Kayak swamp tour II

A little over a year ago, on November 28, 2009, I took the most enjoyable trip in my kayak that I ever taken.  Today, I revisited the same area.  The scenery was a bit different this time, being later in the season.  The two most notable differences were that there was less foliage on the cypress trees, and, because the water level was much lower, the cypress knees were much more exposed and impressive.  Enjoy the photos.

Shortest day of the year packed with happenings

For being the shortest day of the year (Winter Solstice) and reportedly the darkest in over 300 years (Lunar Eclipse on the shortest day), this was quite an eventful day.  So what all happened?  In the course of 24 hours, I got to see the lunar eclipse.  I got to see UConn Women's Basketball team win their 89th game in a row, eclipsing the long-standing men's basketball record held by John Wooden's UCLA team.  I got to see the 2010 U.S. census results for the first time.  I got to see the long-awaited new road in Houma connecting Hwy 311 to the strip on MLK Blvd, where we do most of our shopping, finally open today, cutting almost in half the time it will take us to make the trip to the strip.  And, to top things off, I got the kayak out, brushed off the cobwebs, and took a 4-mile round trip journey on Bayou Black.  The background scenery and wildlife on these kayak trips never disappoints, which makes me wonder why I don't go more often.

Pictures from Thanksgiving trip

Due to low batteries, I only took one picture of a view we will have from our not-quite-finished home near Tracy City, TN.  The picture didn't come out as well as hoped, with the camera focused on close up trees and the backdrop being somewhat out of focus.  It least it shows that a lot of clearing of underbrush across the highway was generously done in our behalf by the developer, which gives us the view we had hoped for when we purchased the property. 

We traveled north to Plymouth, IN (25 mi. south of South Bend in northern Indiana) to be with Matt & Julie and our grandchildren, Allison, Lauren, and Megan at Thanksgiving time.  The day after Thanksgiving, we joined the family in traveling to a tree farm near the school where Matt works, where they picked out a very special tree.  I took a picture of the grandchildren in front of it.  Over this past weekend, the Bertassos had a lot of snow.  We felt fortunate that we didn't have to contend with the white stuff while we were there.

Thanksgiving Holiday at the Bertasso's

Starting tomorrow, we will be traveling to Tennessee and Indiana.  While our original plan during our Thanksgiving Week trip was to start furnishing our new home in Tennessee and to move our pop up trailer inside the carport (presently on a neighbor's property), it appears that neither will happen on this trip.  The house is not quite finished yet, and we cannot legally enter it until it is finished and signed off.  While in the vicinity, we will take time to meet a few key people, winterize our pop up, and that's about it. 

So, the main thrust of our trip has changed to visiting Julie, Matt, and our grandchildren further up the road in Plymouth, Indiana.  We are excited to be able to be with family during Thanksgiving.  It's been a while since we have had that experience.

Country living in Houma

It seems strange that in a mid-sized city, we would be able to wake up to views such as these as these pictures depict.  We are fortunate to be able to live in a city, yet have the amount of open space that we have. 

Sugar soared to a 30-year high today

On Tuesday, raw sugar futures topped 30.6 cents a pound, rising to their highest point since 1980, when prices jumped to nearly 45 cents.  To get a sense of the dramatic increase in world sugar price, I have included a link to a more recent (post-2002) trend line. A sharper than expected drop in Brazil's estimated production is largely responsible for this spike. India's decision to withhold their domestically produced sugar from the international market is another other factor supporting the world price of sugar.  Here in Louisiana, the harvest season is well underway, and harvest conditions have been good to this point.  Tonnage is down but sugar content in the stalk has been well above average, so the growers are getting an average amount of sugar to the mills even though they are harvesting less cane.  Profitability is better than it has been for a long time.  I'm very happy for the growers and millers alike.

Lexus going sugarcane green

Toyota's Lexus CT200h small luxury hybrid will be the first car outfitted with a sugarcane-based product called bio-PET, also referred to as Ecological Plastic.  The product's initial use will be in the luggage compartment liner.  However, the material may also be used in the manufacture of other interior plastic-based parts of the car, including seats and carpet.  Check out the the story at crispgreen.com.

