MY HOW TIME FLIES!

I was going to say When you're having fun...but that

is not very accurate, at least for my Mom. She had

a setback in the middle of July and was taken back

to the hospital. Her regular doc wasn't there, so

the attending one suggested they take a "wait

and see" attitude as to why all of the sudden

abdominal pain and nausea.

She didn't improve, so when her doc got back they

went ahead and did another surgery. Good thing

they did, because they found a big part of her

intestines had twisted and buckled, which was

causing all of the pain and of course, everything

was backing up in her system.

No reason given, she didn't do anything wrong.

The doc called it a string of bad luck.

They ended up taking out approx. 7 inches of

her intestines and she has been suffering

through the last week or so with pain and

lots of nausea. I talked with her today and

she was just getting ready to receive a blood

transfusion. It should make her feel a whole

lot better, hopefully with a lot more energy

so she can go home soon and heal.

I have been selling at the Farmer's Markets, which

is a lot of work but a lot of fun too. Here are my

daughter and I at our table:

This was most of the way through the day so all I had

left were gluten-free cupcakes and cookies.

See my computer on the right? What an awesome

tool a Mac can be. I have it set to slideshow and I

have pictures of my cakes and cookies scrolling the

whole time I am at my table selling. People just

love this feature and comment to me about it all

the time.

And the fishing! This time of year a lot of

effort is spent harvesting to fill the freezers

for winter. Here is my husband pulling up

the skate line he set earlier the day before.

It takes a bit to learn where the best spots

are to set the skate. And you don't dare ask

anybody, no siree! The most detailed answer

you will ever get is... Out in the water. Or,

my favorite...In my secret spot.

Wow, how very helpful!

So you just get your buns out there and

learn for yourself. Sometimes you get

good eating fish, sometimes you don't:

No, these skates are not for eating. They

sure are cool looking, though aren't they?

We let him go and off he swam, he was

very happy to be released.

The eyes were blue--weird.

Lots of these huge sunstars in the crab pots

my husband set out. They are not like regular

starfish, they have lots of legs and get really big.

Oh, and then my personal favorite, the

Wolf Eels. Yuk. My husband took a friend

out with him and one of the eels had

swallowed the hook so far that they

couldn't save it. So he took the eel home

and cooked it to eat. We talked to him

later and he said it was a white meat and

tasted like a mild fish. BUT, the texture

was mushy, which would have done me in.

eeew.

throw. it. back.

Look how gorgeous! We went up to one of the

bays not far from our house and it was calm

and silent. There were eagles in the trees just

sitting calmly and watching us slowly float,

nobody else was around anywhere.

I asked my husband--Can't we just stay here forever?

Next time we will bring the kayaks and paddle around

the whole bay.

Today was the first day of hunting season for deer. My

husband and older daughter were gone at first light.

They set a skate on the way up to where they were

going (sshhhh...it's a secret place) to hunt and

shot a spike at 9:30am. The spikes are small, but

boy oh boy is the meat good. Every part of a deer

this size is a tenderloin.

On the way back they checked the skate they had

set and there was a real nice halibut on there:

I quite like the idea of a freezer full of

clean, organic meat, how about you?