Pelicans Progress

In winter months when we cross shallow lakes and bays, our propellers ('wheels', in tug-boat lingo) stir up muddy water, which brings to the surface small fishys and 'stuff' as we dig our way along. This attracts the usual crowd of seagulls who follow along behind us, catching any 'goodies' that we wash up in our "wheel wash". In Lake Verret, the local white pelican population has learned the same trick. They follow along in our wake, floating in the turbulance, snacking on goodies. As we continue our trek, we slowly leave them behind, so, after awhile they take wing, fly after us, right up to the stern (the back) of the boat, land and repeat the cycle again and again as we move along. The white pelicans are beautiful in flight, graceful, stately and truly a joy to behold. Their landings, however, are tricky, due to their large wing-span and well..., graceful flights end in comical touchdowns. In this series of pictures, I attempt to show you their typical landing. The pictures ain't necessarily the same bird; just pictures representing a typical pelican approach and landing. I hope ya enjoy seeing them as much as I enjoy taking them. For more info. about white pelicans click : http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/id/framlst/i1250id.html ...and for more picture of the Pelicans playing in the wheel-wash, click the underlined title of this post to be brought to an album in Yahoo photos. Just click "slide show", sit back and enjoy.

Spring Square Foot Garden

Peg and I rustled up our sleeves and plowed and planted the "South 48". 48 sq. ft. that is. Our little garden may be small but those of you who have been long time readers of this lil tome know how amazingly prolific it can be. We use square foot gardening techniques which we have adapted to our lil raised garden bed. We plant things densely, water with Miricle Grow, and just sorta stand back and watch it grow. It's very low maintenance once it gets going requiring very little weeding. Just keep reading and as the next few months go by you will be amazed at the stuff we harvest outa that lil patch of dirt. It's been so succesful, we've even noticed some of the neighbors attempting to copy our gardening methods.

Ever Get Dat Feelin' Someone's Lookin' at Ya From Behind?

One day this big ole owl flew down and landed on our barge. It was mid-day, so this was very unusual, 'cause ya only usually see these guys at night. Well, I was enjoying watchin' him as he sat there riding down the bayou with us. I called to the crew downstairs to come see him, too. We watched him sit there for several minutes with his back to us, but after a while I guess he started gettin "that creepy feelin" and slowly turned, like only owls can do, and looked right back at us watchin' him. After seein' it was just us sailors gawkin' at him, he slowly turned back and looked ahead again. He sat there for several minutes before flying away seeming unimpressed by his audience, who by the way were thrilled that he came to visit.

Cappy has returned :-D

It was a long boat ride for sure. Ten weeks to be exact. Das a long time to be away from my Baby, but Thank God it's over. I got home Thursday and the last few days have been like a long, deep sigh, relaxin' unwindin and reveling in the company of my sweet Pegody. We have been busy doing lil things 'round da house in preperation for our visit from our dear friends, Mr. Ed and Jean Radigan. They are dear friends of Pegody from Ny State and I have come to love 'em as much as she does. They are wonderful folks and we cant wait to see them again. Lots of stuff going on now that the, errrrrrr honeymoon is over, well not over but..... ya know what I mean.... less intense?? Anyways, lots of yard work, and the carpenters are comin' to do the bedroom etc.
I took some nice pictures while on the boat. I mean, ' stands to reason that in 10 weeks I'da found sometnin' to point my camera at:-)
Well, more to come later; I plan to post lots of short lil comments in the coming week. Das more my style anyways; short and sweet. Unlike 'certain Pegody's' lengthy ramblings:-P Well, better close for now 'fore I'm accused of "ramblin' on" myself. CAPPY

Resurrection Day

I've been running around, trying to get ready for Cappy's homecoming after two whole months, and getting things done in preparation for Mr. Ed and Jean's visit. I'm not sure I'll be able to pull it all together by Thursday; painting, planting, pruning, purchasing, planning, and, practicing my music. (Our group will play for the nine o'clock A.M. Easter service.) In the midst of all the rushing, I made certain one thing I concentrated on, above all, was Peace. I'd never, until this year, spent the forty days of the Lenten Season in daily quiet, thoughtfully considering each day in the Life of the Lord that led up to what we call Easter Sunday.
During this season, too, I think of my beloved mother. I'm still shocked that she'd be 80 this year. Not my Mom...she was always so young. I'm still shocked that she's GONE. How can that be?? My Dad, too. My oldest son.My Grandma. Cappy's Dad, who was his best friend and only true ally in this world, as my Mom was with me.I really, really want to see them again. I long to see them now.

