Ok, so summer came late this year.....at least it came (sort of)

Let me begin by apologizing to everyone I know who reads this in Texas, I know it has been hot (think 1980 hot) if not more, so you may well want to skip this post while I talk about the weather from this summer (think cool and wet).  Why am I talking about the weather?  Well, because it is a time honored tradition on the Island and it has been as unusual as ever based on the reports of my Octogenarian patients.  

Let’s begin with tradition.  If you visit our Fair Island, then one thing you must be aware of is that each conversation must contain some discussion of the currently prevailing meteorologic conditions.  Typically this is phrased in the form of a rhetorical question....

‘Getting enough snow at your place?’

‘Not to dry for you is it?’

The former question being the one you got over the winter, and the later being the question for this sumer.  You see, our winter this year was a little warmer than the previous winters which translated into massive amounts of snow.  The weather has to be warm enough for it to snow, and this year it was.  Additionally, the storms came through in a pattern that was unusual and it made for lots more snow sticking around.

The typical pattern for weather here is to have a storm, a couple of clear days then another storm.  It really does not depend on the season, it is the pattern that seems to prevail year round.  The main difference is that the season will determine the quality of the moisture delivered, not the pattern of the cycle.  In winter, this is snow, in the remainder of the year in rain.

This winter the pattern was windy day, storm day, windy day x 2 storm day, windy day x 2, storm day, windy day x 2 etc from January through mid March.  There were none of the typical clearing days after the storm, just the wind from the departing storm and then from the approaching storm.  As spring approached everyone was hoping for a change, and on schedule it occurred.  The snow turned into rain, but the pattern did not alter.

This made for a very cool, very wet spring.  The spring lobster fishermen had lower than average catches because of the stormy cold waters, and all the farmers were gritting their teeth waiting on the chance to work their fields and plant.  We got a few breaks in late May early June so that the farmers planted (as did gardeners) and then the cycle kicked back into gear and things stayed wet (and cool).  We were wearing sweaters into July as the cool temperatures persisted.  

In conversations with my patients, the weather played an important role.  Everyone was/is worried about the gardens as this is a key staple for storage for winter, and lots of folks had to plant their gardens a second time because of the weather.  Usually by mid July summer has really arrived and the temperatures are getting into the high 80’s (mid 20’s C) and low 90’s (Low 30’s C) throughout the day, but still in the 60-70 degree range at night(15-22 C).  July this year has seen our daytime temps from mid 60’s to low 80s for the daytime highs and the evening temps in the 50’s and 60’s.  This combined with regular rain and cloud cover have made summer seem down right spring like.  

So, what does all this mean in practical terms?  Well, it is after all the weather, and there is not really much that can be done.  It does mean that the growing season is a little funky, and that farmers who are making hay have had a hard time finding the perfect window to cut the hay so it can dry and be baled prior to the next rainy day (our hay farmer usually puts 10,000 bales back yearly and had only done 3,000 by mid July).  Some crops are doing well (if you land is well drained), but the warm weather garden crops (think peppers and tomatoes) are struggling.  For my part, I have a bumper crop of carrots, broccoli, radishes, lettuce, celery, onions, squash, pumpkins, and beans.  My tomato plants are large, but the tomatoes are green, and the peppers may not produce at all (time will tell).

It is as odd as the extreme heat in Texas, and the older patients are all apologizing to me about the lousy weather.  If is funny, but it is a part of life here, and always part of the conversation.  Hoping the weather is favorable where-ever you reside.

Signs of Spring.....

The calendar tells me that today is the first day of spring, the vernal equinox, the day the sun crosses the equator. In watching the sunrise at 7:20 am and set at 7:27 pm I confirm the calendar, but the arrival of spring seems so much more than the length of the day or the date on the calendar. Spring does not greet you with a harsh slap on the face like winter, and it does not induce nostalgia in tones of sepia as autumn. Spring is quiet, gentle, easing your senses out of their slumber after a winter’s nap. It is a comfortable season, you are surprised when you look around and find that it has arrived while you were attending to other business.

On the island, spring gives you subtle clues that it is coming. We did not appreciate those clues last year as we were being pummeled by a snow that continued to fall well into April. The island weather has been gentle this year and we have kept our senses open for the changes that indicate the subtle arrival of the gentle season. The undeniable urge to start going through the garage and discard anything that you have not used in over a year is surely one of the first signs we encountered. The fact that we built a barn this year and had a significant amount of construction debris likely played a small part in the early arrival of this impulse. It was on one of our ‘dump runs’ that we noticed several other signs of the season.

