Random Happenings

On December 31st Russ celebrated his 18th birthday.  Wow.  My kids are growing up - fast.  He'll be off to college this fall.  Unbelievable.  He's a great help around the farm and when he's gone, Benjamin will really have to step up his game (hint, hint, Benjamin!)  For his cake, he wanted Tricia to make him a homemade cheesecake with cut up strawberries on top and Tricia was happy to oblige.  Since his birthday is on New Year's Eve, we celebrated with him and toasted each other with some Ginger Ale with frozen grapes and strawberry slices in it for a festive flair.  Here is the old fellow having his cake and eating it too.


Happy Birthday, Russ!

One of the things that he wanted to do on his big day was to load up our canoe, the Garfish, and bring it on a long portage to Kinder, where my parents live and test it in new waters - that of the Calcasieu River.  This river is about 200 miles long, beginning in Central Louisiana around Leesville and meanders through Oakdale and on to Lake Charles, into Big Lake and ultimately the Gulf of Mexico.  The name Calcasieu comes from the Attakapas Indians and means "eagle's cry."  The Spanish name for the river was Arroyo Hondo, meaning "deep stream", which is why they are wearing life vests in the photo below!

The big difference between the Calcasieu river and Bayou Nezpique, where we normally canoe, is that the Calcasieu has pretty white sand beaches as opposed to the muddy, alligator infested waters of Bayou Nezpique, but in my opinion, both are very pretty in their own way.  You can see the white sand below as Russ poses with his cousin, Conner.  We loaded the Garfish on my Dad's mule for the portage from Mom & Dad's house to the river, a nice ride through the piney woods.

Conner (left) and Russ (right) about to unload & start paddling

With the recent rains, the river was up and the current was swift.  To play it safe, we decided to canoe upstream as we didn't want to find ourselves downstream and too tired to paddle back (up a creek without a paddle).  We stopped on a sandbar and fished a little, but we had no bites at all.  We did scare up a big group of wood ducks that were on the river and watched them fly off into the woods squealing.


About to embark on a Calcasieu River voyage

Tricia made a wonderful Cream of Spinach soup with fresh spinach from the garden, chicken broth from our birds, and cream from Daisy.  Tricia got so busy preparing the dish that she only got the first step photographed - washing the spinach.  We'll make it again, because it was delicious, and we'll capture the whole process then and share it later.  Here's the first step: washing it.


Washing fresh spinach

 I really like this next picture as it shows all the pullets roosting on their roost for the night.  They all have their spots and go to the same exact roost every night.  They remind me of people on Sunday morning sitting in "their pew!"  Do you do that?  We do- same spot every Sunday.  Why do we do that?  Creatures of habit, I suppose.  In some ways we're not so different from the pullets below.  Birds of a feather flock together, right?


Hens sitting in their "pews"

And finally here is Miss Rosie in the foreground eating on her round bale.  Notice how they eat the center out first, just  like I do with a cinnamon roll.  The hens then like to get in the hole the cows make in the bale.  Daisy is in the background on the other side of the garden and she's just finished drinking some water.  

Rosie, be polite and chew with your mouth closed, girl.

We bid you goodnight and we'll talk again soon.