Out walking with my little dog tonight I saw a pair of yellow (as opposed to the modern bright white) headlights on a car coming up the road. It got me to thinking of things long past.
Most cars had 6-volt electrical systems until the mid fifties when the industry changed over to the 12-volt system. Headlights were sort of a dim yellow and certainly didn't reach far into the night. Batteries were smaller since they only had four cells and they didn't last as long when you needed them. Also, for those of you who weren't around in those days, the cranking speed of a 6-volt system was about half the speed of the 12-volt replacement. For a few years during the transition it was important to remember to check the voltage of the electrical system if you were going to get or give a jump start. If one system were 6-volt and the other 12-volt something was about to get burned out, or up.
Reminiscing about headlights reminded me that headlight dimmer switches used to be on the floor over toward the left side of the driver's foot space just left of the clutch pedal. When driving on rural roads it was customary to leave ones headlights on high beam until an approaching car flashed their lights reminding the errant driver to dim his lights.
The starter button was also on the floor in those days and there was no override to prevent a car from being started in gear. In fact, sometimes it was useful to start a car in gear if your clutch was bad or your throw out bearing was going out. You could start the car in first gear and by skillfully using the gas pedal shift through the gears by taking advantage of the slack in the drive chain as you decreased the pressure on the gas.
The windshield wiper control was on the dashboard along with the headlight switch so in those days there was only the steering wheel and the horn button on the steering column. Big changes were about to come though until today most cars have steering column and steering wheel mounted accessory switches and controls for everything from lights and wipers to radio and cell phone.
Also on the dash was the choke. Before the days of automatic choke controls the choke control was mounted on the dash. Before you started the engine you pulled out the choke and after starting gradually returned it to normal as the engine warmed up.
Another peculiarity of the old cars was the vacuum windshield wiper system. The wipers were powered by the vacuum created at the manifold and most times it worked alright. When going uphill or when accelerating the wipers would lose power because of the drop in vacuum and slow or even come to a stop when vacuum was diverted to the necessary task of running the engine.
Squirrel knobs or necker knobs were popular during the forties and fifties. These free-wheeling knobs were attached to the steering wheel and allowed the driver to turn the wheel quickly using just the knob. I'm not sure why they were called squirrel knobs, maybe because a person easily could cut doughnuts or otherwise act squirrely. As far as the "necker knob" moniker, it's pretty self-explanatory. One hand on the wheel with its necker knob to steer the car, the other hand free to do other things.
Fender skirts, continental kits and curb feelers were other things peculiar to the late forties and fifties. If you don't know what they are you are free to do an on-line search for enlightenment.
I don't know about the custom in the big cities but where I grew up the car key was always in the ignition just as our house was never locked when we were out. It was a different time when people weren't concerned about strangers stealing cars or entering unlocked houses.
The move to automatic transmissions took time but it was a big thing in the forties and fifties to have a slushbbox. Dynaflow, Hydra-matic, Fluid-drive and Power-drive were all proprietary names of automatic transmissions from the forties and fifties. The automatic transmission made driving easier and allowed those who couldn't figure out how to drive a stick shift model to still get on down the highway.
Strangely enough, automatic transmissions have never caught on in Europe and the far East. Maybe because stick shifts are usually more economical, they are the usual model over there. If you want to rent a car in Europe or other countries outside the US be prepared to pay a lot more for an automatic transmission model.
Now I understand American cars with stick shifts lately are in higher demand. It seems the pendulum may be swinging back to the more complete driving experience of stick shift cars. Also on the plus side, no time to use your cell phone if you are busy shifting gears.
Those yellow headlights brought back lots of memories. I have mixed feelings about the quality of the modern driving experience compared to that of the forties and fifties. I know modern cars are a lot safer with seat belts and air bags being the norm. Accident rates per mile are way down but somehow those days of driving before automatic transmissions, air conditioning and surround sound let a person know that they were in control of a capricious beast that may or may not cooperate to get to the desired destination.
Tuesday, September 22, 2015
Saturday, September 19, 2015
Wasted (Cloudy) Days and Wasted Nights
Welcome to another post about our moon.
