Back to the hatchery
Dr. Brown and family come back in tomorrow morning, so the house-sitting gig is over. I packed up what i had taken over there, stopped by the store one last time while i had the car, then headed back home to the hatchery. This evening i dropped the car off at the airport, so i'm officially sans car again, at least until i get paid (should be soon) and can rent one. It was also nice to have cable for a couple of weeks; i've seen little outside of NBC and PBS for the past 6 months.
I had a weird dream last night (or this morning, technically; back on night-owl schedule). Details are fuzzy, but it went something like this: apparently there was some sort of class trip or study abroad trip or something to Japan that i paid to go on, and the flight was leaving at 9:30 in the morning. I put my luggage in a truck that i and some other people were going to ride to the airport in, then went inside to wait until it was time to go to the airport. Then there was something about drawing on a pane of glass; i'm not sure if i was doing it or watching someone else do it, but there was some kind of voice-over about art or something, and i was interested in it. Next thing i know, i look at my watch, and it's 10:30 in the morning and they had already left with out me. Then i stormed though the house cursing and ranting about how i just spent $1500 to send my luggage to Japan. Then i woke up, somewhat agitated, until i realized it was a dream. No idea what it means, though, if anything. I guess i should at least be grateful for a change of pace; to this day, most of my anxiety dreams are set in high school and are of the "it's due tomorrow and i haven't started, and there's some force keeping me from working on it" ilk, generally about classes that i haven't taken since high school.
Saturday night was trapping night. Before the sun went down, we had a decent go of hand trapping (i.e. chasing crabs on the shore and concrete of the overpass). We even got possibly two species we haven't gotten yet (one might be a juvenile of the regular ghost crab we keep getting). My new kind of bait traps--modified drink bottles, essentially--didn't catch anything, but they weren't deployed for very long. That was the good part of the excursion. One the hanging trap side of things, there were a lot of technical difficulties. First, the PVC pipe net trap i built, despite being filled with gravel, did not sink to the bottom, but instead floated lopsided just under the water surface. It looked like it was crippled. The only thing it caught was leaves and crap floating downstream. So that's one trap out of commission, but we still have the original three. Then after checking the traps the first time (maybe a half dozen more Macrobranchia), i tried to lower one of the rebar traps into the water when the knot connecting the trap to the long rope came undone and the trap fell into the river. That's two traps out of commission, and this one might not be coming back. Then we lowered one of the other rebar traps into the water, and two of the knots gave way, and the trap dangled precariously from the other two corners of the frame. Guess i should check the condition of my gear a little better before using it. We hoisted it back and i re-tied the two knots, but two of the floats that kept the support ropes from resting on the bait had fallen off. We brought the traps back in 45 minutes later and didn't catch diddly jack. Just as well; that was enough fun for one night. Rob and Lisa decided that we ought to go back out the next day to try to retrieve the lost trap.
I went to the hatchery for the night. I was going to work on a recovery hook that night, but i just went to bed. I managed to find a piece of rebar the next day that i worked into a hook. Remember those floats? They suspend the ropes above the frame of the trap in a sort of pyramidal shape. In theory, i could snag them with the hook and lift the trap. We went back to the bay in the afternoon, Rob and Lisa chasing ghost crabs, while i went fishing for the trap. It only took me about five minutes of trawling before i snagged it and lifted it out, muddy and funky-smelling, but intact. I knew i put those floats on for some reason.
We may go out again this weekend (with repaired and modified equipment), but that's not confirmed yet. Either way, we've made progress on that project. It's the other one, the budget one, that's my concern now. I leave the island in just over five weeks, so i need to get that stuff going for real. With Dr. Brown back, maybe i can get started or at least a timetable to work with.
I had a weird dream last night (or this morning, technically; back on night-owl schedule). Details are fuzzy, but it went something like this: apparently there was some sort of class trip or study abroad trip or something to Japan that i paid to go on, and the flight was leaving at 9:30 in the morning. I put my luggage in a truck that i and some other people were going to ride to the airport in, then went inside to wait until it was time to go to the airport. Then there was something about drawing on a pane of glass; i'm not sure if i was doing it or watching someone else do it, but there was some kind of voice-over about art or something, and i was interested in it. Next thing i know, i look at my watch, and it's 10:30 in the morning and they had already left with out me. Then i stormed though the house cursing and ranting about how i just spent $1500 to send my luggage to Japan. Then i woke up, somewhat agitated, until i realized it was a dream. No idea what it means, though, if anything. I guess i should at least be grateful for a change of pace; to this day, most of my anxiety dreams are set in high school and are of the "it's due tomorrow and i haven't started, and there's some force keeping me from working on it" ilk, generally about classes that i haven't taken since high school.
Saturday night was trapping night. Before the sun went down, we had a decent go of hand trapping (i.e. chasing crabs on the shore and concrete of the overpass). We even got possibly two species we haven't gotten yet (one might be a juvenile of the regular ghost crab we keep getting). My new kind of bait traps--modified drink bottles, essentially--didn't catch anything, but they weren't deployed for very long. That was the good part of the excursion. One the hanging trap side of things, there were a lot of technical difficulties. First, the PVC pipe net trap i built, despite being filled with gravel, did not sink to the bottom, but instead floated lopsided just under the water surface. It looked like it was crippled. The only thing it caught was leaves and crap floating downstream. So that's one trap out of commission, but we still have the original three. Then after checking the traps the first time (maybe a half dozen more Macrobranchia), i tried to lower one of the rebar traps into the water when the knot connecting the trap to the long rope came undone and the trap fell into the river. That's two traps out of commission, and this one might not be coming back. Then we lowered one of the other rebar traps into the water, and two of the knots gave way, and the trap dangled precariously from the other two corners of the frame. Guess i should check the condition of my gear a little better before using it. We hoisted it back and i re-tied the two knots, but two of the floats that kept the support ropes from resting on the bait had fallen off. We brought the traps back in 45 minutes later and didn't catch diddly jack. Just as well; that was enough fun for one night. Rob and Lisa decided that we ought to go back out the next day to try to retrieve the lost trap.
I went to the hatchery for the night. I was going to work on a recovery hook that night, but i just went to bed. I managed to find a piece of rebar the next day that i worked into a hook. Remember those floats? They suspend the ropes above the frame of the trap in a sort of pyramidal shape. In theory, i could snag them with the hook and lift the trap. We went back to the bay in the afternoon, Rob and Lisa chasing ghost crabs, while i went fishing for the trap. It only took me about five minutes of trawling before i snagged it and lifted it out, muddy and funky-smelling, but intact. I knew i put those floats on for some reason.
We may go out again this weekend (with repaired and modified equipment), but that's not confirmed yet. Either way, we've made progress on that project. It's the other one, the budget one, that's my concern now. I leave the island in just over five weeks, so i need to get that stuff going for real. With Dr. Brown back, maybe i can get started or at least a timetable to work with.