More Crabbing

Here are two photos of the crabs we caught on Joe's boat (plus a comparison shot of the crabs and prawns we caught on Bill's boat. No complaints as to quantity, as we ate them all.

Foraging for Food

We went out with Bill Schuckel (our brother-in-law) in his small boat to go crabbing and prawn trapping. Setting out from Croftin, we first dropped two crab pots in about 35' of water and then crossed the bay to Salt Spring Island where we dropped 3 prawn traps in about 250' of water. The crab pots are baited with chicken parts; the prawn traps with some kind of pellets that the prawns can't even get at, though they can smell it. The traps need to stay down for about two hours, so we motored over to Vesuvius to eat lunch in the restaurant and while away the time. While there the clouds began to thin and it got warmer. We had put on three layers of clothes (long johns, clothes, and gore tex) to stay warm and dry. When we went back to pull up the pots we got 19 prawns and 1 large red rock crab.

That night Bill cooked up the prawns and crab and fried the oysters that Bob had bought in Quilicine. We ate them with a large salad. Yum!

The next day Joe (our nephew) invited us to go crabbing out of Genoa Bay. He has a larger boat with a more powerful motor. We drove over to Genoa Bay and waited. Genoa Bay has a marina, several interesting floating homes and some large pieces of art hung on boat houses and for sale. We motored over to where Joe dropped 4 crab pots. His boat is all set up with a spool to wind and unwind the rope, a device to pull the rope over as you pull up the pots and wind the rope onto the spool, etc. After dropping the pots we went across the bay to wait.

Joe knew a beach where the boat could be moored. There was a wonderful tree house made out of driftwood in a big madrone tree. Markus and Calder and Beren should take note.

When we returned to pull up the crab traps, three of them held crabs. Some were female and some were too small, but we kept 9-10 of them.

That night we went to Joe and Jane's B & B (Cobblestone Farm B & B) for dinner. They have remodeled the old farm house to create a B & B suite on the top floor with wonderful views, a huge bathroom and quiet. The farm is a working farm and Jane owns three horses (Pesto, Dijon and ?) and trains and competes with them. They also have three pigs they raise for slaughter, Oprah the large pot-bellied pig, laying hens and two dogs (Phoebe and Niles, the 3-legged whippet).

Joe fixed a fabulous dinner (asparagus wrapped in proscuitto, bread with a tapenade of sun-dried tomatoes and basil, crab risotto, salad, green beans with cherry tomatoes in a sauce with anchovies and oranges sliced with kalamata olives and sprinkled with dried roasted garlic and olive oil).

Anyone looking for a great place to stay on the island with really good food should check out their B & B. It's next door to a bistro and winery with really good food also.

Travails with Snoopy

We decided that since we are traveling with Darwin, the trailer needed to be named some sort of beagle. Since it's white and has large eyes (skylights) and is always the smallest unit in the campground, it's going to be Snoopy.

Snoopy has problems. Good old American construction (NOT). Although the design seems fine, the bed is comfy, the furnace and stove work great, the plumbing and the cabinetry are a problem. The first thing we discovered (when Bob took Snoopy out on a disc golf weekend) was that the three drawers don't stay closed while traveling. I assumed that they would drop down when pushed in (which they do about 1/4"). They come open while traveling. When we arrived in Port Angeles, one drawer had come out completely, emptied its contents on the floor (good thing we're mainly carrying plastic) and the corner was crunched. Another drawer came open and hung at an angle and bent the cheap metal rail the drawer runs on. Bob managed to fix them enough so we could travel and we jerry-rigged something to keep them closed using Bob's golf umbrella a bungie cord and cord. I had noticed that one drawer wasn't evenly set in the cabinet and that they didn't run very smoothly on the drawer glides. Sigh....... Maybe when we get to Tunkhannock and Markus we can fix them.

Then I discovered that water was leaking under the sink. Luckily I have everything in plastic boxes, but there is not an insignificant amount of water leaking from the pressurized clean water input pipes. This is the pits.

We've had the trailer for less than two months and have only taken it out for about 8 days and two serious things have gone wrong. We were both pretty bummed and crabby with each other. We debated whether we should return to Eugene to get it fixed, but finally called Bill (our brother-in-law in Duncan BC) and determined that we could probably get Snoopy repaired in Duncan. He's going in on Thursday.

Here's hoping that we can fix his woes.

Reed 35th Reunion

We began our trip on Tuesday June 3 at 3 p.m., driving from Corvallis to Roamer's Rest RV Part in Tualatin. It was my 35th reunion (having attended my 10th and 25th previously). I attended the Alumni College on Music while Bob and Darwin went disc golfing, returning to join me for dinner and the evening entertainment. Alumni College consisted of morning lectures on various topics (the history of electronic music, musical representations of cultural clashes, Duke Ellington as composer or improviser, and Frank Zappa presented by DJ Dr. Demento). The afternoons were a combination of hands-on music-making and presentations by the Williamses of the historical fiddle and dance tunes of the Oregon Trail and the mining camps.

One afternoon the adjunct who organizes private music lessons for Reed students led a tour of the historical keyboard instruments at Reed. This photo is of the French/Flemish harpsichord I donated to Reed in 2002. It has been restored and tuned and is in gorgeous shape. She played, by chance, one of my favorite pieces, Couperin's Les Barricades Mysterious. Afterwards she left me alone in her office to play (badly). It solidified my intent to take harpsichord and organ lessons when I return in November.

Reunions are interesting. The class of 1973, like similar classes at other small institutions, is never well represented at reunions. We are the lost generation, the product of the Vietnam war, the draft, and the political upheaval of the time. Only about 30 of us showed up (a pretty good showing). Despite this, we shared our memories of Reed and where we are in our lives now. Finally we have gotten to the place where we are comfortable with ourselves, where we are in our careers, where we are in our lives and are no longer out to impress. That makes for a much more comfortable interaction. I hadn't realized how much the draft (and low draft numbers) had figured in the lives of my male classmates. We also shared memories of the FBI's visit to Reed in the spring of 1971. They invited themselves and were greeted by a ragtag Reed band playing the Mickey Mouse song, cheerleaders and a motorcycle escort. During an evening symposium they fielded questions from the Reed community (students, faculty and staff), which they could not answer since they mainly related to the draft and conspiracy laws. A birthday cake was presented to one of the FBI guys (since it was his birthday) who was unsure whether to eat it or whether he would be poisoned. Although this was all treated as a farce, the Oregonian saw fit to print that their welcome was an indication that Nixon was winning the war of the minds with the students.

What none of us knew at the time was that Reed was almost bankrupt. Here we were, mainly 16 and 17 year olds, intellectually able and socially nerdy, with no student support systems in place. The academics were extremely demanding but the social interactions were completely over the top (drugs, alcohol and sex). Those of us who did not want to party hard (myself included) resorted to folk dancing. Music was also my salvation as I practiced 2 hours a day.

The reunions culminated with the world premiere of an improvisation piece by David Schiff (Reed professor), with the improvisation by another Reed alum. I also got together with the Collegeum Musicum (the audition-only acapella singing group) and we sang with our original conductor. Another example reminding me of how much music means to me and how much I have left it behind, except in concerts. The reunion ended with fantastic fireworks and it didn't rain.