Private Beach: no trespassing

A few blocks from my mother's summer home in Dennisport, MA is an appalling number of private areas. Not only are there private roads, private neighborhoods, but there are private beaches. Come on, this isn't a beautiful stretch of undisturbed South Pacific paradise. This is the south side of Cape Cod where the beaches are only a dozen yards wide and there's a breakwater every hundred feet. Not exactly Tahiti.

We came home early from vacation last night due to the rain and a now reported TWELVE great white sharks hunting off our favorite surfing spots (a fun update on that hopefully tomorrow!). In the rush to come home I have unfortunately left the cord to my camera at the beach house so I can't download pictures for now. But trust me when I say there's one road with three signs all telling you it's private and so is their beach.

There's also one stretch of town beach that's only about 15 feet wide with chain link fence right down to the high tide line on either side. Signs of course are affixed to the fence declaring "PRIVATE - NO TRESPASSING."

I've never understood the private beach. I'd almost rather sit next to a different person every day then suffer the same potentially annoying neighbor every day. I mean, what if the person owning million dollar summer home next to yours is just plain obnoxious. If all the beaches were public then you have at least a few other people between you and your neighbor.

OK, so I don't have a million dollar summer home. I borrow my mother's far from million dollar summer cottage. And I usually don't even go to the beach at the end of her road because I'm offended by the chain link fence that runs from the sea wall right down to the high tide line keeping us riff-raff off the beach of the time-share next door.

In Massachusetts you are allowed to own a beach right down to the high tide line. Meaning that your everyday commoner can walk below the high tide line in front of your property. But don't expect to be treated kindly by the homeowner owning property you're walking in front of. My husband was doing just that once while on Nantucket and was chased away by the famous person (who shall remain unnamed) who owned the property. Technically my husband was obeying the law.

If you own property like this and allow us commoners to use it then thank you. If not then shame on you for hoarding all the beautiful views. I hope someday I can afford a stretch of private beach so I can deed it to the public. Like Mr. Crane did up in our hometown of Ipswich, MA when he left one of the east coast's most beautiful stretches of sand (to the right) to the town and the Trustees of Reservations. Thank you Mr. Crane! Now everyone can enjoy your beautiful view.

Grey seal circus and a great white shark sighting

The first evening of our Cape Cod vacation we all piled in the car for the 20 minute drive east to Chatham where my mother claimed you could see dozens of seals as they followed the fishing boats back into port. I believed her since that seems like something a seal would quickly catch on to, and she was right. When we got out of the car and walked to the dock to where the Sea Dancer was unloading her catch of flounder there they were, about six large grey seals lazily circling around the back to the boat waiting for scraps to be tossed overboard.


This one was even monopolizing the drain hole at the back so he or she could lap up every last bit of fish. If you click and enlarge you can even see a scrap about to fall right into the awaiting seal's mouth:

They were incredibly unphased by the ten humans on the dock right above them. And didn't even flinch when the truck that was receiving the catch started its diesel engine and pulled away with a rumble.

Thousands of grey seals live on the sand bars that form around Monomy Island at what's referred to as the elbow of Cape Cod.


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If you enlarge this photo you can see a whole colony of them right off the dock where I took the other photos. They're the black lumps on the sand bar in the center of the photo, past the bow of the boat.
Seals have made such a successful rebound in the last few years that every summer, around Labor Day, there's another great white shark sighting. Yesterday five were spotted off of Chatham and many of the popular surfing beaches have been closed. Two of the sharks have been tagged with satellite tags so scientists can track their movements. I'm sure more info will be released in the next 24 hours. I will keep you posted. The last phone call I recieved from my husband today while I'm stuck at work was to tell me he was heading towards Chatham to go surfing. I, however, think I will stay off my surfboard during this vacation, I just know too much about shark behavior to feel comfortable with five prowling great whites out there. One perhaps....but not five.

