When It's not always rainin'....They'll be days like this

When there's no one complaining, there'll be days like this.

When everything falls into place like the flick of a switch.

Well my mama told me there'll be days like this......

June continued to be rainy and dreary, with few sunny breaks in between. We did get a couple of nicer days to where we were able to get out and do some clamming again. One of the spots was incredibly steep and I needed the dog to get me up the dunes and out. I've trained him to help me up stairs, and up steep hills the last few years and he's doing really great at it. I couldn't do it without him!

We struck out that time, because we didn't go at the right tide time. We looked it up, prepared a little better, and the next time that we decided to go we were only able to get 5 clams. The tide wasn't "low" enough. But, I was finally able to make up some clam chowder to warm our bones and it came out really good. (See Recipe HERE)(Scott and I were being kind of silly and kept reenacting the clam chowder scene in Ace Ventura Pet Detective.) "New England clam chowder." I'd say. He'd go " Is that the Red or the White?" ........"I can' never remember that....white? Yes!!!"

One of the days that was warmer, we decided to go check out Lewis and Clark National Park. It was still cloudy but at least it wasn't raining and there was no rain in the forecast. When we showed up it wasn't too crowded - only a bus full of kids that looked like they were on a field trip, and really very few people in the park at the time.

We found upon arrival, we had to give them another $80 to re-up on our national parks annual pass. This was a good place to take the dog because he was allowed on all of the trails. As some of you might know, dogs are not allowed on most National Park trails but because this one is essentially in the middle of a busy, urban area it's not necessarily some place that they are trying to preserve the wildlife necessarily, but more of a historical significance. What helps, is Oregon is nothing like California with the excessive dog shit everywhere. It seems everyone around here knows how to be fairly responsible with their animals.

It's more about the fort, the location, and the Fort to Sea Trail. We started out by visiting the small museum, which I found fascinating. I'm much more interested in the Native Americans and how they lived in certain areas. Being from the southwest, I'm used to seeing much of the same things, centered around the 4 corners areas and south. This was so incredibly interesting to see their canoes, BEAUTIFUL woven baskets (OH how I'd love to sit and learn from the woman who made the amazing whale/Sea lion serving platter) And more. They had such a beautiful, rich culture. I didn't linger though. Seeing all of this "In the past" and how we wronged so many always makes me incredibly sad. Scott said "That was really cool, but realizing Lewis and Clark were the beginning of the end for these people just really sucks." We both needed to hike now, I think.

Click on photos to enlarge

There was one trail that somebody on an Oregon hiking group had said that was a really good hike, and we decided to set out to see if we could find it. we always find that a lot of these parks have confusing maps and not exactly the best directions. Sometimes there's a bunch of signs, and sometimes there are no signs, so it always leaves you wondering if you're on the right trail. Turns out we were not on the right trail. (none were marked with directional arrows or signs) and we ended up going down to completely different trail than planned. It was still really cool and it followed one of the main tidal rivers up into the surrounding landscape. There was some historical markers there and some stuff that had to do with a lot of the operations that are long since gone from the area.

The Delta and the Columbia River and surrounding areas have a lot of old pylons that are sticking up out of the ground, from ages past that are still there. The amount of docks and old buildings that must have scattered this area at one time must have been pretty impressive. They even make their way up into the estuaries. We passed by a cut in the trail and saw something that said difficult trail ahead, or I think it said steep or something like that. We said oh, well maybe we should check this one out, and headed up. We are from Colorado and know what steep and rugged is all about. I didn't think that anything this close to the coast was going to be particularly difficult, though.

It turned out there were a couple steep spots but it was actually pretty easy going with a very well-maintained trail and flat rock path under foot. We saw no other people on this trail the entire time that we walked it until almost to the end. It was a beautiful walk and it was exactly what I needed to re adjust my attitude.

The plants I surveyed were some familiar, and some that were very foreign. There are cleavers everywhere, and I will be harvesting some for my stores before we leave. There are large plants I at first mistook for comfrey, but upon closer inspection was not convinced. Something wasn't right about it. What I loved about growing my own medicinal herbs at home was it just wasn't photos. It just wasn't a dried leaf. I saw how they grew, what they smelled like, how they felt and the growth patterns. Well, turns out it's a highly poisonous Foxglove. All in pink or white they are beautiful when blooming. They may be tricky to use as medicine but oh so pretty. There is a ton of plantain - two different kinds as far as I've seen. Lots of grasses, Tall grains and short marshy ones. And, SO many berries. Blackberries, Salmonberries, Thimbleberries, and Strawberries. In fact the modern strawberry is the offspring of the wild coastal strawberries! The dunes are covered in them!

click on the photos to expand.

