This farm investment and crop failure just about broke father so in order to raise money for the next year's seeding we moved up to Casper - Mendocino County. From San Francisco we took passage in a schooner taking two or three days to make the trip as the winds were contrary. When we got to Casper we were loaded by putting two or three at a time into a big bucket made out of a half barrel, then hoisted up from the schooner and swung ashore. Casper was a very small town, it's only industry being a sawmill and the taking out logs to supply the mill.
These logs were all Redwood which is something like our Cedar but of an immense size. The stump of one of the cut trees near one of the logging camps and cut off about twelve feet above the ground measured fourteen feet in diameter. At a picnic held there one fourth of July this stump was smoothed off, a railing put around it and a dance held on it. I was too young to take part in the dance but was among those who were there as spectators. Father had a piece of bark of one of those Redwood trees that was fourteen inches thick.
Casper was right on the Pacific with nothing but ocean between it and China.
It was almost a daily sight to see whales spouting or sometimes laying like a big black log in the ocean outside our little harbour.At times we boys would catch salmon by throwing ourselves on them when they would be stranded in little pools left on the beach when the tide went out. We also spent a lot of time gathering Mussels,Abalone,and the other shellfish among the rocks along the coast when the tide was out, but we always had to watch that we would not get caught when the tide was coming in as the water would the raise about six feet before it reached it's height. Mussels are a shellfish something like a clam and are found in bunches attached to the rocks above the water at low tide and we would scrape them off with an old chisel or an old bar of iron throw them into a pot without any water and put them there to boil and soon there would be enough water in the pot to cover them. When cooked the shells opened so that the meat would come out red and juicy. They were considered a delicacy equal to oysters but only fit to eat in he months with an R in them.
Casper was right on the Pacific with nothing but ocean between it and China.
It was almost a daily sight to see whales spouting or sometimes laying like a big black log in the ocean outside our little harbour.At times we boys would catch salmon by throwing ourselves on them when they would be stranded in little pools left on the beach when the tide went out. We also spent a lot of time gathering Mussels,Abalone,and the other shellfish among the rocks along the coast when the tide was out, but we always had to watch that we would not get caught when the tide was coming in as the water would the raise about six feet before it reached it's height. Mussels are a shellfish something like a clam and are found in bunches attached to the rocks above the water at low tide and we would scrape them off with an old chisel or an old bar of iron throw them into a pot without any water and put them there to boil and soon there would be enough water in the pot to cover them. When cooked the shells opened so that the meat would come out red and juicy. They were considered a delicacy equal to oysters but only fit to eat in he months with an R in them.
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