Oyster Boats in Aransas Bay

The Oyster boats are out in force in Aransas Bay! We decided to check out the Fishing at Goose Island State Park and as we crossed the Copano Bay Bridge, we counted thirty-one boats. Each boat drags a small metal cage which scrapes up the oysters off their oyster bed.

The boats turn in hard circles and every so often lift the cage and dump it on the working table. There the deck hands pick up the oysters and chop off, (using a small hatchet), old shells along with any under sized oysters. These are returned to the sea. If a boat is caught with over twenty percent of undersize oysters the boat has to dump all their sacks of oysters into the sea, is given a large fine, along with fines for the deck hands.

The oystering was closed for two years due to the overharvest that took place and has just recently been reopened.

Let’s hope that this does not happen again!

Once in the park we drove to the fishing pier and were surprised to see how close the boats were to the pier’s end. We have never seen them this close before. In one of the pictures, you can see a colored flag attached to a piece of PVC pipe stuck in the oyster bar. Before I took the picture there were ten more boats but all but three soon left. In another of the pictures you can zoom in and see lots of boats in the distance. WE look forward to holding an oyster Happy Hour this winter! Clear skies and Happy Thanksgiving

A 2024 Oyster Feed at Blue Lagoons Rv Park

Not everyone likes oysters, so our 2024 oyster party only had fifty-four people sign up for the event. Usually, the party is just for our happy hour group, currently about 28, but this year Zita and Alan bought oysters for everyone.

The first task was to line up enough cleaners and shuckers. We had six. A couple of them had never shucked before, but they quickly caught on! Two people washed the oysters while the shuckers worked carefully! No one was cut as the oysters were opened! Alan and Zity had bought a full sack, which is about 2-300 oysters. Alan estimated that we would split the oysters into two presentations, raw oysters on a half shell and Oysters Rockefeller. I volunteered to cook them. Now the plan was to make two for each person which meant that I would need to make one and cook one hundred and eight! Luckily three sou chefs volunteered to help me.

I was using a new recipe from Allrecipes. It was pretty simply, sauté onions, spinach, and garlic in olive oil and then add spices, three cheeses, ( I used parmesan, feta, and pepper jack). Finally add milk. Then after laying out the oyster in a pan lined with parchment paper and coarse salt fill each tray with rows of raw oysters, (the salt is used to keep the oysters level).

I cooked the filling in a large pan and then transferred the mix to a big bowl where Renita, Laura, and Maureen filled each one with the mixture, (solution, I was a former chemistry teacher). Finally, they were topped with panko bread crumbs. Then I placed each tray in an oven preheated to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. The final step was to move the trays every four minutes, (top to bottom of oven), eight minutes total, and then to take them out for serving! My assistants performed superbly, and the oysters turned out great! Thanks to Alan and Zita for the oysters and to my great three volunteers. I could never have prepared them by myself! Thanks for the help!

Bon Appetit and of course clear skies. Ps The Oysters Rockefeller were well received! I will most definitely use this recipe again!

Roy’s Boat, Fishing at Goose Island, and making pendants and bracelets for up coming shows

Last year we all went to an estate sale where Roy spotted an older six horse outboard motor. He made an offer and they finally agreed to the price as long as he also took the old pram. While most saw a worthless old fiberglass pram, Roy saw an opportunity and started on a complete rebuild. Never bet against Roy.

After acquiring the boat and motor he worked on it, finished it this year, loaded it on a redesigned trailer and launched it at a nearby hurricane destroyed harbor. I helped him launch it and was surprised at its light weight! It floated nicely, the reworked motor started right away, and he easily motored around the small harbor. Now it’s time to take it out fishing! We know quite a few protected places where we have caught fish. Many are places where we have fished with our kayaks but this time we will have a motor, (Renita and I will still use our kayaks)

Roy and I did go fishing on the Goose Island State Park Pier, but the water level was extremely low and the fish were not there. The tides cause changes in the water level, but the biggest factor is the wind. We had a strong north wind gusting to forty miles per hour. It pushed the water out of the bay, leaving the oyster beds high and dry! In the photo you can see oyster beds that are normally covered with water.

After the shows last summer, we made cabochons to replace all that we had sold. To make each one we had to saw, grind, and polish the rough stone before attaching bails or wire wrapping them in sterling silver or fourteen karat gold filled wire, (gold filled wire is made by using heat and pressure to bond sheets of gold to a base metal wire and does not peel away the gold like gold plate). It has been known to stay beautiful for over one hundred years.

Each pendant and cabochon takes me about three hours to finish while the bracelets and their stones take five to six hours. Both require a steady hand, keen eyesight, (mine is not so keen anymore), and a magnifying glass mounted on a Opti visor!

