Razor clamming on the Washington coast

Five layers. Hood up. Rubber boots on. Outside in the wind. Sloshing through surf. Whatever would voluntarily drive someone to those extremes? In our family, it was the call of trying out something new…razor clam digging on the Washington coast during the last day of its season at the advice of a friend. Notice I didn’t mention anything about rain. And it’s a good thing it held off because eventually I was soaked from the knee down and dragging around forty-degree sea water in my boots, all because I got a little preoccupied watching my nine-year old harvest her very first razor clam by herself. That surf has a way of sneaking up on you and catching you off guard. Never turn your back on the ocean or look down for an extended period of time, I tell you.


Anyway, we had a blast. Between the five family members and two friends that we took along we had purchased only four tags but had a haul of over fifty clams...fifteen-clam limit per tag holder. And these guys are big…about six inches long and several inches wide. Not bad for only having two clamming guns. Hopefully the photos will give you a little better idea what’s involved...scanning the wet, receding surf for signs of a clam digging in deep, popping the clamming gun over the top, getting it wiggled down through the sand, and then sealing the air hole while pulling it up with the clam hopefully trapped inside.



Cleaning them was an adventure for my husband about midnight last night, but I left him with the suggestion of checking YouTube for a tutorial while I took home a friend. Good thing, since the video’s advice was a little more specific than that he had been casually told. A pile of shells and innards later, there was a nice bag of clams waiting for the refrigerator.

Now I’m anxiously waiting returning from the girls charter school to start a fire and sit in front of it for an extended period of time to get warm down to my bones. And tackle the sandy, wet laundry and the dishes heaving out of the kitchen sink...but that's beside the point. I haven’t been able to really get warm since yesterday. Then it will be off to try my hand at throwing together some sort of gluten-free breaded and fried razor clams for dinner. Here’s hoping those guys will be delicious!


For those of you who might have noticed, this blog posting might be considered a bit of a celebration at least on my part. I have truly missed the chronicling of our hectic life. I just can’t seem to fit it in. Partly because my perfectionistic procrastination takes over…WANTING perfect photos...WANTING witty renditions of our family’s adventures…when all I really NEED is the recording of little fleeting memories to hold on to in some tangible form other than in photos and our aging memories. Our little day-trip has only been one of a million activities that has kept me away from my blog. It and a radical diet change for the entire family…supporting our catch-up learning of our little right-brained, creative learner who had been struggling with dyslexia…getting our senior son on track for deciding a college and applying for athletic and academic scholarships…being an active member with my husband in our fifteen-year-old’s musical theater program involving building sets and sewing costumes…keeping our livestock happy through the winter…all while trying to keep our focus real and on those matters that really count.

So…look for a blog post…once a week…once a month…whenever I can steal a few moments. I certainly will be relishing the opportunity.

My 365 Photography Project

One of the most empowering advances of the digital era has been the introduction of the digital camera. Remember the days of carefully selecting photos to take knowing that every print needed to be paid for? At least in our family that enjoying taking photographs, we almost needed to budget for the cost of developing! But with the power to now take hundreds of photos at a time and then weed through them for the keepers, I believe it has unleashed the creative side of many. Hence the development of 365 Photo a Day Projects.  

I have been intrigued by other bloggers who have begun these projects and decided that this was the year for me to do so as well. But what is a 365 Project? I did a little searching but could not find much of a definite answer other than it involves taking one photo per day for the entire 365 day year. As you can see from a few shots from my project that are sprinkled throughout this post, they can be as random as you would like. Those photos are posted to a host site where others can post their projects as well. Flickr where my photos are held allows for the author to leave a few comments regarding the nature of the photo as well. When all is said and done on December 31, you more than likely will look back on your entire year in photos and be amazed at what caught your interest each and every day or may simply just reaffirm those things that are important to you in your life. You will find a Blogger widget by Blogger Buster on the right hand side of this blog which shows thumbnails of my nine most recent photos posted to my 365 Project. I decide to use Flickr as the host source for my photos as they support a 365 Project group there. I know there are other sites as well, but this was my jumping off point. At one time I had a widget by PictoBrowser but went back to the Blogger Buster widget as it was sized better for my column. You can still see an example of PictoBrowser's widget on our hobby farm site Abernathy Creek Farm.  

