TIME OUT

My computer is infected and I dread facing it. The building project on a  day to day basis still  takes up most of my time. I have to pick a microwave oven from a distance, so the cabinet guys can put the right size unit between it and the ceiling. Meshing systems…well I won’t go on and on about it.

I decided to blog something inane and silly that doesn’t require any thought, like these old laws that are still on the books:
In Michigan, it is illegal to chain an alligator to a fire hydrant.
Whaa? How many alligators are kept as pets in Michigan? They needed a law?

It is illegal in Louisiana to shoot a bank teller with a water pistol while committing a bank robbery.
Looks like some wiley dude was trying to evade the serious weapons charges associated with robbery.

It is against the law to carry an ice cream cone in your pocket in Lexington, Kentucky.
That one just boggles the mind. Someone entered a posh place, or store, or theater where no food was allowed and made a mess? A law was necessary? Anybody’s guess.

Eating ice cream in public with a fork is strictly forbidden in Rosemead, California.
Come on, how can that offend anyone to the point of taking the time to make it against the law? There should be a law against people who make absurd laws.

A woman can’t dance on a table in a saloon in Helena, Montana, unless she has on at least 3 pounds of clothing.
Doesn’t this tickle your funny bone? The guys still want her to dance, but not quite as skimpily clad as before. I suspect it causes too many fights.

Mark Twain made a comment about lack of clothing.
“Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence in society.”

He obviously didn’t watch near naked  women dancing on tables in Helena.
Ciao

ALLIGATOR HUNTING.

With a signal so weak, I couldn’t finish a blog on Monday.  I turned my Prius in for repair, FINALLY. It was another full day devoted to getting my car fixed after the accident of June 12th. I fought to have my Prius fixed instead of totaled, and after a long process, fraught with hang-ups, (as in the body shopped scheduled to fix it went out of business,) it was delivered to the capable hands of C&C Body Shop in Sonora. While there, we had to wait to pick up a rental car, a silver KIA that fits in my garage.

We went out to lunch in Sonora and when I got home I didn’t feel like cooking. We decided to veg in front of the television with some food and turned on a program called Swamp People. It was an old program series that played from 6:00 to 9:00 and most of it was about Cajun alligator hunters. Having visited that part of the country, having met a couple of alligator hunters, the memories flowed. Those were really exciting times.  We ate a lot of alligator meat in Southern Louisiana, mostly sausage, but we were never part of a hunt. After watching the Swamp People, I felt like I went alligator hunting.
I got so excited, I had to replay my alligator pictures. A different camera, no editing done, so I selected a few pics from the album.


We took an alligator sighting tour boat into the swamps. The boats in the program and this one are flat bottomed affairs, built by Cajuns for alligator hunting.


We spotted this big one.


It was unafraid and the boat didn’t get too close.


Then we saw this big bull, the guide called him. The broad head is a giveaway.


I got a second shot of this big bull.  I took two shots of  small gators buried deep in the shallow swamp grasses, but  I had to look three times at my own photos to pick them out. They were well camouflaged, so I didn’t download the pictures. Alligators are fearless and fast. Basically the king predator of the swamps. Their only enemy is man.


This is a better picture of the type of flat boats the hunters use, though the sides are a bit steeper. This group is fishing for something, but not alligators.


A picture of a picture of “Mary,"  feeding an alligator to demonstrate to the tour what they look like. She owned the company at one time.  It is too dangerous to “chum” alligators and the company quit the practice. The picture didn’t say if this event was at an alligator farm or in the wild. Alligator skin is more valuable than the meat.


Near Little Chenier, we met a real alligator hunter who goes by the name of Dirty Miller. We were looking for the town of Little Chenier, or remnants of it. It was destroyed by Hurricane Rita. Up against a choice, where the pavement ended,  a gravel road in front of us, without knowing where it came out, we stopped. We turned around in Miller’s driveway and he hollered at us to “com’on, dinner will be ready in a half an hour.”  Miller is the epitome of Southern hospitality and a real character.
Wiped out by Katrina, Miller built a large shed on the spot where his house once stood. It was flooded by Rita and he showed us the water line on the walls of his shed.  In that pot was a big stew and we joined him and his friends for a Sunday afternoon dinner and listened raptly to alligator hunting stories and many other tales.  He had pictures of Donald Trump and some other notables, (I no longer remember the names,)  people he took alligator hunting. We ended up spending the night.  Dirty Miller and his girl friend cooked us a giant omelet for breakfast the next morning with shrimp, crawfish, crab and alligator sausage. One of our favorite, memorable stops in Louisiana.


This is a picture of a picture of Dirty Miller’s grandson sitting on a gator he killed. I’m savoring the memories again through my pictures. My only regret is that I didn’t take more pictures of this fascinating guy and his friends.

THE CREOLE NATURE TRAIL.