Going offline

Later tonight I'm heading to Cape Cod with my family for two weeks of hanging out at the beach, napping, doing a little bit of surfing, and most definitely allowing my husband to do A LOT of surfing. Unfortunately, my vacation will be interrupted by three days of work I have committed to over the Labor Day holiday and the following weekend. But it's OK, I only have twelve days of work left and then I'll be having what could be a five year long vacation. It's more important that my over-worked husband gets the time off to be with his daughter and go surfing. Both are equally important for his good mental health.

While at my mother's Cape house we borrow our neighbor, Bob's, Wi-Fi. This is a known arrangement. The only problem is Bob unplugs everything Sunday evenings when he goes back to his year-round home near Boston. I approve of this unplugging practice since his Wi-Fi router would be using energy even if no one was online. However, it means I will be without the Internet during the week.

I'm actually looking forward to this. There's something very liberating about not knowing what's going on in the world unless I turn on the radio or TV. Yes, it means I will have lots of catching up on email and blogging next Friday when Bob turns back on his router, unless I can sneak in an email break while at work. Although I have a feeling I'll leave my lap top off anyway until we're back home. This is because I get a little obsessive about watching my blog traffic tune in from around the world (because isn't it so cool to see how small the world can be?) it will be nice to be forced to give my family 100% of my attention.

And speaking of that family, the smallest member is currently destroying my kitchen so I had better log off and go tickle her. So please send storm swell vibes our way. The surf report looks flat through this weekend....but there's a new tropical storm, Erika, making waves in the Caribbean, hopefully that swell will reach us!

A resignation

A few weeks ago I put in my resignation at the Aquarium. For all of those who read my post "Tools of my Aquarist trade" you might be surprised. This is a job I love and have wanted since I was about three years old. I mean, where else can you get paid to play with jellyfish? Go SCUBA diving on work time? Care for endangered shorebirds? Be a superstar to little kids as they see you swim with sharks and barracudas?

You can imagine it was one of the hardest decisions of my entire life. I have worked there for twelve years, the animals I feed I care about almost as much as my dear cat. My coworkers are my second family. When our Head Vet heard the news of my resignation he approvingly made this cartoon for me and emailed it to the entire institution. The other "creatures" are my fellow West Wing Gallery co-workers.

There are many many reasons why I am leaving my career. Each one of them I could probably deal with and manage to work through. But when you add them all up anyone would say "wait, WHY are you working?"

The biggest reason is I work Sundays and I want them back. My husband, my little girl and I have one day all together, Saturday, and that's just not enough. Then there's the issue that we want to give Lizzie a sibling, and soon. She was a preemie and my pregnancies are high risk because I have Crohn's Disease, my doctors have gently suggested that I don't work through a second pregnancy. And then there's the issue that I work for a non-profit. Basically I'd be working just to cover day care.

The obvious solution is to take some time off from my career and be a mom, which is a noble profession in itself. And, I can tell you, a day at home with Lizzie is much more exhausting than spending a day hauling gravel in and out of the bird exhibit and carrying large animals up and down the stairs.

A funny side note is what happened when I told my bosses. Before I even managed to tell them why they both immediately went into a discussion of how they can keep me on payroll as a per diem worker. Then I could come back if I changed my mind, or temp a day here and there. I am flattered, but come on, can't I just quit? I mean, look at this face, this alone should be my one and only reason:


I would much rather spend my Sundays teaching my child about the ocean world that I love so much.


They grow so fast, there will be time one day to go back to work and pick up where I left off.

A rained out farmers market, tomato hornworms and an organic garden tally

Considering the east coast is supposed to get a predicted three to five inches of rain today it's not surprising that the parking lot of the farmers market is empty. So, I unfortunately can not bring you a glimpse of local Ipswich, MA produce for the Farmers Market Challenge. I can, however, put on a big batch of Farm Share Soup, bring you a few pictures of a fascinating garden pest and update everyone on what they can do with a mere 6 foot by 14 foot veggie bed.

