Cost Of Crabs

We had our Potomac River Festival down here at the beach a couple weekends ago, that is the official kick-off of summer here for us.
It is when all the " come here's " show up and fill the streets and beaches and waterways, and hopefully the cash registers with some much needed tourist dollars

The steamed crabs are a hot seller, and are sold by the bushell and half bushell, and then spread out on the picnic tables at the majority of the rented beach houses for the weekend feast.

For this main reason, I do not get crabs on the weekend, that is, unless family comes down to hang out at the beach. I have a few friends in the business that I can call in advance and get a good price if needed, but try not to do that to often.

I passed by one of the places I get crabs from this past Sunday and saw a sign outside advertising crabs for $95.00 for a half bushell.

I also saw a lot of cars out in the lot waiting for them to come out of the cooker.

I guess if you work all year up in the city, and only get away for a couple weeks a year, $ 95 bucks is worth it for some crabs, but here it is, Tuesday morning, and I have called the same place I saw the sign just minutes ago.

One of the owners, Timmy, has just got off the water and said " yeah, come on in here about 5:30, I get you a half bushell hot for $45 "

I bet they will taste a lot better than the $95 dollar ones

Oyster Roast

Down here, we have a few fund raisers at our hunt club.
This one we helped promote breast cancer.
The main attraction was the roasted oysters. That's my boy and his friends shuckin out some.
We take the raw oysters and lay them on a grill, between two wet burlap bags and steam them until they pop open.
You then insert your knife, twist, and cut the oyster out and enjoy


We also had fried oysters, hush puppies, oyster stew, and bar-b-que.
Inside we had all the good stuff too, potato salad, cole slaw, mac-n-cheese, bean salad, and all kinds of cakes, brownies, and pies



All the members had a job to do, and we stayed busy keeping the food coming

You cant have an oyster roast without some bluegrass, so we had a tent up for the band

After we served a couple hundred folks, it was time for a break

We did have some leftovers, which made for some good sandwiches on Sunday

Poor ole' Thelma came, and helped with the clean up.

She ate so much, we had to pick her up and put her in the truck when it was time to go home

Done With The Snow

Most of the time, when you get the kids out in the snow, you see them smiling and playing and just having a great time.
With a total of 14 days missed from school, and many of those stuck in the house because of the wind and freezing temps, I guess even a little boy can get tired of it.
I took some pics of my brother-in-law working with my 4 wheeler to push some of the mess around, and got this one of my youngest giving me the evil eye

I rigged up a mount for the blade that goes on my John Deere 110, and put a temporary winch mount to raise and lower it.
It did a pretty good job.

Down at the beach was a dull grey scene, and was very windy.

Around here we are expecting a little rain, and some highs in the 50's.

I cant wait till late March to be out there in the water looking for rock fish

Mom's Tree

Mom wanted to get rid of a tree at the end of her driveway, so you know we had to come and take it down

It was right against the power and phone lines, so we had to limb it, and then rope it off near the top

Nick got to do the climbing

And the boy's got to do the clean up, and pulled brush with my Yamaha

Nick and Karl like their Stihl and Husky saw's, and I will agree they are good stuff but I am still using an old Homelite that is nearly 10 years old.

Best $100.00 buck's I ever spent

Season End

It seems that deer season came and went so fast this year. We had many rain days that the dogs could not get a good trail going, and the snow that came in before Christmas kept everyone confined to a tree stand.
With my bad back, and other problems from my auto accident limiting me as to what I can do anymore, the weather put me out of the game more than I wanted, but as you can see, My son, and basset hound Thelma, and I managed to get in on a few drives.
This is what we do when all the others are down in the woods waiting for the dogs to run something past them.

If I do have to get out of the truck and get across a field, or drag a deer, or try to head off dogs, we just hop on the Honda 4X4

I live in an area full of history, and the place where we have hunted since I was a kid is here in Menokin

Besides the time I get with my boys, they get to hang out with their friends. I was sitting back near the wood stove and watched the guys plan a raid on the fridge back in the kitchen to get a mountain dew

I was taught early about life and death, taught how to hunt, and how to handle a gun.

To have respect for any firearm, respect for the outdoors, and respect for the people that owned the land that we hunted on.

I learned to listen to the old guy's when they told me something, and found out that they really did know more than I did

This season I started to realize that I am becoming one of those old guy's