Bayou Teche Boat Trip

We get to travel through some really pretty places at work. and those of you who regularly read us know how much I love prowling the back waters of my Beloved South Louisiana. Bayou Teche is one of the most beautiful "rural" bayous and a true jewel of the Bayous. The banks are clean and uncluttered of the derilects and trash that you normally see, and it is a wonderful ride following the curvy Bayou north from the Atchafalaya river.

I found all the bird houses around this Gazebo interesting, I guess the owners want to attract as many skeeter-eating purple martins as possible to their shady Bayou retreat.

Many of the homes on the Bayou actually float.

Here is a neat little cottage. These folks have a lifeboat hanging over their picket fence from some boat hooks. This is either a sign of quirky Bayou folk or paranoid ones prepared for a flood.

These folks are almost tacky enough to be us.

Wonder who these folks are gonna be pullin' for come football season? Maybe the fresh purple and gold paint on their boat house is a clue.

(Lord say da same): das me and Peg's retirement home. A motorized house boat that we could pack up da dawgs and go

prowlin the Bayous in.

The Bayou does have a few tight spots to navigate through. I put this little slideshow on youtube so yall could blow it up full stream and watch me make the Jennings bridge on the boat. Like it aint a tight enough squeeze, I decided to make it trickier and drive through while snapping pictures. Here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/user/cappyandpegody#P/u/1/gHs7upEsIzk

If ya think that was a tight squeeze, here is a slideshow of us going through the Berwick Locks. Look at the bottom right and click the icon and it will blow us full screen. That is my view from the wheelhouse. I hope yall enjoy it.

http://www.youtube.com/user/cappyandpegody#p/u/O/ECkSdE-4eMM

Where Do you THINK It Is????

When you haven't got much storage space, you have to come up with some "pretty" creative ideas. Since the only place to store the vacuum cleaner was to have it wedged alongside the futon in the computer/guest room. That's where it sat, hunkered in the corner looking all 'vacuum cleanery' and belligerent. Whenever one of us needed to use it, we had to put on ninja garb and go to battle getting it outa there.

I've seen some cool vaccum cleaner covers online and in magazines, but most of them looked too quaint for the very tacky Cappy and me. I would have sewn it myself, but my sewing machine was in the shop, and I haven't been in the sewing mood since I burned myself out at Christmas time....again. When I happened onto Hunky Dory Crafts online I knew I had found someone who 'understood' us. I called "Joan, the Bag Lady" herself, (very friendly, and nice) got to pick out our "Broomhilda's" dress and even what color her froggy skin would be. I was amazed that she got it made and sent to us in about three or five days, I forget which, but it was here before other things I had ordered online had arrived...and those people didn't have to custom make the merchandise I had ordered either, as Joan did. Wow! Her craftsmanship is excellant. She put a big ladybug button on the back of the dress, which always makes me smile when I see it, but what almost made me cry was that she had placed a silk butterfly on the back of one of the hands. Ms. Joan had no idea that, to us, butterflies symbolize Love.

Monarch butterflies were my Mom's favorite. Everybody always gave her necklaces with a butterfly on it. When she passed, we were all gathered at her gravesite, and although it was badly threatening to rain, as we stood together, mourning, out of nowhere a very large Monarch butterfly began closely circling low over her grave, then over the crowd, then slowly fluttered up, up, up out of our sight. We stood there staring skyward amazed and comforted.

A few years later, having met Cappy online shortly after losing my Mom, he searched all over New Orleans for hours and hours and hours until he found a special set of Mardis Gras beads for me, with Monarch butterflies on them. How sweet and dear of him. When he was way out in the middle of an huge bay, with no land in sight, he was in his wheelhouse with the doors open, catching some fresh breezes off the Gulf. He said that, (once again) out of nowhere, a very large Monarch butterfly fluttered in through the door and landed directly on his heart, and stayed there for some time. He said that it was the first time he had ever seen a butterfly so far out away from land, and the fact that it had landed right on his heart, had touched him somehow. He said that "from that, I knew that I could dare to let myself fall in love". He stood there almost breathlessly, he and his "passenger"/"messenger" silently keeping company, then after about a very long five minutes, it lightly flew away, as quickly as it had come. And since then, butterflies are always showing up in our life at unexpected times. I did have to laugh when, not long ago another one showed up. (Most all of you know that Cappy hates green when it's man-made...he of course loves it when it's in it's natural state, especially out where he works) He sent me a bouquet of flowers for Valentine's Day. Although they were beautiful, in a clear colored vase (he's made sure about that) the card holder was a long stem of green plastic, which matches the greenware that I set out to catch the sun when he's on the boat and put away just before he gets home, but the holder itself, 'clutching' the most loving note from Cappy, was a butterfly! He had accidentally sent me a butterfly...he didn't know they were going to do that...but he had sent me a GREEN butterfly, much to his chagrin :-D

But I digress.

