Details, Details

As yall know from earlier posts, we had our fancy ceiling tiles installed, and all but 1 small strip in the den is done. We are still missing the crown molding and some painting, but this project is nearing completion. One thing we noticed right off is that our bright white a/c vents and recessed lights were gonna stick out somethin' awful. A quick dash to Lowes and we started yet another project: Paint da accessories. I spray painted the vents and lights and Peggy "antiqued" them with some black paint. They came out pretty good, I think.

This also provides a better view of the ceiling for those who have been askin'. It's really starting to look like a "cappy's den" now, don't ya think?

All Work And No Play? NOT HARDLY!

Our good friend Sam stopped by the other day and brought me a magnetic thermometer to stick on my BBQ pit. You can see it in the first picture on top o da pit by the smoke pipe. As yall know, we have been very busy doing home projects and I thought it was high time we fired up da pit, so me and Marky, our happy, chubby pup minded the Pit while Sparky helped Peggy in the house. I smoked up some chicken and sausages, with a pan of potatoes. Our neighbor, Monica, stopped by with 4 ears of sweet corn and I threw them on the pit, too for roasting. Always remember; no matter how busy ya get, to take a break every once in a while, enjoy life and pause to revel in the life ya have. It's precious and just like this Gladiola gracing our front door, gone too quickly.

The Great Attic Cleanout

One of the big things on my "honey do list" this hitch was clean out the attic. This is a chore that has to be done before Summer, 'cause our attic aint no place to be in da South Louisiana heat. Yesterday dawned clear and breezy, and it was only in the low 70's. I called my young nephew Ren, offered him a few bucks to help me do da deed. Being a full time LSU college boy, he readily accepted the offer and came right over. We began by taking everything outa da attic and strewing it all over da yard. One of our neighbors came by and could not believe; "... all dat stuff came from ya lil attic????" Well, anyways we organized da mess into piles: 1 by da road for the garbage guys to take away, 1 in da back of our SUV to carry to Goodwill, and 1 to be sorted through and replaced in the attic. Peggy donated lots of her material and sewing stuff to Ren's mom's Home Ec. Department. We are now putting the finishing touches on sorting through stuff, and when the attic cools off this evening we will put back all da keepers. For those fo yall wonderin das what we been up to the last 2 days.

While Cappy went to fetch himself something to drink, I've usurped the blog reigns. While Cappy was out on the boat, he had me make a long precise 'to do' list, in detailed outline form. "Put a Roman numeral I, then a small 'a', then under that a regular '1' ", and so on, and so on. Here at home I was running at full tilt trying to get things done in anticipation of his coming home, plus having to deal with the organization of plumber, electrician, cabinetmaker, floor tile guy, carpenter for the tin ceiling, granite countertop guy and seems like somebody else, but it all had to be choreographed timewise and a few of them were holding everything else's progress, much to my...uh...let's say 'dismay'. I'd get overwhelmed at times, but consoled myself with the thought that when Cappy got home, I'd be able to take a break and get a little rest out of the deal. His 'to do' list had a lot to do with Ren helping him clean out the shed, getting the boat ready to go fishing...going fishing...a lot of easy-going stuff, which sounded just fine with me. He said I could sleep in while he quietly worked on his 'honey-do' aka 'to do' list. Well, that sounded really good to me. This list then consumed his every thought and he had a lot of pent-up energy out there, waiting and chomping at the bit until he could get home and start working on it. Well, he 'hit the bank' in high gear, getting up early at 5:30 a.m. saying, "Time to get UP!" then bounced the bed, yelling, "Bouncy Bouncy!! Time to get up...we can always take a nap later!" ....whaaaa???? Well, we ran and ran, bought out Lowe's home store, plus other running around I can't remember. I was draggggging. Finally, Monday the cabinetmakers came to hammer and pound the morning away with electrical saws and screwdrivers and all kinds of loud 'men work'. I stayed in bed and blissfully slept, totally oblivious to all the commotion going on just outside my bedroom door...and the door was open the whole time.

