Our Fall Garden

Our Fall garden got off to a late start this year and we didn't get to plant until the last day of September, which was my last day home last hitch.

Sparky and I started with our little 4'by4' herb garden and once I explained to him what we were doing, we put in some parsley, green onions, and dill to go with the peppers, oregano, and horseradish that was already growing there.

We picked out the seeds for our 4' by 12' garden box then stood back and planned our planting scheme.

We laid out our pattern with lines drawn in the garden with a stick. We decided to rough it and not use our string grid as usual.

Peg and I both planted our choices for the garden; I had a little more enthusiastic help than I needed.

I sprinkled on a lil Miricle Grow plant food.

Gave the garden a good soaking.

Then took a "ta-da" moment and went to work the next morning, worrying my poor wife to death by demanding garden update reports every day. Well, here it is November 7th and I am happy to report, though late, our little garden is again off and running.

The Herb garden has little green onions, and parsley coming along and a wonderful surprise for me; DILL! Very strong aromatic smelling stuff that I had forgotten we planted. I guess Sparky did it while I wasn't looking.

In our "big" garden, the pole beans are vining up the trellis and that's carrots in the foreground.

The big leafy section here is daikon radish.

They get really big, but I also like them when they are small like this. In this stage they are very strong flavored.

This section we refer to as our salad bar. On the left is romaine lettuce, and on the right is a leafy salad mix called muscalin. We cut what we want with scissors kinda like trimming the grass and it produces all the salad we can eat all winter long.

Our only setback this year was the cabbage. Having never planted it before, we planted seeds instead of little plants and they didn't work. Naturally, we looked everywhere and finally found some little plants that were being thrown out by our local seed store. Well, even though all the neighbors' cabbage is big, leafed out and beginning to make heads, we stuck these scrawny lil seedlings into the garden and said a lil prayer. We will, as always, keep yall posted on our lil Fall garden and when I get back to work next week I'm sure Ill be back to bugging poor Peg again for cabbagy garden updates.

Spoiled Fishing Trip

While at work last hitch, the phone rang and when I answered it, it was the dispatcher with our next location to go to. I whooped with excitement at the news so loud he complained that I had scared him into dropping the phone. The orders were for us to proceed to my favorite catfishing spot, to load oil the next day. By my quick calculations I figured that we should arrive there around 2 P.M., leaving plenty fishing time that afternoon. When my relief captain took my place, I ran downstairs excitedly preparing my fishing tackle for the event. Last year I had caught this catfish, along with several other frying-pan sized ones in a couple of hours and had a wonderful time. Imagine my disappointment when we got there, we rammed into a plug of lilies that made it very difficult to get to the dock.

The second picture, here, is of the very same place. The angle is a little different because the picture was taken from up in the wheelhouse, whereas the fish picture was taken from the back deck, but I assure ya, it's the same place. It's pretty obvious I didn't even get a line in the water this time :-(

Sea Horse Bay

The first picture is a radar image of what we call Sea Horse Bay. That's not the official name, but the nickname we use for it. The picture was taken in 2003. Can you spot the seahorse?

The second picture is of the same area as seen by radar today. The erosion in this area is so bad the ole sea horse can barely be recognized. It saddens me to see this old natural landmark slowly disappear.

Eagle

While at work, I came across this Eagle busily eating something he had caught. He looked up, watched us pass and went right back to eating without a care in the world.

Water hyacinths

Well it's that time of the year again, the lillies are again filling the waterways of South Louisiana. Here is a little slide show I made telling about them hope ya enjoy it.

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Fall Tug Boating

I was shooting the bull this morning with some guys at "Da Camp" when the conversation turned to how the Flotons and water lilies come out to fill the waterways of South Louisiana in the Fall. It seems the summer growing season slowly fills the slack water with lillies and the north winds of Fall push the lillies out into the bayous and canals of the swamp land. This coupled with an unusually wet October made the floating lilies especially bad this year and made a lot of favorite fishing spots unreachable to the fishing boats. I know well the guys' complaints. It is hard enough pushing a barge down some of the narrow, shallow channels we travel; the addition of a thick mass of matted lilies and grass sure doesn't help. At times, the wheels of the tug get so choked with lilies, we have to reverse the clutches and try to get the boat to 'spit' out all the 'salad' it has collected with it's rudders. All this vegetation makes the boat vibrate and shake and 'complain' as the blades of the propellers slice through the 'salad'. All this vegetation makes navigating the bayous impossible for the weekend fishing boats, and a real pain for us tugboat cappys. The good things about Fall at work far outweigh the problems though. The cooler temperature is a blessed relief and the low humidity makes for some great sunsets.

So despite all the lillies and flotons clogging up the waterways Fall is not a bad time to work on the Bayou after all.

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