Our Broomhilda, here, arrived when Cappy was home, but, not realizing that I was taking the cleaner out to put the new cover on it, and then intending to put it in a place of prominance, instead, he found me struggling to get the vacuum cleaner out of it's 'place' and began helping me. The usual battle ensued and it got lodged in there like a vise, which caused a massive stuggle, beads of sweat and 'sailor language'. He said for me to NEVER, but N.E.V.E.R. put that vacuum cleaner back in there again, not knowing that, that was my original plan. "She" doesn't have to go back into the tight-squeeze of a corner, but can stand anywhere and look just great. And...once Cappy saw the end results he was quite taken with her. He said he never met a frog he didn't like, but when he got a look at the material her dress was made of, he was even more happy with "her". One of Cappy's favorite things to eat is frog's legs, but she aint got none under her skirt; maybe some other Cajun got to her first. Although she doesn't look all 'vacuum cleanery', she still does look kinda belligerent, doesn't she? Still, I think she's a 'sweet' addition to our home, even tho' the dogs don't like her right back.

In all sincerity, though, you should check out Joan A. Webb's website. She's got some of the most wonderfully unique handcrafted gifts and keepsake things that you'll ever find online.

http://www.hunkydorycrafts.com/ , her email is hunkydorycrafts@bellsouth.net and her phone number is (843) 764-3280

Just This Past Saturday

I've always loved wedding receptions, but I've never seen anything like a New Orleans wedding reception, and WOW! was it FUN and LOUD! Although it rained torrents all day and the weather threatened all kinds of disasters, it didn't stop these 'unsinkable' New Orleans party-goers. As Cappy always asks me, "Do you know what a Cajun does when it rains???... He gets wet. So what. This is the Big Easy." People flip-flopped their way along the shiney wet stone sidewalks in the French Quarter under some of the most garish umbrellas you could imagine. And it just seemed right. As a matter of fact, Sonia had me paint a 'Second Line' umbrella for this very wedding occasion. I painted the one on the top...the male counterpart to the more delicate lady's umbrella on the bottom, (which I didn't paint).New Orleans is the only 'foreign' city in the United States, I'm told. And the place was lit up...the WHOLE town!!! I've never seen New Orleans so alive, even before Katrina. Every single street had masses of carefree tourists and the usual colorful folks who live there. I drove my young neighbor, Drew, home because he plum wore out, but his eyes about popped outa his head when I deliberately drove up along the perimeters of the French Quarter so he could see the sights. (nothing X or even R-rated, or else I wouldn't have taken him along that route) The usual silver, living 'statue' has even been updated, so that I wanted to stop and gawk at him myself, but kept moving...or tried moving. The traffic is StopStopStop, but for some reason the people never seem to mind; it's all a part of the experience.

Oh...I never did mention whose wedding reception I attended (it stormed so badly on the way to New Orleans, that I missed the wedding by minutes, having had to stop. I swore there were a couple of tornados in the mix.) :-( Our neighbors across the street, Judge Jude and Sonia's daughter, Abby married a young man named Tom, and they live over there in Naw-lins. It was Sooooo much fun, even tho it was dark and stormy out. A wonderful Saturday 'night'. Hope you enjoy the video as much as I enjoyed making it for "Yall" :-) It's also over on youtube where you can see it much bigger...cappyandpegody's channel.