Yesterday Cappy told me that he and Ren were going to bring down the boxes from the attic out to the patio where I could go through them at my leisure in the shade. HAH! I don't know what happened, but everything was strung out all along the driveway from the back where the shady patio is, to out by the road, for all the world to see, but worse...for all the neighbors to see. In the hot sun! Cars slowed down and I was aware of 'full frontal gawking'. Sonia hurridly came over to see what was wrong. I kind of giggled to myself thinking she probably thought we'd gotten into a big fight and one of us was getting tossed out on their butt. Naw, she took one look and knew what was afoot. As usual, she lent me moral support, "Just bite the bullet; it'll be ok"...I guess I looked kinda frazzled. Her words helped me as I began carrying, pushing, and dragging boxes under the shady patio roof. When the boxes first started coming down out of the attic, my attitude was one of ambivilance...what did that mean to me anyhow? This attic job hadn't even been on the 'to do' list. I serenely puttered around inside the house until Cappy said, "Now...you've got a lotta LOTTA work to do sorting out all these boxes, Pegody". WHAAAA???? Just GREAT.

Well, that was yesterday. This is today. The boxes are all sorted. The SUV is crammed full of stuff that's going 'somewhere', Ren drove home with his truck full of stuff, one of our Forum friends, Stephen came by and took a lot of stuff off our hands, the garbage truck arrived at 5:30 a.m. this morning (I heard them) and they drove off with their truck loaded down. It's wonder all of this fit in our tiny attic and that the interior roof hadn't collapsed. How had this happened? How had we accumulated so much stuff over the years? It doesn't matter. We now have a dozen or so neatly packaged boxes of important stuff in the attic, tomorrow the electrician comes and drags his stuff to the attic and he'd better be neat about it! >:-/

This Year's Gardening

I noticed that, unlike earlier years, we haven't posted anything about our garden yet. That may be in part, due to the fact that we planted very late, and so far aint had nuffin ta brag about. We were so busy with the holidays and company, and remodeling the house, that our garden sat unplanted 'til late April. On my last day home last hitch I managed to finally harvest all of the carrots and beets from the winter garden, and work the soil some before I left for work. Somewhere towards the end of the month, Peggy got some pearlite and plant food and re-worked and planted our lil square foot garden and herb patch. This year we planted yellow squash on one end, cucumbers on the other end and okra in the middle. Our little 4'x4' herb garden got peppers, parsley, horseradish, green onions, a salad patch and peggy's beloved oregano. Those of you who follow our post may notice the missing giant rosemary bush that threatened to take over our lil 4 foot garden. It now resides off in another corner of the yard with room to get as big and unruly as it wants. Since the soil was so warm by the time we planted, in a short few days the stuff was sprouting. Even the usually late okra can be seen sticking its little heads outa the middle of our garden. Today being May 18th the garden hasn't been planted a month yet and already is well on its way. the squash on the far end already have a couple flowerbuds, the cucumbers are beginning to reach for the netting, and the okra are beginning to reach for the sky. I am entertaining the thought of putting in some bush beans for ground cover as the okra get tall; we will see. The peppers are blooming in the herb garden and We will soon be eating salad from the patch of greens. The soil for the herb garden came from our compost pile and the garden seems to be sprouting a few "volunteers"; time will tell. We may be off to a late start but we have plenty good friends and neighbors and already are recieving bags of veggies from them. Yesterday Sam and Louise gave us a bag full of juicy cucumbers and one full of new red potatoes; both of which Peggy immediately used for her Yankee potato salad. If past years are any indication, our little garden will soon be doing its share of producing too. As always we will keep yall posted.:-)

The Little Red Light House

In the last post I told of the ole brick lighthouse in Buras, Louisiana, that got destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. So while in the lighthouse frame of mind, I thought I'd tell yall a survivor's story about the little Red lighthouse. The 125 foot "Southwest Reef Lighthouse" was completed in 1859. Made of iron and standing on screw-type pylons, it was designed to survive hurricanes and warn mariners of the dangerous reefs of the Atchafalaya Bay. It's red light operated for only 2 years 'til the Confederate Army disabled it by removing the light lens and windows from the lighthouse, making it dificult for the Yankees to navigate the bay. The Union troops recaptured the light equipment, and the lighthouse resumed operations in 1865 and worked non-stop until 1916, when dredging operations had removed the shoal and made the little red lighthouse unnecessary. It sat in the bay, forgotten, for around 70 years and endured many storms, until the town of Berwick brought it to their city park and restored it. There it sits today, a true survivor, with a happy ending, which is rare in the case of lighthouse stories.

