Maggie's Farm

We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

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Saturday, August 17. 2019

American life: Gone swimming with the sharks

Heading to Cape Cod (Wellfleet) soon for family reunion week and my birthday party (25 of us, plus with some of our high-energy outdoorsy pals joining us). We do indeed take over the village when we are out there.


Roger de Hauteville, that illustrious Norman King of Sicily, will provide the morning entertainment here. Bless his Viking heart.


Our plans are dawn runs, morning calisthenics or Yoga, kayaking, hiking, body surfing, jumping in the pond loop, and some baseball and tennis. And lots of seafood and beer. Sitting on beaches is not our thing, but we have a big porch overlooking the harbor. No TV, no wifi. Good Boston classical music radio though. Best thing of all - getting salty and sunny and perfumed by the piney woods - and no bugs.


Plus we have an outdoor shower. I will not tolerate an indoor shower on Cape Cod. Just feels good to shower in the sunshine.  


Speaking of seafood, maybe my favorite Cape Cod seafood is steamed Steamers. Drinking the broth might be the best part. As much as I love mussels, or a raw bar with Wellfleet oysters, I can never tire of Steamers.  They are fun to harvest too, if you don't mind lots of mud.



Posted by Bird Dog at 17:31 | Comments (9) | Trackbacks (0)

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How do you mean 'no bugs' ? You must have gnats and mosquitos in those salt marshes / ponds.
#1 juice-qr on 2019-08-17 17:41 (Reply)
How do you people afford all this?
#2 David H on 2019-08-17 18:31 (Reply)
Every time I read about all their outings I think the same thing. Sounds like some life!
#2.1 JC on 2019-08-17 19:54 (Reply)
Yeah. My comment may have come across wrong.

I meant more as, what am I doing wrong?

Anyway, it's good to see good people living a good life.
#2.1.1 davidh on 2019-08-18 18:23 (Reply)
In California, they have Geoducks. They're like the Steamers, but bigger and with a 12" schlong. We use to harvest them in Morro Bay on minus tides. They made great "clams on the half shell."
#3 snopercocd on 2019-08-17 20:18 (Reply)
There is nothing quite so wonderful as an outdoor shower. We have one at mom-in-laws place on Buzzards Bay. So long as the air is reasonably warm I will shower outside.

Enjoy your party!
#4 steve walsh on 2019-08-17 20:29 (Reply)
P.S. We go for quahogs rather than steamers. They're more plentiful in the coves of the bay and fun to gather (waist deep at low tide, digging round with your feet). There are regulatory limits on the size we can take (smaller, cherrystones, are not allowed) but we get a decent number to eat raw and then make a baked, stuffed version. Yum.
#5 steve walsh on 2019-08-17 20:37 (Reply)
Bred and born a New Englander. In the middle of HS, moved to Chicago. Met a girl there my first day that I ended up marrying. It was fate - we already had the same last name. She went to an Illinois college and graduated a year early. I went to MIT, but delayed my senior year for a semester. We got married and moved back to Boston so I could finish school.

I said, "Let's go to Legal for dinner" This was back when the only Legal Seafood restaurant was in Inman Square on the Cambridge/Somerville border, before they became a chain and it was plastic-wrapped flatware on long tables with oilcloth coverings. "What do they serve?" Seafood. "Ugh, I don't like seafood." You've lived near Chicago your whole life. You've never HAD seafood.

She was a good Catholic girl and thought seafood was fish sticks on Friday.

Off we go to Legal. I order up a bucket of steamers. "What the h--l is THAT?" O.K., you open it up. Pull it out in one piece, don't just grab the siphon and pull. Strip the skin off the siphon, swish it round good in the broth, dip it in the butter and eat it.

"Oh that's GROSS!"

Just try one. Here, I'll fix it for you.

"Oh. OH!"

Now we can't go into a seafood restaurant without getting a bucket of steamers; at least, not if they have them. You CAN get seafood in Chicago, but it's a) limited and b) expensive. You're not going to see bluefish on the menu. But, that's another story I can tell about some Chicago people who ended up in Boston for me for a weekend ....
#6 RonF on 2019-08-18 01:08 (Reply)
"steamed Steamers" is redundant. They are simply called "steamers".
#7 Bob Shannon on 2019-08-18 07:51 (Reply)

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