Sunny Day!(Found a Lifejacket)

     Yesterday, I had a day off, because it was Sunday, and I forgot to Blog. Yesterday, I just sat around, but I did go kayaking with Uncle Art on the lake next to the house. It was fun, they are really easy to push across the water. For dinner, yesterday, I had 2 hotdogs, then we played "Right Left Center" which is played with 3 dice. It was fun, we each got 3 quarters, and we would rool dice to see if we had to put the quarters we had to the left, right, center, or we got to keep it.

     Yesterday, Aunt Pennie got me a soft Pretzel for me to eat with my new mustard. It was very good! Here is a picture.

Yummy Pretzel

     Today, I didn't have a day off, I think Uncle Art will have the Boat get worked on Wednesday, so I can have a day off that day. Today, I got up at 4:30 AM, like usual. I made a sandwich, packed some pretzels, cherries, and 2 waters in my lunchbox. I also brought sunscreen because I have a huge sunburn on the back right of my neck. I didn't have breakfast, I wasn't that hungry. We drove down to the Wharf. We loaded 10 new traps onto the boat, then we were off.

     It was sunny the whole day, with no clouds, so I used a lot of sunscreen. It was SPF 70 so it was going to work good. We hauled about 100 traps today. It was all easy, single traps, close to the islands, not in the middle of no-where. We had no Herring, so we used all Rock Fish for bait. Herring is really expensive now, so we just used Rock Fish. 

     While we were hauling traps, Uncle Art found a Life Jacket that came up with one of the traps that we hauled. It was red, and not that bad of condition. Here is a picture.

Lifejacket

     We finished all of the traps at about 11:30 AM. It was pretty early. We had to wait in line to go park the boat and unload the lobster, but there was only one boat ahead of us. We were done and I went to wait in the truck. We drove home and I took a shower, and by the time I got out of the shower, it was 1 PM.

     Tonight, we might order Dominoes pizza to the Kaeg store.

             -7/25/2016

Long Haul Day!

     Last night, I went to bed at about 10:30 PM, like normal. Uncle Art woke me up at 4:30 AM, also as usual. Today was going to be a long day, Uncle Art told me. I got up, I made a breakfast sandwich, with sausage and cheese and eggs in-between an English muffin. It was good! I packed my lunch, I put some cherries, crackers, and I got slices of turkey, put jalapeno mustard on it, and rolled them up for a snack. I found my head scarf to keep my hair out of the way on the boat. We got in the car and drove down to the Wharf.

     When we were there, Uncle Art got his 5 new traps onto his boat, then we headed out. Usually we are pretty close to land, but usually once a week, we go out farther to the middle of nowhere in the water, and we haul traps, and some doubles. Double traps are basically 2 traps that are hauled with one buoy. Usually, there is one trap per buoy, but Doubles are 2 per. When we haul those, he slides one down to me, and he does one, so I get to take the lobsters out of the traps when we haul doubles.

     In the beginning of the day, I was feeling nauseous for about the first 2 hours of the work day. It was a bad feeling, because I couldn't do anything about it. I was burping a lot, because I just had breakfast, and the boat is always moving, and rocking so basically shaking me up. After 2 hours, I started to feel better, and I became filled with energy for the rest of the day basically. I was good after that.

     When we were hauling out in the middle of no where, we pulled up 2 of Uncle Arts traps that were from last year. They were significantly different looking since they had been on the bottom of the water since last year.

Old Traps. 

     We also found a really big lobster with a big claw in one of those traps. 

The Big Lobster!

     It was probably the longest time I have ever been out on the boat. I ate cherries, and the turkey mustard roll-ups whenever I had a break. We got back to the house around 3:30 PM, so I had been on the boat from about 5:30 AM, to 3 PM, which is about 9 hours. While we were on the boat, on one of the buoy's, there was a HUGE thing of seaweed attached to it, and I took a picture of it, to show how big it was!

HUGE PIECE OF SEAWEED!! It was on the buoy!

     We probably hauled about 150 Traps that day, and we ended up with a full box of lobsters, about 700 LBs, (actually 694 LBs) It was a pretty good day! I saved a tiny starfish I found, and a Lobster claw that one of the lobsters ripped off of another one.

Tiny Starfish!!

Lobster Claw!

     It was a long day, so I was happy to finally get home, where I could take a shower, and relax for the rest of the day. Tomorrow is Sunday, so we dont go out to haul, because its our normal day off every week. We might not go out Monday, so the boat can get more work done on it, but we will see! 

                 -7/23/2016

Day Off! (Boat Repair)

    Today, I had a day off, so Uncle Art took the boat up to get worked on. I was able to sleep in. I woke up at about 5 AM, with no alarm, and I realized I had fell asleep on the couch last night. I walked up to my bed, then I set an alarm for 8:30 AM, so I didnt sleep to late. I guess I turned it off at 8:30 AM, because I finally got up at 10 AM. It was nice to sleep in, but good I got up at 5 AM, with no alarm so I can get used to that sleep schedule.

     I had 2 pieces of pie, and some popcorn for breakfast because it was basically lunch time. I just hung out on the couch all day, watched Netflix, and at about 4 PM, I went downtown with Aunt Pennie, Uncle Rich, and Aunt Ruth Ann. We walked down by a lot of different cool shops that we went in and checked out. One had a lot of things from the beach and things made out of shells and stuff. It was neat!

     Aunt Ruth Anne showed me how to play Pokemon Go on her phone for the first time, and I caught some pokemon for her. It was pretty fun, but I probably wont play it anymore since you need WiFi anywhere to play it and since I dont have a phone, I cant play it. We drove back to the house, and we were going to get dinner at The Happy Clam, which has German food.