The Buras Lighthouse

For years the little brick lighthouse at the entrance to the Buras boat harbor stood watch over the fishing/shrimping fleet moored there. In my travels I passed it many times, but the only picture I could find in my files of the lil red and white lighthouse is this one I took several years ago one foggy morning. I guess I fell guilty of complacency and kinda took the lil lighthouse for granted. That is, until Katrina. The town of Buras is a lil fishing/oilfield town on the west bank of the Mississippi River south of New Orleans. You probally never heard of it on acounta it wasn't deemed news worthy in comparison with New Orleans, when the Storm hit. The town of Buras was completely wiped out; folks left not just homeless but "townless". The devastation was complete and nothing was left undamaged. When I got down there a couple months after the storm (it took that long to clear the waterways of wreckage to allow River traffic.) I literally cried at the sight of the Buras boat harbor. The harbor looked like a child had emptied a bowlful of toy boats out onto the floor. Boats lay all askew and partially sunk in the shallow waters of the bay. The efforts for the protection of the harbor had been no match for Katrina's fury. There were boats scattered upside-down, on their sides, or in any manner of disarray all along the levee. The majority of boats lay sunken on the bottom of the bay, with either their tops, a few bows, etc. or even bottoms seen partially sticking out of the water. That started my tears flowing, but what made me sob aloud was the sight of what was left of the little Buras lighthouse, which was like seeing an old faithful friend, who had often helped me, and had saved many a life in it's existance. Now there was just a pile of bricks strewn along the point where is had rested for all those years, with no evidence of it's existance but a little red and white showing in the midst of the jumble to tell me that it was the tower. The reason you most likely hadn't heard about the destruction of Buras is because, simply put, most folks are unaware of the many little towns along the Gulf coast that were completely wiped from the land and became like a blank slate. The honest hard-working folks of these li'l fishing villages did what their families have been doing for generations: They picked themselves up, went back home and went to work quietly rebuilding. You didn't see the mayor of Buras 'begging and blaming' on national tv. Today, when ya pass the Buras boat harbor, a new lighthouse keeps watch over a lively fishing community. It is modern and sturdy, and air can pass through it so as to better stand the next "Big One". It lacks some of the charm of the old brick structure and aint got the ole lighthouse's class, but it's a new light for a new harbor of new boats, with new life and dreams, and fears. They are all back up and running, with hardly a sign of the horror that passed. But if ya look close and ya know fishermen, ya can tell that it was bad not too long ago. When I brought these pictures back to show Peggy she was moved by the last one and said it was kinda ironic with the lighthouse sitting next to the shipping containers which are from the "Posidon " shipping line.

Happy Mother's Day to all of you. I say this to everyone who has a nurturing spirit. There are people I know who have no children of their own, but who have given so much love to people whose mothers couldn't or wouldn't give them the love that they needed. In that way, I believe with my whole heart, that they have inspired or "birthed" people, who are today, what they'd never have become without that special love and caring. My daughter and Aunt Gussie come to mind right away. These two have 'parented' and 'nursed' many broken hearts and in that way, those they have nurtured have then become their loved ones, whom they couldn't love any more than if they were their own children. Women like this need to be honored today as well.
As for me, I'm sitting here in a chocolate stupor, smelling like a rose...several of them as a matter of fact. Most of you regular readers know my son, Dan by now. He's the (now) oldest. He and his family sent me these beautiful roses. I love the fact that they remembered to include some orange ones, which tie into my strange ORANGE hall :-) It's funny, but lately any time I introduce Dan to anyone, the person blurts out, "You look like your Mom!" At which point we both look at one another, Dan and I, kind of bemused and don't know what to think...or especially what to say about it. We kinda stammer "Oh...good...thank you". Nice lookin' kid, wouldn't cha say? ;-P

Thom is next in line. He lives in Alfred Station, NY, where I went to college. He always sends me my mostest favoritest honey-sweetened assorted chocolates. As you can see in the picture above, next to the roses, the poor, mangled box of chocolates; the "Ooops Guy" delivered them, but then I've been like a vulture pickin' at them for several days now...I just couldn't wait for Mother's Day. (sometimes I'm just like a little kid myself.)

