Articles
“In the End”
In the end, which means now, our little fish house with its new addition turned out just fine. There was still a lot of work to be done. Interior walls, wiring and plumbing — rid of the outhouse at last. That did not deter us, however, from using all that wonderful new space. Once the
In the Middle
In the middle of its life, our fish house landed in the middle of the woods. Forty acres of woods. In a big mess of spruce blowdowns, crisscrossed over each other, littered with boulders right to our doorstep. Quite a change from our last front yard on the shore. Well, I guess we’ve got plenty
In the Beginning
Our house began its life about 50 years or so ago when a native young fella built him a fish house on the shore of Sands Cove, right on the banking. Not a very large fish house, about 16 feet long and 12 feet wide, sufficient for building wooden traps and rigging fishing gear. By
“Who has the skills?”
Vinalhaven teacher and curriculum coordinator Rob Warren addressed the island’s graduates this year at their school commencement, stressing the need to learn as much as possible about the wider world. “How do we get our young people to take ownership in the future of our community?” he asked. “How do we teach them that time
Reunion
Probably most everyone has been to their high school reunions at one time or another. It’s a popular occasion on this island – a lot of people attend every year. The graduating classes are small – eight, ten, 25 graduates and everyone has known everyone else all their life. I never gave reunions a thought,
Something Wrong Here?
Last fall there was a brutal killing of an animal over here, and I’m going to tell you about it because it needs to be told. The animal was our family cat, which was murdered, trapped in a mink trap and shot 15 times, then thrown out on our road for us to find. The
You never know
If there’s one thing for sure in the lobster business, it’s that you never know what’s going to happen next. Every year it’s a different story – no two years are alike. You’d never know it’s the fifth of August, supposedly in the height of lobster season, when there’s hardly a crate line to be
Window shopping
A couple of weeks ago the Old Man decided he wanted to go window shopping for another boat. It would be nice to have a little more comfort aboard than he has on the old girl he’s got now. Nova Scotia – a beautiful window into Canada – ought to be a good place to
Tourism
Many towns all over the country depend on tourism to enhance their local economy. Some towns depend entirely on tourism. Some towns, believe it or not, have no tourism and survive anyway. Tourism can be a touchy subject. Some tourists (I assume that’s not an objectionable word) can be touchy and some residents can be
Breakaways
That’s the new word in the lobster business – breakaways. That’s the new law now, too, breakaway gear. Right now it’s breakaway swivels on the pot buoys. The purpose of this is to stop the entrapment of right whales by having gear that will break away when pressure is brought to bear on the warp.