I can't wait for late summer. Hehe.

Sitka Spruce, some sort of coastal or I think it's called a Shore Pine (Stunted and twisted from the relentless blowing sand from the beaches and dunes), Western Hemlock, Douglas Fir, Incense and western red cedar, Red Alder, and many shrubs I've yet to ID. There is wild prickly Cucumber - or "Man root" and lots of Skunk Cabbage..... The leaves on those things!

Scott's dark mood didn't clear as easily. He was having a difficult time with it also, and it did help him, but I still think that he had some issues to work through.

Some of the people here at the park are starting to finally have conversations with us and it seems like we have gotten past the awkwardness of the confrontation about the lights with the two people from that incident. We are definitely not best friends with them but we are at least exchanging pleasantries and hellos at this point. It still feels incredibly awkward, though, but I am not going to loose any more sleep over it.

I got some plants in the ground and my tomatoes have all but died. I did buy some petunias and some other plants to dress it up out front but unfortunately the Slugs were able to get to those right away and decimated all of them. It doesn't take but an afternoon for these behemoths to eat everything! I'm glad that I was able to spend $10 on slug food! <sarcasm>

The blood red bus of horror is still here and we have discussed with other employees about throwing a Molotov cocktail into the front windows and Burning It Down. If you are just joining us, it's where a dad of 3 teens - a boy and 2 girls was hauled off for doing things to them in there. Horrible.... But, alas, burning the bus down would put a burden on the park because then they would have to then clean up a burned-out shell, so we decided against it. ;0)

Anybody out there looking at a red bus that has been converted into a camper beware. There was some bad s*** that happened inside that bus. I just don't think that anybody needs to ever live in it again.

We've been bumped up to 5 days a week finally after being here for almost two months. Again not getting the hours that we were promised, but I really didn't feel like confronting anyone about it. When we do go in, all we do is sit around and watch people in the activity building color or play basketball or play on the couple of video games that they have in the corner.

There are no activities that I teach or do, other than the set ones we do once a weekend. In the beginning we had a kind of Fear Factor type of game that the kids had to search through live worms and dirt to find pennies and then the first one who found the total 10 pennies would get a prize. Things like that, but since then, we have not done anything of the sort. We also took a day to help fix part of the golf course but that hasn't happened since either. We gave him a list of things that we wanted to improve, and that we could actually do well because of our background, but he didn't seem to be really interested in making it happen.

I am still going through the massive amount of stuff in the storage area and slowly going through each box, I can only spend an hour or two up there each day so it kind of takes a little bit of time.

Our 2nd dance party went horribly wrong and the play back of the music keep cutting out, due to either a problem with the speakers, or a problem with the wifi running it. Everyone ended up leaving. Talk about embarrassing!

People here just don't dance though. I've taken all line dances out except the Cupid Shuffle. No country dancing, and nothing real modern, either (Kids and much of it has adult content) I want to include everyone but it's usually ONLY the kids dancing, with the parents all sitting around watching. I feel like I'm witnessing a re-play of the genX childhood. Parents apathetic and not wanting to be bothered by their kid's playtime. They come here to escape life and like their kids can run amok with little to no supervision. (that's what apparently we're here for) I'd have never, ever let my kids run wild around a campground with 100's of other campers, cars, bikes and other things at the ages these do. I had a small child still in diapers screaming at the playground jump pillow, with no one around to claim her. Finally I found a small child who was her brother, but he was barely maybe 8 years old. Far too young to be watching one in diapers at a playground. But, I digress.

I don't know what it is, but everybody's got this weird sort of apathy towards everything here. It's SO opposite what we dealt with, with the Boomer Resorts in Arizona. Everything is okay being mediocre. Everything is okay being half done or not fixed. The golf course has duct tape over a lot of it, there are holes that don't work, When they built the fences and bridges they didn't even cut the posts off the same length. The fences are falling over, and there are so many other problems that we see that we could easily fix with permission or maybe $150 worth of supplies to make it happen, but our requests have been largely ignored. Neither one of us can figure out why they don't want us to help them fix anything. It's just strange. We have passed on some knowledge of some things and they implemented, but it's been very little. We are forced to sit for hours at a time and do next to nothing. I told Scott that this place is killing my creativity.

