and the caravan rolls on...The Newest Addition to the
CHANNING MENAGERIE
The very chickenly, but really rather well-behaved chickens have arrived! 8 of them.
They take up so much less space than I thought they would.
The black one in the upper right corner we named Elvis.
The past few days have been on and off frenzied activity and no work at all. It's funny though, I find myself thinking pragmatically all the time now, with what I eat, look at in stores, wear, how I manage my time... This project has taken over my head.
I like it though, it's like I have a job now. No lazy, now that we're so close to the wire. And people are really into the project!!
I met an awesome fisherman named Ken Morse yesterday, who owns a bait & tackle shop in Sag Harbor. I was there for a little over half an hour, but left feeling as if I had just gone to a comprehensive fishing school, outfitted with top notch gear (kind of) and knowledge about what's up with local fishing. Ken said sometimes using bait works best, but other times its really the lures that attract the fish. He gave me advice about what times to fish (late evening or early morning, avoid the sunniest parts of the day), and where we'd probably be most successful (surrounding rocky shore areas that trap smaller sea life and attract bigger fish). He gave me a meter to measure the legal, keepable length of different types of fish (sampled below).
I think the regs on the Bass mean that your allowed to catch one, and it has to be between 28" and 40", whereas those on the Bluefish state no minimum size limit. Bluefish have sharp teeth! Apparently some surfers got chewed up by a school of them a couple days ago over at Mecox Bay, I think. Ken told us about it, I can't seem to find an article about it though.
He gave me a full spectrum of lures, for different depths and kinds of fish... And he said some interesting things about people that come into the shop and order the highest end equipment, but seldom (if ever) actually go fishing. The lures he gave us were ones that he uses, and ones that have worked for him and his customers. I liked his honest approach, and another guy came into the store to buy a few lures and told us, as Ken was marking off all the best local spots on our map with a highlighter, "He won't steer you wrong!"
I want to go back to Tight Lines with Karen and Patricia before we start the project. I know we'll have to go back frequently to pick up live bait anyway, unless we can catch our own... This is another thing I have thinking about, should we use lures that are so thoroughly gridlocked, and so susceptible to getting bitten off their lines and lost in the bellies of unfortunate fish and birds? Yes, a plastic lure might catch you a fish, which could be our biggest priority next month, but I feel like it's a kind of pollutive Russian Roulette.... We'll see. I think we should try to stick with using local live bait for as long as we can.
KAREN AND ORLANDO FINALIZE THE "COUP"
I always feel like Orlando thinks I'm just a lump on a log when they're working on their structures. I end up kind of standing there, watching them work, and he speaks no English at all, so he knows me entirely through Karen's translations. I know this part of the project is really Karen's anyway... I'd just like it not to seem like I'm not doing anything. I should get some pictures in here of me doing things, because, who knows, maybe I'm a lazy bum... are you convinced?
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