Festivus for the rest of us

Well many blogs are daily updates, and I fully intended to make this a weekly activity at minimum, but in a sign that time is moving ever faster, a month passes and I find that it's way past time to post.  The upside is that I usually have enough pictures around which to wrap a few words.

We dug up most of the random small camellias and miniature azaleas, consolidated and transplanted into a spot on the edge of the pasture.  They seemed to have survived, and a few even bloomed.  Meanwhile, the ginormous pile of sycamore trash is slowly being burned to ash.

During the Thanksgiving week, we took a drive down to Johnson's Bayou to see what Nat had been up to.  He bush hogged all of the overgrowth that sprouted up after the storms, and we have a good start on reclaiming a useful piece of property.  I took a walk behind the bamboo and looked down the fenceline back to the marsh...we might be able to soon hunt ducks again after all.

Speaking of Thanksgiving, Joe, PapaT and TMom joined us in the country.  The table was set...

Joe made a special glaze for the ham with the only turkey we had in the house, and other traditional dishes were prepared.

While waiting for the food to be cooked, I started a little campfire in the side yard and set up a couple of chairs to see what it would attract.

Well, what do you know...like moths to a flame, old Boy Scouts just cannot resist a good fire on a cool morning.

We enjoyed the blue sky, the aroma of woodsmoke, and even made new friends.

All in all, we had a really nice Thanksgiving, including watching LSU put (another) whipping on the Aggies. Sweeter than pecan pie!

Before we shifted into the Christmas prep gear, Denise and I took a little excursion over to Kinder to eat at the buffet and risk a little retirement cash.  I was luckier than I usually am, and hit these on a couple of dollar machines...

Well, we got the heck out of there after that with a nice little supplement to our Christmas budget.

Once again, I was tasked with trying to put a festive touch to our old house in the country.  I started with the antique fireplace mantle.

  
I threw up some trim around the case openings and dumped some of the remainder in various spots.

We finally got to the tree this morning so we would have a place to stack all of the presents that have been accumulating for distribution.  With all 4 boys and all 5 grandkids on tap for the big holiday, it ought to be an epic blowout.

...and being in the woods, we have critters in the tree!

Speaking of critters, Roux has been checking for evidence of Santa's reindeer out back - but the only real critters to show were some refugees from Thanksgiving.

That will take us out for this edition of Thibodeauxs in Wonderland.  There's sure to be an exciting array of Holiday Cheer pictures in the next post or two, so be sure to check in after Christmas.

Autumnal Activity

Things were moving slow after the last blog post, but then there was an explosion of activity...and once more I became neglectful in my blogging endeavors.  Pardon the random nature of what follows.

We have a new addition to the farm...meet Roux.

We weren't looking for another dog, but she showed up the day before I was leaving for the elk hunt.  She is very sweet and submissive (and she's an outside dog).  We think she will fit in well out here.  She stays close, comes when you call, and I've only heard her bark twice.  The vet says she's probably 1 1/2 years old or so and looks to be a boxer/bull terrier mix.

Of course the aforementioned elk hunt wasn't the only pending activity as of the previous blog entry.  We first experienced our annual squirrel hunt in October.  It was a nice weekend in the woods, and a good gathering...just a little strange without any of the "old guard" present. (Hey, all of a sudden, Denise's brothers and I constitute the old guard!  What's up with that?)  Anyway, Scott and I were the first ones there, and he had even gotten a hunt in before I arrived.

Being the first ones there, we pre-empted the shady spot for our tents.  Soon afterwards, Vince and Joe showed up with reinforcements and we set up the kitchen and card playing area.  I must have gotten busy after that, because I uncharacteristically did not take any more pictures after that.

Scott and I drove up to Colorado to meet Chris at Steve's ranch for an elk hunt.  We were hoping to have better luck hunting private property than our last few forays into the National Forest.  Unlike the squirrel hunt, I took plenty of pictures.  We left at 2:00 AM on Thursday before Halloween, and I finally turned over the driving duties to Scott in Bernallilo, NM.  I got a rare chance to enjoy the scenery in canyon country before the sun went down.

We arrived around 9:30 and Chris made it in the next evening.  Friday we woke up to a Colorado sunrise and spent the day sighting in our guns and getting oriented to Steve's hunting layout.

We hunted with high expectations on opening day.  We saw deer squirrels and birds, but no elk.  We did enjoy a spectacular sunset from the aptly-named Sunset Point, which signaled some incoming weather we hoped would bring snow and elk in from the high country.  All day Sunday it alternated between rain, hail, thunder and lightning, so we stayed in by the wood stove and watched the Bronco game.  Tough hunting, indeed.

We continued to hunt morning and evening, and saw our first elk (cow and calf in the National Forest meadow before sunrise) Wednesday. On Friday morning the plans came together and Chris and Scott filled their tags.

The last time these boys shot elk, the next phase involved quartering the animals on the ground and backpacking the meat (usually uphill) back to camp.  Was it now time to once more put our lumbar regions at risk?  Au contraire!  We took advantage of Steve's modern conveniences...

We spent the rest of Friday in blissful butchery.  The boys decided to take the meat off of the bone to save some steps when they got home.  And they had to pay "tribute" to the mountain overlord who had put a one tenderloin per elk severance tax on any harvest.  Chris and Scott gladly paid...we were going home with a buttload of meat!

To celebrate our hunting success, Steve served up some bacon-wrapped backstrap from his elk last year.  His special double wrapped bacon weave was tasty, but dangerous.

I hunted Saturday morning and had another enjoyable day in the blind.  We saw deer and a nice flock of geese that honked their way around the valley a couple of times...looking like they landed on Steve's pond (they did - and stayed the rest of the weekend).  Chris came with me, and took a perimeter walk to see if he could scare up one more elk for my tag.  No go, so we all cleaned up and packed our meat to be ready to watch the LSU-Alabama game and head home early Sunday morning.

Just at sunset before the LSU game, Steve spotted a herd of elk that came out into the National Forest meadow about 400 yards from the house.  My stuff was packed, and I was in my travelling clothes including the very fashioable crocs and socks, so I borrowed Steve's 7mm mag and shooting stick and took a shot.  The result was my first elk (and a little more unanticipated work).  Luckily Chris and Scott were there.  We got the elk gutted and hung overnight, re-distributed the meat we had already packed so Chris would get a fair share and stay on schedule to leave the next morning, and Scott and I delayed our trip back to Louisiana by a day so we could take care of the meat.  It was worth it!

This was a large cow-a-saurous...the quarters and backstraps were huge.  (Scott and I had to get two 70 qt icechests to go with our pair of 154 qt chests to get all of the meat properly iced down for the trip home).

Not much else to report from the elk hunt.  Joe was unable to go this time, so he came during the following week (bringing his grinder - having two going really helped the process) and helped me with processing meat.  He went home with a 48 qt icechest full of elk meat, which he and the kids will really enjoy.  I didn't get a great picture, but in addition to a few quarts of chili meat and some bacon-elk burger, we had about 65 quarts of brisket-elk ground meat in addition to the usual roasts and round steak.  Yum.

That's about it for now...fall in Longville is in full swing - Reliable fall colors (sumac and swamp maple)

...and lemons on the tree this year - 

And we'll end up with critter cam highlights...a bigger buck, last year's jakes all grown up, and Roux taking up critter patrol.

I'll try to keep up a little better...I'm sure there will be something to blog about before the holidays are over.