Sweet potatoes harvested and fall garden planted

With almost no work, except for the digging at the end, we harvested a wheelbarrow load of sweet potatoes this year...getting an even bigger harvest than last year.  We don't even know what to do with them, except to give a good portion of them away .














This past weekend we planted our annual fall-winter garden which includes carrots, radishes, broccoli, cauliflower*, cabbage*, loose-leaf lettuce*, head lettuce*, beets, swiss chard, bush beans, spinach, and onions*.  Starred (*) veggies were transplanted.  The bush beans are experimental for us this year as a winter crop.  The rest are veggies that I know first-hand will thrive in southern Louisiana's fall and winter.  I would like to think that this will be the last garden crop I will plant in Louisiana, but I'm not betting very heavily on it.

Tennessee home now on site

Judy and I traveled to Tennessee over the Labor Day holiday to see our modular home get placed on the foundation prepared for it at our home site.  We actually traveled to Tennessee on Wednesday (Sep 1) witnessed the placement of the home in halves on the foundation on Thursday (Sep 2), hung around over the weekend, and returned on Labor Day (Sep 6).

We camped with our popup camper at the Shellmount Campground near the dam at Nickajack Lake, about 40 minutes from our Tennessee home.  We had previously camped at Nickajack Lake, but at a different campsite. Nickajack Lake is one of several "lakes" created by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) on the Tennessee River that weaves through Tennessee, dipping into Alabama just beyond where we camped.  Being the Labor Day weekend, there was a lot of boating activity on the lake while we were there.

Needless to say, we were very excited to see our new home become a reality.  Judy took a great sequence of pictures and a video of the activity and posted it online.  Additional work on it is being done through September, with a septic system; a big front porch running the full length of the house; a car port and a storage room behind the car port to be built; and electricity, water, and plumbing to be hooked up.  While the home was being placed on its foundation and subsequently bolted to the foundation, and the roof was being finished (part of the process of merging the two halves of the building together) and shingles were being laid down to finish up on the roof on Thursday afternoon and Friday, I took advantage of this time to clear the brush and smaller trees from the front of the house and Judy and I made some decisions as to which larger trees we wanted to keep, in order to "maintain a house in the woods" appearance while affording ourselves a decent view of this beautiful area.  Now the big question is, "How soon will be be able to sell our existing home so that we have the option of retiring and moving into our new home?"  The answer to this question is a big unknown.

Remembering Katrina five years later

In one of my earliest posts after starting this blog, I promised to post some images I took while assisting in the cleanup in the New Orleans area.  I had at least six opportunities to go into New Orleans to assist in removing fallen trees, gutting ruined homes, and cleaning up debris in neighborhoods, following the big hurricane.  Some of the visual images of the devastation will stay with me for a lifetime.  Five months after Katrina, members of  our stake, including myself, assisted in a cleanup project in Chalmette (east side of New Orleans).  One month later, members of our ward, including myself, were involved in gutting Dennis and Michelle Pixton's home Chalmette.  They lost everything and moved to Houma to restart their life.  I have included a brief PowerPoint presentation of these experiences.

Chalmette

View more presentations from tomltew.

Pixton home

View more presentations from tomltew.

Update on modular home in Tennessee

Our new home, being built by ModularOne at their plant in Pulaski, TN,  is scheduled to be delivered to our lot at Sewanee Creek near Tracy City, TN over the Labor Day weekend!  This assumes that there will be no unforeseen delays, weatherwise or otherwise.  We are excited and plan to be on site from September 1 - 6, returning on Labor Day.  The house will be relatively small, at 1,560 square feet indoor space, but with a big porch in the front.  We settled for a good-sized carport and attached storage building instead of a basement, largely due to cost, but also partly due to the topography of our rather shallow lot.  As to when we will occupy our Tennessee home, that depends to a great extent on when we are able to sell our current home.  Retirement and moving to Tennessee is not an option until our home in Houma, LA is sold.  "Until then," as Judy posted at the Friends of Sewanee Creek website, "our little house will sit, lonely and unoccupied up on the hill."  


