my life on the Chesapeake

Winter here on Beechland Creek cretainly is different from winter in Michigan where I came from thirteen years ago. The creek gets iced over about twice during the winter, but not thick enough to cause damage to my boat which I leave in the water all winter.
I am raising oysters in floating pens attached to my docks by lines which allow the pens to rise and fall with the tide while remaining always in the water. The action of barnacles and salt water had caused the lines to chafe and two of the pens broke loose. Fortunately I found them in the Needle grasses along the shoreline. I reconnected them during a brief snow shower yesterday, and harvested eighteen of them which I will roast in the oven until they open and then eat tonight with a cocktail sauce. Chesapeake Oysters are wonderful.
I need to clean and repair my crab pots soon. They have been sitting alongside my garage gathering leaves since last fall. The salt water and barnacles damage them too. April first is the first day of crab season, although I don't usually put the pots in that early. There isn't much activity at my dock until May. I really enjoy sitting on my deck in the summer evenings picking freshly steamed crabs. Pat freezes the meat and then we have crab cakes when we want in the winter.
Croaker fishing begins in early April, and I can catch all of them that I want. They are a very plentiful fish. My grandkids really like to catch them as they fight real hard for a small fish

More later
The Ol' Curmudgeon