Day 40 DP - The Great Chicken Slaughter

Ah ha! - I bet I suckered you right in with the title of this post.  No, I didn't kill the chickens.  They are both alive and well in their coop - giving me two eggs every day.  As a matter of fact I had two scrambled eggs for breakfast this morning.  Yum.  A nice start to DAY 40 - yipee!

Last night I had a couple pieces of broiled fluke over rice with a little butter and salt.  I also broiled that blowfish that I caught - it was REALLY tasty.  I wouldn't mind getting a bunch of them.  It was small but the meat was nice and white and a little sweeter than the bass or fluke that I have been eating.  I got a little variety yesterday.  Pretty cool huh?  Tomorrow morning I'm planning on testing out the crabbing grounds - that would be a nice Memorial Day survivor food feast - some breaded fluke and a pot of garlic crabs.  That's what I'm picturing for Saturday afternoon.

more to come. . .

"The end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us."

Day 39 DP - Salivation, NOT salvation

Day 39 - WOW!  Day 39! Can you believe it?  Another SDC is almost in the books.  I usually take this time to reflect a little about what I did, what I learned and what new life experiences I encountered on my journey.  Unfortunately, I just don't feel like doing that right now.  I'm beat.  I'm tired.  And most of all, I'm hungry.

I'm not hungry in the sense that I'm starving or feel like I need more food to survive - so don't misunderstand.  I'm hungry for

Day 38 DP - New fish on the menu - Fluke, Bluefish and Blowfish

Beautiful day Wednesday - finally!  My day off - and the sun came out.  I had read some very good fluke reports from the past weekend and today was an opportunity to give it a try before the boat traffic and fishing pressure gets too intense.  After Memorial Day it gets very crowded with many boats in the water and  many people fishing.  It is difficult to get the fish to bite.
Dad came up at 7 am and after I made a quick breakfast/lunch with some striped bass, we were off to see if the fluke would be cooperative.  The plan was to head for the Navesink River

Day 37 DP - Preparation for nice weather tomorrow

Eggs for breakfast and a bag of fish jerky to take to work as a snack.  I'm starting to look at my chickens and actually see them spinning on a rotisserie with well seasoned, crispy skin.  So apparently I haven't gotten too attached to them as 'pets' yet.

Breakfast

 I looked at the weather report for tomorrow and the forecast is quite good.  I think I will give Dad a call to see if he would like to come up to explore some new fluke spots or possibly do some crabbing.  Either way - I'm going fluking tomorrow.

Day 36 DP - Into a routine

A quick scrambled egg for breakfast and it was off to work to start a new week.  Wouldn't you guess it - pouring rain this morning on the drive.  I'd much rather have it raining on a Monday though.  All of this water is going to make for some really nice gardens in a month or two.  I bet the corn this year is going to be fantastic!  And the tomatoes - we are well known in Jersey for our corn and tomatoes in July and August.  I just hope the crabbing is even half as good as it was last season.  No sign of them yet though.

Day 35 DP - A chill in the air, but the finish line ahead

Well, our forecast for a beautiful Sunday turned into a rainy, dreary, cold, uncomfortable May 22.  Go figure.  I had a softball game in the morning followed by. . . whoops - forgot about my radio show again.  I realized it at about 12:25 which left me with a 5 minute show.  I spoke fast and crammed a bunch of information into 5 minutes but I don't think anyone was listening - so what's the difference?  No one has given me ANY feedback on the radio show.  I did it as a trial to see if it would generate additional attention but I don't think it did.  I will do one more show at the finish just to sum everything up.

I managed to spend some time in the yard fixing up the chicken coop and

Day 34 DP - The hunt continues

Today was finally a beautiful day outside and I tried to make the most of it.  I went to the beach for my third spearfishing excursion of the year and was not disappointed.  I was a bit hesitant at first because the previous days of wind and stormy weather really churned up the surf.  It usually takes a few days of calm seas to settle things down and clear up the water enough to dive.  So although it looked great on the surface, what was below the surface could have been a different story all together.

