Oyster Blog — News from Here

One night in early December, 2007, 8 inches of snow fell on the Hood Canal area, with bigger accumulations up in the high country. Then, overnight, the temperature jumped up 20 degrees and it rained 11 inches. The next morning Highway 101 was a complete disaster. There were 15 mudslides, like the ones pictured below, between Hama Hama and Hoodsport, and the road was closed for two weeks.               Many of our neighbors had their homes destroyed by mud and water, and tragically one young man died when a mudslide came through his bedroom wall.

A packet of thank-you letters arrived in the mail today from the elementary school kids who recently toured the oyster plant. Here are some selected shorts: Thank you for giving us the tour. I liked all the eels and the baby ling cod. That was really cool. Thank you for letting me eat an oyster it was good.  -Kyle Thank you for letting us come to the oyster farm. I enjoyed watching everyone almost puke from eating raw oysters. I learned that the shells have vitamins on them.  -Kristine Thank you for the information about oysters and claims. I do...

Yesterday we were inundated with hordes of 6th graders from nearby Hood Canal School. The kids were on a field trip to learn about salmon and shellfish. They travelled to local rivers to see salmon spawning, and then came down to HH to tour the facilities and learn about how important it is to prevent water pollution. A few of the braver kids even sampled some of the raw oysters.   Below: we're assuming this was her first raw oyster...

We've been celebrating fall by giving away deliciously tart and pesticide-free locally-grown apples.

The Hama Hama bridges were built in the 20s, and they're beautiful and artistic and much preferable to the bland concrete spans the State will eventually replace them with.  The problem is that they were built for 1930s-era cars, and now they're too narrow. This fall, the Washington State Highway Department compounded that problem by putting guard rails on the bridges. It's not immediately clear why these bridges needed guard rails. Obviously, no vehicle was going to drive off them mid-span. We posed this question to the construction workers, who told us they were putting guard rails on the bridges...