The tide bubbling down for the afternoon. Given the recent beautiful full moon, and the eclipse, and the calm, still days we've been experiencing here on the farm, we've been thinking a lot about the tides. Of course, we always think about tides: is the tide high enough for the pump to turn on? low enough to expose the gold bar? high enough to take the Battle Axe out? and on and on. The tide sets our work schedule. You can't even work in the retail store without being aware of where the water is, what direction it's headed, and whether or not you should clean the live tank now or three hours from now. But paying attention to the tide is not the same thing as understanding it, as that last sentence demonstrates: when the tide goes out, it's because the earth and the moon move, not the water. And that's one of the lovely and unique things about working on an oyster farm: every once in a while something happens that rearranges your perspective on the world, and your place in it. Read more about how the sun, the moon, gravity, and our watery planet create tides here.