How To Make Salt from Ocean Water

I've had a few requests for how to turn sea water into salt, so here is how I do it.

Get a big stock pot, or several, and retrieve sea water in them. We usually make this a fun outing on golf cart. After getting back home with the filled pots, I strain the water through several coffee filters placed inside a sieve or strainer. This will get out any sand or sea creature parts that may be in the water. Yuck!

After that's done, place the cleaned water back in the stock pots and boil down until it evaporates. This will take several hours. When the water starts getting low, about half an inch or so, keep a close eye on it as this last bit tends to evaporate quickly leaving the salt in the bottom. The salt will appear as if by magic. One minute there's water and the next there's salt! Be careful not to let it scorch. When most of the water is gone, spread the damp salt onto a cookie sheet or other flat pan and place in a very low temp oven to dry out. Stir every fifteen minutes or so until the water is cooked out.

Put salt in glass jars to store and enjoy using your sea salt! It'll taste much saltier than table salt. I really love the taste!

Before Daybreak

"It is a habit of my life always to be out of the house before daybreak. There are sights and sounds, there is a glory on the world then that it hardly wears at any other time. And I treasure the memories of things seen and heard then." Archibald Rutledge from Home By the River

I totally agree with Mr. Rutledge. I can count on one hand the number of times in a year that I miss the sunrise on any given day. It's the loveliest time, so quiet not even the birds are awake yet. It's a hovering between two worlds not unlike the ebb tide; a suspension of time almost mystical.

Gift From The Sea; Eleventh Reading

I think that Anne Morrow Lindbergh's book Gift From the Sea has influenced me more than any other. It's the only book that I've read so many times; eleven to be exact! With each reading I find new tidbits of wisdom or some part of her life which I can relate to mine at this moment. This is what makes it so timeless.

This present reading, I enjoyed her description of a perfect beach day (spent with her sister) which she will take home with her and try to imitate in her everyday life. "One perfect day can give clues for a more perfect life." Her day went like this: A morning swim in the sea followed by breakfast on the back porch. A few morning chores then the rest of the morning is spent in writing. Lunch and chores and errands are followed by an afternoon on the beach letting thoughts run where they will. At dusk, she returns to the cottage and sips sherry before the open fire. Supper and talk while washing up the dishes and a last walk on the beach before retiring finish out the night.

This is the daily rhythm Anne prefers: Morning is for mental work, afternoon is for physical tasks and out-of-door jobs, and evening is for sharing. I like this daily order myself. One thing I need to change to line up more with this ideal is to do less work after breakfast. I get started on cleaning right after breakfast, and before I know it it's 10:30 with the most mentally productive part of the morning eaten up by physical work. Then I'm too tired to do much deep thinking, so this will be a goal of mine this school year.

And as I find it hard to sit down and write or blog with a dirty house, I'll try and do a tidy-up at night before bed so most of that work will be done then and not in the morning.

I've read quite a few books about artists and their habits. Many of them choose Anne's pattern of work. Some go back in the afternoon for another long writing session. These are men who have wives to do the housework, so they don't have to bother with domestic tasks too much, or else they can write in the midst of chaos.

What patterns of work have you readers established for yourselves? I'm especially interested in writers/artists and your schedules. What works best for you? I'd love to hear!