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.

USA Today's analysis of 2010 Census at state level features Louisiana first

USA Today has begun to present local data from the 2010 Census.  Data on population trends and ethnic makeup will be released for each state during the months of February and March, beginning with Louisiana, Mississippi, Virginia, and New Jersey; Louisiana demographics being on display first.

As shown in the 2010 Census, Louisiana's population has had some interesting shifts, heavily driven by natural and man-made disasters.  New Orleans' population has gone from 485,000 (2000) to 343,830 (2010), a 29% drop, thanks largely to Katrina.  The estimated population drop was not this great, so the census was rather revealing.  Relative to its size, the parish (county) most impacted by Katrina was St. Bernard Parish, on the east side of New Orleans, which sustained a 47% drop in population.  All in all, seven parishes lost populations at double-digit rates, while ten parishes gained population at rates above the national average of 4%. Parishes between Baton Rouge and New Orleans gained the most, with Ascension and Livingston Parishes gaining 40% and 39%, respectively.  While Baton Rouge and surrounding areas gained considerably, and New Orleans shrunk, New Orleans remains the largest city in the State. Terrebonne Parish, where we live, increased by 7%.

Excess sugarcane bagasse -- what to do with it

Bagasse is the fibrous residue remaining after crushing/shredding sugarcane and washing the sugar out of it.  Bagasse provides the power required to run the sugarcane mills that process the sugar from sugarcane, thus making sugar production from sugarcane one of the most energy efficient operations in the plant crop world.  In Florida and Hawaii, energy derived from burning bagasse not only powers the mills, but is also sold to the public as electricity.  This is referred to as co-generation.  When burned in the mill boilers, the energy derived from one ton of bagasse is roughly equivalent to the energy obtainable from one barrel of oil.  In Louisana, electricity is still too inexpensive for mill owners to make a profit burning the excess bagasse, generating electricity and selling it to the public.

Now that the sugarcane harvest season is over, and mill yards are no longer obscured by standing cane, one is struck by the huge piles of bagasse that build up next to them.  The photo above was taken of the mill yard at Raceland Sugar Co., Raceland, LA, from Hwy 90 (future I-49) overpass over Hwy 1 after most of the cane was harvested, and after the occurrence of a killing freeze on Dec. 15.  Note how the massive bagasse piles obscure the view of the mill.  One needs only to drive next to these piles of bagasse to appreciate just how massive they really are. A list of Louisiana's mills and their locations is found on the website of the American Sugar Cane League. 

In the green fuels debate, there has been much discussion about conversion of fibrous residue from plant products into cellulosic ethanol.  It would seem that, if cellulosic ethanol production or the production of some other fuel, such as butanol, from plant fiber is close to becoming economically viable, a great place to test its potential is in an already existing industry where the fibrous residue is a by-product that has already been gathered into central locations.  One issue facing sugarcane breeders, and ultimately the sugar industry, is whether it is an asset or a liability to the industry to develop and release sugarcane varieties possessing higher fiber levels than the current standard of 11-12%.  Perhaps it is a question that gets answered differently depending on whether we are taking the short-range or the long-range view.

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

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

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."

New Year Traditions

We have a tradition of going over to Vic & Bebe McElroy's home for New Year's Eve, along with a couple of other families. We enjoy eating finger foods, playing games, having lively conversation, and watching the countdown in TV up to the New Year. Their son, Joe Fox, usually has a fireworks show immediately after midnight, but not this year. It seems that just about everyone has cut back on their fireworks budget. Vic & Bebe make their income conducting safety training classes for offshore oilfield personnel. They have a camp in Cocodrie that they go to regularly. They enjoy Cajun dancing on weekends, and are active in the community.

The following day, we have the tradition (10-years running) of going over to the Ron & Stacy Mangels home, where we have New Year's dinner with them and their family, consisting of black eyed peas, cabbage, and roast pork. A New Year's tradition in the South has it that if black eyed peas, cabbage, and ham/pork are consumed on the 1st day of the year, they bring good luck and prosperity. According to some, this practice dates back to the Civil War period. Ron also works in an oil-related industry, and has more recently spent time on offshore oil platforms. Ron & Stacy have a son, Jon, who is the only missionary serving from our ward at the moment. He is serving in Chili, and has a little over 8 months left on his mission.

Both of these families have gone out of their way to make us feel at home down here in Cajun Country, and we greatly appreciate it. Now it's time to start loosing the weight I picked up over the holidays!

Kayak swamp tour

I posted a boat trip that Ron Mangels and I took into swamp country not far from where we live back on May 23 of this year. While it would have taken hours to paddle my kayak to the furthest point that we reached, going the same route, I was aware of an access water route from the highway that goes along Bayou Black between Houma and Gibson that would take me to the same location.

Today, I decided to figure out exactly where the access route was, and take it. This was probably the most enjoyable trip I have had thus far in my kayak...moderate effort with a big scenic reward. The most exciting thing I saw from a wildlife standpoint, was the biggest owl I think I have ever seen in my life. It swooped down very close to where I was paddling...what a thrill!