To get a sense of where we will be located in Tennessee, click on the map above and look for the little square box to the right of Tracy City.  Even though our post office address will officially be Tracy City, we won't even be living in the same county.  Tracy City is in Grundy County, while we are in Marion County.  Sewanee Creek is the separation between the two counties near where we live.  More than that, being on the Marion County side of Sewanee Creek puts us in a different ward, stake, mission, and temple district than church members that live on the Tracy City side of the Creek.  We will live further east than do Matt & Julie in Plymouth, IN, but we will be just inside the Central Time Zone, while they are just inside the Eastern Time Zone.

More trivia:  Which state is the only state in the U.S. that has a,a,a,a as the only vowels in its name; which is the only state that has e,e,e,e as its vowels; and which is the only state that has i,i,i,i?  Hint: We will be traveling in all of them over the Labor Day weekend.

Diana Hansen-Young - an artist we knew in Hawaii

Diana Hansen-Young

 I was browsing the net and bumped into dianahansenyoung.com.  We knew this rather intriguing lady, Diana Hansen-Young, and her two young children, when we lived in Hawaii.  They lived in our neighborhood and attended our church.  She was a fairly well known artist and had her own distinctive style of Hawaiian art that had a lot of local appeal.  Click on "Paintings" at her website to see a sampling of her style of painting, as illustrated by the painting below.  She is of Swedish stock and definitely doesn't look Hawaiian.  I don't know how she came to live in Hawaii, or the circumstances behind her marrying a fellow of Chinese descent (Mr. Young).  Her two children by her Chinese husband are named Heidi and Thekla.  She divorced Mr. Young. Discovering her website, and filling in some of the blanks up to the present time was fascinating for me, because she was such a compelling lady.  It doesn't surprise me that she is now living in Paris, and has continued to pursue the arts, both art and music.  She appears to have recently married another rather interesting fellow.  Her children, now grown, are obviously gifted.  I note that Thekla has become an attorney...even spending a brief time in New Orleans.  Apparently, Thekla moved down here two days before Katrina happened.  What a bummer.  It's too bad we weren't aware that she briefly moved down here.  I'm sure she would have remembered us, and our children who would have been about the same age range as herself.

First day of school for Allison

Our oldest granddaughter started school today, first day in first grade.  We're excited for her!  We got a kick out of the Bertasso blog report of her struggle to get her teacher's name right. 

Roundup Ready sugarbeets in the news again

Sugarbeets are grown on more than 1 million acres in the United States and account for over half of the sugar produced here, the remainder almost entirely coming from sugarcane.  Sugarbeet farmers very quickly adopted Roundup Ready sugarbeets when they became available.  This year, 95% of all sugarbeets planted and soon to be harvested are Roundup Ready, which means that about half the total U.S. sugar supply will be from genetically modified plants.  As of August 13, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey S. White revoked USDA's approval of Monsanto's genetically modified sugarbeets.  His ruling will not affect this year's crop, but may have huge consequences for next year's crop, in that there is a general consensus within the sugarbeet industry that non-modified seed is in very short supply.  Even if non-GMO sugarbeet seed were available, many farmers will likely switch to growing other genetically modified crops, not wanting to or no longer having the equipment to contend with weeds the old fashioned way.

I suspect that the judge's decision has far more to do with concerns about large corporate seed companies having a monopoly on seed than it has to do with dangers associated with genetically modified plants, per se.  After all, much of the food and drugs we consume are from genetically modified organisms, and have been for some time.  Granulated sugar, once fully processed, is nothing more than chemically pure sucrose, devoid of protein, so to make this an issue about consuming a tainted product, really doesn't make any sense.  To be concerned about sugarbeet pollen is just as big of a stretch, considering that the sugarbeet is a biennial crop and does not flower when grown for its sugar.  Good luck to those in the USDA who will be called on to complete a voluminous environmental impact statement for Roundup Ready sugarbeets that couldn't possibly be completed before 2012.

Sugarcane growers have to be happy they aren't in the middle of this controversy.  Besides, this decision stands to further bolster the price of sugar.