I have done some soap making sessions with molds and have had fun with that, but that's about as far as the creativity goes.

Lack of hours and lack of ability to go anywhere I thought I would try to catch up on my own creative projects, and I have re-arranged a few things, and also have been able to work on a few projects of our own and get some things done in the camper. Scott was able to help me with installing a sliding platform in a dead space in the front of my Island by the sink. I had a vision of a drawer just sliding out in that way I could put my cookbook on it or other light things that I could just push out of the way or bring back out if I needed it. It was the perfect spot for it and it didn't take a whole lot of work. It was just a little bit of thinking and about four trips to Home Depot LOL.

I was also able to add another shelf in one of my cabinets that was entirely too tall and had a bunch of dead space at the top with no shelving. I was able to find some shelf brackets that you just stick to the inside that actually hold a shelf on Amazon and it was absolutely the coolest thing ever. https://amzn.to/3umHTtd < Click there!

I also found these cool spice racks that you don't have to drill into the wood, either. They are STICKY as hell and you'd better be ready when you do because they do NOT come off. It's perfect for not putting a bunch of holes in everything, and now my spice rack is within easy reach. No more stools to get to my garlic salt, lol. https://amzn.to/3NPE9qW <Click here for it!

We were also able to get some more of the hanging damp rid type bags and now my clothes are not wet when I put them on in the morning. The dehumidifier is doing great, and it runs almost constantly. We dump about 1 gallon per day, approximately the same as Georgia. The 2 younger kids in the teardrop are having horrible problems with the humidity. They are from the Desert, too and I tell ya, us dry climate people can't deal with this humidity well, haha.

At least my hair isn't all static-y and my skin feels great. I don't look like a leather saddle bag, anymore, either. That dry, dry Arizona air sure ages you!

We started talking with another couple that's here, and they gave us some information on a place in Georgia that is just opening up this winter. I'm really hoping that they will get back to us and we might have a position there to help them open their new park. We have contacted HR and left messages but at this point three weeks later have not heard back anything. We heard from another that is already staffed for the Winter season. Sadly, we may not be going to Georgia again!

Something about the people here being weird, though just thought of. Here is a good example. During the same conversation with that guy, he said that he was on his way to the trash and decided to pick up a few pieces of trash and some other things that were in a few empty sites. He was chewed out by a long time employee saying that those were HIS sites to clean, and that nobody else was allowed on his sites because he's been cleaning those sites for 20 years and they're his. Like what? lol.

I mean I get that if you work here for 20 years or something, that you have a certain way that you like to do things, and people coming in every summer and screwing it up would be kind of annoying. I get that, but I mean...wow.

The two people in the teardrop that we've been talking with a little bit, we decided that we were all going to go and do something together. Scott still hasn't got his fishing license yet and I'm not sure if he's going to or not. It's really expensive for an out of state fishing license for the year and they don't have month to month or seasonal fishing licenses so we're not sure if that is going to be worth it or not. They want to do some fishing, hiking and backpacking.

We visited one of the local farmer's markets that's a little ways away but not too bad. It's not a bad Market but out here on the coast it was very talked up and honestly it was not much more than a small weekend market like we have back home. I have been to some big farmers markets and they are insanely huge, and THAT is something to talk about. It was still fun and I was able to get Odin some really nice treats and a gift for my Mom and Dad. We will be back - and I have even turned in my vendor application to be PART of it! It's a month into it already, but I figured what the heck, why not. Scott bought me a $270 face painting kit, so I might as well try to sell some more stuff and do tattoos on kids!

The dog and the cats seem to be enjoying themselves greatly. There is so much grass and such nice shade trees here they love laying out in the sun or in the shade whenever the sun is out to relax and listen to the birds or watch the other cats walking around. Unfortunately my cat has decided that because all of the other cats that are out there walking around she should be too. She's extremely defensive of her little territory here and one day I open the door to talk to Scott and she must have seen the little kitty from down the road. The nice Tomcat that's always just so nice to her. She hit that door like a bat out of hell and went straight for that cat and tackled him right in the middle of the street and a cat fight ensued. I couldn't believe how fast she was or the fact that she had zero fear going after a cat that was twice her size. Scott ran over and grabbed her. Poor Kitty from down the road. He was so offended. I havn't seen him much either lately. I think he gave up on making friends.