Somehow the water was quite clean.  In fact, the visibility was the best that I have seen all year

Day 33 DP - Eggs and Fried Rice

I had another nice breakfast today - scrambled eggs with sauteed leeks - and a side of arugula.  I'll tell ya - butter and eggs - How can you beat that.  Yum yuuuuuuum.

The Goods

Oh Yeah!

Day 32 DP - SDC Update

Today I was busy at work for the majority of the day and it helped to take my mind off of food.  I managed to finish up my fish jerky after trying to make it last as long as possible.  So that's all gone.  I have one more piece of fresh bass fillet that I will have to use very soon.  I also have the fins and bellies that I need to grill but it has been raining non stop at night - I just haven't had the opportunity.  I don't want to lose those pieces - I will try again tomorrow.

Day 31 DP - A Challenge to the Challenge

Recently I have been reading some of the Survivor forums online and I have also been posting my SDC onto one or two of them to see what type of response I would get.  One forum in particular (Thanks Betsy) has been voicing a pretty strong opinion.  Surprisingly it is called SurvivorSucks.com and the weblink to my post in this forum is: The Survivor Diet Challenge - who's up for it?

Check it out when you have some time.  One response has raised some pretty good questions about the SDC and I took some time to address these questions on the forum.  I thought it would be a good message to post on today's blog as well - since I took all that time writing it and all.  I think you'll find it interesting:

Day 30 DP - The Secret to Losing Weight (and keeping it off)

After 30 days - I have figured it all out.  Here it is.  Are you ready?  You have to REALLY be ready to hear this or else you're not going to believe it, want it, or do it.  Ok - now that I have your attention and you are primed for the information - let's get to it.
The Secret to Losing Weight (and keeping it off) is. . .

Day 29 DP - Gourmet Monday

Back to the grind at work today.  I had bunch of food ideas on my mind from my latest catch.  For breakfast I had 2 sushi bass rolls mixed with fresh greens that are finally popping out of my garden.  Ya-Hoo!  I also received another small gift from my chickens today - I'm planning on using the two eggs I have acquired in my fish preparation for dinner.

I had a weigh in today and I am at 183 pounds down from 202 at the start.  That's 19 pounds lost in 29 days.  My weight loss has significantly slowed in the past 2 weeks but it's still coming off and I expected that to happen.

Back to food - Rather than go on and on with writing, I took a bunch of photos today of my food options.  I made some nice looking dishes for lunch and tried something new for dinner.  I find that it always helps when I try to make food visually appealing as well. Read on. . .

Day 28 DP - Pass the fish liver! Huh?

I had an interesting dinner tonight.  After thoroughly cleaning my catch from yesterday, I noticed that the liver from this big striped bass was pretty large, clean and didn't look too different from chicken liver.  Why not give it a try?  I like chicken liver and certainly foie gras on occasion - sauteed up in a pan with some butter and salt - actually, anything in a pan with butter and salt is pretty good isn't it?  I sliced it up, and after the blood stopped oozing out. . .

Day 27 DP - A couple surprises

Had a couple surprises today - both in a good way.  I'll start off by saying that one of my chickens laid her first egg!  How about that.  It was a cute little brown egg.  My daughter, Jamie was with me at the time of discovery and we were so excited!  Needless to say it hung around long enough for a couple pictures, a couple thank yous to the chickens and then into the frying pan - over easy.  The freshest egg I have EVER eaten.  It tasted really good.  I'm not sure I would have been able to really set it apart from other eggs all together (Debbie always gets farm fresh eggs anyhow) but it was better because my chickens laid it.  And that's all there is to it.

In my experience, the chicken came first - then the egg

Day 26 DP – The birth of Online Survivor? We'll see. . .

Day 24 and 25 were accidentally erased by this Blogger website.  Hopefully they will return.  I did a lot of typing and posted a lot of photos - crap.  I'll give it another day before re-posting.

