Maggie's Farm

I admire these adventurous young people who live these non-standard lives. But how do they get money? 

Sad guy, but he gets it figured out. Again, why?

I understand the naval and commercial things, and I understand the idea of racing boats and simple cruising, but so many of these cruisers just focus on getting to their destinations as fast as possible. If you just want to get it over with, why do it?

Remember this if you like the big Pacific crabs. I like the Blue Crabs of the Atlantic coast.

It's no wonder that fish is so expensive. What does "fresh" mean? Usually that it was flash frozen, then thawed out. Nobody wants days-old fish. Almost all fish at the fish market was flash-frozen. It's not as if some local fishing boat goes out for a day and delivers fish to your fish market.

If never frozen (say, 5 days just on ice), quality deteriorates quickly. If you want fresh (same day) fish you had best go fishing yourself.

For fasting purposes, they aren't meat. It's kinda funny that oysters and lobsters were once poverty foods in North America.  

A few fun facts about our lobsters:

- The really big ones are the breeders. But the laws say the fishermen can only keep the big ones. Maine has it figured out better.

- The red roe in the occasional female is the best

 - The meat is just as tender in big ones as in 1-pounders. Makes more sense to buy a 4-6-pounder, and share.

- Striped Bass love to eat small lobsters 

- There is a fun book: The Secret Life of Lobsters 

Eves of holy days are "fast" days for Roman Catholics, maybe for other Orthodox rites too. "Fasting" means no meat - but, conveniently, fish do not count as meat.

Here's one Seven Fishes menu. Nice. Very Italian.

The question came up in a dinner conversation. I love Youtube.

How to fix a leaky faucet? How the Spanish Armada failed?  How to back a boat into a slip with a strong current? How to make a good pasta fagiole? Sure, it can be a time-waster but it's a great resource.

Here's the story.    They should have made more money from it.

Why is the US at war with Russia? I know it is a proxy war of sorts, but the US has no treaty or alliance with Ukraine. Why Ukraine? 

Tucker asks the questions:

Not safe for kids. Pic from a Brief History of Central Park

 I wish I had spent two years in the US Coast Guard

It's all about male domination. Many of our readers are male. Do you dominate women? Good luck with that.

Despite alarmist media claims, there is no evidence that a climate “crisis” looms in our future, let alone imminent danger of a climate catastrophe...

Shellenberger interview:

Thanks to Neoneo (aka Newneo) for this one:

I would hire more help and maybe a driver, avoid making new "friends", and consume much better wines. Buy some good land, and get a Netjets account. But what's the deal? You win $1.5 billion and have to give back a third.

Your reply in Comments.

A $2 Powerball ticket is the most fun you can buy for that price. 

I didn't mention that our hiking trip in Provence was mainly in Le Luberon National Park. Lots of villages in the area. Best times to go are May or October - no heat, few tourists, and off-season prices. Plenty of gnarly mountains which can be considered foothiils of the Alps to the east.

Mrs. BD's favorite village was Lourmarin. It's surrounded by villas and farms. Expensive to buy there. I doubt Lourmarin is crowded in peak season because there are few places to stay unless you rent a villa.

My topic for this post is routine shopping in a village. In Lourmarin, market day is Friday. All of the producers and farmers and clothing-sellers assemble in a different village each day. No supermarkets anywhere near. Clothing, fish, meat - everything. The marketplace is filled with people and dogs, and by 4 pm it's disassembled from the village square and moved on.

For starters, the only daily food store in Lourmarin is the place below. True, they do make a lot of those great 4" deep kiches each morning but they are sold by 9 am. I think people drive once in a while to regular supermarkets in the suburbs of Aix or Avignon for supplies in the way we drive to Costco.

Some of my Friday marketplace pics are below the fold - 

Plenty of pics etc. of the Friday market below the fold -