Home-Sweet-Home and Tugboat-Sweet-Tugboat are not the same thing.

We 'weathered' the first tropical storm of the year, Arlene. We didn't get a drop of rain, but as I speak, New York State is getting drenched by her. As usual, I always worry about Cappy out on 'da boat' in storms. Even tho he didn't get any rain, either, the guys out on the boats always have to worry about wind that can kick up dangerously high waves. They usually put the tugboat and barge 'holed up' in some narrow 'slip' where they can tie up, if to nothing else, than to some strong trees, and wait til things get calm enough to continue their jouney.
When Cappy first gets on dry land, it takes him about two days to get rid of his 'sea legs' and begin walking normally. I guess nothing on the boat is stable, with it's constantly bobbing up and down, so he has to walk with his feet kinda spread out to keep his balance. In their galley, they have to have these, for lack of a better word, pipes laid out on their stove to keep pots from moving around while they are cooking. Lately, at home, I've noticed that he's always commented on my having a sink "so full of water"...I've never questioned him about it, but last week I got curious. I've seen him warily eye my sink many times, so finally I asked, "Am I wasting water? I just like a nice full sink of suds." He said, "Oh I was just thinking you wouldn't like it so much if a big wave suddenly hit the side of the house and.....uh....oh...never mind, I guess you don't have to worry about that here."
I should hope not.

Peg and I stepped out side this afternoon after our daily thundershower. This time of yr it rains most every day in bayou country. We were greeted by our first amerillis of the year. 

The patio has taken on its Spring glory. You can barely see the bbq pit peeking out from the foliage, but be assured that as I'm writing this, the pit is smoking up the whole neighborhood and the blues are blasting on the outdoor speakers.

Folks have been asking us about our Cajun Long-horn okra and how to grow them. Well, here is a picture of a young okra plant. Notice the bottom leaf. It was left intentionally and chosen 'cause of its angle towards the outside of the garden. (Having it grow to the outside of the garden means that it won't crowd the other plants in the garden.) It will thicken and become a secondary stalk and grow okra as well. So, we will have 2 stalks on one plant. The next okra, above it is ready to pick, and when we do, we will remove the leaf growing with it. Further up ya can see a small okra growing and a bloom above it that will become an okra. As we harvest the okra, we take off the leaf that is growing with it. This makes the plant grow tall and produce more okra. I'll post more on the same plant later as it grows to show its progress. Peg asks that I mention the marigold flowers in our garden. They keep cats bunnies and other pesky critters outa our garden. These marigolds smell awful in my opinion and it seems the local wild life agrees with me.

cappy is back

Well as you can tell from todays flood of pictures I am back from 15 days on "da boat". It was a long hitch and I missed Peg terribly. I'm on a different boat now and as always it takes a while to adjust. This tug is old and a little run down but bigger and more comfortable. It needs lots of work but we have a good start already. Its nice working with a crew that gets along and gets the work done. Now that im home we are relaxing, playing in the yard, and just generally reveling in each others company.

I'll post some pictures from around the house later. Our square foot garden is in full bloom. Peg has been suplying the neighbors with cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, snap beans , and assorted peppers for weeks now. It's amazing how much produce ya can get from a small area if ya follow the square foot gardening technique.

These three pelicans have learned that if they sit on the lock walls the "pickings" are easy. They sit there waiting for the boats in the lock chamber to stir up little fish with their props. Then pounce on them from the wall. 

Spoon bill Rosettes are rather comical looking water birds. The origin of their name is quite obvious in this picture. There distinctive spoon bill beak and pink wings make them quite beautiful in flight. 

The white pelicans are a winter time visitor to south Louisiana.In flight they are quite nice to see with the sharp contrast of their black wing tips when floating they apear to be solid white the wing tips are only exposed in flight 

The Lousiana state bird is the brown pelican. for years it was endangered and barely hanging in there. Back in the 80's south lousiana suffered a very hard freeze and the pelicans were nearly wiped out. For the first time in known history several of the big bays froze completely over and the pelicans were killed when they dived for fish traped in the ice and broke their necks. Since then conservation efforts have really paid off and now they are back strong. This is one of my favorite pictures of a pelican coming in for a sunset landing. 

Took this picture of an eagle guarding a pipeline sighn. It is wonderful to see the big birds making so strong a comeback. It seems all you ever hear in the news is about the "endangered" animals. Well the american bald eagle is making a remarkable come back in south Lousiana and it is usual to see several a day. The eagles progress as well as several other large birds is a joy to me .  

I was in Houma La. when the delta queen came slowly steaming by. If you notice the little puffs of steam coming from the stern they are from the steam whistles of her caliope. Quite a pretty site as she paddles along. The caliope has a wonderful unique sound. Best way i can discribe it il like a wet whistle.