I'm glad we got the little bit wider spot we did, as it's starting to close in around here. There are SO many people here now and it's quite crowded, so I'm sure Tomcat kitty not comfortable wandering like he did before.

She was also really kind of bitchy to the cat across the street and I took her over there to talk to that other cat once. All she did was sit and hiss at her. She's So Mean! So she gets tethered to the back of our little spot and enjoys sitting and watching. She's already caught two snakes back there, and I can't even believe that. She just sits in there and waits. Perching there for hours staring into the bushes. Odie however, has made lots of friends here and one of the newer work campers that got here not too long ago has a visla that is a service dog. Odie absolutely loves that guy and every time he sees them he lets his off the leash and they just run around the camper for at least 20 to 30 minutes. They're so good about sticking around to they just burn it up in circles and then and Odie gets slower and slower and slower and then finally he just gives up. He's not as young as he used to be, and the visla is fast!

We almost ended up having to go into Portland to visit the vet, because the dog started having some issues with his foot, and limping. I just think that there is something wrong with his toe. Or perhaps maybe his ankle that he keeps re-injuring and I would just like a picture of it. But now there is nothing open or available for the next month for a very wide radius around this area. So, what I did is wrapped it up and I have kept his running and chasing after things like a ball or a stick on the beach to a minimum. It seems that that is where he always re-injures it the most.

I took one of our days off to start bypassing the water pump in the lower bay that was leaking. . It took me a while to find what I needed at Home Depot, because they just aren't very good at certain fittings. But I found what I may have needed and got to work. I realized that I had forgotten two nipples that I really needed to make this work and went ahead and just did the minimum amount necessary to at least bypass the pump so it would stop leaking. But what I didn't account for was one of the fittings being very weak and blowing apart on me. Unfortunately, it did that while I took my shower, and blew water all over underneath the trailer. I was livid with myself that I trusted something like that and I knew better. Instead of doing it the right way, I took a shortcut and now I'm paying for it. It was so much water it was unbelievable. We quickly removed everything and chucked it all in the garage to dry, and stuck the small dehumidifier and a fan in there to dry it out. I'm so pissed the NEW waterpump is leaking AGAIN. It also left a horrible hardwater mess in the bay I'm going to have to scrub out.

Flag Day came and went and then I started preparing for something that I could not wait for. For my birthday, the final gift was my kid. My husband actually bought my own kid for my birthday. ❤️ He bought him round trip plane tickets to come out and stay with us for a couple of days. It wasn't long because he was unable to take any time off from work so he took the time that he normally has off during the week to come out here. We went to the store bought a whole bunch of food.

I had asked him about a week beforehand what he wanted for dinners. He said mom I really want your meatloaf and your Calico beans. Now the Calico beans aren't mine, exactly. The main dish's recipe came from Scott's mom. Over the years I tweaked it a little bit to make it my own and it is a favorite in our house and usually gets devoured pretty quickly.

I figured if we were going to pick him up at the airport we would spend the day in Portland, have a late lunch with my cousin's daughter, and then we would then drive back. I had the entire week set out with activities and places that we were going to go to. We weren't going to be able to drive far because of the gas prices, so we were going to stay a little bit more local but it was still going to be a lot of fun. I was nesting big time and made sure that I got everything perfect for him to come, and relax while here. As a joke I even got him some of the Gogurts that were cotton candy flavored. Those were his favorites when hewas little, and I giggled when I saw them. I had to.

The night before that he was supposed to come he called me. He was a little bit silent on the other side he then said, mom I have bad news...... they canceled my flight.

NO!

My heart sank. I knew right then that he wasn't coming. Not only was it a bad risk - with the whole country's flights in turmoil, but it left us with only a few full days with him. With all of the flights canceling that could mean a long layover somewhere where he's not even supposed to be. What if his connecting flight gets canceled? What if his flight back home gets canceled? Or that connecting flight gets canceled? He could miss days of work and if anybody has ever lived from paycheck to paycheck you know that is an impossible thing to do, especially now with everything being so expensive. He just could not risk it.

I also feel like he was not really in the mood to go through the drama cacelled flights and crazy, angry travelers would bring.