I had hoped to be able to take some photos of the new moon but the past five evenings have had clouds obscuring the moon even as it grew from the first sliver to almost the first quarter, so herewith another post without photos to break up the verbiage.
As I've waited for the moon to show her face to past few evenings I thought it might be worth discussing the apparent magic that moves the waning crescent from where it appears just before sunrise in the eastern sky to the first of the waxing crescent which appears just after sunset in the western sky.
Of course it's not magic at all but just the slow orbit of the moon around the earth and the light of the sun that produce the various phases of the moon and where we observe that phase in our sky each night, or day.
As mentioned in the last post, the new moon is not visible to us here on earth because the moon is between us and the sun. As the waning moon becomes smaller it is moving closer and closer to the sun's position so that on the last morning just before sunrise we (if we are lucky) can see the last sliver of the sun's light reflected off our moon.
The next morning the moon rises at about the same time as the sun so we can't see it since the sun is shining on what we consider the back side of the moon and the side facing us is dark. The moon marches with the sun across the daytime sky and disappears, still unseen, below the western horizon.
The next morning the moon rises a little after the sun but we can't see it because of the strong sunlight that covers the much weaker light from the first sliver of the waxing crescent. It is only that evening when the sun moves below the horizon and the sky turns darker that we have a chance of seeing the moon.
Each day the moon's orbit carries it further away from the sun until we sometimes can see the moon in the afternoon sky as it reaches the waxing gibbous stage of growth.
Finally the moon is almost directly opposite the sun in relation to the earth and we are treated to a full moon. From that point we see the waning moon later and later in the evening and early morning. Again we can see the waning gibbous moon in the morning sky under the right conditions but as it moves closer to the sun we don't see the moon during the day but can only see it between the time it rises and when the sun comes up with its much stronger light and covers the weaker moonlight.
Let's hope the Seattle sky is clear a week from tomorrow (10/27) so we'll be able to observe the total lunar eclipse. Of course, it will happen whether or not we can see it. We just need those pesky clouds to move on to other places where they need rain and cool weather.
I had hoped to be able to take some photos of the new moon but the past five evenings have had clouds obscuring the moon even as it grew from the first sliver to almost the first quarter, so herewith another post without photos to break up the verbiage.
As I've waited for the moon to show her face to past few evenings I thought it might be worth discussing the apparent magic that moves the waning crescent from where it appears just before sunrise in the eastern sky to the first of the waxing crescent which appears just after sunset in the western sky.
Of course it's not magic at all but just the slow orbit of the moon around the earth and the light of the sun that produce the various phases of the moon and where we observe that phase in our sky each night, or day.
As mentioned in the last post, the new moon is not visible to us here on earth because the moon is between us and the sun. As the waning moon becomes smaller it is moving closer and closer to the sun's position so that on the last morning just before sunrise we (if we are lucky) can see the last sliver of the sun's light reflected off our moon.
The next morning the moon rises at about the same time as the sun so we can't see it since the sun is shining on what we consider the back side of the moon and the side facing us is dark. The moon marches with the sun across the daytime sky and disappears, still unseen, below the western horizon.
The next morning the moon rises a little after the sun but we can't see it because of the strong sunlight that covers the much weaker light from the first sliver of the waxing crescent. It is only that evening when the sun moves below the horizon and the sky turns darker that we have a chance of seeing the moon.
Each day the moon's orbit carries it further away from the sun until we sometimes can see the moon in the afternoon sky as it reaches the waxing gibbous stage of growth.
Finally the moon is almost directly opposite the sun in relation to the earth and we are treated to a full moon. From that point we see the waning moon later and later in the evening and early morning. Again we can see the waning gibbous moon in the morning sky under the right conditions but as it moves closer to the sun we don't see the moon during the day but can only see it between the time it rises and when the sun comes up with its much stronger light and covers the weaker moonlight.
Let's hope the Seattle sky is clear a week from tomorrow (10/27) so we'll be able to observe the total lunar eclipse. Of course, it will happen whether or not we can see it. We just need those pesky clouds to move on to other places where they need rain and cool weather.