Another Robin Goes Home

We last wrote that Cappy's great-aunt Helen went to be with The Lord and her family on Mother's Day. Cappy has been inconsolible ever since. "Aunt Helen was the last of a generation. She was strong and always there; it's impossible to think that she's gone." She's the sister of his grandmother, one of whom Cappy lovingly referred to as "the old chickens". He says they were a fiesty lot, always 'up' to something, laughing, gossiping, playing booray, just full of life. They were such a joy to him and to all of the family. We only heard that she was in the hospital the day before Mothers's Day, and passed the next morning. So quickly. So suddenly. Cappy said it didn't surprise him one bit, because Aunt Helen was a strong woman and it was just like her not to complain and to just 'tough it out'.
I visited with her grandson, Brennan, who said he was grateful that he'd gotten to spend that last day with her. Even tho's she'd apparently had pancreatic cancer, no one was aware of it, that she hadn't been in pain at all, even til the end. In fact, Brennan said that, that last day while he visited her in the hospital she noticed his sadness and asked, with concern in her voice, "What's wrong, baby?" She, even then, was more worried about him.He said she was the most loving, caring grandmother he could imagine.
I didn't know her for very long, but I kinda got the idea that in her prime she was kinda fiesty, like my own grandmother. Cappy loves to tell about how she was kind of a tough cookie. She was a school cafeteria cook, who had to stand on her feet all day, work hard and wasn't about to put up with any nonsense from bratty kids; and who could blame her. Her daughter Carolyn laughingly told me that the other kitchen workers said, "We can always tell when Helen is here", because instead of gently pushing the chairs back in under the tables, Aunt Helen would slam them. I say any way she had at her disposal to intimidate misbehaving kids without actually coralling them by the the scruff of the neck was well done :-D
Unfortunatly, because of the long hours of work, her knees began to bother her so badly that Cappy said "her legs were bowed so much that they looked like parentheses." After suffering for years, when she was seventy years old, she decided to have both of her knees replaced. Cappy, shocked, said, "Aunt Helen, you are going to have major surgery like that at your age?" She lambasted him right back with, "What do you mean my age??? " She went ahead and had the surgery and to his delight, she was "dancin' around like nothin' had ever been wrong with her after that; she's one tough ol' gal".
And of course, being a professional cook, you know her food was something pretty special. Cappy said that one of the most delicious things he could remember was 'leftover jelly'. He said, Aunt Helen, not being one to waste anything, would save all the leftover juices, when they were serving canned fruit at school. Normally all the juice would be poured down the sink afterward. Instead, she, her sister and Aunt Gussie would then make it into jelly. Sometimes they would blend all the different fruit juices into one, so the taste would vary, but he said that no matter how it turned out, it was always out of this world! (She'll probably be serving it to folks in Heaven then.)
Brennan got to spend a lot of time at his grandparents house, especially when there was an LSU game going on. While Brennan's parents were season ticket holders, he'd spend the day with Grandpa Nick and his "MawMaw" listening to the game on the radio. I know he had more fun there than he ever would have in the actual stadium, for he said so himself, and let Aunt Helen know on her last day on earth, that those hours around the radio were some of the best times of his whole life.
During the service for Aunt Helen, I was struck by one thing that the priest said during his homily. He mentioned that when people are ill, they are 'living on borrowed time', but then he said, "In actuality, since the time that each of us has, has only been lent to us by God, we are all living on borrowed time; we only have it for a short while. I found that to be inspiring and comforting. Aunt Helen spent 87 years of her time here on earth loving her family and friends, and then last Sunday on Mothers' Day, The Lord thought it was the perfect day to come and lead her Home to be with the rest of those who are already there waiting for her.
I absolutely love this song, which was sung at Aunt Helen's funeral. I always 'see' those who are leaving us with different eyes when I hear it. I know it's what He said to Aunt Helen, and what will be said to me and to each one of us during our time of Going Home. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vMYP4uJAqY&feature=related
And now she's not one of the Robin Family "ol' chickens"; Aunt Helen is now once again a Spring Chicken, and you know she's using those new knees of hers to kneel in the Presence of her Lord!

Going Home For Mothers' Day

A Card for you, from us: http://www.bluemountain.com/view.pd?i=231907467&m=6065&rr=y&source=bma999

Not a day goes by that I don't miss my Mom. Even after a dozen years, it still seems like I could rush to call and ask her a quick question about something important, or not so important. But she's not here, and I'm left to myself with the sudden shock and realization again, that's she's gone from me; forever. But she was only just here wasn't she? And Mothers' Day is another day lost that I could have told her how much I love her, would love to kiss her forehead and get another warm hug to last a lifetime.

