Working part-time at the East Hampton Town Shellfish Hatchery in Montauk, beginning late July 1990.
The town had purchased seed shellfish and was growing them in upwellers at the hatchery in Montauk. Water was pumped from Fort Pond Bay 300 yards to the building and into tanks that housed the upwellers. Upwellers are made out of PVC pipe. The first ones we made were 18" in diameter and 18" deep with a screen mesh on the bottom and feet to keep the screen off the bottom of the tank. Shellfish were placed on the screen in the upweller. Water flowing into the tank moved up through and past the shellfish, exiting at the top side through a fitting that went through the side of the tank. Thus shellfish were able to filter algae out of the water moving past them to grow.
Upwellers needed to be bumped at the beginning and end of the day to dissipate air bubbles that often formed on the bottom side of the screen. If upwellers weren't bumped and air built up, water coming in to the tank would not flow up through the upweller and out the side. Instead the upwellers would float and the water level in the tank would rise until it overflowed the top of the tank containing the upwellers.
Winds from the northwest also effecting upweller efficiency due to the hatchery's location on Fort Pond Bay, a large bay with long fetch to the northwest. After most low pressure systems moved through the area, high pressure systems, with strong northwest winds often followed causing large waves to break on the beach where seawater intake lines were located. Algae and other detritus stirred up by wave action would also clog the bottom of the upwellers, requiring seawater to the tanks to be stopped, the tanks drained and hosed down to remove the built up algae and detritus.
At this time we were also building the various components needed for larval shellfish culture. We made tables that conicals, 100 gallon, cylindrical tanks, would be placed in to grow the larval shellfish after they were spawned. We repurposed over 24 cylindrical 100 gallon, fiberglass tanks that we got from a defunct oyster aquaculture business that had used them to store lime, what they used to control starfish (sea stars) on their oyster leases. The tanks had a conical shaped bottom. We cut the bottom few inches off the tanks, then made a jig of a funnel to lay fiberglass around the bottom so we could place a hole at the bottom of the conical that could be plugged with a cork. A hole in the center of the cork allowed us to supply air into the bottom of the conical. When the conical was filled with seawater, air coming up from the bottom of the conical kept water, larvae and algae, that we grew and fed the larvae, circulating.
Since I was employed as a part-time contractor, I kept track of the hours I worked and the work I did. This record allowed me to complete accurate time sheets to be paid for my work.
The following are some abbreviations I used in my work descriptions:
UPW - upweller
BP - Bumped, as in bumping upwellers.
SK- Skimmed, the settling pond where water leaving the hatchery went before going through pipes,
300 yards to a final settling pond landward of the beach at Fort Pond Bay. Nutrients in the water
caused several species of green macroalgae to grow in the pond. Eventually the algae would die
and become foul smelling so we skimmed the algae off on a regular basis to let it dry in the sun.
PD - settling pond described above.
B.C.T. - building conical table. We built 8 tables. Each table held three conicals. After building
the tables we covered them with several coats of coal tar to keep them from rotting.
A.M/P.M. T. - Recording incoming water temperature in A.M. and P.M.
DATE, TIME IN/ TIME OUT/ LUNCH/ACCOMPLISHMENTS
7/30/90 12:00/5:00 12-2 SKPD. Afternoon temp, BPUPW
7/31/90 8:30/6:15 12-1 SK PD, Separated nailed boards, BCT, moved UPW tanks, w/ JA, (John Aldred) BPUW
8/1/90 8:00/11:30 SK PD, BP UPW, BCT
8/2/90 8:00/7:30 3:30-4:00 SK PD, BP UPW, BCT, worked on 5 hp pump w/ JA, Cleaned UPW, measured clams and distributed w/ JA and ST (Sue Talay).
8/3/90 9:30/5:00 1:30 - 2:00. BP UPW, moved cinder blocks (used to support upwellers, we hadn't built tables for upweller tanks yet), set up cleaning table, Put core samples into T.T. Cleaned up pipes in conical area.
8/4/90 1:00/2:00 Cut 2 pieces wood, BPUPW, SK PD.
8/5/90 12:30/3:30 BP UPW, Cut wood for 2 conical tables, weeded front loading dock.
8/6/90 8:15/5:30, 1:30 - 2:30, SK PD, BP UPW, Filled out Civil Service Packet, went to Town Hall, Bluff Rd., Riverhead Bldg. Worked w/ Rick (Salter) in p.m. Southampton Lumber for 2 x 4's and carriage bolts. Cut angled pieces for conical tables. Picked up A.C. (for algae room) from P.C. Richard's in Southampton, BP UPW. P.M. T
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
Sunday, January 26, 2014
July 1989
A hot day here in Etters, PA.
I've lost track of the days. I've gone through the beauracracy steps now I have no job and am on vacation until the middle of August.
I spent a week with the family at Diane and Bob's. Every body's gone back to their separate states and that is that.
I ran into a friend not long ago who has this problem. It's touchy and I feel funny writing about it here. But if not here then were? Let it out of the jumble of thoughts that are rolling around in my insides, yelling into each cell for help and resolution.
This friend, Mark, who I haven't seen for along time seems to be doing well from outward appearances. but as we talked I got the impression that he had something on his mind, something that was starting to work its way to the surface. He didn't seem to know how to handle it and asked if he could confide in me. I wasn't so sure I wanted to get into a heavy duty discussion. My resident assistant days were in my past and I wasn't sure I knew if I could successfully listen to someone.