Sugarcane harvesting around the corner in Louisiana

In about one week from now, southern Louisiana goes through a transformation. The roads become filled with trucks loaded with cane headed to one of the twelve or so sugarcane mills remaining in Louisiana. The mills take on the look of beehives with all the trucks arriving to drop their loads of cane. Clouds of steam are churning out of smoke stacks at each of the factories from the sugarcane bagasse being burned to power the processing of cane in order to extract the sugar from the crop.


Today, a few USDA scientists from our location, including myself, had the opportunity to go to the John Deere factory in Thibodaux. This factory manufactures cane harvesters that are sent in sugarcane-growing areas all over the world. We were looking at some of their newest, most advanced harvesters, and even got to see a very interesting-looking prototype harvester that was designed to harvest a wide range of large tropical grasses over variable row conformations. It was a fun experience. I took a couple of shots of their latest "green machines," used for harvesting sugarcane. Of course, the prototype machine is still under wraps, so I wasn't allowed to take any shots of it. John Deere bought out Cameco a few years back, but kept the Cameco yellow color for a while. Now all of their cane harvesters are John Deere green, so it is easy to tell the farmers that have newer machines from the farmers that are still relying on the older Cameco-colored machines.

The machines are designed to cut the cane, chop the stalks into short sections less than a foot long, elevate the stalks from the harvester into a wagon, and leave all of the leafy trash in the field so that the mill only has to deal with the cleaned stalk sections. Here are two videos, one showing the harvest operation, the other giving you a sense of what you would experience being in the cab while the cane was being harvested.

U.S. House narrowly passes major energy-climate bill

Quoting from the Associated Press, "In a triumph for President Barack Obama, the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives narrowly passed sweeping legislation today that establishes the Unites States' first limits on pollution linked to global warming and aims to usher in a new era of cleaner, yet more costly, energy.

The vote was 219-212, capping months of negotiations and days of intense bargaining among Democrats. Republicans were overwhelmingly against the measure, arguing it would destroy jobs in the midst of a recession while burdening consumers with a new tax in the form of higher energy costs."

As can be seen from the closeness of the vote, a significant number of democrat congress members were against this sweeping bill. One of those was democrat Charlie Melancon from Louisiana. Charlie was formerly top dog at the American Sugar Cane League, holding the position that Jim Simon now holds. Charlie represents south Louisiana whose economy is heavily dependent on the success of the oil and gas industry, so he was obligated to come out against the bill. Charlie had to have had some mixed emotions about this, in that the sugar industry would benefit by legislation that promotes green energy, and the fact that there is no other area in the U.S. more severely impacted by global warming than southern Louisiana.

I will admit that I have mixed emotions as well. We are surely moving into a brave new world with the passing of this legislation. Here is a useful Q&A website relative to this bill.

With this legislation, we are almost certainly going to hear more in the news about "cap and trade," so it is probably going to be useful to become more familiar with what this term means.

LSU Tigers...College World Series Champions!

I admit, I sort of went underground over the past three evenings...not even checking my e-mail, nor my favorite websites. The College World Series came down to two unbeaten teams, LSU and University of Texas, which, in a double elimination situation meant that if these teams split the first two games, a final third game would determine the champion. It turned out to be a very thrilling 3-game series. LSU made an improbable comeback to win the first game. Texas had an unbelievable pitcher in the second game, and took that one. The third game went back and forth for a while, until LSU started taking command in the latter innings, finally winning the game convincingly at the end. I had a lot of fun watching all three games. LSU's Coach Paul Mainieri has been to the College World Series three times, once with Notre Dame while coaching there, and twice with LSU (2008 and 2009). Tonight, he could finally say that he reached the pinnacle with a very special team. The shots of his family crying with joy, and him hugging his father on the field were very touching following the game. Great going, Tigers!!!

Religious life in the South

Louisiana is distinct among southern states because of the large proportion of its population that is Catholic. Protestants are concentrated in the northern and central part of the State, while Catholics are dominant in the southern part of the State, largely as a result of the Cajun and French Creole influence. Some have suggested that Interstate 10 roughly separates the Protestant fraction (most dominant being Southern Baptist) from the Catholic fraction, but this is, of course, simplistic. A lady who recently moved to the Houma-Thibodaux area from the Florida panhandle told me that she was trying to put a finger on the essential difference between the two groups, and she finally came to the conclusion that the difference was that where she grew up, people tried to hide their sins, whereas, down here, people flaunt their sins. I thought that was pretty funny when she said it. This was shortly after Mardi Gras.

Our Tennessee "Friends of Sewanee" shared a rather humorous Ray Stevens video about religious life in the South, entitled "The Mississippi Squirrel Revival." Ray mentions Pascagoula, Mississippi in the video, which is not too far from Louisiana and a place some people around here can relate to. Hope you enjoy the video as much as I did. Thanks to our Friends for sharing it.