When I was in lonely pain awhile ago, I wrote this to the Lord:

We think of this time...when your badly bruised body was taken down from the rough cross, and you were placed in isolaton inside the dark tomb. The jeering crowds were gone, the sound of whips and tormenting howls were silent. In the darkness was no sound of breathing. As when you were born bloodied, you were planted, once again bloodied...a Naked Seed planted in the earth.
I reflect on times of having to give You, Lord, those that I love, and trust in Your Wisdom, as they, too, were placed back in the soil from whence they came. When all the fervent prayers seemed to go unanswered, when all the medical equipment and staff had stopped, after the mourners had gone home, and I, too, my retching sobs now quiet, had to leave them; my son, parents, grandparents and friends, each alone in their cold silent tombs.
I think of a particular seed that I like to plant each year. Before I can plant it, I have to take a sharp knife and score the skin of it, cutting into it's flesh. For all intents and purposes, it appears dead, a useless off-cast of some thing, not resembling anything of consequence, really. But because of someting akin to faith, I plant it, hoping for something more glorious.
Dear Lord, we know not much about the mysteries that take place in the deep silent places. We know that God's Hand is working at those times. Babies are born after growing in the silent places. Morning Glories arise up out of the soil after spending time in the silent places. You, Lord, rose up Victorious from Death; and from knowing that, which breeds Faith in the deep silent places in our hearts, we trust in You, that not only will our loved ones be changed and raised more beautiful than ever, so shall we.
Faith is like a whisper...

Da Cher Bebe

Dan and Jennifer just emailed us pictures of their trip to the hospital to get the new baby, Chase Steven. They had the baby Thursday morning, but they didn't get to go home til Sunday. We are just so happy that all is well now. Chase's big sister, Melinda is taking care of her mother. Dan went out and bought Melinda a nurse's scrub with a name tag, because she was doing such a great job. (We need a picture of that, Dad.)

It was quite an ordeal, but well worth it. Grandpa and I can hardly wait to see our newest grandbaby. Down here in Louisiana, when viewing something precious, the phrase most often uttered is, "Cher Bebe!" (which sounds like a cooing, "Sha Beh-Bayyyy".) ...that loosely means 'cherished baby'.

MMMMMWWWAAAAAHHH, Cher Bebe!!!

P.S. By the looks of the outfit, it appears Grandpa has a new fishing partner. A fishing hat and bib overalls. Looks pretty Cajun to us. :-D

I Just Love Being a Short-Order Cook for DAWGs!

The recent dog food scare has made us worry about our doggies. One of them, MarkyBear, started throwing up, and continued to do so, off and on, for about two weeks, which threw us into a panic. The dog food that they had recalled was sitting, not only in our kitchen, but actually in our fur babies' food bowls. Then,I usually share my people food with them; whatever I have extra. When I heard about the recalls, I tossed out all their dog food, canned and dried, and began cooking for them. Actually, I think that's when MarkyBear's vomitting became regular. Gosh, what does that say about my cooking?! I can't even cook for a dog. or. My cooking is so bad, even the dog can't hold it down.

With all the hype on tv, I still wasn't sure his vomitting wasn't from what he'd eaten a few weeks ago; but then the other dogs didn't seem to be affected. No matter, I took him to the Vet yesterday. After an expensive checkup, his bloodwork showed that he has pancreatitis, which was caused by my feeding him the 'people food' I had been cooking him, in a effort to avoid feeding him tainted dog food. After several hundred dollars of vet bills and a twenty dollar bag of special diet dog food we felt we were doing the right thing by our boys. Just now ...tonight on the news I heard that they are extending the recall to dry dog food, but not everyone need worry, because it can only be purchased at their veterinary...and not only that, the very brand name is the one on the bag of dog food I had dragged home yesterday.