The Creole Nature Trail is 187 miles long and is filled with millions of birds.  Alligators outnumber the population of the parrish and butterfly’s flock here in the spring.  The most logical launch place is Sulphur. We drove to the first stop, called Blue Goose Trail, a little over a mile and a half long.

It was bitterly cold and windy. We never did see any water, just some muddy runnels. One bird was feeding  close to the entrance than nothing but tall grass and sedges.

We abandoned the trail before we reached the halfway point and moved on to the Nature Trail with board walks, about 10 miles farther up the road.

We walked the mile and a half trail. An observation platform gives a good view of the area with  plenty of ponds and low sedge grasses.

I spotted an alligator well hidden in the grass. Jim couldn’t see it at all. The light made it difficult in the camera. I missed the end of his tail.

To estimate the size of a gator, you estimate the space between his eyes and the end of his snout. If it is 6 inches, this guy is six feet long.

We saw crows and sparrows. The weather warmed a bit. We sat for awhile watching the tall grass plumes dance in the wind. The stems are segmented and resemble  bamboo. I tried several sites on the internet and could not get a name for this beautiful  tall grass.

We moved on to Holly Beach for the night. This town was completely destroyed by a hurricane and has not completely rebuilt. It was once known as the Cajun  Riviera where everyone gathered with families for vacations and fun.

I took a walk on the beach, but Jim wouldn’t come out of the motor home with swarms of mosquitoes on the windows. He gets bitten badly while they ignore me.

A couple of guys were setting up to do some night fishing in the surf.

Both are stationed at a nearby army base. This guy was from Pensacola, Florida.

His buddy is from Pennsylvania. Both are MP’s and don’t know much about Louisiana and borrowed poles and decided to go fishing for the first time since landing here. The ocean here forms a ridge and when the tide comes in, some of the water is captured.

The setting sun turned everything pink and pretty.

And,this morning, the sun came up…

…but by the time I ran down to the beach, it was already above the horizon. We see the sun set and rise every day at this time of year.

FEBRUARY ALLIGATORS

Crusing through pictures I've taken, places we've been. I have fond memories of February 27th;  we went on an alligator tour at Houma, Louisiana. We saw more birds than alligators but the air was cool and fresh. We enjoyed the water, the birds and plants. And, the other people in the boat were pleasant companions for a day.

 

 Cypress knobs saved the tree from extinction.

The swamp in winter is gray and almost colorless. A bright blossom of red is all the more appreciated.

When everything is leafed out, reflections are impossible, according to our guide.

And, we did see alligators. This slick young one...

A crusty senior...

and a young baby hiding among the water weeds.
 I took 53 pictures that day, if you are interested: http://picasaweb.google.com/1579penn/22710AlligatorTourHouma#

ALLIGATOR SWAMP TOUR

Alligator Annie’s Swamp Tours were “famous” in this area. (We are in Houma.) She was the only woman, and one of the first to offer alligator tours. Annie died in 2004. Her son John now does the tours. They begin at a restaurant called Bayou Delight, on Highway 182, where many pictures of Annie, with alligators and guests,

cover the walls. Stories are many that she was a remarkable woman.

We set out with John knowing the water was unusually high; much of the bird feeding grounds are flooded and the alligators at this time of year lay pretty low. In other words, a good chance we wouldn’t see any.

No more than spoken when a small alligator was spotted right across from the restaurant.

An hour out, John spotted this nice fellow…

… and this crusty older specimen. John joked that he has been accused of putting out a rubber alligator, so he is always thankful when they move. They tend to look like a bunch of cut up rubber tires; mostly inactive and motionless in the water during this cold time of year. Nearby was another small alligator almost invisible in the grasses and floating plants.

Less foliage in the swamp provides a better view of the birds. John nicknamed the ibis above “lady slipper”. She looks like she is about to dance.

This little blue egret was enjoying a fine crawfish or crab lunch when we spotted him.

Spanish moss hangs in great gray swathes, the cypress and other trees are stark ghosts without leaves, but even so, there is color and beauty of a different kind with the red maple seeding; large exposed tracts of water with reflections from the banks.

Great gray egrets, 22 ibis, (heavy birds) roosting in the top of one tree, many turtles sunning on logs, a bald eagle, snake birds, ducks, cormorants, pelicans and a panapoly of huge graceful birds in flight, all provided us a memorable afternoon. One fellow on the tour failed to duck his head when we went under a low bridge, his tour will be even more memorable. There were two people from London, three from France, Jim and I and six members of the Diethrich Family.

After the tour, we enjoyed lunch with JoAnn & Jim Diethrich of Stuke Nursery Co. from Gridley, CA. They were on the tour with their son, Rob, and wife Christa and grandchildren, who live in the area. JoAnn is a conservative agriculture activist, a talented speaker, and we hope we’ve convinced her to become a blogger. Watch for it.