Before summer officially began, Buck Bay Shellfish Farm had a soft opening in which they served very generous samples of their tasty menu items for locals to try. I don’t eat meat or seafood much unless it is served to me, and what a treat this was! This is my very delayed THANK YOU to the folks there!
I have a little story about Buck Bay…
Several years ago when our boys were much younger, we had ducks. One day, the minks caught on. I’ll never forget working in the garden on a sunny afternoon with our younger son who was about 6 at the time, and hearing an immediate, shrill sound like an alarm nearby. We ran to where it was coming from and saw the strangest sight – our cat was standing firmly between one of our ducks and an angry mink that had come for the duck. Our cat was guarding a bird! As much as she would have loved chasing after our ducks when they were little, she watched us take care of them in the laundry room before they were big enough to live out under the eagles, and she learned from observing us to protect them too rather than make playtoys out of them.
Unfortunately, a few days later we found one of our ducks deep in the forest. A mournful trail of feathers led us to its body. Its neck had been drained of blood, and the rest of its beautiful body lay lifeless in the brush.
That wasn’t the story, just the lead-in…
One day, I had been out showing a friend all around the island. We stopped at Buck Bay so she could see what it was like, and next to the Shellfish Farm was a fence with at least 100 ducks of all sizes inside. Once you have ducks, you are drawn to other ducks. The following week, one of my sisters was visiting from Texas and we drove out there again. I looked over at the fence and not one duck looked back. The area was empty. I looked around and found someone to ask. Had they all been relocated to a better pen somewhere else? No, she said. A mink had gotten in the night before, vampired each and every neck, and left every single one of their lifeless bodies to be discovered in the morning. Uggghh.
Well, that was a bit morbid! What a tone-switch.
Back to the good stuff…
In a few days, my sisters will be visiting for a week and we will definitely make our way out to this enjoyable, serene spot to eat local food in the open air. It’s a very beautiful, unique “Orcas” experience – the peaceful setting overlooking the bay, the eagles flying by, and being out in the sunshine (well, most of the summer!).
