If you live or spend any amount of time on Virginia’s middle peninsula you can’t help but notice the ubiquitous “Salt Life” bumper stickers. They’ve become endemic enough that now there a few spin-offs- “Mud Life” adorns a jacked up truck, “Assault Life” featuring crossed AKs under a skull, also on a jacked up truck, etc. I recently decided to embrace the trend when my boss at Ward Oyster Company got these bad boys made up.
My work in the hatchery keeps me off the barge for the most part, I go out a few times a year to deploy/fetch broodstock for our spawns. It’s always a nice change of pace for me to get out on the water, it’s all too easy to forget what a beautiful place the Chesapeake Bay is.
The eponymous barge
I realize this post doesn’t have much to do with boat work, I guess it’s more about why I choose to spend my (moderately valuable) time fixing up an old boat. It’s about actively choosing work and a place instead of letting those choices be dictated. For me that means living, working, and playing on the water. You know, living the “Barge Life.” I always joke that “Salt Life” means “I’m a recreational fisherman,” but perhaps I shouldn’t be so quick to make fun of people’s bumper stickers. I stuck “Barge Life” on my mini-van because I’m proud of what I do, and if other folks feel that way that’s fine by me.
If anyone is interested in picking up a bumper sticker, let me know, I’ve got a pile of them. You can purchase the oysters we grow directly from the shop if you’re local or online at either:
http://www.wardoyster.com/
Or through “I Love Blue-Sea”
http://www.ilovebluesea.com/fishermen/east-coast/ward-oyster
And of course Facebook
The Bonnie Boat 