Saturday, November 28, 2020

Z Nation - Post Thanksgiving Edition

I had to go out and at least walk around the garden and then take a drive through town today because I've just about had it with quarantine.  Not a single soul was outside today, despite it's being mild and sunny; there were no cars, no trucks coming to or from the border, not a sound, no wind at all, and it was EERIE.  

I mean, usually you'll see a dog, or somebody's cat, or a tractor, or a kid, but nope.  Went to the post office, nobody.  Drove around, which doesn't take any more than 20 minutes, just at an idle, letting the car drift along - nobody.  Something was on fire south of here in one of the fields; I'd say slash, because it's that time of the year, but I didn't drive down to look because we've had flooding and I have my doubts as to the state of the road headed in that direction. 

(Scene:  FirstNations tootling down a quaint little farm lane in her Wagoroonie mini SUV or whatever the hell I'm driving now.  Tootling along.  Suddenly the pavement gives way and gasploosh!  There I am! Tit deep and sinking, in a jumble of migrating salmon, ecology blocks, traffic cones, broken pavement and crick water - and the zombies all suddenly look up and come stumbling my way.  No, no no no no.  Not worth it to go see a fire.  I've seen fires before.  They're made of flames.)

Speaking of salmon, the Bejewelled Biker, who now drives the Baby Blue Sedan of Sadness, was stopped by a school of migrating salmon just last week.  I mean actual migrating salmon crossing the road, no crosswalk, no 'Danger Fish Crossing' sign, no UFO's, nothing.

There's a notorious high-water spot about three miles from here that runs through a blueberry field, and when conditions are right, big, huge salmon go wriggling across the road in the overspill, from a flooded blueberry field, across the pavement, to the wetlands on the other side.  There were people out on either side of the road taking videos of this, and also wading around doing a little hand-fishing too.  I went back the next day to the very spot and saw the same thing happening!

The Bejewelled Beast snapped an excellent shot of a teenage kid who had hand-caught himself a super nice fish, holding it up on the side of the road. Do I have those pictures?  No I do not.  Just imagine a tall skinny kid, standing in the middle of a street full of salmon swimming like mad bastards across a wet two-lane road, from a blueberry field into a marsh, with a crowd of people taking pictures and about three semi's stopped in the road.

This is trippy country.  Also, when nature tells you it's time to fuck, you gotta fuck.  Even if it means swimming through a blueberry field and wriggling your fishy tummy over wet pavement to deposit your milt/eggs in a cedar swamp.  I'm sure you can relate to the feeling.

OH WAIT I DO HAVE THE PICTURE!!!!!

Live, from Sumas WA, here is the picture of the kid who hand-caught a fish!



Note that this kid is not wearing matching sandals and has been photographed against a backdrop of cedar swamp with what appears to be a house in the background.  I don't know what he has in his pocket, but it's ruined now, because according to the BB, this kid was up to his armpits in the cedar swamp just moments before this was shot.  So there you go.  Kid with a fish, and a borked cell phone most likely.

This fish is what's called a 'Chum Salmon'.  It is of such unsatisfactory quality that it was cut up and used to 'chum' for bear, or fed to dogs, or slaves, by the indigenes.  Me, I've eaten plenty of chum salmon pulled in from the mouth of the Columbia River and it's a perfectly delicious fish.  It's the change they undergo as their systems adapt to fresh water from salt water that gives the flesh a weird flavor and texture.  As far upstream as we are from the ocean, this kid probably took one bite of his prize and then fed the rest to his dog.  Old fresh-water chum salmon is a funky, funky eating experience.  Still, to see a natural fish run for the first time in years is further proof to me that Nature is coming back with a vengeance thanks to Covid!



8 comments:

  1. holy fucking shit! salmon crossing the road! that's something you don't see every day, and never in philadelphia!

    you are correct about it being "woo woo" country. I remember visiting that area and smelling that distinctive sweet odor of burning pot fields.

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  2. Some of the biggest commercial pot grows are right here. Most of them are indoors, and at first they did burn the slash once the season was done, but that tended to give up the game to nearby hippies. If people had any real idea how many of the huge new indoor ag businesses around here were actually marijuana, they'd lose their Republican minds! Growing and grooming are both major sources of income around here.

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  3. Police raided a place that was doing a nice little side-line in weed.And what did they do? They put a match to the crop.Oopsy...officers of The Law, all staggering, giggling and having a grand time.Now they bag it and take it away.
    Chum miles up-river No thanks!

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  4. dinahmow: they used to incinerate it at night up at the U of O Medical Center in Portland, which is on a hill right over downtown. You'd close down a bar, and the thick, thick smell of burning dope would be everywhere, to the point that local businesses were complaining. Chum salmon straight from the ocean are excellent, absolutely full of fat and bright silver. My father used to cold-smoke them (because the fat would cause flare-ups otherwise) and it's like candy, that stuff, just falls apart, wonderful.

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  5. Sweetpea, this is the first time since, "A Blast from the Past" post that I've been able to get past the gate to your blog!!! WTF was up with that? I just read the entries I missed but didn't comment because I was worried I might get locked out again!

    So, now to the rod crossing salmon! I've never had freshly caught from anywhere salmon. It's just been smoked or canned. And yes, I know, I've been missing out. xoxo

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  6. Hey! Sav...I got shut out of a couple of blogs, too.I wonder if it had to do with that time MJ was blocked? Maybe they put us on Santa's naughty list!

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  7. Savannah: I have no idea what's up with that! I have my 'I am a dirty girl' warning up; I haven't been banned or received any notices from Blogger, so my only suggestion is check the notices on your social media sites - maybe there's an explanation there. Yes, I'm saying that maybe YOU'RE the problem! *snork*

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  8. dinahmow: Like I said to Savannah, check your other social media sites for notices. I've noticed that people who try to visit this site directly from Wordpress have problems, if that helps.

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