Then and Now

First photo above was taken on June 23, 2002, shortly after we moved into our new home in Louisiana.  Second photo was taken yesterday, March 9, 2011, nearly nine years later, as we prepare to move to Tennessee.  This has been a wonderful home for us, and served us well over years we lived here.

Life on the Bayou soon to be Life on the Cumberland Plateau

Tomorrow (April 8) we close on our home in Houma, Louisiana. We will be allowed to stay in our former home one additional week.  Next week Monday - Wednesday (April 11-13), we plan to move all of our belongings into a moving van trailer, then stay through Friday (April 15), using sleeping bags, folding chairs, and a card table.  On Saturday (April 16), we travel to Tracy City, Tennessee, getting there early enough to complete the paperwork that will allow us to have the keys to our new home.  We couldn't have cut it any closer, given that the earliest possible date we would be allowed to access our new home (from when it was formally completed, inspected, and a mandatory10-day waiting period passed) is just about the very day we arrive.  The moving van is expected to arrive on Tuesday, April 19, and we will have the balance of the week of April 17-23 to get everything moved in and start getting settled.  Judy will remain in Tennessee, and I will fly back to Houma most likely on Saturday, April 23, to fulfill my work obligations.  My official retirement day is May 31.  However, I will "wrap it up" on Friday, May 27, the following Monday being an official holiday (Memorial Day), Tuesday being taken as accrued vacation time.  At the moment, I plan to stay with the Stock family in Thibodaux between April 23-May 27.  They have a large home with only Greg and Monica living in it at the moment; they were gracious enough to offer me to stay with them.  They are planning some landscaping and gardening, so I can hopefully repay them "in kind" by assisting them with their plans.  Judy and I very much look forward to settling in the Cumberlands, and living out our dreams there. 

How will the government shutdown affect us, if it happens?  Not too much, since we were planning to be taking accrued vacation time over the next two weeks anyway.  Hopefully the Legislative and Executive branches will have settled their differences by then and government can return to work when I am ready to return to work.

Houma home sold

Unless something unforeseen occurs between now and final sale, which, at this moment, appears to be highly unlikely, we have sold our home in Houma.  The home will have a new owner on April 8.  We asked for a two-week extension on the time we need to vacate the home, which the new owner has agreed to.  This gives us a little extra breathing room on the other side.  Our new home in Tracy City, Tennessee has been "nearly finished" since Labor Day last year, and is still not quite ready to be occupied.  The home itself has been finished for some time, but the holdup has been the building of the carport and a small storage building inside the carport.  We are given to understand that the carport is essentially finished, and it's the storage building that awaits completion.  Once completed, we then have to wait an additional 10 days before we are allowed to occupy our new home, or put a single item inside of it.  Once we move our belongings to the new home, Judy will move.  I will need to stay a little longer, since I am obligated to give a minimum of three months notice to the USDA before retiring.  We are looking forward to turning the page to a new chapter in our lives.

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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."

Freezing on the Bayou

Finally, we are getting relief from the freezing weather down here in southern Louisiana. I have lived in this area for just over 10 years, and this is without question the coldest week I have encountered since moving here. In the last eight days, we have been significantly below freezing at night, as cold as 22 degrees (F) early Sunday morning (January 10). I was amazed at the number of schools that have shut down around this area because of the cold temperatures. I suppose this has as much to do with bursting frozen pipes as anything else.

All of the sugarcane froze above ground, so at work, we finally have an opportunity to really take advantage of a sugarcane freeze test that we install annually. On Thursday, Jan 7, we cut stalks out of every plot in a fully replicated test that has all of the important varieties that our industry either currently relies on or will shortly be planting in their fields. For the next several weeks, until there is no further change in deterioration, we will be repeatedly re-sampling this test. The expectation is that the freeze this year will have been extreme enough (hopefully, not too extreme) to show which varieties are the most freeze tolerant and the least freeze tolerant. Those that are the most freeze tolerant will obviously tend to be left in the field the longest during future harvest seasons. Thankfully, much of the cane has already been harvested this season, and many of the mills have already shut down. What is interesting is that even though the cane stalks may freeze and thus be subject to rapid deterioration, especially the more sensitive varieties, not very much deterioration will occur until the cane in the field is significantly above normal refrigeration temperatures, so I think our farmers, for the most part, dodged the bullet this year, at least as far as harvesting goes. There is some question as to whether the below-ground temperatures got cold enough in places as far north as Bunkie and New Roads to severely affect stubble crops, as they did in 1989.