I looked at the ground and then up to the sky just trying to buy time and figure out what was up and down. "Go ahead," I said almost daringly even a bit coldly.
"It's hard to start," he said. "I'm not sure how I got into this or why I want to get out."
"Into what?" I said.
"A relationship."
"That's a start."
"I love this person and we've spent three great years together."
"So, why are you questioning it?"
"First of all the other person is a guy."
"Oh."
"I'd like to say that I'm going through life to experience it. And now I'd like to move on. Sounds pretty cold and clinical."
"Well maybe that's true, but how does a negative label help you solve your problem? It doesn't. It just makes the problem harder to deal with."
"I guess I'm just afraid to deal with this. It's not the easiest thing to work through; another person's involved."
"Well if your unsatisfied with the way things are you owe it to yourself to spend some time working through it."
"You're right but I'm still kind of overwhelmed. We've tried to stop our being lovers and tried to focus on the friendship side, but sharing the same house makes it damn difficult to break out of old habits since neither of us is a real bar socializer - well at least not me."
"What does being a bar socializer have to do with this?"
"It's jumping a couple steps. If we don't go out how can either of us meet new people?"
"Hang on a second. I feel like I'm missing the point here. What's wrong with your relationship?"
"Nothing's really wrong with it. It's just that I don't want to believe that I'm gay. I don't think I am but if I'm having sex with someone of the same sex that means I'm gay. I don't want to be gay. So to not be gay you must go out with women."
A hot day here in Etters, PA.
I've lost track of the days. I've gone through the beauracracy steps now I have no job and am on vacation until the middle of August.
I spent a week with the family at Diane and Bob's. Every body's gone back to their separate states and that is that.
I ran into a friend not long ago who has this problem. It's touchy and I feel funny writing about it here. But if not here then were? Let it out of the jumble of thoughts that are rolling around in my insides, yelling into each cell for help and resolution.
This friend, Mark, who I haven't seen for along time seems to be doing well from outward appearances. but as we talked I got the impression that he had something on his mind, something that was starting to work its way to the surface. He didn't seem to know how to handle it and asked if he could confide in me. I wasn't so sure I wanted to get into a heavy duty discussion. My resident assistant days were in my past and I wasn't sure I knew if I could successfully listen to someone.
I looked at the ground and then up to the sky just trying to buy time and figure out what was up and down. "Go ahead," I said almost daringly even a bit coldly.
"It's hard to start," he said. "I'm not sure how I got into this or why I want to get out."
"Into what?" I said.
"A relationship."
"That's a start."
"I love this person and we've spent three great years together."
"So, why are you questioning it?"
"First of all the other person is a guy."
"Oh."
"I'd like to say that I'm going through life to experience it. And now I'd like to move on. Sounds pretty cold and clinical."
"Well maybe that's true, but how does a negative label help you solve your problem? It doesn't. It just makes the problem harder to deal with."
"I guess I'm just afraid to deal with this. It's not the easiest thing to work through; another person's involved."
"Well if your unsatisfied with the way things are you owe it to yourself to spend some time working through it."
"You're right but I'm still kind of overwhelmed. We've tried to stop our being lovers and tried to focus on the friendship side, but sharing the same house makes it damn difficult to break out of old habits since neither of us is a real bar socializer - well at least not me."
"What does being a bar socializer have to do with this?"
"It's jumping a couple steps. If we don't go out how can either of us meet new people?"
"Hang on a second. I feel like I'm missing the point here. What's wrong with your relationship?"
"Nothing's really wrong with it. It's just that I don't want to believe that I'm gay. I don't think I am but if I'm having sex with someone of the same sex that means I'm gay. I don't want to be gay. So to not be gay you must go out with women."
Sunday, January 12, 2014
July 25, 1986
Today the opel was dragged off to the junk yard - orange hazards blinking sadly as it went out of sight.
What a good car it was. I even got it to run again before the tow truck guy took it away. I can remember Dad working on it after we had it painted and then found it needed engine work. He did work hard on it. We pulled the engine out using his revered come-along hooked to the central beam downstairs. He ran to Harrisburg to have this part polished, the Clines to have the alternator repaired, to Wintermyer's junk yard for piston cap (the original broke on my way back from Florida in 1984, and Dad came to get me in Lumberton, North Carolina.) AAA in State College, towed in NJ when Barb and I drove to check out Southampton College for the first time. An auto repair shop in Altoona - the Opel broke down when Tom Miorelli, Barb and I were on our way back from Indiana University of PA where Tom and I had picked up Barb.
Today the opel was dragged off to the junk yard - orange hazards blinking sadly as it went out of sight.
What a good car it was. I even got it to run again before the tow truck guy took it away. I can remember Dad working on it after we had it painted and then found it needed engine work. He did work hard on it. We pulled the engine out using his revered come-along hooked to the central beam downstairs. He ran to Harrisburg to have this part polished, the Clines to have the alternator repaired, to Wintermyer's junk yard for piston cap (the original broke on my way back from Florida in 1984, and Dad came to get me in Lumberton, North Carolina.) AAA in State College, towed in NJ when Barb and I drove to check out Southampton College for the first time. An auto repair shop in Altoona - the Opel broke down when Tom Miorelli, Barb and I were on our way back from Indiana University of PA where Tom and I had picked up Barb.
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