I hope my children all know how much I love them. They call me often to share whatever is going on in their lives and we always tell each other, "bye, I LOVE YOU!!!" Today my daughter, "Lady Jennifer" (aka "Sookie") sent me these beautiful lavendar roses. She hates purple, but she knows I love it, so she sent them to me With the purple vase. Also included is some very fancy Mother's Bouquet floral tea in silk bags! Oh my goodness; it's chamomile, rose, cornflowers, orange rind and orange flavor. So lavishly delicious. But I'm drinking it out of the Betty Boop I Don't Do Mornings coffee mug Cappy got me for Mothers' day (along with a matching oversized sleep t-shirt :-) I'm glad teenagers grow up and become best friends with us. She wrote on the card, "I hope you have a great day. I Love You Mom With all my heart. Hugs and KissesXOXOX, Love Jennifer"

I got a wonderful call from my son Dan and his wife, Jen this afternoon. LOLLING...when they woke up this morning, there was a layer of snow everywhere! I said, "I don't even wanna tell ya..." (I've got the doors and windows thrown open with fresh Spring breezes wafting in.) Chasie, is doing so MUCH better on his wheat and gluten & casein free diet and thus talking sentences and feeling like a regular little boy. They are expecting baby Emily sometime in July.

My son, Joe sent this bouquet of "Hugs and Kisses" in a GREEN vase (sorry Cappy), with a bonus box of...CHOCOLATES!!! :-D Now the boy can write poems. I'm so proud of him for that. Some time you just might have to indulge me if I go to printing them out here. The poem he wrote for me came along with the flowers from him and his family goes:

"There's no one else who does it,

Quite the way you do...

You know it isn't only what you say,

It's what you do!

For all you do...for all you do...

These buds are for you!

Happy Mother's Day"

Hey! He didn't lift this from a beer commercial did he?? :-P

I haven't heard from Thom yet, but expect he will be calling soon. Presently, he's in the middle of a lot of changes in his life, but is happily looking forward. It's taken him quite awhile to get over the loss of Diana, the mother of his daughter, Cierra. He's doing pretty good, tho'.

No matter how old a gal is, she's some mother's daughter. Sadly, this morning Cappy's dear great-aunt Helen went Home to spend Mothers' Day with her Mom, to tell her how much she loves her, to kiss her forehead and get another warm hug to last a lifetime...and an eternity.

If It Was a Snake It Woulda Bit Me

Or it coulda anyhow, cuz it was a snake!!! And this is what he looked like, to me!

Earlier in the day I was outside chatting with Cappy on the phone and pulling weeds in the garden, listening to the birds chirping, and over the tall fence, the quiet hum of Miss Annie, our lovely neighbor could be heard visiting with some guests. As I reached over Pourkey the Pig (our watering can) for something, I spied a large lizard scurry by just as something brushed the underside of my wrist. I shrieked, thinking a snake had got me. I don't have a clue as to why I thought it might be a snake, because right in my line of vision had been the lizard. I became aware of the sudden silence from across the fence, and fearing that I had startled Miss Annie and her guest, I quickly started laughing and explaining loudly to Cappy (he had been startled, too) about why I had yelled and followed it up with, "Silly me".

I guess when it comes to reptiles I get 'creeped out' too easily. I remember when I first moved down here, I had spied an HUGE snake peeking out of a concrete hole near the patio. He just sat there motionless, looking at me...he was HUGE, I tell you, for a snake. I had almost stepped on him...screamed and started flailing my arms..."Snake!!!!" I wasn't used to these great big South Louisiana SNAKES!!! He was slimey, green skinned and warty. It took another day for that to to sink in...warty??? The next day I looked him up and saw that he was a toad or frog who had set up shop under the concrete and was just sitting there with his head out his 'window' waiting for his lunch time 'customers', I suppose. Still, I wasn't used to smart aleck frogs like that, either. Every time I had to go into his territory, I'd step gingerly. If he hadda been a snake he might have bitten me.

I did occasionally see a couple of garter snakes around the patio, but kept one eye on 'em as I did whatever it was I was doing. I didn't bother with them, and hoped they ate mosquitoes.

I've laughed at the Bill Dance youtube video, where this avid fisherman filmed his show, talking all know-it-all like and had a big snake fall into his boat. (The link won't post here, but type in the youtube search screen Bill Dance+snake...you'll find it.)

Other than that, I haven't given snakes much of a thought lately until last year, when what they think was a cotton mouth snake killed the dog right in the neighbor's yard behind our house. That's the dog they kept a no-barking collar on. Poor dog couldn't let anybody know he was in distress. He was a nice big dog, too. Sonia had come across the street to let us know about it, and to tell us to keep an eye out for this kind of snake. Well, that was last year.