Our garden, and many of our more temperature sensitive plants around our home got whacked pretty hard. We probably lost some of our weaker citrus trees. A guava tree we planted next to the road last year looks pretty miserable as well. I have heard that in Florida, where several cold temperature records were set, iguanas are falling out of trees, and the pythons have become an easy catch for those trying to reduce their numbers. Since I don't care for either one, this is welcome news.

Vegetable Field Day at our USDA research facility

Tomorrow, from 9:00 a.m. to noon, the La-Terre Master Gardeners and the USDA are hosting the Annual Vegetable Field Day in Terrebonne Parish. This is the first time since I have been in Houma that we have helped host this event at our facility. Personnel from the LSU AgCenter will be involved as well, providing presentations, and sharing information. There will be contests, such as for the largest tomato and the ugliest tomato brought to the Field Day; there will be opportunities for taste tasting different varieties of the various vegetables at the field day, and so on. We will also get to show off some of the research we do at our facility. It should be an interesting and fun day. Besides sugarcane, we can show off a few sugarbeets that we specially left in the field for the event. They are gigantic, but are starting to get seriously attacked by bugs and diseases. We also have some tropical maize that is now 13 feet tall, with ears that are over nine feet from the ground. I had to use a ladder to put silk bags on them this morning. Anyone interested in corn at the Field Day will be amazed at the size of these plants.

While on the subject of crops, people outside of Louisiana may not be aware that we are going through a fairly severe drought, with no relief in sight. If the drought keeps up for another two weeks, it will have a severe impact on Lousiana agriculture generally. Farmers are very concerned.

Hurricane season begins tomorrow

Living in southern Louisiana has its positives and its negatives. Chief among its negatives are the unpleasant high-humidity summers and having to contend with another hurricane season which officially starts tomorrow. Remember Gustav last year? It went right through Houma. Not only did it leave the community in a mess, it wasn't too kind to scientists conducting field-oriented research either. Several experiments at our Research Unit had to be postponed for another year. During graduate school days in Minnesota, the main temperature effect we talked about was the wind chill factor or wind chill index during the winter time. If it was cold outside, the wind made it feel like it was a whole lot colder.

In southern Louisiana, the main temperature effect we talk about in the summer is the heat index. So if it is hot, and then you add humidity with the heat, the body responds as though it is a lot hotter than what the thermometer would indicate. As shown in the graph, it feels like 100 F or more during the hottest part of the day through the months of June, July, and August even though the temperature rarely reaches 95 F. Foremost in the local news is the urgent need for greater hurricane protection and coastal restoration projects. At the Houma Today website, one of the featured videos in the VIDEOS section entitled "America's Wetland," has some footage describing a rally that is being held at the downtown marina in Houma today to raise awareness about the serious loss of wetland along Louisiana's coastline. One of the comments was that "Some people call Houma ground zero. We call it zero ground, because this is THE place where the most land is being lost."

Spring garden in Houma

What a difference a few days make. The two pictures shown above, were taken only nine days apart (Apr 25 & May 3). Notice how our corn reached the top of our camper in just nine days! Here's the status of our garden as of Cinco de Mayo (5th of May).

Potatoes planted Feb 7. Harvested most in late April. Judy sliced & dehydrated them. I harvested the remainder (80 potatoes) tonight.

Carrots planted Feb 21. We're thining them out as we go, picking babies. The remainder are being left to attain full size, which isn't far off.

Spinach planted Feb 21. Popeye would be proud. Picking the leaves as we go. Had a few for dinner tonight.

Tomatos planted March 7. Picked first ripe tomato yesterday. Many will follow shortly.

Peppers planted March 7. Picked first ripe bell pepper last Saturday (May 2). Picking them as we go...about one per night.

Sweet corn planted March 7. Featured in the pictures above, all the plants have tasseled out in the last two days. Should be munching sweet corn within a week from the earliest maturing ones.

Cowpeas planted March 7. A ways off, but the plants look terrific.

Edible-pod peas planted March 10. They're in their peak. Picked 40 pods yesterday, 40 more today. Steamed with a little butter, they are delicious.

Edible soybeans planted March 10. Pods are filling nicely. About a week away.

Yellow Crookneck squash planted March 28. Squash are about 4" long and growing rapidly.

Watermelon, cucumber, and canteloupe. They're a long way off.

Blackberry bush. Just starting to pick the berries. Soon, we won't be able to keep up!

We got over two inches of rain yesterday. The garden crops loved it.