I understood, but I cried so hard that night and the next day. I just needed a hug from my baby. I had a feeling that it was going to happen. The news was warning of it, but I wanted to stay positive, but I was still just crushed.

To top it all off, that night Scott noticed that the underbelly of our trailer was sagging pretty badly. He look looked up underneath there and it was full of water. It's torn at 4 of the bolts and bent the aluminum trim. When that water line blew it filled up the whole underbelly of insulation and the covering for the bottom of the trailer. Neither one of us even thought to look under there that night, because it seemed like all of the water had been going to one side and out a drain hole, but obviously it did not.

I was so pissed as he started drilling holes in the bottom of it to let the water out. I can't believe that I let something as stupid as this get the best of me. I am so much better than this, and it's a rookie mistake. God damn it I thought I can't believe this.... this is going to cost some money. We have pulled most of the insulation out that was sopping wet that we could reach with our hands without opening the entire underbelly up. Unfortunately we saw a raccoon come out from the underbelly of one of the older campers that is was being moved eventually, and we did not want that to happen to us. Plus there are mice and all kinds of other critters that could get up in there and just wreak havoc. Once you have mice it has to be completely and thoroughly torn out and cleaned or you will always have mice. They smell where the food is but they also smell where they know that their friends have been and they follow the scent to the openings. Kind of like what ants do - scent trails.

I texted our supervisor to tell him that we were no longer needing the week off and that if things got really busy and he needed us somewhere to feel free to schedule us. I received no response so we decided to go ahead and do some sightseeing. One of the days we traveled to a spot that I'd actually seen on a Tik-Tok the night before. We weren't really sure what we wanted to do, and that popped up. I was like oh here we go, Tik Tok is listening to us again. We headed over to a trail that was absolutely gorgeous. It's part of the Oregon Coast Trail, and the views were absolutely spectacular. There are wildflowers everywhere, and not a whole lot of bugs.

The bugs here have been relentless, and if they don't calm down, then we are going to have to get my vendor tent out, and my bug screen because there is no way that we're ever going to be able to sit outside with the amount of mosquitoes that are in this place.

The hike to the cliffs was actually quite difficult but completely and totally worth it and it lifted my spirits a little bit. But it also was extremely emotional because I was really really wanting to share some time with my son, and this would have been just incredible. Odie again helped me back up the crazy trail, and we even passed up 4 young girls that said "it was too hard" and turned around. There was one spot that was through a huge field of wild roses. They smelled so intoxicating, we just stopped and smelled the air.

Another day we spent driving around one of the little towns and doing some shopping at a thrift store. We also went out to lunch at a small bar that had some outdoor seating. The food was ok. Nothing special. The funny thing is around here is not many of the places have outdoor seating, and the ones that do - it's not covered. What in the fresh hell. It RAINS constantly....why no outdoor covered seating? Maybe because it's cold, too. No one actually WANTS to go out in that weather anywhere I guess, lol. We also went to another market and bought the absolutely enormous strawberries. In fact that night, instead of dinner I filled a bowl full of ice cream, strawberries, bananas, whipped cream and topped with crunched up corn flakes.

Best dinner ever.

This week has been absolutely gorgeous, and incomparable to all of the last two months that we have been here. The sun was finally out and it was finally over 70°. Up to this point nothing has felt like summer to us and it was already the summer solstice. Summer is half over and we've only begun to feel like it began.

One of the other days was also spent driving in the opposite direction all the way up to Washington State. We went to a state park and visited a beach and did a couple other things and the lunch was pretty good, and had a gigantic burger. We didn't stop at the state park because they wanted $10 for day-use and we really didn't have that much time. But we will definitely be back at some point when we have a little bit more time to spend there. I heard they have a really cool Agate Beach that you can go search for rocks on. We walked the beach, but it was very windy and cold. We didn't stay long. In fact the last couple times to the beach it had been cold and windy. So much for summer swimming!

That area of Washington is amazing, and seems to have a little different feel. We saw a cranberry farm and a big "Ocean Spray" building. Wait. Ocean Spray? Neat! The little towns were cute and touristy, and the properties were beautiful. Much more manicured and taken care of, yet not. We loved it up there!

We also went out and got some more clams, sans the kid. The last two times that we went out clamming we were able to secure our limit within only about half an hour. The second time took just a little bit longer but it was still great. Because he was supposed to be with us on that clamming trip I decided that I was going to FaceTime him and I showed him how to clam via my phone. At least there was that option and he could be there in spirit. I don't think he was real into it, but at least "I" had a good time, haha.

