yeah, that feels better!

This is what spring looks like:

We caught those little beauties last night not a half-mile from our home and less than a quarter-mile from where the creek meets the ocean. L caught the biggest one, I caught the other two.

These could be anadrymous trout, meaning that they spend part of their time in salt water and part of their time in the fresh water of the creek, but we could not tell. When anadrymous trout first return from salt to fresh water, their skin is very silvery and the color of their flesh is sort of pinkish, almost like salmon, but lighter. The color fades after a few weeks in the fresh water and they look like regular trout. These girls (all three were female) were all the characteristic greenish with bright spots and blunt tail and pale whitish flesh that mark the native Maine brook trout.

They were delicious. I ate them for breakfast today. Dredged in an egg wash with milk and then dusted vigorously with flour and a little cornmeal. I fried them in just the littlest bit of olive oil (we were out of regular oil) and splashed a little lemon juice on them at the table. Utterly divine!

No fishing today - too much to do - but maybe tomorrow. It's supposed to be a nice day!

First cast

Before it started raining heavily here, L and I went for a little drive and found these. Hers is the one above the tape measure and mine is the one below.

It was midday, overcast, kinda misting a little bit, threatening to really rain. I was less than 10 feet from the guard rail on Route 3 between Somesville and Town Hill. The brook runs under the road and has recently been rearranged some by beavers. The water is dark and ferrous-looking. There was virtually no current in the pool, which is probably less than two feet deep.

On my first cast, the worm hit the water and disappeared. The bobber hit the water and disappeared right after it. I set the hook, jumped around and yelled some, then reeled it in and flipped it up onto the bank beside the highway. In all, it took about 30 seconds. Have I mentioned that I live in paradise?

Obligations

How did it happen that I have so much stuff to do and so little time to do it?

I have been working pretty steady of late, and that has been nice, but stuff has piled up at home that needs addressing. The lawn desperately needs mowing, I have a pile of lumber that needs burning, tools and some kind of debris field all over the driveway, and a house that needs cleaning. And it's nice out and I'd really like to go fishing.

I haven't had much of a day off in a while, and it would be really nice to just spend some time drowning worms in a brook. I think what I will do today is this: I will mow the lawn. I will shower off the grass clippings and such, and then we will go fishing. We'll find a nice spot that will let L sit fairly often so as not to aggravate her back too much and we will fish. There is a nice little trout stream not too far from here that I've been wanting to check out.

It's a beautiful day. It seems a sin to waste it working. So, for today, I will work briefly, then play. Happy Sunday, all.

Slacker

I have a new sympathy for friends who blog. I used to pester with demands for new posts. Give me something interesting! Give me something entertaining! Write!

Uf-da.

No more.

I have had a long-ish, kind of miserable week working on this project, but it is almost done. Which is good, because so am I. I am so tired and so sore and so exhausted I cannot describe it. I have learned a valuable lesson about my own physical abilities and just how many little steps are involved with building something of this size and scale. Good grief.

Here is a picture of what I've got so far, plus the supervisor on site. I'll write more when this job is finished. I think Laura and I might try to go fishing in the morning... wouldn't that be delicious!

Such fun

Never in my wildest dreams did I ever imagine how much time I would spend looking at a dog's ass.

Puppy ownership is a new thing for me. It has been years since I have owned a dog, and I have never owned anything so small (9 pounds) that still qualifies as a dog (she barks.) Dog ownership means going for walks. Lots of walks. Lots and lots of walks until the pooch is trained to do her toileting activities OUTSIDE the house instead of under the dining room table. Or on the living room carpet. Sigh. Good thing we have ready access to a carpet shampooer. Soon as the weather warms up, everything's gettin' a pretty thorough scrubbin'. Even the dog, if she hasn't straightened out.

But back to dog butts. As a dog owner, I find myself traversing the neighborhood now with my little dog at the end of her zippy leash, vigorously sniffing every inch of earth before her. I cannot read her intentions with all this sniffing. Is she smelling the tender shoots of green grass just ready to poke through to the surface and announce that spring is indeed here? Is she smelling the fading scent of a trespassing squirrel? Has she found a likely spot to do her business so we can go back to the house and get out of the cold rain? Or has she simply found something dead to roll in?

I cannot tell the difference in the sniffing end of the dog, but occasionally, if I look at the end that is not sniffing, I can get a hint that my shivering expedition might soon be over. I won't go into the various characteristics of dog butts that indicate various needs of the animal, but suffice it to say that I am quickly becoming something of an expert. Sigh.

So spring is approaching in the land of oz. I saw crocuses (croci?) on one of our several walks today, and Laura's brother reports that he got several nibbles while fishing today. It has now turned cold and rainy and is expected to stay that way for several days. No fishing for us for a while. Tomorrow we shall go junking again. Our friend H calls it "road shopping." I like that term. There is an auction tomorrow as well. I'd like to pick up an armchair that is not already beat to crap to replace the one the cat has shredded in the living room. Then we can put the old dead chair out for junk day.

Oh man - someone came today and hauled off the furnace that we had dragged out there the other day. That thing had to weigh 500 pounds, easily. Some guy and his wife came in a big GMC pickup truck, dropped the tailgate and rolled that thing right on in. Good for them. I can't imagine what they might do with it, but more power to 'em. We have that much more space to put out crap from the basement. Yay us.

It has been a down week. Perhaps things will look up tomorrow.