Annual Thibodaux Ward Crawfish Boil

This year's crawfish boil was successful as expected, but rather anticlimatic compared to last year's (key in 'crawfish boil' at "search" above to go to it). Last year, we invited the BYU Idaho 50-member Symphony Band group who were performing in the Southeastern U.S., plus a live Cajun Band at our annual crawfish boil. It was a blast and a memorable event for the band members. This year, it was just us, and a below-average turnout at that.

Howard Worthy, who teaches ROTC at Morgan City High School, was able to get an Army tent for the event. It took a good number of people to lift it in place, but it was easily the best and biggest tent we have ever had for our crawfish boil.

I invited an older inactive gentleman that I know from working out at the YMCA, the day before the crawfish boil. He promised to come out and enjoy the event with us, and was good on his word. He is the first person on our ward list with the name Kenneth Abramson, but this is the first time I remember seeing him at our Church. A few of the long time members recognized him. I took some food home for Judy, who had to work at Sylvan Learning Center until past noon. I wasn't sure she would make it, and I failed to recognize that she was pulling in to the Church as I was leaving. This morning, I took Judy to the airport so the meal I took home to her ended up being mine after Church today. Judy will be with Julie & Matt, and their family in Indiana for the next two weeks, while Megan goes through her next phase of reconstruction surgery, this time on her palate, as I understand. I'm sure Julie will keep us posted on Megan's progress at the Indiana Bertasso's blog site. Keep Megan in your prayers.

Kevin and Emily Voisin, friends at Church, were excited to announce over the weekend, that their family's business, Motivatit Seafoods, and it's star product, Gold Band Oysters, will be featured on the primetime Food Network program, "Will Work For Food."

If interested, tune in on Monday, April 6, 2009 at 7:30 PM-CST to see television personality Adam Gertler try his hand at oyster harvesting in South Louisiana. Click here to find out more about Adam and his many adventures in the name of food. According to FoodNetwork.com, Adam gets a tough and messy lesson in oyster harvesting from the back-breaking haul to the cleaning, shucking, and banding of this amazing delicacy.

Whoever hasn't been to the oyster processing plant in Houma before, this will be a great opportunity to see the operation in full swing!

Last hurrah for a season

With the heavy rains we had last week, large sections of Houma were flooded, enough so that we made national news...at least on the Weather Channel. We hadn't had this much rain since Hurricane Gustav. Of course, our problems were small compared to what is happening on the Red River of the North, between MN & ND, where major flooding is occurring. And it just seems bizarre that Lori and James were delayed in returning to their home in Loveland, CO after visiting Julie, Matt, and our grandchildren in Indiana, because of blizzard conditions in Colorado.

With the heavy rains, the canal behind our house, which remains dry most of the year, became swollen, and the perimeter of the lake in our neighborhood more than doubled. The larger permanent canal that goes back a mile to the swamp from our lake became fully navigable. Most of the year, it is so clogged with aquatic weeds, that it is almost impossible to kayak on it. So, being literally able to launch my kayak from the back of our house, I couldn't resist the temptation to do one last hurrah, before I hung the kayak up for a season. I went all the way back to the swamp from our house, which I have never done before. It was a bit of a rush to do this, not knowing what to expect along the way. At one point, something made a very large splash next to the kayak, obviously something I approached by surprise. It could have been a large nutria, a large fish, or an alligator. Whatever it was, it raised my adrenaline level, even though I didn't actually have a chance to see what it was. Once I reached the swamp, I could have navigated my way to the Intercoastal Canal and beyond to the Gulf. More likely, I could have gotten very lost. I returned home and hung up the kayak in the garage for a season. As shown in the picture that Judy took during the day, neighborhood kids took advantage of the flooding as well, since school was cancelled.

Kevin Voisin wins seat on Terrebonne Parish Council

Kevin Voisin, a decided underdog in a post-November election runoff between the top two candidates for City Councilman in Terrebonne Parish District 6, actually pulled off a win yesterday with the narrowest of margins, 862 vs. 846 votes. In the District 6 primary held Nov. 4, Steve Robichaux tallied more than 41 percent of the vote, compared to 32 percent for Voisin. A third candidate, Democrat Al Badeaux, finished with 26 percent. Steve blamed voter apathy for the loss, and the probable assumption by his friends that he "had it in the bag."

We were excited for Kevin and his family. We know Kevin through our church, and wish him the very best in his new role. If there is any one extended family that epitomizes the LDS Church in Houma, it would have to be the Voisin family. I served as a bishopric counselor with Kevin's father, Mike Voisin, a former Bishop of Thibodaux Ward and convert to the church. Kevin was an LDS missionary in France. He was a history major at BYU, and opted to become part of the family business by returning to Houma with his wife, Emily, following college. They now have three children. The Voisin family has been in the oyster business for seven generations. Kevin and Emily played a key role in organizing the Mormon Helping Hands volunteer event that brought over 1,400 volunteers into Terrebonne Parish to assist in the cleanup following Hurricane Gustav.