As we finished loading the back of the Suburban with the construction debris, we paused for a moment to listen to a sound that had not been heard since November. The sound of several hundred nesting seagulls that inhabit a small sand bar in the middle of the bay our house overlooks. Their raucous caws and cries were a welcome sound, complimented later in the day by several over flights of geese returning to the island from the winter feeding grounds.

Along the roadway we noticed Islanders going about their business, clearing away the road sand that had gathered in their drives over the winter. Like the seagulls, the Islanders began to pop out of the homes, cleaning their cars, washing the front porch, and hanging laundry on the line to capture some of the sun’s warmth that had begun to arrive. In the flower beds, the first of the paper-whites have begun to erupt from the snow cleared ground, and in the pasture, the horses are all enjoying long rolls in the soft earth as they work to shed out the winter coat.

In a short time, the days will warm and lengthen; summer will surely arrive with the obligations of the garden, the yard, and the flower beds. But for now, with an afternoon of sun, the chores completed, we take a moment to sit, breath in the changing of the season, and rejoice in the arrival of spring.

Spring Lobster Season

The lobster industry on PEI is big, in fact some would say it is THE industry of Prince Edward Island. The industry itself usually lands $10 million worth of lobster, and there are various industries attached to the management of that lobster until its arrival in your home in its various forms. However, it all starts with a fisherman and his traps working in one of two seasons on the island, spring for the northern side of the island and fall for the southern side.

David Lewis has been a lobster fisher for as long as I have been a physician. He purchased his “gear”, that is his license to commercially fish lobster, in 1995 at the close of the spring season. He has been fishing lobster ever since as an independent fisherman. David is also my neighbor and it is in his old family homestead that Nancy and I make our current home. After a couple of false starts, I finally had the chance to go out lobster fishing with David and his crew (yesterday), and it was a blast. I wanted to go out fishing because I take care of lobster fishers. I see and treat them for a variety of illnesses and injuries but I have done so for the last year not really knowing what they did in their job. I have found over the years as a physician, that if I know the kind of labor done in a particular job, then I am better able to treat the individual patients, and I am better able to help them with their chronic diseases. David gave me the chance to find out what a lobsterman does on the water.

A day spent fishing
The day begins at 4 am as I clamber into the truck to head to the port with David and his son Derek (who is spending his first year post High School fishing lobster). After the obligatory stop for a coffee at the Alberton Bakery we are off to the wharf. Once there we meet the rest of the crew, Chad who has been working with David for the last 8 years, and Shawn, a High School student who works on Saturdays during the season.

Everyone jumps onto the boat and immediately begins working without any instruction. Lunches are stowed; mooring lines are cast as the engine fires up. It is less than five minutes from arrival to departure from the harbor and into the waters surrounding the northern point of the island. As we leave the harbor, David begins educating the novice on all the tools of navigation for his fishing boat, and the crew set up the deck to receive lobsters and reload the traps with cut bait.

Navigation on the fishing boat takes two forms, the innate knowledge of the captain and the combination radar-global positioning satellite system. It is the latter that he begins to explain in detail. The global positioning function allows him to plot several important details for our travels. First he has a plot for the return to port. This is important since if the weather is foul or foggy, he can return to port without worry that he will run aground or become lost. The maroon plot line that curves a graceful arc across the screen also happens to describe our travel out of the port. The second function that is available to him from this system is that each of his traps is plotted as an individual waypoint on the system. He can travel directly to the trap even in the densest fog as his system allows him to adjust the screen so that it displays a circle that is 15 meters around the boat. Additional functionality of the system are that it also has a map overlay function so that those of us who are land oriented can find out where we are in relation to our landmarks from shore. Finally the radar function allows him to see the other vessels in the area, again to protect him in the fog.