I woke up this morning and thought I would check for eggs in the chicken pen before going to work.  Well wouldn’t you know it – one of the chickens was out and about in my backyard.  The cats had her under control though.  She wasn’t going anywhere.  And when I opened the gate to the pen, she walked right in – no coaxing needed.  But how did it get out again?  I did even more reinforcing of the walls, the gate and the fishing line across the top today.  I’d like to see one try to escape now! 

No eggs.

Day 25 DP - The great escape

Breakfast - sashimi bass slices.  I also nibbled on some jerky and brought some with me to work.  I'm going to have a  tough time rationing that stuff - it's so good.
I was planning on going home for lunch and riding my bike back to work for the afternoon.  However, when I got home the chickens were gone. 

Day 24 DP - Chickens???

Busy busy today!  Lots of activity - lots of pictures.  Day off from work. 
I started my day with a nice plate of sashimi for breakfast.  It's really good stuff.  Nice and tender - see through thin slices of bass.  My only problem is fending off the kids (who want to eat it just as much as I do).  They are not so understanding that this is my ONLY source of food.

sashimi bass

Day 23 DP - The bountiful striped bass

First off I want to extend a big THANK YOU to Wendy for letting me raid her garden.  I got a couple nice big leaks, some lettuce, spinach and some other greenery.  Thanks Wendy.
I spent at least a couple hours scaling, butchering and prepping those two nice striped bass from yesterday.  They sat on ice for 24 hours and then I tried to make every part count (except for the guts - although the liver may have been worth a try??).

Day 22 DP - Turning the corner

It was a looooooonnnnnnngggggg day yesterday.  I pulled out all the stops and with some cooperative weather I was able to go spearfishing in the afternoon.  It was pretty awesome too.  I saw lots of fish - big striped bass.  I shot 2 of them and probably saw another 10 as well as some blackfish and some sting rays.  I think it's time for me to store away my fishing rods in the garage indefinitely because they just don't work for me.
I had a really fun time for over 2 hours but afterwards it felt like someone knocked me over with a sledge hammer.  The water was super calm as you can see from the 5 minute video - but there was a very strange and quite strong current moving everything out to sea and down the beach.  Yikes!  I didn't even realize it until I was pretty far away from where I had started.

Day 21 DP - Let the hunt begin

Happy Mother's Day.
I took my boat out at 5:30 am this morning to get in a couple hours of fishing before my 10:00 softball game.  Guess what?  I suck at fishing.  Why do I even bother?  I drove around like an idiot for about 30 miles.  I went all the way to Staten Island and back.  Oh and I saw plenty of other boats and people catching all kinds of fish!  The fish are there - I just don't have a clue how to catch them.  And furthermore, I get VERY frustrated, VERY easily now.  My fuse is so short it's ridiculous.  One thing goes wrong out there and I'm ready to break my fishing poles in half.  I'm a mess - and I need some help.
I finally found some baitfish today.  I did wind up catching 2 bunker for bait but nothing else.  For those who don't know, bunker are very oily baitfish and can not be eaten by people.  The stripers and bluefish usually like them though.  And the crabs do too - I should really 'test' to see if any crabs will be cooperative this early.  I doubt it but you never know.

Day 20 DP - The worst fisherman in the world

I was spoiled on my last Survivor Diet Challenge.  The fish were much more cooperative.  I just keep trying and trying but nothing I do seems to work.  It reminds me of when I used to live in Rhode Island.  I kept going fishing but never came home with any fish.  Over and over and over again.  Until one day I decided that was it!  I wasn't going to take it any longer.  I needed to make a significant change in the way that I fished.  One thing that I did was go out on a boat with a friend who was a commercial fisherman.  He taught me about fluke fishing (in Rhode Island) but the tactics don't seem to work here.  The other thing I did was put my fishing poles away and learn how to spearfish.
It's time for another significant change.  The tactics I am using here are not working and rather than make the same mistakes day after day, I need to learn from my mistakes and make a change.  The information I got from the local tackle shop the other day was pretty accurate.  I did locate a school of baitfish in the Navesink River.  I didn't have time to fish them properly though.
I haven't had a substantial meal in a long time.  I don't know how it's possible but I really do feel fine.  I am a bit hungry and I could easily eat a horse - but I don't HAVE to yet.  Maybe once I get to that point I will start making some big changes in my tactics.  For example, I'm thinking about getting a couple chickens so I can get their eggs.  I know it's a stretch for the the Survivor Diet but I'm still thinking about it.
Desperate times - gotta go make a change.