Army of LDS volunteers provide hurricane relief in and around Houma

We had an exciting weekend. Quoting HoumaToday.com, "A yellow-shirted army of faith came to Houma and neighboring communities this weekend, with nearly 1,400- volunteers from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints traveling to the area to lend a hand with hurricane-relief cleanup projects." Anyone driving along Hwy 311 may have seen tents on the grounds of the LDS Church near Savanne Road or at the Living Word Church still under construction near Interstate 30. Staging site for the event was at the Living Word Church. Prior to the launching of the work, volunteers got to hear from Elder John Anderson (a high-ranking representative of the LDS church), Terrebonne Parish President Michel Claudet, Louisiana Senate President Joel Chaisson II, and Martin Luther King III (eldest son of MLK Jr.). Kevin Voisin, VP of Motivatit Seafood, played an active role in organizing the Mormon Helping Hands volunteer event, and in identifying needs. When United Houma Nation Chief Brenda Dardar-Robichaux got involved, the effort took on a whole new dimension. The United Houma Nation is affiliated with King's Realizing the Dream campaign, which seeks to assist and empower disadvantaged communities. Brenda called King, who, in turn, sought help from the LDS Church because of their ability to organize large numbers of volunteers for efforts such as this on short notice, and within days, the large-scale project was organized with volunteers coming from throughout the southeastern U.S. for the weekend. On Saturday morning, I took some photos including the tents surrounding our Church and the activities going on at the Living Word Church staging site. Then it was time to roll away the camera, roll down my sleeves, and jump into the action. Early Sunday morning, there was a brief LDS service held at the Living Word Church, then volunteers continued their work throughout the morning, focusing heavily on areas further down the bayou (Dulac, Dularge, etc.). I was not involved on Sunday.

Ike's impact on Terrebonne Parish

While it is understandable that much of Hurricane Ike's impact in the gulf region is focused on Texas, it's impact on Louisiana should not be overlooked. In Terrebonne Parish alone, some 15,000 homes were swamped by storm surge created by Ike. Governor Jindal has been very vocal about the false economy of not taking action toward coastal restoration and strengthening the levee system, then spending fantastic amounts of money to repeatedly repair flooded homes and businesses. Rita was far more devastating in Terrebonne Parish than was Katrina in 2005. Similarly, even though Terrebonne Parish took a direct hit from Gustav, the flooding that was created by Ike will be harder to recover from. Imagine having a home flooded out by a hurricane, only to see it get flooded out again only three years later. Ike exacted a severe psychological blow to those living in vulnerable communities in lower Terrebonne Parish. Experts on coastal restoration point out that 40 years ago, Ike wouldn't have had anywhere near the impact that it did in 2008 in southern Louisiana. They also have pointed out that a stronger levee only two feet higher would have prevented almost all of the flooding that occurred in Terrebonne Parish.

Consider this. We will be paying in excess of $400 million to complete the 700-mile partially built border fence between Mexico and the U.S., not to mention the billions it costs each year to patrol the border. Perhaps we should take this money and spend it on coastal protection projects and let the illegals do the building. Sounds like a win-win solution to me.

Above picture was taken from the Houma Courier.

Post-Gustav Report

Here it is, Thursday evening, September 11, ten days after Hurricane Gustav roared through Louisiana, causing the largest evacuation of people in Louisiana’s history, and nearly half of the State to be without power. Although I evacuated to Thibodaux, only 25 minutes from Houma to be on higher ground, because Thibodaux is in Lafourche Parish, I could not officially return to Houma until Friday due to the curfew imposed on re-entering Terrebonne Parish to see what damage may have occurred to our property.

I stayed with our new Bishop, Chris Diket, and his family. I arrived Sunday morning at his house. By early Monday morning, we could hear the wind pick up, and by 10:00 am, Hurricane-force winds were slamming into Thibodaux. We could see the eye of the storm going over Houma on TV, and we knew it would be a matter of minutes before we would be without power. Chris’s daughters were looking out the front door when a carport ripped off from a house across the road and sheared an electric pole in half, causing the wires from the top half of the pole to dangle in the middle of the road, making the road in front of their house impassable. Large trees started falling on people’s homes. Shingles and other debris were flying everywhere.