Sweet potato variety 'Evangeline'

This is the second year that we have let 'Evangeline,' a sweet potato variety developed at Louisiana State University, essentially take over our garden during the hot summer months.  Actually, I don't mind having a garden crop that essentially does its own thing with very little effort on my part.  It literally filled up the garden from two little plants that survived through the extra cold winter we had.  Evangeline is quite attractive, with its unusual purple pigmented leaves, and colorful flowers.  It is also sweeter than earlier bred sweet potato varieties.  Sweet potato is related to the infamous morning glory weed, so it is not surprising that it has the ability to cover such a large ground area in a short time.  In late September, we expect to dig out another bumper crop of sweet potatoes.  This is about as good a garden crop as there is from the perspective of minimum input and maximum output.  The variety name, Evangeline, hearkens back to the poem by the same name, written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and has a special connection to Louisiana, as explained in the Wikipedia article about the poem.

In the upper picture, you might have noticed that I have a row of beans, actually edible soybeans on the right side of the garden which the sweet potato vines are beginning to take over.  I will probably get my cane knife out, sharpen it, and do a quick slash cut down the row between the sweet potatoes and the soybeans.  I may have to do this a couple more times until the soybeans are mature enough to eat.  I wish I had planted a few more soybeans, now that I know they can be productive in Louisiana's intense summer heat.

Update on Bonnie

Welcome news!  Bonnie looks to be far less of a threat to Terrebonne and Lafourche Parishes than it was only 24 hours ago.  It is presently only a tropical depression after having passed across Florida.  Because of how fast it is traveling, and given its present trajectory, it will likely just barely return to tropical storm status before making landfall again.  It is now projected to make landfall at the Louisiana/Mississippi border.  We may get a little extra rain out of this storm system, and that's about it.  It remains to be seen how the oil remaining in the Gulf is affected by this storm.  Even though the storm is now projected to go north of the original source of the spill site, it really depends on where most of the oil is located as to whether the storm will help or hurt the situation. 

The big local story is that there will be a benefit concert on the Grand Isle tomorrow (Saturday, July 24), rain or sunshine, in lieu of the Annual Tarpon Rodeo (fishing event).  This alternate event will be huge for the beleaguered Grand Isle residents.  Too bad Lori and James couldn't be here for that.  They would have loved it.

My Bonnie lies over the ocean

My Bonnie lies over the ocean
My Bonnie lies over the sea

I can tell by the path she's a takin'
She wants to come visit me

The good news...Tropical Storm Bonnie will not likely reach hurricane status.

The bad news...Bonnie will disrupt oil cleanup operations, and may inflict further ecological damage beyond that which has already occurred as a result of the Oil Spill, if it continues to follow its projected path.

Gov. Bobby Jindal has already declared a state of emergency in Louisiana in preparation for the storm.  He is urging everyone in Louisiana to visit www.GetAGamePlan.org ASAP to make a game plan for their family.

Kitty sprouted wings, another kitty in the wings

Less than a month after I posted an upbeat blog about Kitty (4/19), I let him outdoors one early morning...and that was the last time we ever saw Kitty.  We have no idea what his fate was, but assume that he has gone on to kitty heaven, given his advanced age.  Judy even suggested that maybe he was translated. 

Fast forward to about two weeks ago, when we had a sad looking bob-tailed kitty approach our house.  Judy took mercy on the poor animal and gave her some of Kitty's cat food.  As Judy puts it, this kitty quickly adopted us, rather than the other way around, and at this point, appears to be a permanent fixture at our home.  There are two things this kitty needs.  One is a name (Lori suggested Bobby Sue, considering where we are moving to).  The other is for this kitty to get spayed before we become the owners of not just one, but a whole litter.