Next in line is my only daughter, Jennifer, whom, since her brother, Dan, married a girl also named Jennifer, has let me go back to calling her by her knick-name, "Sookie". As I said earlier, although she has no children, she has 'mothered' many...even me. She spoils me. (She spoils her cats rotten, tho'...LOL)

Here's a picture of 'the baby', Joe with Cappy, taken last December. We all had a great time. Speaking of knick names, take another look at the Mother's Day card in the top picture. The frog one, with the yellow flower in it's mouth. Inside it says, "Motherhood...it's not for the squeamish! From you little 'Froggy', Love, Joe". (Also a gift card from Best Buy, cuz now he considers me a kinda/sorta geek, seein' as how I can get online...giggling here.) Joe's knick name was "Froggy" because when he was a baby, just learning to creep, his legs were behind him, and when he squatted down, he looked like a frog. The tradition lives on. Here's a picture of his daughter, Ashley, at Christmas time. She looks like she could just up and leap across the room. So cute. But as for Joe, looking like a little froggy didn't stop there; when he was about nine months old he could slowly crawl up to flies and pick them up. We watched him do it several times. This one particular time he crawled up to this fly who was stupid enough to just sit there and let him do it. Joe slowly reached out and picked him up, then...GAH! squished him in his fingers, but then he started to put it up to his mouth, at which time we all leaped out of our chairs, shreiking, which made the poor little 'froggy' about jump out of his skin. He's still my little "Froggy" today, who has his own little bunch of 'tad poles', who in the picture way at the top of the page again, with the roses, seem to be laughing at the froggy Mother's Day card. And the sweet ending to this post today is a picture Joe sent of his youngest little polliwog, Kaitlyn. And now my story has been toad.

(Say it Fast:) "Ho-Hum, Sweet Ho-Hum"

Cappy and I have worked on a few home improvement projects together, and it didn't always end up with the happiest of results. That's why he resignedly insists we hire what we need to be done, and if at all possible, that it's done while he's blissfully away on the boat. Well, if I knew then what I know now, I'm wondering if there wasn't a lot I couldn't have done by myself with a can of paint and a crowbar. Oh, sure, our house might have looked a little boring back then, but there was peace on earth, as I knew it. As we knew it. Finally today, after six weeks, of using my garden kneeler to get down low enough, then hunching over the edge of the bathtub to scrub pots and pans in the bathtub, because the bathroom sink was too tiny... we got our kitchen sink! I was about ready to take the dishes down to the river's edge and beat them on a rock, like they used to wash clothes in the olden days. I counted it as a merry adventure weeks ago, but the novelty soon wore off. Now I just want normalcy. Today the plumber, Mr. Gordon Rose made it so, Bless his heart. It wasn't easy either; there were, of course, complications because I had purchased a 12" deep sink that could more easily accomodate Cappy's assortment of HUGE cooking pots and pans. (One of the first things Cappy asked me over the phone, once it was all in place was, "Is it big enough for my 'cadillac pot' ??)... I hope so. Well, Mr. Gordon got it and the dishwasher working!

Yesterday, John from Bayou Granite and Marble came and installed the countertops. He and his helpers had them finished in less than an hour. I was impressed, and Oh yummy, the color of these countertops look better than I had remembered, from when I had picked out the stone. We are still waiting on 'absolute black' granite to be shipped in from New Jersey, of all places, for the little dining penisula.