Our citrus trees at sunrise

As we pass through springtime toward the summer months, I am frequently greeted with a scene very similar to the one shown here as I look out through our screen door after waking up. There is the usual layer of haze hovering over the ground reminding us that because we are so close to the Gulf, the humidity down here is typically at 100% until the sun climbs above the horizon a ways. Our citrus trees have already bloomed, and are now loaded with tiny fruit approaching the size of marbles. They will be ready to pick in the late fall. The three larger trees in the front are satsumas (a type of mandarin orange that was developed in Japan). The smaller tree in the left rear is a newly planted key lime tree (so we can make key lime pies), and the smaller tree in the right rear is a newly planted grapefruit tree. Louisiana has a small citrus industry that will likely remain small for two main reasons. While citrus trees can handle a mild freeze, they cannot handle a hard freeze. In 1989, the industry literally had to start over because night temperatures that year dipped below 20 degrees Farenheit. The other main threat is hurricanes. Most of the commercial citrus orchards in Louisiana are in Plaquemines parish, which follows the Mississippi River SE of New Orleans all the way to the mouth of the River. This is where Katrina came out of the Gulf and did its initial massive wind and water damage, severely impacting citrus orchards as well. Plaquemines Parish may never fully recover to its former strength as a parish, population wise or production wise. Citrus trees tolerate the heavy soils we have down here surprisingly well. We have tried other fruit trees and bushes down here, like nectarines and blueberries, and realize that while they can be grown, the requirements to successfully grow them have thus far been beyond our means and/or ability.

Onions, shallots, and the leek in Louisiana

I admit, "onions, shallots, and the leek" isn't even as punny as "Allium in the family." We have tried growing onions, shallots, and leek, all members of the Allium genus in our garden, and have had good success growing them in the winter. Judy just recently harvested both onions and shallots, which we planted in early October (pictures are of the shallots we just harvested).

Judy prepared a large quantity of shallots, cut them up, and put them in our dehydrator, so we were able to store a substantial supply to flavor our dishes for a considerable time. Onions, shallots, leek, garlic, and chives are all used extensively in Cajun cooking. Both the ability to easily grow these particular Allium species in this area, and their popularity with the French generally, helps explain why they are so extensively used down here. Among the big three, leek was our least favorite.

I read at one website that it would be more accurate to refer to shallots as a type of onion than a distinct species. Shallots could be thought of as a more mild form of onion. Unlike onions, the bulbs grow in clusters, the individual bulbs being more flattened than are onions, which are generally pretty much always round at the base.

White Christmas time in south Louisiana

As expected, the news this evening was all about the snowfall in south Louisiana earlier today. I have lots of witnesses at work that can testify that it actually did snow for a few minutes in Houma this morning. I was pleasantly surprised when I looked out my office window, and saw the big snowflakes coming down. New Orleans actually got about an inch of snow. Just north of Lake Pontchartrain, Hammond got about six inches. South Louisiana has only had seven or eight snowstorms in the past 60 years, so this is a rare event. This snowstorm is apparently the earliest ever. Winter doesn't even officially begin this year until early morning Dec. 22. Here are some pictures (The Advocate, Baton Rouge) and here is a video (WDSU, New Orleans). I anticipate getting some pictures of snow-covered sugarcane being harvested, and will post those when I get them.

Harvesting sugarcane in a snowstorm

It may seem hard to believe, but some Louisiana farmers may be harvesting sugarcane in a snow storm, and will certainly be harvesting the crop with snow on it this morning. The harvesting must go on regardless of weather. This graphic, taken from a radar image displayed on the Intellicast website at 6:30 this morning, shows Lafayette (LFT) in the center of that burrrr blue color. Lafayette is the hub of Cajun country, and more or less the hub of sugarcane cultivation in Louisiana. Sugarcane harvest season in Louisiana normally goes from late September through Christmas. This year, the farmers got off to a late start because of two hurricanes, so they still have a fair amount of cane left to harvest. However, it is not unusual to be harvesting sugarcane in Louisiana after a mild freeze toward the end of the harvest season. It is much more unusual to be harvesting cane with snow on it. The last time it snowed as far south as Houma (HUM) was on Christmas day in 2004. The last time it snowed in Baton Rouge (BTR) was...hmm...it's snowing there as I'm writing this... As pics come in, I may add one or two to this posting date.

Anh 'Joseph' Cao, first Vietnamese-American to U.S. Congress

Another political surprise happened in Louisiana this past Saturday. Joseph Cao had an upset victory over William Jefferson. Jefferson has a 16-count federal indictment facing him, including money laundering, and I guess the folks who he represents, got a little skittish. Here is the earlier editorial endorsement for Cao from New Orleans Times-Picayune. Here is the aftermath story. There are a lot of Vietnamese in this area. They make great fishermen, which should be no surprise to anyone, considering their roots.

While we lived in Hawaii, we took in three Vietnamese refugees for about six weeks, and a little later took in two more, one of whom had malaria. They didn't know a lick of English when we took them in. We maintained contact with the earlier three for several years afterward until they moved to the mainland, and had them over for Thanksgiving each year. It was a good experience for our children. They enjoyed being around our children, and looked upon us as their second family.