Cape Life: oyster celebrations.

definitely fall here in cape cod! this past weekend i was involved with the OYSTERFEST celebration here in my town of wellfleet. friday during the day i spent my service time in barnstable on the barnstable county farm hauling branches from the tree nursery area. i was really excited about this project because i have been recently toying with the idea of being a (christmas) tree farmer! we didn't get to do much concerning the actual tree farm on the property, but it was fun to be there working and learning about the different trees they plant. we will most likely being going back in the spring to help with seedling plantings, so i am looking forward to that!
friday nite was the offical start to oysterfest, which was celebrated with a DISCO DANCE at the lighthouse restaurant in "downtown" wellfleet. some americorps alum from last year came back to celebrate and i believe the whole town was out & dancing, because the dance floor was packed! saturday we got the chance to just walk around the fest and check out different booths and music and of course....oyster shucking! i did not actually eat any oysters, but i did have some amazing lobster bruschetta and tried a swordfish skewer (kinda weird, but good i guess). sunday morning some of us biked down to the harbor to cheer on some fellow housemates that were running the 5K "shuck & run" and later headed back to the fest to jam to some bluegrass! in the afternoon i returned to the festival to do some actual "service". i was part of the recycling initative and basically got to stand in the freezing cold by some garbage cans & recycle bins and told people where to put what. i was amazed at how many people just threw their plastic cups in the garbage....sad. we were also "recycling" the oyster and clam shells. the shells will be thrown back in the water to hopefully form a haven that will attract living oysters and clams to come and live in to help successfully produce more shellfish in the cape area, since (as you know from my previous post) most shellfish is now "grown" through aquaculture. even though it was freeeezing cold, we did get a lot of "thank-yous" and comments that people were happy that we were here helping to get people to recycle....so i guess it was worth it to freeze.
today was another chilly day...spent on the beach! it wasn't so glamorous though, as we were with 100 high school freshmen teaching them about dunes, water & land ecosystems and why we shouldn't litter the beaches. did i mention it was cold? the wind was howling & blowing sand everywhere...but apparently the kids had a good time, even if we were miserable. another good reason to freeze.
so the population of wellfleet has now offically lessened and i am sure we will be bored on the weekends soon enough....but i am still thoroughly enjoying myself & my time here!
take care & stay warm!
ABBEY