It is ten minutes when we arrive at our first trap-line for the day. In all we will visit 60 such lines, moving those that did not produce as expected. It is roughly 4:25 am when the first trap comes out of the water. As the boat slides up to the buoy Derek leans out and hooks and drags it on board. The line is quickly fed over the pulley and into running winch which quickly hauls the first trap to the side of the boat. David grabs the trap and as he dead lifts it with his right hand, the left follows the lead line that attaches the trap to the trap-line. He deftly pops this over and off the pulley as Chad grabs the trap from him and begins to off-load the lobster within. As Chad finishes with the lobster, the trap passes to Derek and Shawn who remove the old bait and load it with fresh bait fish. All the while, David is keeping the boat as still as possible to avoid entangling the trap-line in the propeller. In short order all the traps are in place, and the second buoy is on board. At this point Chad has turned his hand to the second duty, measuring and counting the lobster from this trap-line. He calls out the number of each type, market or canner, and David records this in his journal. He is looking for something on the order of 3 and 13 as a minimum for the trap line, and if it is underperforming he will move it to a new location. Once the market lobsters are separated from the canners, their claws are banded to keep them from attacking each other. If the trap-line has performed well, then David will replace it in the same location. The first buoy is back into the water as Shawn and Derek watch the line play out, keeping watch for snags that will entangle the traps. As the line plays out each trap is dropped off the boat and into the water until the last one is in then out goes the second buoy.

This assembly line of activity proceeds for roughly half the traps that are near the Northport area, and then it is a 20 minute ride to the next location for his traps. This is further south starting in the region of Lenox Island down to Summerside. During the break, the crew gets a pot of water boiling and an entire 24 count package of hot dogs goes into the pot for a snack as they head to the next section of traps. Everyone is pretty happy as the younger members of the crew eat far more dogs than David. For myself, I eat one, but since the ocean is a bit rough, and I am a novice, I figure it is more prudent to have some water and let food wait for calmer seas.

Once the traps have been fished, David steers for port. As he does so, the crew begins to clean the boat of all the debris of the day. The decks are scrubbed and washed, the cabin is wiped down, and all the loose gear is stowed away and generally picked up. By the time we arrive back in harbor, it does not look like they have been working at all, except for the cases of lobster. Once in harbor, we await our turn to off-load our catch and take on more ice and more bait. The total weight for the day was 851 pounds of lobster. David is happy, although like any fisherman, he

would have liked a bit more catch, but this is a good day. As he backs the boat into the slip and the mooring lines are re-attached, the crew gets the lobster together for the orders that they have received while out fishing. As with all lobster fishers, David gets a few personal orders for lobster while he is out fishing, and he is more than happy to put some back for you. If you ask nicely, he will even boil them for you in salt water and cool them down in fresh ocean water. It is what he did for ours, and let me tell you, there is nothing better than lobster prepared this way.

As I arrived back home, I realized that my sense of still being on the boat was with me whenever I would move or turn suddenly. An interesting sensation……..

Spring Arrives on Prince Edward Island

Today marks as clearly as anything the arrival of spring on Prince Edward Island, it is the beginning of the spring lobster season. The photo you see comes from Dolly Silk at French River as the boats are leaving the harbor (taken from Island Morning website of CBC ). We have been watching our neighbors working hard getting their traps ready for the season. The traps are a combination of wood and net and are far heavier than they appear, and once they are water logged and full of lobster, it becomes apparent why most lobster fishers have broad chests and strong arms.

Today is trap setting day and it gets started just as the daylight starts to peak over the water. The fishermen all head out at the same time and head to their preferred areas to set their traps. They are allowed to set 275 traps per license and tomorrow they will pull up their first lobster. The weather today could not be better, it is a bit cool, but the wind is mild and the sun is out. It is altogether a better day than yesterday, when the wind was whipping the waters around the island in what would have been a very rough day at sea.

The signs of spring have been arriving daily for the last two weeks. It began with the arrival of the small song birds at our feeder. They have been here for roughly 18 days and seemed occupied with the seed during the last storm we had two weeks ago. It was just after that storm when the second sign of spring arrived in the form of a pair of robins where were pulling worms from the frozen ground (much to my amazement). The snow from the last storm literally vanished with the arrival of warm rain followed by the glorious sun, and that is when things really seemed to get busy.

The melting of the last snow saw the resurgence of the islanders in the outside world. It was as if they had all gone into hibernation and as the sun returned, they burst onto the scene with a sense of energy and frenzy. They are all over the place, all engaged in outdoor activities- raking yards, clearing flowerbeds, repairing lobster traps, fishing oysters, walking the roads, hanging out in yards. The arrival of spring marks an increase in activity that is fascinating. It is hard not to get involved in the same activity, and as such, I began to clear the flowerbeds (more on this in the future).

So, as the fishermen head out today, let me wish you all a very pleasant and happy spring from the Gentle Island of Prince Edward and I will try to post as many photos of spring as I can over the coming weeks.