I had to laugh tonight, myself being a 'Celiac'...a person allergic to wheat gluten, and having to avoid it in everything I eat. I belong to a support group, which monitors wheat/gluten in foods sold commercially, because it's in practically everything. It's the flour bread is made from (how many things are made from flour???), it's some grain vinegars, it's even in some soft drinks (why???). The news anchor, who was announcing the dog food recalls tonight said that the trouble wasn't caused by rat poison this time, but that wheat gluten was the main problem in the lastest recalls. She looked kind of worried as she said that wheat gluten might have gotten into some foods for human consumption. Duh.

So, here I am tonight 'googling' dog food recipes that people regularly make their dogs. There are tons of recipes...doggie casseroles and dog biscuits, etc. I'm looking for recipes that will be gentle to their tummies and pancreas-sus. It's been a calamity of errors but we think we are finally on the right track, let's hope so. If any of you other "doggy people" have any ideas, please let us know.

P.S. I called yesterday morning and learned that the dog food I picked up at the Vet's was safe. It was the Cat food that had been recalled...so far. I checked out the ingredients in the stuff I bought, and there's no wheat in it at all; just corn and rice, chicken, and stuff like that. How are you folks making out with feeding your poochies and kitties?

Our New Grandbaby!!!

I was sound asleep last night when the phone rang. Dan said there were problems; they were taking Jennifer in for an emergency C-section, but other than that he couldn't talk and had to get right off the phone, so please...PLEASE, just PRAY. I sat up on the couch after that, waiting to hear any more. He called back in about an hour or so to say things looked okay now, that the baby was born, and that both his wife and baby were doing better. Earlier, tho, whenever she started having contractions, the baby's stats...blood pressure and heartbeat would go way down. They were going to let her have an epidural, but then she started hemoraging, Dan said, so the next thing he knew, they were racing her down the hall for surgery. They had gone to all kinds of classes and they had planned on Dan being there to help deliver, but he wasn't even allowed in. Of course he was frantic...who knows what could have happened.

What counts is that Mom and Baby are doing well right now. The baby's first and middle names are Chase Steven. He was born at 1:53 A.M. this morning. He weighed in at 7lb. 3 oz., and is 20" long. I could hear his sweet little voice over the phone this afternoon as I talked with Dan. He told me Jen was just then trying to get Chase to nurse. Dan said, "There he goes, he just 'latched on' ..." Now that's a good sign. They will be in the hospital until Saturday or Sunday, making sure they are both ready to go home, where two doting tween-aged sisters can hardly wait to get their hands on him. He also has a couple of brothers too, who can teach him how to get into mischief with them, when he gets a little older.

As for Grandpa, out on the boat, who kept calling and calling wanting to know the "very latest...nothing NEW??!", and myself, who felt the same way, we can hardly wait, ourselves to get our paws on the new baby, and the rest of our Yankee family, with our other kids and grandbabies. God Bless 'Em All!

Sounds Like Fun

Joe was about four years old when I sketched this cartoon. We were rushing about, quickly getting ready to leave the house, when I spotted my sweet little boy, in his "Dutch Boy" hair cut, with a messy face. That wouldn't do, so I dashed to the sink and got a very wet wash cloth. I was in such a hurry that I didn't take the time to squeeze it hard enough, but was about to do a fast job of washing him anyhow. For a roudy little kid, it added insult to injury, that not only was I going to smear a wet wash cloth all over his face, but a sloppy rag at that, which was just too much.

He happened to call today, so I mentioned I'd be posting this drawing. I told him I also had boxes of journals in the attic, that I'd written while the kids were growing up. His sister, Sookie, used to love having me read them to her over the phone, and she'd end up laughing so hard she'd wheeze. She remembered a lot of the things that happened as I read them to her, but not from my perspective. Actually, I wrote them so that someday I could read them, and maybe actually be able to laugh or try to make sense of some of the illogical blur that posed as daily life for us in those days.

