Showing posts with label Kelp. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kelp. Show all posts

Saturday, October 18, 2014

Dark and Scary Season

Beaver Creek Falls in high summer.
Another photo essay. I think I'll mostly just caption.

Kelp anchor.

"He's a chicken - right?"


Oxford Sandy & Black pigs in Neah Bay.

And the piglet.

What book? Who knows? We(s)t End Grafitti board.

Some kind of dead animal, rotted to soup.
Yes, the police know.

Sunday, October 27, 2013

Small Narrow Heart = Small Narrow Mind

Cut by the area's wealthy man.
Today's post is all over the place. I'm going to just label the photos; you're smart enough to click them for larger reading and study.

The Egyptians said we thought with our hearts. We say we feel something in our guts because "having bowels" was an old English phrase for pity.

Speaking to a Clallam Bay librarian. Of COURSE, the Affordable Health Care Act came up.  

She said she was talking to a friend from Sweden. She thought the reason socialist health care works in Sweden is because "it's a much smaller country." I pointed out that that was "apples and oranges," and the reason it works in Sweden is, it's single payer and there are no corporate middle-men involved.


I was explaining socialism and capitalism to her (and some people up here DO get it): how S is for neccessities, C for luxuries. I offered, for example, the roads - and the bus system. 
Indica? Sativa? No - carpet fluff! :D
Immediately, she said the buses were too expensive, cost too many taxes, and "I might as well take a taxi for what they cost me." She then added that the buses went by her house all the time with only one person on them. I tried to explain that I often ride the busses and they're packed, and load and unload completely depending on the route. She kept saying she saw only one person on them. 

I couldn't understand what she was trying to prove. I didn't think she was lying - I thought she might honestly think she saw that. I got home, described this to Dan, and got a real facepalm moment.

Dan, "She sees them at the beginning or end of the run. They don't fill up until further along the route."

God, I feel stupid, for not thinking about that at the time. But he's right.


The shadow remainder of a beach-flea kelp feast.
Now, what have I said about the library hiring from logging families? Resource workers, and many people in uniform, think they're the point. They can mourn a community cat - but not even recognize the clearcut the dear animal was buried on is ghosted with the dead and refugee spirits of the animals that had to run or die. They have no mirrors, they cannot think out side themselves. They can't understand how everybody needs certain things, and they truly seem to believe that anyone who can't keep up should be allowed to fall by the wayside. When did we start ascribing to the morality of the Bataan Death March?

I told her the day would come when people in my age group our her age group would not have cars. Not everybody up here has an extended family. Not everybody can afford the $30 in gasoline it takes just to drive to and from the only large city on the peninsula, with the only vet's outpatient clinic - the very people who need to go there. I told her we all pay taxes so we can ALL use the buses or roads - nobody is denied their use. I told her that her own kids can buy a cheap summer bus pass, and a full day on Clallam County busses - to anywhere - was $3.00. How is this NOT a good investment?

Now, did I not say she worked at the library? According to her idea of how this works, if she goes into the library at night and nobody's there, then all the libraries need to be shut down. And libraries are expensive, so everybody should just buy their own books and media. Of course, she'd be out of a job - but it's always somebody else's life that doesn't count to the logger tribe.

I should have pointed out the Quilleute run a free bus on the hour to LaPush. The native peoples understand that everybody needs transportation. And you do know who's helping fund that - Ms. Stephanie Meyer, and her Twilight series.

Ghosts on slip point. Gone, or going.
So much for their real future of beauty
and health in media and tourism.
They've cut their own throats.
Now, I thought about writing about the local communities and the local tribes, except I felt that would be presumptuous (I'm talking the tribes - you white folks have SO not earned my consideration). Ms. Meyer, like so many fan writers, just slogged ahead, with no thought for anybody's feelings. The Quilleute understandably blew up over her mistreatment of their culture; just another white person sticking feathers in a character's hair and getting the names wrong.

BUT - let's hear it for her or her agent. They sucked it up, worked with the Quilleute, and made sure the tribe benefited from the series. Which is a lesson for all of us; just because you fuck up, just hand over your head on a platter and apologize and try to fix it. Bad can become good. Evidently, vampires have more humane consciousness than loggers. Oh - is that why loggers hate the vampire people? They make them look bad? They make their horrible history look bad? 

Hmmm... I know a WHOLE lot of crap about local tribes I shouldn't have access to. All kinds of screwy stuff has happened to put me in the know about things I shouldn't know.  Maybe I should be looking at zombies.... :D

Yeah, I'm talking to you, Makah tribe, with your "Rayonier Logging Company cooperated with us" down on your hatchery sign. What was THAT about? Or was it another case of, "We get our fish back, or you LEAVE"? Because those treaties are loans. Based on contingencies. 

Tomorrow, I'm going to start the campaign to really go after Hunting-For-Fun. And starting the process for pointing out which candidates are posting photos of themselves with dead animals as trophies. You know who you are. And White-out for writing on photos? Do you NOT have children who know how to use Photoshop? Or GIMP?

Monday, July 18, 2011

Kelp Pickles
Down at the bar, for some reason the subject of old-time food came up.  Somebody mentioned kelp pickles.  A guy's eyes lit up: "My mom used to make the best kelp pickles!"

Caught a big bullwhip kelp (= caught on the hook, dragged in, grumbling).  Decided, "Screw it, I'm making kelp pickles."

Recipe:
Take a big bullwhip kelp -- or a hunk of one.  For me, the beach and water is a refrigerator, so I just pick up what I need when I'm low on pickles (or fish, or scallops).  Note: this piece is too big and old!  Get a piece that is no bigger around than 3/4 of an inch.  The following pickles are too tough to be used for anything but relish -- but they sure taste good!
Chop into bite-size pieces, including the bulb.  Pour boiling water over it (turns bright green!), let set 10 minutes.  This kills the enzymes so the kelp won't go slimey.
Drain.
Mix some pickling spices (black pepper, whole cilantro, dill), some sugar, some apple-cider vinegar.  If you're making garlic dill, leave out all but a dash of sugar, add garlic, tumeric, dill, black pepper, tarragon, instead of the sweet mix.  Oh, you know how.
Heat to simmer, pour over kelp pieces.
When cool, bottle and put in fridge for a couple weeks.  Really nice.  My neighbor gagged at the idea of kelp pickles because she'd had them and they were nasty. Bet the person who made them didn't BLANCH them!  Note:  I haven't tried to heat-seal them yet.  If you do, please let us know!  Suddenly, everybody wants a taste. 
Photo credit: Roberta Gregory (whom I'm teaching layered color in GIMP while I'm writing a pickle blog; I am such a techno-hick).