On another topic, I took the time to consolidate the labels used in all previous blogs, replacing all single-entry labels with more comprehensive labels that are displayed in their entirety on the home page of my blog.  It took most of the afternoon to do boil the number down to about 50 labels.  I've been wanting to do it for some time, and finally got around to it

Passing of Arnold Friberg an American Treasure

It is only fitting that American artist Arnold Friberg, who passed away on July 1, is remembered during weekend of the 4th of July.  Probably his greatest and most widely distributed work of art was that of George Washington kneeling in prayer at Valley Forge in behalf of our fledgling nation in a time of desperation.  I took the following from Deseret News:

The painting "Prayer at Valley Forge" is based (as per Arnold Friberg) on the following story by Isaac Potts a resident of Valley Forge:

"What was that?" I inquired. "Do you see that woods, and that plain?" It was about a quarter of a mile from the place we were riding. "There," said he, "laid the army of Washington. It was a most distressing time of ye war, and all were for giving up the ship but that one good man. In that woods," pointing to a close in view, "I heard a plaintive sound, as of a man at prayer. I tied my horse to a sapling and went quietly into the woods and to my astonishment I saw the great George Washington on his knees alone, with his sword on one side and his cocked hat on the other. He was at Prayer to the God of the Armies, beseeching to interpose with his Divine aid, as it was ye Crisis and the cause of the country, of humanity, and of the world."

Both Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush had this painting and took inspiration from it.

Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will best remember Arnold Friberg for his series of Book of Mormon paintings.  They illustrate the significant events in the Book of Mormon.  There is a very good chance that anyone possessing a copy of the Book of Mormon with illustrations, is familiar with Mr. Friberg's work.

Arnold Friberg was commissioned by Cecil B. DeMille to make a series of conceptual paintings in the development of the "Ten Commandments."  His work influenced the costuming of the actors and development of the sets used in the "Ten Commandments."  Cecil B. DeMille had developed a close friendship with Bro. Friberg and with President David O. McKay in the course of the production of his epic film. At the invitation of Pres. McKay, DeMille spoke at BYU in May 1957, where he rather surprised the student body by delivering a masterful address on the purpose of God’s laws.  It was at this forum that DeMille declared,“We cannot break the Ten Commandments. We can only break ourselves against them.”

A list of some of Friberg's better known works can be found at Wikipedia.

Deep Horizon Oil Spill following Hurricane Alex

Even though Hurricane Alex was over 750 miles away, it had a substantial impact on the weather, the wind, and the wave action in the Deep Horizon Oil Spill-affected area of the Gulf.  I pulled up a map of the oil spill on Intellicast around 4:00 p.m. this afternoon (see pic) and noticed that the spill has moved onto the beaches of all four affected states.  On the Louisiana side, the spill has moved beyond Grand Isle toward Cocodrie.  Workers are doing everything they can to prevent the spill from going into Lake Bourne between New Orleans and the Mississippi coastline, then Lake Pontchartrain, the very large lake north of New Orleans.  They are doing everything they can to minimize impact to the Barataria Estuary on the other side of New Orleans.  The challenge has been the wave action and the storm surge of over six feet that Alex brought...as far away as it is.  If we have a hurricane season like 2005 or 2008, heaven help us.

Houma area buzzing with activity

Houma seems to be on national news a lot these days, in part, because it is a major oil town close to the gulf oil spill but perhaps just far enough away to not be considered highly vulnerable, as are some other critical locations that are closer to the coast and the spill.  It is the logical location for what has now become the BP's Louisiana Command Center (formerly, BP training center), one of the key centers where Admiral Thad Allen is updated, and is seen issuing some of his press releases.  The command center is located at the crossroads of Hwy 30 and Hwy 311, just north of Houma...and only ten minutes from where we live.  There is major building activity going on behind Houma's major mall strip that would make one think that Houma is currently in a rapid expansion mode.  There is a tremendous amount of buzz and activity in Houma, right now.  Mixed with this activity is a strong sense of uncertainty and concern with hurricane season now bearing down on us.

A brand new $22M Marriott Courtyard is being built right across from where I work, and is well ahead of schedule...to be opened later this fall (see picture).  When we walk out of our office building, and look in the direction of our sugarcane plants that are on the crossing carts, the Marriott Courtyard now seemingly looms over our plants, and catches our attention.   Right now, our plants are being rolled into dark houses each evening to create a "tropical" daylength that stimulates them to go into a flowering mode.  They are on schedule to flower beginning in late September.  Without a photoperiod treatment, they wouldn't flower until December, and then only sporadically, if at all, and our seed production would be far below what it is with the photoperiod treatment. We just recently built a new photoperiod / crossing house complex, and none to soon.  This year, the on-site facility is a backup, as we "break in" our new facility at our farm nine miles away.  With all the building going on around us at our main Station, incident light will make it increasingly difficult to create the photoperiod effect needed to get our plants to flower when we want them to.