I'm glad that Joe manages to savor his time with his family. He regularly regales me with stories about Ashley and Zachery. Today he told me that one of Zachery's new words is "possibilities". Zachery was telling his dad, "...We could go sliding or for a ride...there's all kinds of possibilities" he said excitedly. Joe always scratches his head and wonders, "Whoa, where did he learn that one?"

Yeah, the kids were always a source of laughter for me. They still are.

When Joe called today, he was taking a break at work. (He's an highly respected computer engineer/information analyst who is head of an eApplications support team. He's usually reserved and businesslike on the job.) During our conversation we were interrupted by some kind of loud, alarm siren, which had begun wailing on his side of the phone. He tersely said, "I've gotta hang up!" and did. In this day and age, you just never know, so all kinds of thoughts ran through my head til he called back, about a minute later, saying it was an emergency fire drill and that everyone had filed out of the building and were now standing about, in a crowd, shoulder-to-shoulder, quietly waiting for the 'all clear', so they could go back inside. We continued our chat about the weather and the kiddoes, when he mentioned that the drill was taking much longer than normal, and he wondered what might be going on; other than just a regular drill. About then, Raleigh came in from outside and began rollicking with SparkyBear and MarkyBear. Joe asked me what the weird noise was. I told him it was Raleigh...he makes the strangest noises for a dog, 'mawing and yodeling'.

When Joe was about Zachery's age he loved to make the weirdest noises I'd ever heard. He had a whole repertoire of unearthly sounds. (We have a story based around one of Joe's hauntingly,howlingly, eerie, muffled noises, but that's for another time.) As we were talking about the crazy noises he used to make, we remembered that Dan had some kind of LOUD, awful 'metallic' noise he'd make in the van, out the window, in heavy traffic, that would actually make cars stop...several of them...and everyone would be craning their heads around to see what had happened. It always scared me, too, and I'd hollar at him, but the kids would all start laughing, then traffic would start moving and I'd drive on with the rest of the herd, muttering to myself, that it wasn't funny. He usually only did it as we were pulling up at red lights, but still, everyone in the the other cars would be gawking all around, even sticking their heads out their windows and looking up at the sky.

Joe said, "Yeah, it was maybe like that sound in the movie, Dumb and Dumber, when Jim Carrey asked what was the most annoying sound in the world," and proceeded to yell it, to show me he still 'had it',... "EEEEAAAAAAAAGNKKKKKKKK!!!!" Then there was a long pause. I told him, "Hey, that was pretty good." There was another awkward pause, then a quiet, embarrassed, "...everybody is looking at me. Maybe they think the drill was actually because some lunatic got loose in the building, and while they are in there looking for him, he had filed out with the rest of the crowd, and HERE he is."

Soooo, I guess I was party, in a way, to embarrassing one of my kids in public, 'stead of the other way around, eh? I still GOT it, but I didn't do it for purpose, Joe :-*

Maw Maw Does the Paw Paws

Ever since Cappy and I were little kids, we have heard about Paw Paws, especially in grade school, when we sang the song, The Paw Paw Patch:

Where, oh where is dear little Danny?

Where, oh where is dear little Danny?

Where, oh where is dear little Danny?

Way down yonder in the paw-paw patch.

Come on girls, let's go find him,

Come on girls, let's go find him,

Come on girls, let's go find him,

Way down yonder in the paw-paw patch.

Pickin' up paw-paws, put 'em in your pockets,

Pickin' up paw-paws, put 'em in your pockets,

Pickin' up paw-paws, put 'em in your pockets,

Way down yonder in the paw-patch.

Where, oh where is dear old Nellie?

Where, oh where is dear old Nellie?

Where, oh where is dear old Nellie?

Way down yonder in the paw-paw patch.

Come on boys, let's go find her,

Come on boys, let's go find her,

Come on boys, let's go find her,

Way down yonder in the paw-paw patch.

Pickin' up paw-paws, put 'em in your pockets,

Pickin' up paw-paws, put 'em in your pockets,

Pickin' up paw-paws, put 'em in your pockets,

Way down yonder in the paw-patch.

