We have had a lust for boiled crawfish, but the season has started slow with the cold, wet spring. We saw that the Coushatta Casino buffet had started up their all you could eat boiled crawfish on Wednesday and Friday. This week we decided to beat the Friday crowd and go early on Wednesday (about 5:00 pm). Well, I guess when it comes to crawfish this time of year, there's no such thing as no crowd. Due to the limited supply and the heavy demand, they were projected to be out of crawfish by 5:30, so we didn't bother with the buffet. We played the slots for a while and then ate at one of the other restaurants. We decided to hit one of our old favorites before we went home, and this was the result:
Needless to say, we went home way ahead for a change, and we made plans to spend our windfall like a couple of drunken sailors.
Unfortunately, when I was leaving for Lowe's with the utility trailer in tow the next day, I ran over the newly installed water meter box. About 10 minutes later, Denise called to tell me we had a small geyser in the driveway. Of course, it was our responsibility to fix (some shoddy installation, but still...) and we had to get a plumber ("after hours") out of Lake Charles to make the repair. He was good and efficient, but still a plumber on OT is not cheap...so some of the casino winnings went to this:
Oh, well...I did get some 4X6 treated timbers, some peat moss, a couple of Owari Satsuma trees, a good 24" extension ladder, plus a couple of minor odds and ends all courtesy of the triple-double diamond jackpot, so it didn't all go to plumber overtime. I spent most of the day working on the first of two planned raised beds. It is 4' X 12' and about 12" high, and we placed it on the south side of the house for maximum sunlight. (plans include eliminating that clump of trees/shrubs for light...this view is towards the SSE)
The tiller came in handy on the initial ground breaking, but really paid off when I went for extra dirt to fill the box. I took off the top of a hill that looked like it had a good layer of topsoil...it took 4 loads with the little trailer, but we got a good base down.
After cleaning it up and levelling it out, we finished with a couple of bags of enhanced (with miracle grow) peat moss, and mixed it in.
It's ready to plant. We'll space out the 4 blueberry bushes in here, and since it will take a while for them to command the entire space, we'll probably put tomatoes, bell peppers and (?) in between. I'll try to duplicate this box just down the slope a step or two from this one, but we have 8 hybrid thornless blackberry plants that will most likely use up the whole box sooner rather than later. We'll plant this one first, and get those Owaris in the ground before I build the second box (the work was a little heavier than I anticipated, so I'm going to take at least one recovery day...maybe more).
Meanwhile, Denise has been taking advantage of our intermittent sunny days to take a break from window treatments and clean up around some of the old flower beds and azaleas. She's recovered a ton of old bricks, and relocated some of the random plants for a more consolidated presentation. It will look great, especially when the azaleas bloom later this month. Meanwhile, I snapped a couple of more springtime harbingers from around the yard.
There's a couple of dewberry patches, so we might get some of the earliest of the various blackberry family of berries around the end of April (I think the hybrids will be July/early August). I took these a week ago - there were tons of flower buds.
Denise had dug up a bunch of irises along the walking path along Falkey Gulley in Houston last summer before we moved. All we had time to do was dump them in a low spot and pitch a shovel of dirt on top. Well, some plants are very hardy. We can't wait to see if they bloom.
Finally, we are making the transition back to official Louisiana residents; we got our driver's licenses, and coughed up the taxes on the toyota and the utility trailer to get the plates on those. Here's the plate for Denise's car...I asked if she had sprung for one of those pricey personalized plates, but it appears it was just the luck of the draw (at least it will be easy to remember).
(BTW, I did get a punch when I suggested it might be a personalized plate!)
Not much new on the trailcam highlights...by regularly hanging off the scottyfeeder the coons are keeping the mechanism loose enough to occasionally spin out feed, so I had to put in another 50 lb sack. I will be glad when we get some trails cut with a UTV or some other such motorized conveyance.
Meanwhile, the critters think they're under a corn tree and are compelled to climb up to the source.
Finally, the turkey flock is breaking up. I did witness some strutting one afternoon, and the hens are definitely not hanging out with the jakes any more. I've heard some gobbling, but have not put my eyes on any longbeards. Here's some typical jakes...they're pretty regular visitors.
Turkey season opens later this month. I have some spots scoped out back in the pine woods where we might be able to set up a couple of Big Daddy's turkey decoys and see what happens.
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