And today the tin ceiling tile came in! Four boxes of them. Sam's wife, Louise spent the day with me as all this stuff was taking place, Bless her heart, or I woulda been walking around wringing my hands trying to 'help' and getting in the way, along with SparkyBear, who is always 'helping'...he likes MEN, that dog, and 'guy things'; fishing, hunting, hammering, tools...whatever; he has to be right there watching every detail of whatever is going on. LOL...and his "Dad" was, out there on the boat, telling them over the phone how he thinks things should be done, as well. I like that he does that. It's good that he does, in light of the fact that I had given up on my John Wayne personna when it came to dealing with carpenters, or the like. (It never worked anyhow...drat.)

Now also today the polite young man, who will be putting up the ceiling tiles stopped by to go over the plans. Alas, unless he changes his mind, the ceiling will not be worked on until Cappy gets home.

...And the floor tile repairs, which now need to take place because of cabinet re-arrangement, will also have to take place when Cappy is home.

Ya know...everything was fine around here; boring but fine, til I started overhauling and renovating. Too late, I now know, from talking with other folks, that it's pretty rough. Oh, on television they don't show all that stuff on those home makeover shows. Oh noooo...they give you all these wonderful ideas and examples of how your house can look, and it's all done in four days at the most, with a little cute bantering and an oopsy once in awhile with the hammer, then "tah dah!!!". HAH! >:-(

On the brighter side, once we finish up what we've already started, the only project left on the house will be the bathroom. (Pegody takes another look at the cartoon above and begins to re-evaluate the situation. Nahhh, I think Cappy is right; we'll hire somebody to get it done.)

Well, I Know I'm in Trouble...

What a fun day! All week I wasn't sure if I'd be able to go with Sam and Louise to the Crawfish Festival in Breaux Bridge. (Pronounced like 'Bro', for yall Yankees :-P) Last night I went to bed thinking I'd still be sitting around the house cooling my heels waiting for the granite guy to come put in my countertops as he promised he would have done this week. >:-(
This morning I was fast asleep, 'down a deep well', as I call it when the phone rang, and it was Sam and Louise letting me know they'd be here in about 45 min. or so to pick me up to go along with them! Whooshhhhh...showered, hair washed, shirt ironed, "toofsus" all brushed and did, makeup on, dogs fed and watered, camera bag packed, lunch ready, breakfast eaten...all in 35 minutes. I'm still amazed. Truth is, I didn't want them coming in the house to wait for me...it's a WRECK still. BAW! I want my kitchen done, and my life put back together.
Well, off I went with them. We took the most glorious scenic route; one that I usually take when I'm evacuating for hurricanes and the last thing I'm doing at times like those, is enjoying the scenery. Today it was lovely.
Now Sam and Louise are my witnesses: I kept mentioning that it didn't seem right to travel so close to the Lafayette area and not go see Aunt Gussie and the family, but it was just not possible today, so I was going to 'sneak' over and hope no family was at the festival.
It was my first time at the Crawfish Festival, and it was packed. The music...well, what can I say...it was Cajun music...I just LOVE Cajun music! How people can just walk calmly along listening to it is beyond me, but then I didn't grow up around it, so I 'act the fool' dancing along to it as I walk. If people didn't keep sending me Chicken Soup emails admonishing me to 'dance as if nobody's watching' and it hadn't sunk in...which it has...I would just walk normally, but when the air is full of the joyous, bouncing sound, I just gotta let go and enjoy it, by dancing along to it as I go. "AAAAAAiEEEEE!!" (Cajun yell, in case ya forgot.)

Sam tried the deep-fried, either shrimp or crawfish, not sure which, and said it was very spicy hot...yum! Louise got a bread bowl with a crawfish, spinach (I think that's what the green was) sauce. It looked rather awful, but she took one taste, her eyes rolled back in ecstasy, and she said, "Mmmmmmmm". It must have been pretty good, because it seemed as though everybody in the park was carrying one and wearing the same smile. We went to the crawfish tent and had some of the most delicious crawfish...oh migosh, talk about GOOOOD! Even the salt potatoes were very good. There were even a few jalapeno peppers scattered amongst the crawfish, like little gems.