Saturday, September 12, 2015
Our Moon
In the days before television, electric lights, instantaneous communication and immediate gratification there was our Moon. Its cycle was constant, its phases predictable and its influence on the human race was immense.
A quick check of my Webster's Unabridged shows moon influence from blue moon (once in a) to moonshine(r) and many words and usages in between.
When I was young old farmers planted crops timed to the phase of the Moon. Fishermen counted on the "dark of the moon" to produce a better bite and workers at mental hospitals around the world averred that lunatics bloomed in the light of the full moon.
I sometimes wonder how modern children can get by with no knowledge of the moon and its phases. This knowledge isn't taught today but,then, it wasn't taught in the days of my youth either. Back then it was absorbed from the universal knowledge of our elders. People in those old days needed to know the ways of the moon to properly direct their own lives so children picked up the knowledge by simple association.
Our moon was used as a device to keep track of the calendar; it was used as a way to forecast the weather and the full moon was synonymous with romance and lunacy. Dare I say that those two conditions are sometimes difficult to differentiate.
There are special terms for different phases of the moon. Our next lunar cycle begins tomorrow, Sunday, 9/13/15, with a new moon and transitions through the waxing crescent (first seen in the west just as the sun goes below the horizon), the first quarter, the waxing gibbous, the full moon, the waning gibbous, the last quarter (third quarter), the waning crescent (visible in the eastern sky just before the sun rises) and back to the new moon for the subsequent cycle.
Along the way during our next lunar cycle we'll have a total lunar eclipse on September 27th starting just before moonrise for us (6:55 PM) and ending at 9:27 PM. If our sky is clear it will be a spectacular sight here in the Seattle area. What we might call prime time lunar viewing.
In Asia, even today, the moon is viewed with respect. In times past the Japanese built special viewing platforms or gathered on boats to watch the full moon (especially the autumn moon) while reciting poetry and eating "moon cakes" (tsukimi dango), a kind of rice cake. My wife, Ikuko, fondly remembers those evenings of watching the full moon rising over Hakata while eating tsukimi dango.
We are nearing the end of the current moon cycle with only a day left before the new moon. This morning I went up on my roof (the flat part) to see if I could catch a glimpse of the last of the waning crescent. Moonrise was at 6:09 this morning so I would have only fifteen or twenty minutes to catch that glimpse before the sky became too light to see the tiny sliver of lighted moon on its last day before changing over to the new moon.
Hoping to get some photographs I took my camera, as well as my phone, up on the roof but I'm sorry to say there was no sighting this morning. The eastern horizon and lower atmosphere was obscured by the smoke from the many wildfires still burning in our state making it impossible to see through that red haze before the sky became too light to see the moon. Our "morning star" the planet Venus was the brightest light in the sky as it was well above the smoke and haze.
The new moon is invisible to the naked eye because it comes between us and the sun. Even with specialized equipment if you see the moon in this phase it is dark because the sun is shining on the side away from the earth. We often refer to that side as the dark side of the moon but when the moon is dark on the side facing us (new moon) it is a full moon on the back side of the moon which is facing the sun. It would be an amazing sight to an observer in a spacecraft between our moon and the sun since the view would be a full moon in front of a full (fully lighted) earth.
So, how does the moon work so that we see the various phases month after month? Why is it that sometimes the moon is lower in the southern sky and sometimes it's high overhead? Why is the moon's perceived size sometimes larger or smaller than normal? And perhaps most important, is the moon really made of green (unripened, not the color) cheese as so many people have believed over thousands of years?
Before we can think about the rest of those questions we need to figure out how the moon orbits the earth.
There are several things about the moon's orbit around the earth that are necessary to know before we can explain its appearance. The most important of these is the time of the orbit which is approximately 28.5 days. It's also important to know that that orbit isn't a true circle but is a little egg shaped with an eccentricity of about 5.5 per cent. We need to know the plane of that orbit is offset from center by a little over five degrees. The moon's rotation (locked in by tidal influences) is the same as the time of its orbit so we always see the same side. Actually we see a little more than half because when the moon is high in the sky we see a little more of its southern portion and when it's low in the sky we see a little more of its northern portion. Finally, we need to remember that our earth is tilted on its axis about 23.5 degrees. (Interestingly, this tilt changes from about 22 to 24.5 degrees and back over a 41,000 year cycle.)
