up to the porch to eat crab. Notice that nobody pays any attention to me when I get up to take a picture!

Tomorrow we’ll be back to working on the 5th wheel restoration project.

Rainy Day

Thursday and it’s a rainy day here and on the cool side.  This has been an unusual summer this year so far. We have a day or two of sun and then the rest of the week is cool and rainy.  Far better than the heat wave the rest of the country is experiencing.

Tomorrow, Friday, the weather is suppose to clear up and we’re planning a trip to the beach at Kayak Point to try our hand at crab catching, again. It’s a county park about five miles away. It has a rocky beach, pier, boat ramp, lawn, fire ring and covered picnic tables. We get there early and grab one of the tables, actually there’s two under the cover.  Around a dozen people show up for crabbing, gabbing or picnicking.  This time I have all my own stuff. In the past friends have furnished everything for me to use. 

Ty is suffering in silence.  Cheer up Ty tomorrow is suppose to be better!

Soccer in Snohomish

Debbie and I went to seen my nephew Aaron’s son, Dominic in an early season soccer tournament. The first game started at 9:30 at the Snohomish soccer complex. I made the simple drive over more difficult by turning the opposite direction a couple of times but we finally circled around and came in from behind. The parking lot was almost full and we parked in the back row. The field was, of course the far one.  The game was already in progress when we finally arrived. The score was 8 or so to 2. Dominic played forward and we were treated to Dominic scoring a goal. He was one of the fasted players on the field.

Here Dominic it taking the ball down the field, something he did many times.

The game was so exciting I forgot to take more pictures. Maybe at a future game. Here Aaron his wife Diane, Tory and Dominic get ready to leave after the second game of the day.

My First Crabs

Monday morning about ten of us went down to Kayak Point for a picnic and a crab hunt. I went out with Lloyd on his boat and dropped my two crab pots. A few hours later we went back and checked them. I had 4 and Lloyd had two. The limit is five so we dropped the traps back in for a while and had lunch on the beach with everybody.

On the second pull we both kept one more each which made a limit for me of five.

When we left for Port Susan we borrowed a SS pot from our son Brad, who used it to brew beer. I wanted to cook my own crab this year. In previous years I have borrowed gear, traps, line etcetera and somebody cooked and cleaned the crab for me.

Here is my catch after cooking. 

 

We took our crab over to Darryl and Flavia’s  house where we met with everyone else with their crabs and we had a big feast. I need to remember to take more pictures.

First Crab of the Season

Thursday was opening day for crab season here in the Puget Sound area. It was also drizzling,  as in raining. Only one hardy sole went out in the cold and rain and was rewarded by a limit of crab. We were lucky to available when they were looking for someone to share a crab dinner with. Wow the first crab this season.

Debbie and Les Ann set up the table.

Almost ready as Les Ann pours melted butter into small cups.

The crab was great. Thanks to Rich and Les Ann for a great dinner.

Rotisserie Finished

Here is the rotisserie going strong. Seem you need to really tighten the prongs. I heard the chicken thumping and found the left prongs had slipped and the lemons and garlic fell out. I guess something like a rolled roast would have been better for a first attempt.

I re-aligned and an hour later it was done. Really good. We’ll definitely do this again. I have a new plan.

Ty Helps With the New BBQ

We’ve used the new BBQ for a while and it’s was time to try out the rotisserie. I’ve never used one before. First I had to install the bracket. Of course the brackets had to be modified to fit my grill so a ten minute job turned into an hour or so with help from Ty. I was so focused on the grill I guess he wanted to know what I was doing and jumped up to take a look.

We had to work out who was doing what.

The directions say here you put it on backwards.

Hey I see that screw you dropped.

A refreshing a sip of a Bloody Mary.

Tree climbing is great for reducing stress after helping with the grill.

He made it about half way up. He’s on the left side. After a moment he scooted down so we didn’t have to spend the night waiting for him to come down.

Coming up, rotisserie chicken!

Perfect Furniture

We wanted furniture that would fit the scale of the 5th wheel inside. We also had to get the furniture through the door. We discovered most normal furniture was way too big. By accident we found an outdoor furniture set, on sale. It included a small couch, a couple of rocking chairs and a coffee table. The size was ok and they were actually very comfortable.

We are enjoying them outside for the time being, until the interior of the 5th wheel is ready.

Ty is also enjoying the new furniture. Do Not Disturb!

5th Wheel Progress

Work has continued on the 5th Wheel. Last summer we left with the slideout wood rot replaced with new studs and floor stringers.  All so, most of the new plywood flooring was down.

Here the plywood flooring is done and the seams have been leveled.

Now the plywood has to be sealed and primed so the new tile will stick down.

Next the peel and stick vinyl is put down.  The knotty pine wainscot material is lying on the floor.

Tile glue is not even dry and Debbie knows where a perfect rug is. She took me into town to pick it up and we found it was on sale!

Oh, she also knew where the perfect furniture is. Furniture pictures next.