Ray's Gumbo

  I had an argument with a man today and now I can't sleep and my stomach is upset. I live on a river in a neighborhood and there is an official parish sign that states that our area is a no wake zone at each end of the hood.  I also have a home made sign in my yard as well. This evening a boater came speeding past my house. Really fast. I, out of frustration and trying to chill after a long day, started yelling. "NO WAKE ZONE!" "SLOW DOWN!" After they passed, 'they' because I saw others in the boat, I also yelled at the top of my lungs, "ASS HOLE!" because he did not slow down. That made me feel venerated but it did not go so well with him. I thought there were all adults in the boat  but quickly saw they were all kids except for the driver when he came back to confront me. Now he's yelling at me about his right to go what ever speed he wants and I start yelling back about the parish ordinance and about the signs. He telling me that my sign "don't mean shit to him". I ask him where he lives so that I can come speeding thru his neighborhood.  He said everybody does that. (that doesn't make it right). Then he's telling me (yelling still as he guides his boat back and forth) that living on the land isn't living on the water isn't the same. (the river is just like a road my a house. It's used the same way, people travel up and down it and kids play in it.
 I continue to hold my ground but now he is threatening  to come out of his boat and hurt me but only if I ever call him an asshole in front of his kids again. (I always think that if you act like one you should be labeled as one). But actually he's got me there. I should not of yelled "ASSHOLE" at the top of my lungs in front of his kids. ( who happen to be in danger by the way). But there it is and I'm sorry about that and I'm sorry I did not think to apologize for that. I actually thought there all adults in the boat. Apparently there were not any in the boat at all nor were there any at my house at the time.
  Now it 3:30 in the morning and I'm drinking some tea to settle my stomach and writing this therapeutic droll. My wife is up now and helping me spell the big words and drinking some sleepy time tea. I hope these work.
      

 Azalea's abloom.
 I like the light pink ones. Unusual.

 We have these evergreen shrubs that produce these bright red berrys. Nothing seems to eat them. Pretty though.

 Deb put this together from all flowers in the yard.

 Cleaning up after dropping this tree and splitting some logs.

 A freshly planted hosta near the small pond.

 A back-lit tree hanging over the river.

 1st week of April and the wild Louisiana iris's are showing off.



 The pond was very still for this pic.

 More hostas around the large pond.

 The aliens were landing over by the river.

Yard shot.

The following Sunday we did some yard work around the pond.

 We cleared out lots of privet and vines from one to the other.


 I don't remember why the face.

 Feb. 8th, '13. saw this squadron near a fresh water diversion next to the Mississippi river near Butte, La.

 Both ponds are low now but rain is on it's way.  Copyright '12 Debra Howard (all photos)

Cypress knees are so cool.


 A section of a fallen hollow cypress tree is sitting on top of a cypress stump. A simple piece of yard art now covered with cypress leaves.


 A foggy morning in the woods.

The large pond from the front porch.


Our new look.
We added a dormer roof over the front stairs to dress up the front and redirect the rain water. We were tired of going through the dripping wall of water gauntlet at the head of the stairs.

We replaced the old carpenter bee riddled shutters with these good ones from the back porch and made them useful with hinges. The old ones were just nailed into place. The hold backs are antique ceiling fan arms. You can see that the human carpenters scaffolding is still there.

This is the wall of the new closet in the guest bedroom. Right now it is one big closet but just to the right of the door we will add a wall inside to make a coat closet to the foyer on the other side.

 The side porch.

 The side porch from the other direction.

 A nice sunny shot of the back porch.

 This was a curb find in a nice neighborhood. We cleaned them up and reupholstered the chairs.


 Found these great mats to replace the old carpeting. The bricks are very very slick when wet.

 Here is a coffee table that has taken two years to assemble. The base was a hollow section of an oak from just up the road that was going to be burned. That was two years ago. During that time, the mold started doing it's thing to lighten the wood and color of the inner bark layer with oranges and reds. The inner decay actually hardened the hollow ring and turned it to beautiful dark brown with the ribs and knots of the tree.
 The base was started just before Hurricane Issac and fortunately had three coats of poly. I had to find them floating around in the work shop. They needed to dry for three or more weeks. 
 The top is from an oak that we had to remove from our property. Our roof and it were trying to occupy the same space. The tree lost, but we had it milled and the wood has been slat stack drying for about two years as well. This was part of the only plank that was wide and thick enough and had bark on edges. Perfect.
 It's hard to see but the top is a trapezoid where the ends are 5 degrees off of square. Each leg face matches that bias. 

 In place.

To finish off, is the tree for Christmas '12. We had a party on the 15th and asked guests to help decorate. Seems to have worked out just fine.

 The owners told me this sweet old gal prefers to ride in the trailer.




 This guy doesn't care for trailers, just the trail. Yep, it's a bad boy cottonmouth.



 Old paint cabinet that sat in 24" of flood water for 8 days.
 Doors fell off real easy.
 First swing with the sledge hammer and the back fell off.

 2nd swing.

 3rd swing

 Collected items collage.

 Cypress bits.

 "Abode de Anole"  Lizard house.

 Scorched earth lichen
 Downtown Ponchatoula in the afternoon.

Sun-kissed satsuma.