I want to introduce you all to an adorable beastie I met in the tomato patch yesterday while doing some emergency staking in preparation for Tropical Storm Danny. This is a tomato hornworm, which is actually a bad thing to find in one's tomato patch since if they get out of control they will do a lot of damage. I do remember seeing the moth that must have laid this larvae a months ago feeding on some of my flowers. But, have no fear, I also saw a second hornworm that looked like this below:


This guy has been parasitized by the small braconid wasp so he won't live long. Those white things on the worm's body are the wasp's eggs. Neat huh? You're more likely to see the damage these guys do than the worms themselves as they are so cryptic. I've been seeing their droppings and the giant holes they make in my tomatoes for weeks now. Yet, these are the first full grown worms I've seen and they're bigger than my thumb.

Since my garden is organic I will let these worms be and let nature take her course, which she seems to be doing already. And considering my garden has seemed to have luckily escaped the late blight sweeping the state I have at least fifty tomatoes ripening. If I lose one or two to a worm it's OK.

My little Monsanto Sucks, Michelle Obama Rocks Organic Veggie Garden is a bit out of control. I've been harvesting like crazy. So far in the raised bed and a few small patches around the rest of my small yard I have eaten, shared or frozen the following:

• 35 Strawberries
• 42 blueberries
• 5 large salads
• 5 tomatoes
• 9 zucchini
• 1 cucumber
• 5 large bunches of cilantro
• 274 green beans (just over 3 pounds)
  
• 67 carrots
• 3 batches of basil pesto

So if you too have a small yard or even just a patio you can still do a lot. You just have to dream big.

Ted Kennedy: thank you from my whole family

Ted Kennedy was my senator longer than I have been on this earth. Like many of my fellow Massachusetts residents I have never known a time without Ted Kennedy. One of my earliest memories is when he granted my mother an interview in the late 80s while she was the editor of a small town newspaper. The photo of that meeting hung proudly in my grandmother's entryway until she died, now it sits on my mother's desk.

Outside of my Kennedy-loving family Ted is often a man deeply disliked. Sure, he's had a colorful history. The most noted incident was leaving the scene of a drunk driving accident and letting his coworker to drown off Martha's Vineyard. But I should think that all that he has done for the "little guy" should have been his repentance.

Every single one of you have benefited from him. It's astounding when you look at the list, and this just a very very very short blip of it. A complete list is on his website:

• Created the Individuals with Disabilities Act
• Expanded HIV/AIDS funding and research
• In 1971 he quadrupled the amount of federal funding towards cancer research, tripling the staff of many of Boston's research hospitals.
• Broadened health coverage to include mental disabilities and substance abuse disorders.
• Led the fight to enact COBRA which extends health benefits after the loss of coverage (I was on COBRA for two years after college)
• Along with Republican Senator Orrin Hatch he set up the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) helping states provide health care to low-income children
• Introduced the Affordable Health Care Act lowering prescription costs and extending Medicare to pregnant women, legal immigrants and low income children.
• Championed the Head Start program, providing early education to needy children.
  
• And probably one of the single most important pieces of legislation was the 1972 Women, Infants, and Children Nutrition Program (WIC). This program offers food, access to health services for low-income women, infants and children and most importantly, nutritional counseling. In 2008 8.7 million people benefited from this program meaning our children are growing up with proper nutrition giving them an important start to their little lives.

Last night 20,000 people visited the Kennedy Library in South Boston to pay their respects to his flag draped coffin. The library extended viewing hours to 2 AM to accommodate the crowds. And WBRU reported people lining up this morning before dawn.

Yesterday afternoon a motorcade with his family and coffin left Hyannisport to travel towards Boston. Six hours later I left neighboring Dennisport on my way home from my mother's Cape house. It was very moving to see the signs and flags hanging from highway overpasses stating thanks to the Senator and saying goodbye. When I neared Boston the digital MassHighway signs usually announcing accidents and backups simply flashed "Thanks Ted".