After a few hours, the storm passed. It started raining fiercely, and the Diket home started springing so many leaks that there weren’t enough pots and pans to contain them. The wind was still blowing too hard for the Bishop and I to get on the roof to put a tarp over the most seriously damaged area. For the balance of the day, the Bishop was very busy answering phone calls. He had an hour-long conference call with New Orleans Stake President Scott Conlin and the other bishops in the Stake from 9:00 to 10:00 p.m. This was repeated every evening while I was in their home.

On Tuesday, the Bishop and I spent most of the day on the Bishop’s roof, tacking down shingles and tarpaper. I think we did a pretty good job of stopping the leaking.

On Wednesday, I sat in a line of cars for over two hours to get gas for the Bishop’s car, while the Bishop stood in a nearby line at Lowe’s to pick up some essentials. We rode around afterward to assess damage done at nearby members’ homes.

On Thursday evening, I found a back way into Houma and decided to see how well I could handle the night without air conditioning. I was amazed that there was no shingle damage at our house. Most of the neighborhood homes had shingle damage, some quite severe, but not a shingle was missing at our house. Staying overnight was pretty awful. I regretted that I didn’t stay a fifth night at the Dikets. My generator quit running properly after a while so I didn’t even have a fan running Thursday evening.

On Friday, I went to the work place, and was shocked to see the level of damage done to our greenhouses. I was equally shocked to see that six out of seven carts of breeding canes were healthy and green. How was this even possible, since we were all under mandatory evacuation? I fully expected the breeding canes to be dead or in very bad condition from lack of water. One of our senior technicians apparently stayed in the main building to ride out the storm, so he was on the premises to care for the plants. A big aluminum door that blew in from the front of the greenhouse damaged most of the plants on one cart. I helped move salvageable plants from this cart to an area where they could be hooked up to a watering system. I spent the balance of the day picking up glass after the above-mentioned technician had a shard of glass go 4-inches deep into the calf of his leg. Another scientist on site rushed him to the local hospital. Our Bishop found a used generator for me to use until we got our power back, which I was deeply grateful for. Nevertheless, I set up our tent in the evening and slept outdoors, and found the outdoors to be much more pleasant, because of greater airflow and temperature drop outdoors.

On Saturday, I learned of the severity of the damage done at the farm from Ed Dufrene. Apparently the shop area took a real beating. I went in to the work place for about four hours, spending the whole time picking up glass. After leaving work, I went directly to the church, amazingly getting there exactly when a shipment of supplies arrived from the Church, so I assisted in offloading the supplies from large trailer truck. In the evening, I slept in the tent again.

On Sunday, I picked up glass again at work for about 2-hrs, then cleaned up and went to church. We had church in a small room rather than in the main chapel area. We actually had about 1/4 our normal attendance. I was surprised that there was even that many people at church. I slept indoors this time with a fan blowing on me, and let some kids in our neighborhood sleep in the tent.

On Monday, one week out from Hurricane, we no still no power. We were given the entire week off at work, but several people volunteered to come in, to assist in the cleanup. Most of us spent the day picking up more glass. I stayed over at a friend’s house, to do my laundry, to watch Monday night football, and to have a comfortable night’s sleep.

On Tuesday, power was back. Hurray! No more generator noise! Blue tarps are everywhere on people’s roofs. Streets are 6-ft deep with piles of wood on both sides of the road for long stretches. Stores are crowded and half empty. We made a few crosses at work, worked on the automated irrigation system to accommodate the plants re-located a few days earlier.

On Wednesday, I picked Judy up at the airport. It’s good to have her back. Things are definitely starting to feel more normal now.

On Thursday, I finally have Internet service back. The wind is blowing at tropical storm strength outdoors to remind us that there is another hurricane out there in the gulf called Ike, and that we just barely passed the peak of the hurricane season.

Life in Houma, sweet Houma

Over the weekend, I went to the Spring Arts, Crafts, & Food Festival at the former Southdown Plantation, the most significant plantation home in Houma, now a Historical Museum. After checking out most of the exhibits, I went to my perenniel favorite, which features a wide variety of jams and jellys, and sugarcane and sweet sorghum syrups. I had the good fortune of visiting an exhibit featuring some of the paintings of Ron Atwood who hails from Homer (not Houma). He does incredible work. Among his paintings, check out his newest. I was so impressed with "The Swamp," I thought long and hard about buying the large version, but chickened out, and just bought a small version at the end. Also, over the weekend, I took a walk in our neighborhood. We have a small "lake," and the neighborhood kids love fishing in it. Right now, the sac-au-lait (sock-oh-lay) is what the kids are catching. That's White Perch, for those not from this region. They caught three during the short time I was watching, so I decided to take snapshot of their success.