It's official...our house is for sale

...and so is everyone else's...

Tew Reunion in Salt Lake City

Last Saturday, on June 12, descendants of William Thomas Tew / Clara Elizabeth Snow Tew (my paternal grandparents) enjoyed a day together, renewing old friendships, and, in many cases, developing new ones.  The cool, rainy weather prevented us from meeting outdoors, as originally planned, so we met indoors in the recreational area of a large LDS church building, the one that Patricia (my niece) and Dan Potts regularly attend.  All in all, there were about 130 attendees.  We had plenty of food.  Brad Berntson (my nephew) and his wife, Jane, brought  a large commercial scale grill to the event in a trailer, and grilled hamburgers and hot dogs outdoors.  Louise Tew (my sister-in-law) and her daughter, Patricia, did most of the work preparing for the reunion, handling invitations, program agenda, facility reservations, decorations, name tags, meat and condiments,and so on.  They did an outstanding job and are to be commended for their effort.  There are others who substantially contributed.

We had descendants representing all but one of Grandpa and Grandma Tew's seven children who are long since deceased.  My father, 2nd youngest, died 32 years ago (1978), at age 78.  At age 62, I am the youngest living grandchild of Grandpa and Grandma Tew.  At this point, only 15 of 44 grandchildren are still alive, so this reunion was of special importance to those 7 who were able to attend.  Three of Uncle Will's 7 children are living, of which Roy and Dean were in attendance.  All of Aunt Reba's 6 children are deceased; this was the only line not represented at the reunion.  Only one of Uncle Warren's 9 children is living, namely Vivian Dredge; she and several members of her extended family were in attendance.  Three of Uncle Bird's 7 children are living, of which none were in attendance.  Two of Uncle Bryan's 7 children are living, of which neither were in attendance.  Six of my father Burton's 7 children are still living, and Burton Jr., Norma, Carolyn, and I  were in attendance.  Aunt Melba had one child who is deceased. 

We set up a large family tree for attendees to put their family pictures/information on.  Highlights of the reunion for me included the terrific lunch, a great group picture, the family tree, senior member(s) of each of the seven family lines bringing us up to date on their own family lines, and a pinata for the kids at the end.  My main regret is that I didn't get a chance to visit with my niece Heidi, who I was later told was actually at the reunion for a short time with her mother, my sister Norma.  I was also disappointed that neither my brother Fred, his wife Sandra, nor any of their 10 children were able to attend the reunion.  From our family, in addition to myself, Julie and Matt and their three children (Plymouth, IN), and Neal (SLC, UT) attended.  Alan (SLC) was in Portland and Lori and James (Loveland, CO) were unable to attend.  Judy stayed in Louisiana; we couldn't financially justify both of us going.

Vegetable Day at the USDA Sugarcane Research Facility

This is the second straight year that the Master Gardeners in our region and the LSU Extension Service have chosen to grow their display garden at our facility.  We are ideally located for this.  The Southern belles who attended, prepared some wonderful dishes that included 1) grilled vegetables seasoned with low-sodium taco seasoning and olive oil, 2) green tomato pie, and 3) pineapple zucchini cake.  Master gardeners, LSU extension service personnel, and our own Eric Pitre, a senior technician at our Station who lives on site across from where the garden was planted, gave some terrific presentations.  I was very impressed, and learned a lot.  Dr. Paul White, a recently hired scientist at our Station, won the largest tomato contest with a 24+ oz. tomato.  Good job, Paul!