Going back to work after a week off is going be a little bit taxing. I really hate just sitting around but we only have 2 months left and we are bound and determined to make this work for the time we have left. We have to take our truck in for warranty work in a couple of days. There's a big recall where they have to replace the entire fuel system. After two years it really hasn't failed us but I don't want it to. I just fear that sometimes when these guys at these places don't do their jobs right that they could screw something up and we could be stranded because of what they did and not necessarily what the recall was about. I will make sure that we are able to successfully Boondock wherever we're at, just in case. That means making sure I bypass the water pump PROPERLY this time.

The guy next to us in a large coach had said also to make sure that we bring extra fuel filters with us just in case something happens. if there are metal pieces or something that gets into the fuel system. Scott said that's a hell of a good idea because you never know what could happen and you could be in bumfuk nowhere and not be able to get the right fuel filters.

Today we went out crabbing for the first time, and finally made talked about plans a reality with our two friends in the teardrop trailer down the road from us. We have also solidified plans to go out and do an overnight camping/hiking trip on the coast with them. Date and everything.

I'm super excited for that because I've wanted to do that ever since we started this. I love backpacking and it's been forever and a day since I camped and back packed and hiked. We have Zero Backpacking or camping equipment. lol. Not sure I want to spend the money....Didn't I see a tent in the mess upstairs?

We caught at least 25 to 30 crabs, but we were only able to keep one. Most all of the large ones were female, and all of the other ones that were male were too small. We had to leave at 1pmish because they had to work, and it got HOT. The sand was nuclear and Odie started yelping and holding his feet up. I ran him through the snakey marsh grass as fast as possible, and to the truck. I HAVE to figure out shoes for this poor kid. He runs them off immediately - all the ones we've tried. Ugh!

But, we did have one and it was absolutely delicious. I love crab it's one of my favorite foods but it's very very hard to kill them. For me. I am such a wussy when it comes to that kind of stuff I just can't deal with it very well. I do it but even the clams make me sad when I have to put them in the boiling water. Thankfully he'd already expired by the time we'd gotten home. Phew. I didn't have to kill him.

Great thing about not being in charge at this job, is we have the 4th of July off. It lands on one of ours days off and unlike other places it's not an "All hands on deck" for the Holiday. We will probably head someplace to watch a parade, but end up back here because..... eh on the fireworks. Odie does not do well now with them, and so we couldn't leave him in the trailer alone, nor could we take him.

This year doesn't make me feel real patriotic. It's pretty sad state of affairs and I'm not feeling real festive.

I guess that's it for me and I'm going to sign off. I'm excited for the next two months I hope things get better with the nice weather. It was HOT this past weekend, and the humidititty makes it tough. Not used to that after 2 months of rain!

Toodles!

Nikki's Razor Clam Chowder:

5 to 10 Razor clams, cleaned and chopped. (obviously you can use whatever you have including canned clams)

2 Tablespoons Butter

2 tablespoons chopped garlic

One red onion, Diced (or I used 5 shallots, with most of the greens, as well)

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

1/4 tsp summer savory (Optional)

1/2 cup Shaved and dried Burdock Root (optional, obviously)

3 Tablespoons flour

1 Cup Milk

1 Bay leaf

1 teaspoon pepper flakes

2 large potatoes peeled and diced

1 cup half and half

sea salt and coarse pepper to taste

2 tablespoons fresh or dried parsley

One square container vegetable stock

1 cup cooked bacon, diced. (reserve grease)

Melt butter, add a table spoon of bacon grease and sauté onions and garlic until fragrant.

Whisk in flour to make a rue, and stir for one minute. Gradually whisk in milk, vegetable juice, add bay leaf, pepper flakes, thyme, savory, and whisk for 1-2 minutes until slightly thickened.

Stir in Potatoes.

Bring to a boil, reduce and simmer until taters are tender. About 12 minutes.

Razor Clam Chowder

Stir in Half and Half, season with salt and pepper to taste, add 1/2 the bacon, the clams and simmer for an additional 5 minutes until clams are done.

If soup is too thick add more milk or 1/2 and 1/2 until reaching desired consistency.

Serve with parsley and bacon as a garnish.

Offer oyster crackers