John(307), yes he and Carol are the new owners of 307, had a good day on the water yesterday. He and his friends went into Copano and used artificials to catch these fish. The larger trout was 27 inches.
It is sad to have to say goodbye to the former owners of 307, Dave and Hanne Wright, but we will stay in touch. The new owners of 402 are Kathy and Glen Riff. I hope to meet them soon.

We had some pretty high winds this last weekend. The winds drove the tide to the lowest its been this winter. Notice the 'No Cast Nets" sign is far out of the water. At summer high tide, the water generally comes to about the middle of this sign where the red and white are separated. That has to be more than 2 feet.
The high winds also left our new flagpole just a bit out of plumb. I guess it  has to settle in. It's rated to withstand 76 mph winds with flags.

Our board is looking at options for an entrance sign for our property.  This would be on the north side of the entrance road near Fulton Beach Road. Above is one prototype under consideration. The colors are for illustrative purposes only.

Our flagpole and flags were installed today.  This pole is much taller than I had envisioned. Interestingly, this pole is removable. They placed a metal corrugated tube about four feet into the ground secured by concrete. They then put the flagpole into the tube and filled around it with sand. I never would have thought that was all it would take to keep the pole secure and vertical. It is so tall that is sways in the breeze even without flags.

Update on the cable TV upgrade.  Our owners overwhelmingly voiced their opinion in favor of the upgrade to the Time Warner Variety Pack and HD channels. My recent contacts with Time Warner indicate there may be a 60 day lead time to get the upgrade installed. They are extremely busy at the moment with the digital conversions taking place. Time Warner will be scrambling their signal early next year. At that time every television will need either a converter box or a digital adapter to receive broadcasts. The digital adapter will rent for about $2.50 per month for each television. There is some question as whether the adapter will be available for purchase from an aftermarket provider. The adapter will provide only the stations we currently receive.

I know we have had some strong north winds lately, but Jerry is trying to convince me that the winds blew this bench into the bay. I say no way. I think it had some help. Either way it will be interesting to see the plan he comes up with to pull it out. It was at least 200 pounds before it got water logged.
I have been watching my electrical usage on Smart Meter Texas during these cold days.  Some owners are going to have a surprise when the next bill arrives. I keep my thermostat at 70 during the day and 65 at night. I'm still getting really close to $20 per day usage. On top of that, my contract with Infinite Energy expires on February 4th. We have to stay under contract or the rates are outrageous. I thought with the recent decline in oil prices we would see a drop in energy prices since they are most related to natural gas prices. So far that has not happened. Maybe between now and February 4th the prices will come down. I'm hoping to find a reasonable 36 month plan.
The pest control company we had last year has sold their business. We are expecting a substantial increase in cost this year. We have not budgeted for a really great increase, but today we received a bid from another company who quoted us about $20,000 more than we paid last year. Our board will keep looking, but that may be the market we are looking at right now.

Work began this morning on erecting the flag pole that was voted on at our annual meeting last year. It was super cold, but the guys dressed warm and worked through it. That big auger in the top picture made short work of digging the initial hole. The pole and flags should be up soon.

Jerry was able to find these guys today to trim up the palm trees next to my condo. They did the job for half of what our last bid was for. These palms were constantly shedding debris when the winds came up. Jerry would regularly have to clean up the beach after every cold front. I had to be cold on their tall ladder. My thermometer on my deck read 25 degrees this morning.

Work began yesterday on replacing 10 rotted wooden foundation pilings under the 700 building. Rebar frames are being wired together here for insertion in sonatubes. The old rotted post will be cut off below ground level and the concrete will fill the hole and sonatube. Total cost will be between 5 and 6 thousand dollars. While the foundation crew is here, they will also repair the fractured floor joist under the 100 building. We will likely use the same contractor to build an extension of the bulkhead next to the HEB property.

This morning was way too cool to fish, but deer hunting is still in season. Pat(602) took this 137 B&C buck this morning at his lease at the El Nido ranch in Laredo. It was between 7 and 8 years old.

We had an unusually noisy New Years Eve here. Ray, Steve, Esi, Paul, Scott, and Meg were ready, but many others had equally plentiful loads to fireworks.

This interesting story appeared the Caller Times.

Casterlines have storied seafood history in Fulton

FULTON - Driving up to Casterline’s Seafood, you will find the rolling shutter doors wide open, welcoming any curious visitor.

Piled several feet high are layers upon layers of recycled burlap coffee and chocolate bags, cleaned and ready to be stuffed with local oysters.

A forklift stands at the ready, waiting for the arrival of the oyster boats, and as usual I catch Bubba Casterline at the helm.

He sees me approach, turns off the engine and says with an earnest smile, “Hey girl, how’s it going today?” It’s good to see him.

Bubba’s family history is well-recorded and thought-provoking.

A third generation fisherman, his great-great-grandfather Jonas Casterline is credited with setting up roots on the Texas coast.

