Having a long stint of time in the San Juan islands and nothing specific to occupy my time, I decided that I would focus most of my meal planning around crabbing and eating the bounty of my harvest. I dropped a crab pot and the next morning pulled it up to find several very large dungeness crab. I kept two crabs and dropped the pot with some fresh bait, in hopes that I would catch some more by the evening to supply my meals for the next day. I rowed back in with my huge crabs and promptly dumped them into the steam pot. After cooking and cleaning the, I sat down at the table to indulge. I picked all the shells clean and wound up with a huge mound of crab meat, which became a po'boy sandwich for lunch. It was devine.
Later that day I rowed back out to the end of the cove and pulled up the pot again. Low and behold I had a pot full of crabs and I kept three, which brought me to my limit for the day and would supply my next days meals. I brought my three new crabs up to the house and started the cooking/cleaning process again. Sadly, half way through the cooking process my pregnancy aversion kicked in and I felt horridly I'll by the smell of the crab. Cleaning it was horrible, yet I knew that I had caught them, killed them, cleaned them..and there is no excuse not to eat them.
I figured I would take a break from the smell by taking the shell remnants to the dock to throw into the water. As I approached the dock I heard a Decatur guest mention that they had not caught any crabs, and decided that the best option was for me to share my crabs with these people. They were very thankful and I was free of the guilt that would drive me to eat something that seemed so awful at the moment.
I had hoped to get sick of crab, and yet I expected that I would take more than two to get me to that point. Oh well.
I left my sanctuary on Decatur on 7/23/12 so that I could be "in town" for my mother's birthday with was the next day. My brother and I planned a surprise dinner at "How to Cook a Wolf" for our mom and then planned to bring her to the new Dale Chihuly art exhibit at the Seattle Center. My mom was thrilled by both the food and the art glass and we all had a great time together as a family.
The day after the birthday I headed back up to Decatur, this time with my mom in tow. Between now and August 1st I will remain on Decatur, except for one small excursion back into town to support a former client in their completion of a very rigorous program. Today I walked along the beach, threw the ball for my dog (who returns to her breeder on 8/4/12, and went swimming in the lake.
I hadn't been swimming in the lake for many years and it was great to be back at it. Zelda, the dog, joined me for a swim and was great about swimming with me and not trying to climb out of the water on me. She has become quite the swimmer, especially if her ball is in the water. Both the dog and I enjoyed our dog paddling together.
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