Memorial Day Weekend in Tennessee

Over the long weekend, Judy and I visited our future home site, and marked precisely where we wanted our new home to be located on our property.  It didn't take all that long to accomplish our main purpose for going on this trip, which left us time to visit with Grant Miller and Micah & Stephanie Spiracio, future neighbors.  We borrowed a 4-wheeler (ATV) from Grant.  I got the hang of driving it after a short while.  Judy & I took the 4-wheeler on some of the timber roads above our property.  I have to admit that it would be a blast to own one of these, so as to be able to get around on the back roads, of which there are so many in this area.  We went to church on Sunday in Kimball, where we met Grant's brother, George Miller, also a future neighbor.  George is presently in the midst of building his home inside the Sewanee Creek development.  I posted a comment that explains the second photo.

While in Tennessee, we explored a couple of caves.  Not far from where we were staying in Kimball, TN is Russell Cave, run by the National Park Service.  It is actually in Alabama, and more of an overhang used by early Indian dwellers than what one thinks of when thinking of a true cave.  After visiting Russell Cave, we had enough time to go to Raccoon Mountain Caverns near Chattanooga, and go through part of the extensive cave system there.  Our tour, called the Crystal Palace Tour, lasted 45 minutes.  For the more adventurous, there are wild cave tours that go much further into the cave.  These, of course involve a fair amount of crawling, and getting through some pretty tight spaces, but it is apparently well worth the effort, for those fit and thin enough to do it.

On our return trip, we took a different route that took us through Huntsville, Decatur, and Moulton, AL, then through the William B. Bankhead National Forest (the largest forest in Alabama) to the town of Natural Bridge, AL, where we stopped and visited privately owned Natural Bridge Park.  The natural bridge formation within the park is the largest natural arch east of the Rockies.  The owner wanted to make sure that we saw the American Indian stone formation that he claimed, "winks at the ladies" and "nods at the men."  From Natural Bridge, we went directly south to Tuscaloosa and on home on I-59.

Grand Isle, Elmer's Island, and Fourchon Beaches all closed

In my previous post, the last point I made was that Louisiana had precious few beaches.  Now it appears that all of the road-accessible beaches in and around Grand Isle have been closed as of May 21, because of the effects of the oil spill.  What a blow to the economy in Grand Isle, whose residents are heavily dependent on the tourists who would normally flock into Grand Isle this time of year to enjoy the beaches and go fishing.  Here's local news coverage (video footage).  And here's the local newspaper coverage.  I copied an image of the three beaches from Google Earth.  Go to Google Earth and type in Grand Isle, Louisiana.  Note that Grand Isle really is a road-accessible island.  The bridge crossing over to Grand Isle is where alot of fishing is done.  Zoom in on the bridge.  On the left of the bridge, inside the V- or 7-shaped Elmer's Island (depending on your view) is a great place for kayaking.  Fourchon Beach is on the lower left of the image I took, and fronts one of the most important industrial ports in the United States, Port Fourchon.  For the few times I have been down in the area, I preferred Fourchon Beach over Grand Isle Beach.  It's sort of like comparing Waikiki Beach (Grand Isle), which is so-so as a beach, but a major tourist destination, to Kailua Beach (Fourchon Beach) close to where we lived on Oahu, which, in my mind was a better beach to go swimming and playing around in.  NOAA will shortly give their predictions about hurricane season this year, which officially begins nine days from now.  I can only imagine what a Hurricane like Rita (2005) or Ike (2008) would do.  Both hurricanes remained offshore below Terrebonne Parish as they headed toward Texas, pushing deep water all the way to the Intracoastal Waterway that intersects east and west Houma 30 miles inland.  I'm not sure how habitable coastal Louisiana would be for any life, human or otherwise, if a similar hurricane were to impact us.

Louisiana facts relevant to the oil spill

1. Energy. Louisiana has the greatest concentration of crude oil refineries, natural gas processing plants and petrochemical production facilities in the Western Hemisphere. Louisiana ranks 4th among the U.S. states in crude oil production, behind Texas, Alaska, and California, and is also one of the nation’s top natural gas producers.

2. Population. According to U.S. Census estimates in 2006, nearly 50% of the state’s population lives in Louisiana’s coastal parishes.