Born in Fayette, Seneca County, New York, on a Tuesday in the summer of 1810, Jonas grew up a long way from South Texas. In 1837, at 27 years old, he enlisted in the Army and fought under Zachary Taylor in Oklahoma, Florida and Texas.

Jonas was with Taylor during the annexation of the state of Texas and made his way down with his wife, Rebecca, to Rockport-Fulton, even living on St. Joseph’s Island as many settlers did during the late 1800s.

Jonas’ son Frank, the youngest of nine children, was 8 when his father died in 1869.

Frank went on to have a son, Frank Junior, who was Bubba’s grandfather. Bubba’s father, Leslie Eugene, or L.E. as he was known, was the first mayor of the town of Fulton and partners with his brother Cecil in the seafood business, which they started in the 1940s.

By the 1950s the Fulton harbor front was nearing its peak with numerous fish markets and boatyards for building commercial vessels.

On any given day, one could find rows of tables with 50 or more men and women (mostly women) heading shrimp from the day’s catch.

The Casterlines (Cecil, Frank and L.E.) had a warehouse where workers packed shrimp and oysters in barrels, paying wages in tokens that could be cashed or spent in town. Inside his office where the warehouse once stood, Bubba pulls out a drawer on an old desk loaded with fading family photos and cherished mementos. He holds out his hand and shows me a half dozen weathered coins, which upon closer inspection appear to be tokens.

“These were used by my family to pay oyster shuckers back then,” he says softly, the edges of his mouth lifting into a reminiscing grin. “It would have been good in our office for a few cents today. The boys could use them as money in Aransas County and were accepted by local businesses.”

Then he adds with a wink, “Also used quite a bit in games of chance.”

We go on to chat about the oyster business, how this season is predicted to do versus the drought-heavy couple of past years. Bubba pulls up the National Estuarine Research Reserve System’s local website, showing me the current salinity level readings for our waters.

“It’s interesting, you know? A lot of people don’t know about all of the hassle but also the benefit that goes into harvesting wild caught oysters. Our local customers complain that the farm-raised oysters are too bland or just not right.”

I nod in agreement and have noticed a difference when tasting products from oyster aquaculture.

“Shipping these local oysters can be a real headache,” he goes on to explain. “Some buyers refuse our oysters if they are too irregularly shaped or if their thin lips are cracked. They want them tidy and round.”

He pauses for a moment, and glances at the tokens still in his palm. In the brief silence, it occurs to me that while our oysters may not be attractive on the surface, they are essential relics filled with delicious character. And surely there is still value in that.

Karey Lynn Butterworth is chef and owner of Glow, a restaurant that celebrates local fish and shellfish on the Texas coast and author of the cookbook, “GLOW: Tastes from a Tiny Boathouse.” She lives in Rockport.

Creamy Stew 

with Copano 

Bay Oysters 

and Homemade 

Croutons

This decadent stew is easy to pull together on a weeknight with just a few ingredients. For special occasions you can jazz it up and pour into crispy puff pastry shells or throw in a few artichoke hearts and a splash of Pernod. Croutons are a tasty way to use our leftover baguettes at Glow and a worthy addition to your pantry staples.

Ingredients

2 pints (approximately 32 ounces) small to medium-sized raw shucked oysters with their liquor*

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 tablespoon finely chopped shallot

1.5 cups milk

1.5 cups heavy whipping cream

2 teaspoons Sriracha hot sauce

Sea salt and cracked pepper to taste

Minced parsley, sliced chives, or sliced scallions for garnish

Unsalted butter

Homemade Croutons (see recipes)

* Quantity of oysters used may be adjusted according to your taste. I prefer my stew chock-full of them.

 

Directions

To make:

The most important factors in preparing this stew is to not boil the milk cream and not to cook the oysters too long. Oysters just need a few seconds cooking, otherwise they become tough and chewy.

1. Using a fine mesh strainer, drain the oysters, and reserve their liquor. Go ahead and strain the oyster liquor too, so that you remove any sand or grit.

2. In a large pan over medium heat, melt the butter. Add the shallots and sauté until soft. Add oysters and simmer very gently for about 2 to 4 minutes or until the edges of the oysters curl.

3. While the oysters are simmering, in a separate saucepan over low heat, slowly heat the milk, cream and oyster liquor (do not boil).

4. When the oysters are cooked, slowly add the hot cream mixture to the oysters, stirring gently. Season with Sriracha, salt and pepper.

5. Remove from heat. Serve in warm soup bowls and top each stew with parsley, chives  or green onion garnish and a generous pat of butter.

Makes four to six servings.

 

Homemade 

Croutons

Ingredients

15 slices bread or a large baguette

1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted

Sea salt

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Remove crusts from stale bread slices or if using baguette tear bread into pieces. 

2. Cut bread slices up into small cubes. Gently toss bread pieces with melted butter. Arrange cubes on an ungreased baking sheet. 

3. Bake for 15 minutes or until golden and browned, tossing midway through. Sprinkle with sea salt. 

4. Cool and store in a tightly covered container or plastic bag. Perfect on stews, soups, salads or crumbled onto macaroni and cheese.