Because I know that I have a photo to post each day, I have started taking my camera along with me wherever I go. Sure enough, I will quite often be thankful I did. Each evening the photos are uploaded to my computer, and I sift through them for 'the one', which in itself can be a hard decision. Then I edit or crop it if needed. I'm currently using Picasa as it is simple to use and then upload it to Flickr. From there it is automatically updated to this blog. Yes, that seems like a lot of site hopping, but if I hadn't taken the plunge and just started with those applications I was familiar with then perfectionism would have once more taken over and the entire project would not have begun.  

This is a perfect example of what Charlotte Mason, a brilliant educator whose methods many homeschoolers follow, would have deemed 'mother culture'...something that 'mother' can do to improve her own culture and education while being at home with her children. She obviously would have never envisioned the scope of digital photography, but she would have given it her thumbs up, and I couldn't agree more. A few books checked out from the library to read up on digital photography skills, a little more practice with my camera, stretching a bit by researching and adapting this blog to accommodate the project...it all adds up to mother culture accomplishments and a sense of pride.  Do you have a 365 Project? If so, leave a comment with your link if you would like to share. We are all so different but yet so much the same, and it is incredible to now be able to see the world through each others lens, 365 days a year.

Drop Spindle Spinning

Ever heard of "mother culture"? This time, it doesn't refer to cheesemaking. I first came across this term while immersing myself in the Charlotte Mason style of home education. In short, it refers to mothers taking it upon themselves to not let their own educations lag. That might mean always having stimulating reading material on hand, learning to do something that you've never done before, or any way in which you are continuing to enrich your life beyond that of providing for the needs of others.



As some birthday money has come my way this month, I have decided to take a portion of that and invest in my own "mother culture". I will be dropping my dd12 off at a birthday party in the community that just so happens to be hosting a Flock and Fiber Festival this weekend. It's my hope that someone there will be selling a drop spindle. Yes, I have always wanted to learn how to spin. No,I don't have sheep or fiber goats, but the roving that is used to spin with seems to be easily obtained without the need for your own producing animal. I am so excited you can't believe it. I first saw a drop spindle in action at our County Fair this summer, and the women there assured me that anyone can master it. Now, I don't know when I'll find time to tackle this new hobby, but with winter setting in and more time indoors, I think it can be done.

Being the research junkie that I am, I'm sure that heading to youtube.com and searching for drop spindle will turn up plenty of resources to see instructions first hand. A few swagbuck.com searches also turned about a ton of resources. It seems there are plenty of folks out there more than willing to share and pass on a little bit of their own mother culture to others like me who are wishing to broaden their horizons. I'm not sure if I'll ever get enough fiber spun to actually make something, but the possibilities are certainly tantalizing enough to keep me interested for awhile I'm sure.

If you've got spinning tips for me, I'd love to hear them. I'd also like to find out what other things you've delved into to develop and further your own mother culture. You never know when you, like the women this year at the county fair, will be an inspiration to others!

It figures

I found an absolutely gorgeous skein of yarn at JoAnne's Fabric back around the first of December and was compelled to purchase it ... it was on sale to boot. My first thought was what to do with it, and then thought that a scarf would be an easy item to knit up quickly. Well I dug out a pattern, and started in. Just while watching a couple of movies in the evening, it started to come together. Then I realized that one skein was not going to come even close to finishing it. I knew I had purchased the last skein in that color, so I checked online and could not find it anywhere there. Next best thing to do ... rip it all out ... and so I did. Now to search for a hat pattern, just something simple to wear out to the barn. New size of needles and off I went. But alas, it too fell short of what I really needed, so I started to size it down. So now my youngest daughter has a new hat, and it looks really cute too! I imagine there is a lesson to be learned from this story ... just hope I learned it.