3. Seafood industry and commercial fishing. Louisiana produces 50% of the U.S. shrimp crop, 35% of the nation's blue claw crabs, and 40% of its oysters. Additionally, Louisiana commercial landings account for about 20% of the total catch of fish by weight in the lower 48 States.

4. Recreational fishing. Annual expenditures related to non-commercial fishing in Louisiana amount to $1.7 billion.

5. Waterborne commerce. Five of the top fifteen largest ports in the United States are located in Louisiana. In 2005, Louisiana's coastal wetlands provided storm protection for ports that carried nearly 500 million tons of waterborne commerce- accounting for 18% of all waterborne commerce in the United States.

6. Marine habitat. Ninety percent of all the marine species in the Gulf depend on coastal estuaries at some point in their lives, and most of these estuaries are in Louisiana.

7. Bird habitat. More than one-half of the species of birds in North America are resident in Louisiana or spend a portion of their migration there.

8. Wetlands. Because of its many bays and sounds, Louisiana has the longest coastline (15,000 miles) of any state and 41 percent of the nation's wetlands.

9. Wetland loss. Between 1990 and 2000, wetland loss was approximately 24 square miles per year, the rough equivalent one football field every 38 minutes. The projected loss over the next 50 years, even with current restoration efforts taken into account, is estimated to be 500 sq. mi. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita transformed 217 square miles of marsh to open water in coastal Louisiana.

10. Beaches. Louisiana is not a beach destination. Granted, there are a few road-accessible beaches, such as the one on Grand Isle about 1.5 hr from New Orleans, but beaches close to the mouth of the Mississippi are not pristine beaches by any stretch.

Oil spill approaching Lafourche and Terrebonne Parishes

For those who live in Terrebonne and Lafourche Parishes, there are eerie similarities between post-Hurricane Katrina events and what is now unfolding following the oil spill. In the case of Katrina, New Orleans and coastal areas further east took the brunt of the storm, while Terrebonne and Lafourche Parishes were far less affected. However, a storm later in the same season, namely Hurricane Rita, caused caused massive flooding and economic impact in these parishes and further west.

In the case of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, it initially appeared that parishes west of the Mississippi River had the possibility of largely escaping its devastating effects. But now, the tide has definitely turned for the worse. The map above is the NOAA projection as to where the spill is as of today at 6:00 p.m. NOAA has projected out for 24, 48, and 72 hours beyond Saturday at 6:00 p.m. The forecast shows the potential for oil along the Southwest Pass, on the beaches of Port Fourchon, and the Timbalier Islands. As of yet, no oil has been observed on the beaches at Grand Isle. The State Department of Wildlife and Fisheries has extended its ban on recreational and commercial fishing in some offshore waters west of the Mississippi, which has fishermen in this area much more concerned than they may have initially been. Oyster beds west of the Mississippi have been closed as well. Presidents of both Lafourche and Terrebonne Parishes have declared a state of emergency in response to the westward movement of the oil spill and the crisis that has been created by this mess.

Oil spill approaching shoreline of the gulf states

I noticed with interest that the off-shore oil rig disaster 40 miles beyond Louisiana's shoreline was the lead story on the NBC evening news this evening. This disaster, with the potential to have far reaching ecological and political consequences, has a lot of people down here nervously watching to see how it will play out over the next few days as the oil spill area spreads. The aftermath of the fiery explosion on an off-shore oil rig that resulted in several deaths, has the potential to severely impact the already fragile wetland region of Louisiana and the coastal regions of several gulf states, affecting not only wildlife, but seafood, tourism, and other industries that our economy depends on. Here is the report on this disaster from our local paper. The report contains a video about midway into the article as well, that includes a clip from Motivatit Seafoods owner Mike Voisin, a fellow Latter-day Saint who I spent some time on Sunday with.

Here is a Facebook comment from Richard Stancliffe, a member of our New Orleans Stake Presidency who works for the oil industry, and who is also an avid bird watcher, "The disaster of the Transocean Deepwater Horizon rig will have political and environmental repercussions that will impact the industry for years to come. Forget about all the OCS acreage Obama opened up last week...the window of that opportunity just closed."