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time: 9:20 am air temp: 59 F water temp: 45 F tide: high, falling conditions: springy
Short and sweet update on the farm, because May is about the point in the year when time starts to feel to me like it moves along in double time. My market schedule gets busy, the water warms up and the oysters (and all the other slimy fouling creatures) start to grow in earnest. I'm in pretty good shape preparation-wise for all of this, though. I have a bit more gear swapping, cleaning and mending to do from the winter mess, but things are starting to feel organized and ready to grow out there.
I spent a few low tides recently locating and emptying out some bottom cages that were chock-a-block full of beautiful oysters ready to go to market, which is one of my favorite activities. These cages will some day soon be refilled and moved a bit to the southwest, to their new home on my expanded lease, which will be really nice. Up until now they have been situated on the bottom underneath my floating lines - fine on normal low tides, but causing some hang up problems on the lower full and new moon tides.
Next up: finishing up gear clean up. Prepping nursery boxes for the arrival of this year's little ones (sometime in the next month or so, probably). And getting ready for lots of harvesting and lots of tending to growing oysters!