About an hour ago, "the boys"...SparkyBear and MarkyBear started barking like crazy outside near the back door....came in and tried "telling me" that 'Timmy had fallen down the well again" or something. They insisted I go out. I ignored them, because I was in here in the computer room looking for an ecard to put on the Blog here, for Mothers' Day tomorrow. The card I was looking at was some kind of interactive dealy, where I had to be looking down in the deep weeds for flowers or things to click so that whatever I found would pop up and bloom or activate...I was concentrating so hard, but the dogs wouldn't let me finish, so I just up and followed them out to see what the ruckus was all about. Apparently they had another cat or a bunny trapped in the flowerbed way down in the weeds. At one point they actually jumped into the flowerbed in hot pursuit...I couldn't see a thing...it was dark out. Then they ran around to the back flowerbed which is connected to the side bed. Sparky insisted he had it near the cedar bush, while Mark was 'yelling' that he had it right by the back door. They were both about frothing at the mouth, they were so frantic. Mark kept nipping at something and jumping back, so I went in and got a flashlight. I shined it into the tall snakeplant, right onto a BIG Gray SNAKE!!!! I started screaming again, yelling for the dogs to get into the house...NOW!! The phone started ringing so I answered it, still shrieking and hollaring for the dogs to GET IN THE HOUSE...NOW!!! It was Cappy, who heard all the commotion and became immediately concerned. "Calm down, Peg...ya gotta calm down and tell me what's going on!!! Breathhhhh...take a deep breath and tell me". Well, by then I was a mess....a total mess. He said it wouldn't bite unless it was cornered and coiled. I wailed, "It IS...BOTH". I managed to get us all into the house, and the door slammed, without us getting bitten. Cappy asked what it looked like so I told him it was about two inches thick and it was gray and scaled, kinda looking like a car tire. He said it could be a cotton mouth, by the sounds of it, so I came in and Googled "South Louisiana cotton mouth". A big picture of the beast I had just seen right by the back door, jumped right out at me on our computer screen....I screamed, "There it IS!!!" Cappy, on the phone, "Didn't you close the door????How did he get in????" I was in full panic mode, thinking that outside there in the dark he might have moved and hidden again, only to come out some other night to 'surprise' us/bite us, or sneak in the dog door at while we were all asleep. I mean, you hear all kinds of things, like snakes coming up outa the toilet....OH GADS!!!!!!!!!!! Cappy couldn't mollify me, so he called Sam. Sam and his son, Stan came right over and after chasing the slithery villain through the flowerbeds, GOT 'im. My heroes. He was about three feet long til they cut him into about three pieces and laid him out on the lawn near the front of the house. Where he still is. The super heroes fled before I could properly thank them...I was shaking and shuddering so badly that I could hardly talk, which made Sam laugh at the silly sight of me. Sighhh. Thank God for friends who will drop what they are doing and run across town to rescue a friend. Pictures Sam and of Louise and their son, Stan...she didn't come out tonight...smart girl!

Now Cappy tells me I'm going to have to put on my big girl panties and go out with a shovel and carry the dead rascal to the garbage can and dump him in.

Actually, tomorrow is Sunday...Sundays are the days that some of the younger neighbor kids love to come and pick at our dogs. Today a group of them rode up on bikes and four wheelers, stopped at our driveway and hollared for them to come out. MarkyBear does NOT like little children and lets them know it, much to their delight, because as much of a show as he puts on, they know he can't get them. I've found candy and "stuff" that they've thrown for the dogs strewn along the yard and driveway. I can hardly wait to see the looks on their faces when they spy the Mothers' Day "treat" we have waiting for them.

Now, the dogs had to potty a few minutes ago. I didn't see any snake, dead or alive, in one long piece or three shorter pieces. Uh oh...hmmmm.

Oh, but Sam said that the snake is not a cotton mouth, but a black water snake. What's a water snake doing in our dry flowerbed?? I hope he doesn't have 'kin' out there lurking in the weeds. If I was up to it right now, I'd 'google' cotton mouth snakes and black water snakes to compare and contrast their appearances, not to make that mistake again. But I just can't...I'm still shuddering thinking about it. Silly me.

But This is What Cappy Really Meant

In the last post when Cappy said, "Home is where you park it" he was thinking that it would be a good slogan to have painted on our new camper trailer. We just might do that.

In years past Cappy has had old used pop-up campers, but I couldn't manage to handle all the hard cranking and everything else unfamiliar that came along with their use, especially when I was thinking about quickly taking off in case of hurricanes or other such emergencies.

