A fifties moment.

It is surely true that people in mid-life do seemingly crazy things. Deciding to purchase an oyster farm was such a mid-life moment.

Bob, my husband, and I had often looked out at the small floating structure in the middle of the bay where my family has long had a summer cabin and thought if the oyster farm came for sale we should buy it. The oyster farm first appeared one spring about ten years ago and it was not exactly welcomed by our family. Our once pristine and stunningly beautiful bay view now had "some thing" in it. We figured if we ever owned the oyster farm we could at least control the size and look of it. Well there we were a year and a half ago enjoying a perfect Labour Day weekend on Nelson Island and catching up on local gossip with a neighbour when he announced the oyster farm was going to be offered for sale. Normally we would have been saved from this madness by simply not having a swack of money to spend on something so foreign to our everyday life. However, that September we had the dough and were in the mood to spend it.

The oyster farm officially became ours that December and ever since my first work experience out on the stinky, slippery oyster growing rafts I have had a love/hate relationship with the thousands of Pacific oysters that are now mine.

I have wanted to write about all my oyster growing fears, frustrations and joys for some time and recently had lunch with a new friend that literally challenged me to write a blog. I have lots to tell and will ..........later. I am heading off for another few days of oyster farm work this Tuesday and must sign off to tear around the stores buying supplies for our four day stay at the cabin. Nelson Island is not exactly a place where any forgotten food or drink can be remedied by a quick car trip to a grocery store. There are no roads or power or stores close by and it all calls for some planning , packing and hauling of supplies every time we travel to the island. Basically a four hour journey by car, ferry and small boat from our comfy warm house in West Vancouver to the dock of the really rustic cabin sitting on the edge of Blind Bay, Nelson Island.

More when I return smelling of oyster muck and glad to be back to creature comforts.