Since I thought Cappy, living down South here, would know what they are, I asked him. I was surprised to learn that he'd never, to his knowledge, eaten one, and was just as curious as I was about them. We 'Googled' and learned that they taste like a creamy banana cocoanut custard to some folks. Well, being the chubby Cajuns we are, that's all it took for us to set about locating some of them. As you may know, from our past blog postings, we are 'jungling' up our yard with all kinds of fruit trees. It just so happens that Gurney's seed catalog is selling them, so Viola! ( a wonderful instrument, by the way :-P ) we sent for a couple of their Paw Paw plants.

Before Cappy left to go back on the boat, he lovingly dug two holes and put in fresh, nutrient-packed soil, surrounded these two new 'beds' with curved bricks, all in anticipation of the delivery of our new little additions, then off to work he went.

The other day, when I blogged about my bustling all about in the yard, doing this and that, when Cappy is away, I had to wonder if any of my neighbors had read that. If so; it's a wonder I didn't hear loud snickers and guffaws from around the town. I do try. I really do...til I give up, in mid-Summer. The houses directly out my door are surrounded by the most beautiful, lush greenery and flowers, all perfectly manicured. Most of my neighbors are, seriously, up at five A.M. getting a fast-paced start on their day. I'm not. Cappy, despite his best efforts,has not been able to 'convert' me back. After spending years and years of raising the kids, and working outside of the home, I'm now loving my mornings of waking up whenever I wake up, luxuriating over my one sweet, rich cup of Irish Cream or Hazelnut coffee, poking around the house in my pj's til I get dressed, whenever that is.

Meanwhile, the best part of the day for outside work has up and left town, headed for the next time zone. It's only because of Cappy's urgings and encouragement, and those of my ever-hopeful neighbors, that I get out there...when I get out there, and try. I like the results when they go well, but get so frustrated when the majority of my efforts are unappreciated by my darned yard. Sometimes, it seems, the only green thing out there, sucking up all the goodies I work into the soil, are the virulent weeds. (Uhm...I think I need to say here, that this pertains mostly to our flowers. Presently, we are having a most wonderful harvest of fruits and nuts...go figger.)

The reason I'm dragging you along on this tale, is to let you know I've been 'found out'. Cappy absolutely LOVES gladiolas. Well, I did my best with them, even ordered fancy bulbs online here. They didn't come up all at once, and they were scattered hither and yon in their bloomage, all over the yard in assorted flowerbeds. But each one was truly beautiful, and we thought, unique. Cappy told me to take pictures of them and post them here on our blog, and we bragged incessantly, I guess, about them. Viewing our blog, one would have thought we had grand palatial grounds. From this, one of our townspeople, in the heat of Summer, was lured into the neighborhood to see this glorious splendor in person. I can only imagine the shock when she saw spindley isolated gladiolas, with very pretty blooms, here and there, tall weeds merrily dancing around our trees, and angry marigolds and husks of petunias glaring at the world from the window boxes. Not a pretty sight. She must have been so disappointed and embarrassed for me, that she tried to inconspicuously back out of the neighborhood, but in her escape, accidentally backed over someone's mailbox. She got out of her car and profusely apologized to the man, whose mailbox she had knocked over. The man told her not to feel badly, because it had been knocked down about thirteen other times! Thirteen times??! I never heard any of that commotion, not even once. Now I'm wondering how many of those I had caused; having caused this one, anyhow. (Love you, Girlfriend!)

So, here's the real deal: I only got a few things done out in the yard so far, that I said in the last post that I was going to do, and none of them purdy, as of yet. I'll keep trying, tho. The yard is green, anyhow.

Back to the Paw Paws. Despite the fact that Raleigh and SparkyBear dug all of Cappy's special soil out of the 'beds' , ran crazily around the yard, chasing each other and diving into the deep empty holes, this "Grannie" ...this little "Maw Maw", as Cappy jokingly refers to me, refilled said holes to their past glory, as Cappy had left them, and planted the two Paw Paw trees, which finally came in the mail. As my neighbors can attest, I say to you, "Go back to yer homes, folks, aint nothin to see here", yet.