Trading my Hoe for a Hook

We slipped away from Ye Olde Farm for a few days, up to the beautiful and serene Camano Island. Did I knit while I was away? Yes. Did I knit more baby hats per my one-hat-per-day schedule to meet my goal of knitting 30 hats in 31 days? Err... no.

I'm still determined to meet my goal, I just needed a wee bitty breather from hats and the color purple. So instead I made Scarlet a beret and shawl for her American girl doll, and started a lightweight scarf for Olivia. When and if I get these badboys up on Ravelry, I'll post a link.

Besides knitting like a maniac, I also spent my farm-free vacay fishing and crabbing in Puget Sound. Our little family of four purt-near cleaned the Pacific Sanddab aka "soft flounder" out of Elger Bay. Over three days fishing, we caught something like 18 or 20 of them. We were knocking them dead when our bait wasn't being stolen by bullheads and dogfish. The sanddab average about 1/2 pound each, and are really more bones and guts than meat, but we managed about 6 pounds of fillets, and the remainder was/will be used as crab bait. We are very careful to use every last bit when we harvest an animal, and fish are no exception. We chowed down on our fresh catch nearly every night that we were camping, but we also socked some away in the freezer, to enjoy another time.

We also scored a few good sized Dungeness crab - yum, yum, yum! Though crab are traditionally and most commonly boiled, we prefer to grill them. Bill dispatches the little guys, cleans them then throws them on the bbq, still in the shell. I like to sprinkle a little beer on them while they grill. When they're done, we serve them with seasoned, melted butter, lemon and generous sprinkling of Old Bay. Smokey, sweet, salty - goooood stuff!

We also tried for some pink salmon, but they don't seem to be in the Sound in large numbers yet, so the fishing is very slow still. Bummer, that, because I wrangled the kids into picking me a couple cups of salal berries, and had visions of grilled salmon with a red wine/salal reduction. Alas it was not to be. Bill is going after the salmon again tomorrow, this time in a different area that supposedly has better fishing. We shall see. I may get my salal salmon dinner yet. ;)

Fishing/Crabbing totals-
*8 Dungeness crab
*15 lbs +/- Pacific Sanddab (about 6 lbs cleaned)