"Opportunity does not knock, it presents itself when you beat down the door."

Day 19 DP - Sunny day

Another beautiful day outside today.  I was able to do some significant grazing in the backyard at lunch time where I accumulated a variety of greenery for a big salad (sans dressing).  Together with a cup of seasoned brown rice, I filled up my belly quite a bit this afternoon.

Day 18 DP - Eating out of boredom

Back to work today and wouldn't you know it. . . the sky opens up, the clouds part and the sun comes out.  Beautiful spring day.  And I'm stuck at work.  Am I a complainer or what???  Well, no more.  I'm not going to talk about how unlucky I have been with the weather forecast any longer.  Just going to keep moving forward and make the best of each day's situation.  There - I feel better already.
Food.  Let's talk about food for a minute. 

Day 17 DP - Water water everywhere

Wednesday - day off from work.  It wasn't raining early in the morning so I took a quick ride up to the beach to check it out.  Unfortunately, the tide was super high and the water was too rough to fish.  Boy do I hate that.  I have to gear all up in my waders and drive over there just to see that I can't even fish.  I should be able to use the surf webcam to see that before I even decide to go.  It started to rain shortly after that.
I went to the local tackle shop to see if I could get some information about where the heck all the fish are.  Since I can't find them and I can't fish in the storm, maybe I can get some valuable intel.  I talked with the shop owner about bait, lures, locations, etc.  He told me that I should be trying in the Navesink rather than the Shrewsbury river.  It's not too far away so the next time I'm out there I'll give it a try.

Day 16 DP - repeat of Day 15

Day 16 is so close to Day 15 that you might as well just read the post from yesterday all over again. . .
Long day at work.  Nothing to eat but a bag of beans.  Came home.  Hopped into the boat to try some fishing.  No fish.  I suck at fishing.
Day off tomorrow and guess what folks - weather forecast is for rain and wind and cold all day long!  What a surprise.  This is really a test for me.  I suppose I could try to find some food in the rain.  But come on already.  Enough is enough.  I was even considering going out on a party boat for some stripers tomorrow.  But I'm not going out into the ocean in a storm.  Nobody enjoys that.
So what am I going to do tomorrow???  I don't have a clue.  Radio show scheduled at noon.  Sorry for such boring posts.  It will get better soon.
 

"Your life does not get better by chance, it gets better by change.”

Day 15 DP - Fading fast

After a long day at work with nothing but water and a bag of navy beans I got home and took the boat into the river to try my luck at fishing again.  I had 2 bluefish bites - no hookups.  I spent about 2 and a half hours out there.
I keep nibbling on that chocolate bar - but at this rate it's not going to last very long. 

Oh how good chocolate tastes when you deprive yourself for a while

It's starting to get VERY real - this survivor diet.  My will power is still strong.  That's all I have left.  This is a short report because that is all that I have had to eat all day.  Oh - forgot to mention the wonderful smell of rotisserie chicken when I walked into the kitchen tonight.  Mmmmmm.  It probably tasted soooo good!
I haven't scheduled the radio show make-up yet but I'm shooting for Wed. at noon if anyone's interested.  Maybe I'll try the beach in the early morning.
Spirits low. . .
Energy waning. . .

"In any crisis there also lies opportunity."

Day 14 DP - No Fish, No Radio Show - whoops!

First and foremost - I lost track of time today and forgot completely about the radio show that was scheduled at 12 noon.  Sorry to all of my loyal listeners (if there are any?) for this oversight.  I will make it up by doing a broadcast this Wednesday.  I will try for 12 noon but before I commit I will see if that time slot is available.  Geez - my third show and I already forgot about it.