Sam, "Mmmmmm".

We shared a table with a couple, who posed for us. I'm hoping this lady liked the crawfish...lol...actually, I didn't notice her expression til I got home and opened the photo shop. I was more interested in the crawfish table at which we were sitting. Now how cool is that? An hole in the center to throw the crawfish shells. Talk about Cajun ingenuity! I wonder what we'd use these tables for up north. I coulda stuffed one of the kids in there when they were misbehaving at the table:-D

After we ate, we wandered around looking at the craft booths, etc. and spent an enjoyable time visiting, while sitting in the grass under a tree, trying to soak up some shade, then headed for a ride down along Bayou Tesche. We hadn't gotten far when my phone rang. It was Cousin Larry. Oh-oh. (how did he know??) I call Cappy's cousin Larry, "the Hub", because he goes to all kinds of festivals, he's got his finger on the pulse of the whole family, he's the 'go to guy'...he's almost omnipresent this guy...eyes everywhere. He asked, "Where yat??" in a way that suggested he somehow knew. I confessed. "Uh, we are or were at the Crawfish Festival". He said, "Uh-HUH!! and you come all the way over here and not gonna call?" Rats. Busted. Ok, I'm publically apologizing to Cousin Larry, Aunt Gussie, and the rest of the family. I knew I couldn't get away with it, and it won't happen again. I DO miss yall, and I love you. You guys will really like Sam and Louise...they are great, fun people.

Another thing I learned about them is that they like to wander around the back roads like I do. What they gave me today, besides wonderful company, great memories, and a fun day, was...TWO new shortcuts!! I now have a shortcut, when leaving town in a hurry in case of a hurricane, and another shortcut coming back from out 'west' in south central Louisiana. Yessiree, my kinda people; and on top of everything else when Sam got dropped off at home, he handed me three ziplock bags of (drooling here) the best homemade smoked sausage I've ever eaten. (he makes this stuff himself!)Three bags full...I'm in trouble now :-) Thanks, Sam and Louise!

For the Birds!

I think I finally got the Chicken slideshow finished; presently it's landed over at YouTube, and may, by now, be roosting there, collecting visits. Golly, it's been two whole weeks since SWAG and I wore our 'chicken' aprons and donned our hats, which she crafted for us. I painted three aprons, but Louise couldn't make it. We missed her, tho. We were the "Chicks" who greeted the guests, etc. Nontheless, it was a fun two days, meeting people and greeting people from a few of the Northern states, then those folks from France and Holland. What a nice bunch of folks.

I never knew that people kept chickens as pets. These are beautiful and sweet natured. I intended to post some information about Serama chickens, but there is so much out there, that I'd recommend that if your curiousity gets the better of you, "Google" Serama chickens.

Well, sorry, but this is going to be short and sweet; not feeling 'sparkling' tonight, and Cappy, out on the boat isn't feeling all that well either. NO! It's NOT what everybody's talking about, either. Not sure what it is, but am feelin' more like a dawg than a hawg.

I did want to explain that the video was taken from, of course, my perspective of the chicken show as a whole, as seen from in and around the welcoming tent, and not from intermingling with the judging or of the intense scrutiny of the birds. SWAG and I sat adjoining the live Cajun band, with the speakers a foot or so from our ears. It was good music tho, for sure, and the people really like to dance. I love it that the maw-maw's and the paw-paw's jump right into it. It was fun to watch everything within camera shot. I have to thank Mr. "Devil Dog"...the name belies him, for making me a special hamburger, which was delish. The sounds, the smell, the sights were wonderful. The song on the video is called "Allons Danser", which means, in French, "Come on along, let's go dancing"...or words to that effect. As I was putting the slideshow together, I was looking through all our music on the computer for a good song that would include chickens and ...uh...dance. The band did play that song and everybody enjoyed flailing around, wiggling and dancing to it. It was, for the slideshow, too obvious a choice; too overdone. Well, I'm done sitting on the darned thing for these past two weeks, so...why don't cha go on over to Youtube and see if it's 'hatched' :-) Hugs!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNHieubRjqw