Day 2 Combat Clamming

It's a little after 6:00 a.m. and I'm almost ready for another day of combat clamming. Although my hands hurt terribly, I am happy as a CLAM. After mutilating a dozen clams yesterday we finally learned how to get those suckers! After Jim announced, "This isn't fun! I'm going back to the truck and will wait for you there!" I decided to ask someone who looked like they knew what they were doing. I found an Alaskan Native lady digging away and asked her if she would teach me how to do it. She flashed me this lovely smile and said, "Sure!" Within 5 minutes I had my first clam! Man, if you could have just seen me dancing a jig and whooping on the beach in the rain!

I tell you, it's not as easy as it looks and I have a new appreciation for those little cans I buy in the store and those people who catch and clean them. We were allowed 60 clams each and, after 3 hours of back-breaking work, we walked away with 26 clams (remember we each killed about a dozen). Jim learned how to clean them with precision too.

To make matters worse, we clammed in the rain and came back to camp looking like mud monsters. After doing a few loads of laundry in the laundromat, we shut ourselves up CLAM tight in the camper and I fried up two of them on the spot---to go with the grilled blue marlin and garlic rice I made for dinner. Oh boy were they yummy. 26 clams worked out to be 4 pint-sized packages...or enough for 4 clam chowder pots.

The plan is to get to the beach earlier than everyone else, say 7:30ish--the low tide will be at its lowest at 10:30 a.m. so we will work our way out gradually. I'm to meet cousin Sandy at 9:00 at the outhouse and will give her clam shovel back. I rented a clam gun (a tube like thing that digs a big hole and lifts up the sand). People swear by them, so we'll see...hopefully it will save wear and tear on my hands that are aching now due to so much digging yesterday.

Tonight we are having grilled moose kebabs, some of my homemade beets with butter and my canned green beans...maybe I'll make some clam chowder with potatoes and onions and bacon too!