Now that we have these facts at our fingertips we can see how the appearance of the moon is shaped by the various factors.
First let's figure out how we see the various phases.
During a new moon the moon is in front of the sun (usually not directly or we would see a solar eclipse) so we don't see any portion of the moon lighted by reflected sunlight. The following night we can see (if we have a clear sky and look closely) the first tiny sliver of the waxing crescent in the western sky just after the sun disappears below the horizon. On the second day after the new moon we see a larger slice of the waxing crescent a little higher in the sky and for the next five nights it grows larger and higher in the sky until on the seventh night we see the first quarter.
Note that the waxing moon grows from the right side since that is the side lighted by the sun and after reaching full the moon wanes with the lighted side on the left, again because that is the side lighted by the sun.
Now we must qualify this sequence because we are looking from the northern hemisphere. If we were in South America or New Zealand everything would be reversed and the waxing crescent (and the rest of the phases) would grow from the left side until full and then wane toward the right side. I know it sounds confusing but it's the same moon it's just that we are looking at it toward the south in the northern hemisphere and we look toward the north while in the southern hemisphere. Is that clear? I knew you'd understand.
Now, this entry is long enough and it doesn't have any photos or even drawings so I'm going to post this and continue in a few days, Maybe I'll be able to catch the early waxing crescent, or at least, the first quarter, and post some photos next time.
Meanwhile, if you have a view of the sky watch for the waxing crescent beginning Monday night. Here in Seattle we always have a battle with the clouds beginning about this time of year so you might have to watch for the moon playing hide and seek through the clouds but it will be there as dependable as can be. It's our duty to find it and it will be right where it's supposed to be if the clouds allow us to see it.
A quick check of my Webster's Unabridged shows moon influence from blue moon (once in a) to moonshine(r) and many words and usages in between.
When I was young old farmers planted crops timed to the phase of the Moon. Fishermen counted on the "dark of the moon" to produce a better bite and workers at mental hospitals around the world averred that lunatics bloomed in the light of the full moon.
I sometimes wonder how modern children can get by with no knowledge of the moon and its phases. This knowledge isn't taught today but,then, it wasn't taught in the days of my youth either. Back then it was absorbed from the universal knowledge of our elders. People in those old days needed to know the ways of the moon to properly direct their own lives so children picked up the knowledge by simple association.
Our moon was used as a device to keep track of the calendar; it was used as a way to forecast the weather and the full moon was synonymous with romance and lunacy. Dare I say that those two conditions are sometimes difficult to differentiate.
There are special terms for different phases of the moon. Our next lunar cycle begins tomorrow, Sunday, 9/13/15, with a new moon and transitions through the waxing crescent (first seen in the west just as the sun goes below the horizon), the first quarter, the waxing gibbous, the full moon, the waning gibbous, the last quarter (third quarter), the waning crescent (visible in the eastern sky just before the sun rises) and back to the new moon for the subsequent cycle.
Along the way during our next lunar cycle we'll have a total lunar eclipse on September 27th starting just before moonrise for us (6:55 PM) and ending at 9:27 PM. If our sky is clear it will be a spectacular sight here in the Seattle area. What we might call prime time lunar viewing.
In Asia, even today, the moon is viewed with respect. In times past the Japanese built special viewing platforms or gathered on boats to watch the full moon (especially the autumn moon) while reciting poetry and eating "moon cakes" (tsukimi dango), a kind of rice cake. My wife, Ikuko, fondly remembers those evenings of watching the full moon rising over Hakata while eating tsukimi dango.
We are nearing the end of the current moon cycle with only a day left before the new moon. This morning I went up on my roof (the flat part) to see if I could catch a glimpse of the last of the waning crescent. Moonrise was at 6:09 this morning so I would have only fifteen or twenty minutes to catch that glimpse before the sky became too light to see the tiny sliver of lighted moon on its last day before changing over to the new moon.