From reading a lot of past posts, you must know by now 'how I am'. Can't you just imagine me fighting with crusty, old nuts and bolts, cranking away with the lug wrench jamming at every turn...if I could get it to turn, having to lie down in the dirt to struggle with rusted support poles, trying to force them into their settings, or frantically running around all four sides of the thing, fumbling while folding the collapsible sides down, pinching my little fingers...I'd want to beat the whole thing up with it's own tire iron. And I don't care what Cappy sez, SparkyBear is NO help :-P

So, we opted for a small camper that's no longer than our boat at home. I've been learning how to back the 19 foot boat....pretty well...not perfectly yet...but like uh said, "pretty well". I went online and researched for quite a few months til I found what I thought I might be able to handle in the way of campers. It was still totally up to Cappy as to whether he thought it was a good little camper or not, so he checked out these links and said, we should go check one out in person. http://www.cruiserrv.com/fun-finder-x.php

The company highly recommended Bent's RV RendezVous over in Metairie, which is really New Orleans...to us anyhow. Well, Cappy just loved the camper. He crawled on, under, around and through the whole thing inspecting everything and wanted to buy it on the spot. The people who run the place are the greatest. Our salesman, Randy Trainor, has a neat sense of humor and treated Cappy and me as grandly as though we were dressed to the nines and coming in to purchase one of their luxury buses; and not dressed 'like us' and coming in to buy one of their littlest camper trailers. Everybody was just great and we had a lot of fun. Although, when we went to pick it up, we had to spend some time doing paperwork, getting insurance, etc. the time was filled with getting to know some of these folks, like Floyd Pitcher, the finance manager, who is a dog lover like us. We recognized a kindred spirit right away. He and his family have adopted/rescued a couple of Boston Terriers, "Frankie" & "Buster" and an English Bulldog named "Bully", who I'd like to meet, myself. He proudly showed us pictures of them on the Mississippi Boston Terrier Rescue link http://mbtr.org/ It's amazing how many quiet heroes live among us. These dogs look so cute and loveable that I'd like to get them all together to socialize with our "brats". Boy, what a nice guy.

Then they had Paul, their head mechanic, although we know he was busy, but he took a lot of time showing us all the minutia about how the thing works, and tips they had learned over the years about how to make life easier for us, so that we don't have to 'reinvent the wheel' by learning on our own, making a lot of aggravating and maybe costly mistakes. He made it sound easy to understand, even for me. PLUS....a BIG thing for me....IF I should be anywhere and find myself in trouble, I can call him for help!!! (He might find hisself sorry that he offered that service.)

They gave us a $50. gift certificate to spend in their supply store. There were a few neccesary things we had to pick up, but then one of the things Cappy insists is important to camping is strings of party lights...pink flamingos and light houses, which he scooped right up in his big paws, saying, "AlRIGHTy then!"

Randy said that the whole business is family operated, and it shows in their pride of how competently their company is run, with knowledge of their fine products, with nice people who work there in every department, and who treat their customers with a genuine warmness and caring respect.

I'll betcha when we either "hit the LOTT-tree", as Cappy calls it, or get rich sellin' our book, that when we go sashayin' in Bent's RV RendezVous over there in Met'rie to buy the biggest RV they've got, we'll still be treated the same wonderful way...even tho' we'll still be dressed 'like us' and we'll still be our "delightfully tacky" Cappy and Pegody selves.

Cappy Sez "Home is where you park it"

He was home and we parked 'it' everywhere. We parked 'it' in the SUV for hours on end traveling from the minute he got home. One place we hardly parked 'it' was HOME.
When I picked him up from the boat, we got home, changed into our 'work' clothes and headed for Lowe's to pick up lumber for our new little gardens. It seems as though we were always somewhere doing something.
We traveled to eastern Tennessee to visit a 'ramp festival', we got in Tinker Bayl and went to pick blackberries, we went to New Orleans and bought a new little travel camper, to Thibodaux a myriad of times for other projects, a new freezer and once for a bale of hay!
Well, now after about three or four miserable months, I'm finally getting a lot of blessed SLEEP. I'm not sitting up on the couch all night (or most nights anyhow, now) to try to catch some elusive ZZZZZZ's, because of my "new kitchen cabinet" neck injury, and not seeing things through a gray haze of fatigue. That being said, I think I'm inclined to catch you all up on where we've been parking 'it'. Where we've been, at least for the last two weeks. The place(s) is Hither and Yon, where we met LOTS of very, VERY nice people who made us feel right at home with them. Photos and stories to follow.