Eating at The Happy Clam

Lobster Trap Chair!

I like this show.

     Tomorrow, Uncle Art said it was going to be a long day, until about 3 PM, so we will hopefully get a lot of lobster. After tomorrow is Sunday, so I will have that day off, and Uncle Art said he is going to get the boat more fixed Monday, so I might have 2 days off in a road!


           -7/22/2016

First Day Back!

     Yesterday, I flew to Maine by myself. I had 2 flights, from GR to New York, then from New York to Maine. I was by myself and it was fun. I got to Maine perfectly fine, and I went to go get my checked luggage. I waited until I saw my Aunt Pennie, and then she drove me back to her house, about a 2 hour drive away. When I got there, Uncle Art took me to eat dinner at Taco bell/ KFC (they were 2 restaurants in one building. It was yummy, then we went to get icecream. I got a strawberry milkshake. When I got home, I just hungout untill about 10:30 when I went to bed.

     This morning, I woke up at 4:30 AM. I got my clothes on for the day, then I made myself a sandwich, and I got a bottle of water, and some cherries and put that all in my bag for lunch on the boat. We drove down to the Wharf, and took the row-boat to the Lobster Boat. I put on my new yellow seal suit, and my new gloves.

     It was slow at the beginning, and then, about 90 minutes later, the boat started to make weird noises. The Shaft of the boat was making weird noises, and it was over heating. The Shaft is the long pole that goes along the bottom of the boat to the back of the boat and make us go forward. It was overheating, and Uncle Art tried to add some grease to it, but it wouldn't work, so he decided to go back because he couldn't keep driving it like that or it would get worse. 

     He drove me home, thinking that we were done for today, and he went back to work on getting the Shaft fixed so it could turn and not overheat. I took a shower, then after that, Uncle Art came back saying he had fixed it, and I went to go out again, right after my shower. The whole time, Seagulls and a Seal were following us, hoping that they could get the rotten fish out of the bait bags I dumped off the side of the boat, and they did. It was a nice day, and it was hot, but not on the water because it had a cooling effect. We had our sandwiches, then continued. We got done at about 3 PM. It was a good day, we got about 540 LBs. We used up most of our bait. 

     I got home, took ANOTHER shower, and started to make Mac & Cheese for a snack. 

              -7/21/2016 

Flying to Maine Tomorrow...

     Tomorrow morning, I will be flying out to maine. I will be getting up at 4:00 AM so that I can leave the house at 4:30 AM. I will be taking 2 planes to Maine, and this time, I am flying alone. I dont think it will be that bad, because I have traveled so much, I know how to get around the Airports, and find my Gate and stuff. I am taking a back pack, and one Checked luggage. I think that I will be spending about 3 and a half weeks out in Maine this year, and I will try to take pictures, and Blog everyday so that I can post about what happens each day. I fly out tomorrow which is Wednesday, then I start to work on Thursday.

NEW UPDATE!! (MOVING?)

Hey everyone!! Its the end of January 2016, and I thought i would do a quick update on my blog. I am going back to work on the lobster boat in August of 2016 again and i will continue to blog. I will use the same website as last time.

http://lobstermanjackson.blogspot.com/

That is the link to the blog site! I am also moving to Ireland for 2 years starting in late August and i will be coming back to Grand Rapids for senior year! While i am in ireland, i will start a new YouTube channel, and have a blog to go along with it! I will have more details on that later! Bye!

The Mama's point of view (guest blogger)

I've been going to Maine since I was in high school.  I remember so well, the homemade bridesmaid dress that I wore to Pennie and Art's wedding and refusing to eat the lobster at the reception.  I've grown a bit since then, not wearing many homemade gowns anymore, and now eating much of what Art catches!  Maine to me is pure and authentic, I feel a sense of peace and calm like no where else in the world.  I have loved it more every year as the time has passed. Never did I imagine having boys that would one day stern the boat for Uncle Art, but here we are, life does surprise you sometimes.



Since we have been summering a bit in Maine for the past few years, and Jackson is now 14, it was time to take it up a notch, and boy did we!  One of my favorite days was going out and watching J haul.  I mean he has always been an impressive kid; smart as a whip, piano player extraordinaire, and a rival at negotiating!  But I was unsure of how he would be at straight up hard labor.  I had my concerns going into this, but they were unfounded and I couldn't be more proud.  J got up daily, very early, fought the fog, learned to band lobsters quickly, and put together a system to get bait bags done efficiently enough to keep up with Captain Art.  This is no small task; Art is a very hard worker, very serious on the boat, and an excellent role model.  I've always known it takes a village to raise kids, and I am so lucky to have Pennie and Art in mine.  While Art taught Jackson the "art" (pun intended) of lobstering, Pennie housed, fed and put up with an x-box in her living room for 5 weeks (something I couldn't bear to do!).  While I worked, Oma walked daily, and Levi kept us all on our toes.  But Jackson continued to work every day that Art went out and became a pretty fast helper on the boat.

To say the summer was a success is an understatement!  Jackson now has more money in the bank for the car that he is saving up for when he can drive.  I am moved to tears with the pride I feel for this kid - what an inspiration for Levi to look up to.  He even kept up this blog.  I'm amazed, humbled, and more grateful to our Maine family than I can express.  I know that Opa is beaming with pride, watching and aiding his grandson from above (and probably calling him Little Joe Jackson).  We all can't wait until next summer when we get to go out again and live in Maine for part of the summer. Who knows, there might even be a cottage in our future, on the Atlantic, maybe only a kayak ride away from Pen and Art.



You did good Jackson, really good!!!

Thanks Art! What an oppor-tunity you have given to Jackson!

....start practicing Scooter!