Hoping to get some photographs I took my camera, as well as my phone, up on the roof but I'm sorry to say there was no sighting this morning. The eastern horizon and lower atmosphere was obscured by the smoke from the many wildfires still burning in our state making it impossible to see through that red haze before the sky became too light to see the moon. Our "morning star" the planet Venus was the brightest light in the sky as it was well above the smoke and haze.
The new moon is invisible to the naked eye because it comes between us and the sun. Even with specialized equipment if you see the moon in this phase it is dark because the sun is shining on the side away from the earth. We often refer to that side as the dark side of the moon but when the moon is dark on the side facing us (new moon) it is a full moon on the back side of the moon which is facing the sun. It would be an amazing sight to an observer in a spacecraft between our moon and the sun since the view would be a full moon in front of a full (fully lighted) earth.
So, how does the moon work so that we see the various phases month after month? Why is it that sometimes the moon is lower in the southern sky and sometimes it's high overhead? Why is the moon's perceived size sometimes larger or smaller than normal? And perhaps most important, is the moon really made of green (unripened, not the color) cheese as so many people have believed over thousands of years?
Before we can think about the rest of those questions we need to figure out how the moon orbits the earth.
There are several things about the moon's orbit around the earth that are necessary to know before we can explain its appearance. The most important of these is the time of the orbit which is approximately 28.5 days. It's also important to know that that orbit isn't a true circle but is a little egg shaped with an eccentricity of about 5.5 per cent. We need to know the plane of that orbit is offset from center by a little over five degrees. The moon's rotation (locked in by tidal influences) is the same as the time of its orbit so we always see the same side. Actually we see a little more than half because when the moon is high in the sky we see a little more of its southern portion and when it's low in the sky we see a little more of its northern portion. Finally, we need to remember that our earth is tilted on its axis about 23.5 degrees. (Interestingly, this tilt changes from about 22 to 24.5 degrees and back over a 41,000 year cycle.)
Now that we have these facts at our fingertips we can see how the appearance of the moon is shaped by the various factors.
First let's figure out how we see the various phases.
During a new moon the moon is in front of the sun (usually not directly or we would see a solar eclipse) so we don't see any portion of the moon lighted by reflected sunlight. The following night we can see (if we have a clear sky and look closely) the first tiny sliver of the waxing crescent in the western sky just after the sun disappears below the horizon. On the second day after the new moon we see a larger slice of the waxing crescent a little higher in the sky and for the next five nights it grows larger and higher in the sky until on the seventh night we see the first quarter.
Note that the waxing moon grows from the right side since that is the side lighted by the sun and after reaching full the moon wanes with the lighted side on the left, again because that is the side lighted by the sun.
Now we must qualify this sequence because we are looking from the northern hemisphere. If we were in South America or New Zealand everything would be reversed and the waxing crescent (and the rest of the phases) would grow from the left side until full and then wane toward the right side. I know it sounds confusing but it's the same moon it's just that we are looking at it toward the south in the northern hemisphere and we look toward the north while in the southern hemisphere. Is that clear? I knew you'd understand.
Now, this entry is long enough and it doesn't have any photos or even drawings so I'm going to post this and continue in a few days, Maybe I'll be able to catch the early waxing crescent, or at least, the first quarter, and post some photos next time.
Meanwhile, if you have a view of the sky watch for the waxing crescent beginning Monday night. Here in Seattle we always have a battle with the clouds beginning about this time of year so you might have to watch for the moon playing hide and seek through the clouds but it will be there as dependable as can be. It's our duty to find it and it will be right where it's supposed to be if the clouds allow us to see it.
Thursday, September 10, 2015
Old Soldiers
On June 22, this year, Russ Seelig, a member of my VFW Post, led a group of four on a trip through northern Vietnam and Laos. The highlights of that trip along with as many photographs as I could upload using my phone were posted to this blog in June and July.
Our group consisted of Russ, Justin (another member of our VFW Post), my son Glenn, and myself. Russ and I were the only ones who had served in Vietnam during the war. Russ has been back to Vietnam several times since the war but this was my first time to return.