If you have been reading our blog you can see the blue and white larimar, from the Dominican Republic, four rhodochrosite pendants, Morenci turquoise, and other beautiful agates and stones. All of the stone’s colors are natural as we do not use dyed stones. Our first show is February 4th and our first juried Gem and Mineral show is the first weekend in March.

The above picture is of all wire bracelets made of sterling, gold filled wire, and ar every popular! Its always a rush to get finished as fishing, bird watching, dolphin antics, and making jewelry compete for our time. Time is the most precious asset we have and so we try not to waste it. Clear

Oysters, Happy Hours, Crawfsih, and a Craft show. A Crazy busy week.

 

Our time here is Texas is drawing to a close. It is a busy time as many of our friends are leaving next week and so we have had celebrations and even a Crafts show in the clubhouse. We would not do any of this if we did not feel safe and we do because most of our friends have had their covid shots, (in our group of seventeen only two are not yet vaccinated.

Our Happy Hour Group has learned quite a bit about oysters. We now have four more shuckers and so it takes no time at all to shuck half a sack of the delicious morsels.

On a personal level I have learned how to make oyster Rockefeller and oysters in a garlic butter sauce, so I prepare three dozen for each oyster fest.

We have now had three oyster Happy hours and I am regaining some of the weight I had lost

.

John and Nina put on a breakfast feed of biscuits, sausage and gravel and Renita and I volunteered to help. I helped Alan to cook the scrambled eggs and both of us helped to dish out the food. It was excellent!

We also have had our first craft show of the year, and while it was smaller than the usual one it was a success.

It was combined with annual trash to treasure event and so all the tables were filled, with the craft show being on the window side.

The third event of the week was a crayfish and shrimp boil, hosted by Alan and Zita, in which the morsels were prepared with varying amount of spice. The hot crayfish, (spicy), were exactly right to the ones that love heat, and that includes me. There were quite a few cooks and so we stayed away from the broth.

So, before we all leave a hearty thank you to all shared the winter with us and who stayed safe, we will see you down the road!

Clear skies

 

Ps If you are curious about the rv full time lifestyle see the movie “Nomadland”. While our lifestyle is not exactly like all of the movie, we have made friends with many who live in every type of rv imaginable. Not all work camp and we do not consider ourselves as working even though we prospect. make cabochons and sell at some juried art and craft shows, (Are you working if you love what you are doing?).

Dave’s eightieth Birthday Party, another day of birding in Lamar, and enduring the pandemic

It is not every day that a dear friend turns eighty and so that called for a birthday party. Of course, with the pandemic we had to social distance and hold the party outside. A cold front passed though, and the high temperature was just in the upper fifties, and with strong winds it was quite cold. Still the party went on.

Dan and I bought a half sack of about one hundred oysters, they cost just thirty-five dollars, and with another friend Dennis, we shucked and prepared them for the party. Of course, we had to have them on the half shell, but we also wanted to grill some, and bake some making Oyster Rockefeller.

While I love Oyster Rockefeller, I had never made them, but they turned out to be quite easy. It was simply a mixture of caramelized onions, wilted spinach, butter, and grated Romano cheese. Making the mixture before the party, our friend Barb put them in her oven and baked them just as the party started!

Dave and Jane were so pleased that we helped to celebrate Dave’s birthday and it was especially nice as he did not have to cook. We did not have any problem eating all the oysters and neither Dave nor I had gout the next day!

A few days later, after the wind died down Renita and I drove to Lamar for another day of birding. We go over there quite often, after all where else can you see endangered whooping cranes, feeding, fighting, and flying.

That day we also hoped to see eastern bluebirds and we were lucky enough to see them land nearby on a wire! We also saw cardinals,

(plentiful here), cara caras,

rosettes, black belied whistling ducks, a red-tailed hawk, 

a belted kingfisher and of course flying whoopers!

Birding is also an activity which allows for social distancing, besides being outside.

We try to keep a positive note about all the troubles going on. Our kids have all had their shots as our daughter and her husband work with covid patients and our son is a first responder. Our sister park had a covid spike a few days ago as they held an indoor dance with live music, (at least three have been taken to the hospital by ambulance, what were they thinking?).

Renita and I do not know if we can ever get our shots here in Texas or if we will have to wait until we get back home to Wyoming. We hope there will be a national policy that all states follow. At least in five days the craziness will end. When the weather gets bad, we make jewelry, besides binge watching on Netflix and Prime. Having avoided the covid for ten months we will keep our guard up by wearing masks, not going to restaurants to eat, and not going inside of our clubhouse for the weekly buffets. We also say daily prayers for those that are sick and those that have passed, (we know of two).

Clear skies and stay safe