As I passed the Kennedy Library with my sleeping eleven-month-old daughter in the back I whispered "thanks". The library was lit up like usual, a blazing beacon on the waterfront, emulating the sail boats the Kennedy brothers spent so much time on. My thanks was for me and my daughter who was born five weeks early. Both of us benefited from the funding Kennedy helped pass over the decades boosting health research. I don't like to think what health care in this country would be like without him. It would be even more broken that it is right now.

Kennedy was a man who fought for the little guy. A man that didn't need to work, came from wealth and privilege yet who dedicated his life to improving the lives of Americans and making sure we never had to worry about being sick, or how we're going to feed our children. He deserves our thanks. So "thanks Ted" from my whole family, I really hope the bill that will provide health coverage, now named the Kennedy Bill, will be realized soon so you can truly rest in peace.

One thing for the planet: compost

I've been meaning to do a blog about compost and an eco-friendly backyard for some time. This week's Reduce Footprint's Wednesday Challenge finally got this out of my edit folder and into blog format. Thanks for the motivation Small!

There are many eco-friendly things going on in my small backyard. First of all is its size: the entire lot is 40 by 60 feet. My compact neighborhood fits about 15 families in the size of your average McMansion property. A small lot means a small lawn, which is a fescue and drought tolerant mix anyway. I don't water it. The brown spots in the picture below aren't from drought but because we've left items such as dive gear, surfboards, toys and gardening tools for too long on the grass.
The flowers are either drought tolerant, native or both. Sadly the garden was in full flower a week before I shot this picture from a second story window, now it's in a transition phase from day lily craziness to late summer sedums and black-eyed susans.

The Monsanto Sucks, Michelle Obama rocks organic vegetable garden is only watered with rain barrels that are against the house, see my April post about them for photos and how to build your own.

Then there's the clothes line and drying rack which I don't use as much as I'd like, but they do get used for cloth diapers every wash if it's sunny, the drying rack goes inside if it's rainy.

And finally, the compost pile. Can you see it? I didn't think so, look at a closer picture:

Still can't see it hidden in the back corner against my neighbor's garage? I didn't think so. So many people I know claim they don't have a compost pile because they're unsightly, or they smell, or they don't have the room, or they attract "vermin". Well, ours in none of those things. Even from a second story window you can't see it. The only bad smell is when the five gallon bucket we keep on the front porch gets too full and then we get a heat wave (yuck). We already have a few mice that live in the garage, which is OK with me, they're cute and amuse Jack the cat from his perch in our window. And we most definitely have the space, even in our tiny lot.

Compost is easy, a great way to keep trash out of landfills (once buried in a landfill your average squash will last decades) and the sewer system (food that gets down your disposal pushes sewage treatment plants to their limit) But, the best part is the homegrown garden gold you get in the spring! This spring I filled two fifteen gallon bins with compost from last year and spread it all over the garden and veggie bed. My plants are so much happier than last year when I was too pregnant to lift a shovel so I never reaped the benefits of our compost pile.

If you'd rather have a composter there are many for sale on the market, but they're not cheap. We just have a pile. It's easy to do. To start, dig a shallow hole and put your first batch of rotting organic matter in it (no meat or bones) and put a layer of soil on top. Every time you empty your bucket dig a hole into the middle of the pile, add your stuff and bury it. You can add grass clippings, weeds, whatever. Every so often my husband attacks the pile with a pitchfork and churns it up a bit. We even had garter snakes have babies in it two years ago taking advantage of the warmth! They were awfully cute and I don't consider them vermin at all.

For a much more in depth look into composting and a great how-to website visit How To Compost at compostinstructions.com. There's even info on there to start a worm bin for those city dwellers with no yard at all.

I have an evil plan to start a clandestine compost pile behind the shed at my mother's Cape house. They don't have trash pick up so we have to haul all our trash home with us. It gets kinda nasty in the hot summer. My mother is one of those people worried it will attract "vermin". She'll never know it's there! It'll be our little secret.....

Happy composting!