The trip was a once-in-a-lifetime experience that you can read about, if you haven't already, by clicking on the archives for June and July.
In the two months that have gone by since we returned I've often thought about the welcome we received from the regular people of Vietnam and Lao. Those folks, who lived through or heard from older folks who had lived through the bombs and warfare, were unfailingly welcoming to the four visitors from another world whose leaders had been instrumental in causing those bombings and warfare.
Before we arrived I didn't know quite what to expect even though Russ had told us that we would be treated cordially. I was especially concerned about those Vietnamese of my generation who might harbor ill feelings since I'm not so sure that if the situation were reversed Americans who lived through such a war on their own territory would forgive and forget so quickly.
I also didn't know what to expect of myself when I returned to a country where the enemy was hidden among the people and the terrain and we never knew for sure where and when a sudden attack might come from what appeared to be ordinary people. That war may not have been the origin of guerrilla warfare but the concept was well used during that time.
As it turned out I was at ease from our arrival. Wing and our guide/drivers were professional and competent while being friendly and solicitous about our comfort and welfare. As I've said, the people were friendly with smiles everywhere.
When, after two weeks on the road, we arrived in Dien Bien Phu it was during a week of special remembrance for the battles in that area culminating with the defeat of the French in 1954. As we visited the various memorials and battle sites we saw many veterans dressed in uniforms from the old days accompanied by family and friends. Once I learned about the occasion I expected it to be rather serious but the people were in a festive mood and enjoying their visits to the old war memorials. Many of the younger people were posing with the old uniformed veterans as they celebrated victories of bygone days.
As we wandered around the memorial to the victory over the French forces in 1954 (pictured below) some old soldiers wearing dress uniforms from their days in the Vietnamese Army wanted to pose with us. It was a poignant moment when old soldiers who were adversaries many years ago shook hands and posed in the present isolated from decisions made by politicians those many years ago.
One of the many benefits of travel is exposure to new people, new customs and old, universal feelings. This meeting reinforced my long-held belief that old soldiers and ordinary people are not so different anywhere in the world.
Our group consisted of Russ, Justin (another member of our VFW Post), my son Glenn, and myself. Russ and I were the only ones who had served in Vietnam during the war. Russ has been back to Vietnam several times since the war but this was my first time to return.
The trip was a once-in-a-lifetime experience that you can read about, if you haven't already, by clicking on the archives for June and July.
In the two months that have gone by since we returned I've often thought about the welcome we received from the regular people of Vietnam and Lao. Those folks, who lived through or heard from older folks who had lived through the bombs and warfare, were unfailingly welcoming to the four visitors from another world whose leaders had been instrumental in causing those bombings and warfare.
Before we arrived I didn't know quite what to expect even though Russ had told us that we would be treated cordially. I was especially concerned about those Vietnamese of my generation who might harbor ill feelings since I'm not so sure that if the situation were reversed Americans who lived through such a war on their own territory would forgive and forget so quickly.
I also didn't know what to expect of myself when I returned to a country where the enemy was hidden among the people and the terrain and we never knew for sure where and when a sudden attack might come from what appeared to be ordinary people. That war may not have been the origin of guerrilla warfare but the concept was well used during that time.
As it turned out I was at ease from our arrival. Wing and our guide/drivers were professional and competent while being friendly and solicitous about our comfort and welfare. As I've said, the people were friendly with smiles everywhere.
When, after two weeks on the road, we arrived in Dien Bien Phu it was during a week of special remembrance for the battles in that area culminating with the defeat of the French in 1954. As we visited the various memorials and battle sites we saw many veterans dressed in uniforms from the old days accompanied by family and friends. Once I learned about the occasion I expected it to be rather serious but the people were in a festive mood and enjoying their visits to the old war memorials. Many of the younger people were posing with the old uniformed veterans as they celebrated victories of bygone days.
As we wandered around the memorial to the victory over the French forces in 1954 (pictured below) some old soldiers wearing dress uniforms from their days in the Vietnamese Army wanted to pose with us. It was a poignant moment when old soldiers who were adversaries many years ago shook hands and posed in the present isolated from decisions made by politicians those many years ago.
One of the many benefits of travel is exposure to new people, new customs and old, universal feelings. This meeting reinforced my long-held belief that old soldiers and ordinary people are not so different anywhere in the world.
 |
| Old soldiers meet at Dien Bien Phu on July 3, 2015 |
Friday, September 4, 2015
Crabbing at Birch Bay
Two weeks ago we were staying in our WorldMark condo in Birch Bay for a week looking for some relaxation and some crabs. WorldMark is a points based condo system so we can stay at any of over one hundred resorts, depending on availability. In the case of this stay at Birch Bay availability was non-existent but my sister, Sue, made some reservations several months ago when there was availability so we are staying in one of those condos. Payback will come later.
It's amazing how the weather has changed since we were there. That week was warm, or even hot, with mild breezes. Now we have cool September weather after the stormy week that took out power to many people and brought rain and wind to our area. But it was was worth the trouble for the relief it brought the firefighters in our parched state.
The crab season opened in Birch Bay (area 7) for the first time the week before we got there so this was the second week in this area. No matter the area, pots can be put in Thursday at sunrise and must be taken out Monday before sunset of any week the season is open.
Here comes our little boat put-putting in from the crabbing grounds which are about halfway between this beach and the point in the background. Even though it is a good distance from the shore the water is only about thirty feet deep. I didn't count but there were probably well over one hundred buoys marking pots in this area
In years past we have had no problem catching our limit but this year it was a little more difficult. There were fewer really big crab and lots of females and under sized males. Below is how the pot looks when we bring it into the boat. In this case there were two keepers with the rest undersized or females.
Here's a nice one. More than seven inches across the back. Lots of good meat here.
I noticed that there were very few soft shell crab this year. It is legal to keep only those crab "in hard shell condition" as the book says. Anyway it doesn't make sense to keep those with soft shells since there isn't much meat as the crab steals material from its own body to build the new shell for protection from predators. Once that new shell is built the crab can rebuild its body inside the protection of the new shell.
Here's our cooking kettle. We use sea water for cooking and protect our propane burner from the wind with a baffle made from old fluorescent light fixture reflectors.
Now comes the time consuming task of cleaning the meat out of the shells. After we clean the crab we pack it in vacuum bags and freeze it for all kinds of goodies during the coming year until next crab season.
It's amazing how the weather has changed since we were there. That week was warm, or even hot, with mild breezes. Now we have cool September weather after the stormy week that took out power to many people and brought rain and wind to our area. But it was was worth the trouble for the relief it brought the firefighters in our parched state.
The crab season opened in Birch Bay (area 7) for the first time the week before we got there so this was the second week in this area. No matter the area, pots can be put in Thursday at sunrise and must be taken out Monday before sunset of any week the season is open.
Here comes our little boat put-putting in from the crabbing grounds which are about halfway between this beach and the point in the background. Even though it is a good distance from the shore the water is only about thirty feet deep. I didn't count but there were probably well over one hundred buoys marking pots in this area
In years past we have had no problem catching our limit but this year it was a little more difficult. There were fewer really big crab and lots of females and under sized males. Below is how the pot looks when we bring it into the boat. In this case there were two keepers with the rest undersized or females.
Here's a nice one. More than seven inches across the back. Lots of good meat here.
I noticed that there were very few soft shell crab this year. It is legal to keep only those crab "in hard shell condition" as the book says. Anyway it doesn't make sense to keep those with soft shells since there isn't much meat as the crab steals material from its own body to build the new shell for protection from predators. Once that new shell is built the crab can rebuild its body inside the protection of the new shell.
Here's our cooking kettle. We use sea water for cooking and protect our propane burner from the wind with a baffle made from old fluorescent light fixture reflectors.
We like to take off the back and shake out the guts of the crab before cooking since it comes out cleaner and it doesn't take up as much room in the cooking kettle.
Now comes the time consuming task of cleaning the meat out of the shells. After we clean the crab we pack it in vacuum bags and freeze it for all kinds of goodies during the coming year until next crab season.
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