"...so many fantastic colours..."

The theme of this post can be discerned by the title...all about colors we've experienced in the last few weeks.  The first color is GREEN.

The property is recovering nicely from the storm damage, as you can see by the verdant landscape now that the debris is gone and the sunlight is filtering through.

While we decided not to replace all of the trees we lost. we did put out some real pecan trees between the house and the deer feeder.  It will be a few years before they bear, but they will have nice sized nuts when they do.

There's green once again around the bird feeder.  We replaced the feeder that was crushed, cleaned up and re-lettered the Madison streetpost, re-set the birdbath from Aunt Faye, and did a little trimming of the brush in the background.  The birds love it, but since they are mostly RED birds and BLUE jays, they don't fit into the "green" section.

The last greenie is one of our front porch denizens.  So vivid!

The next color is BLUE.  With all of the outside work, Denise and the girls talked me into letting them shop for some cooling entertainment.  I should have inquired further, but this is what they brought back.  With an above-ground pool, we have just about completed our standard rural landscaping, and no one can tell us apart from the locals.

Joe and the kids came for the weekend before that, and the girls in blue worked on catching some dinner for us down at the Creole Nature Trail.

Just what were we after? ...blue crabs, of course.

We had two dozen to boil, so we stopped and got some 21-25 count shrimp...very fresh and a very nice addition to the boil.  Of course, boiled crabs cannot be shown in the blue section, so we'll switch on the fly to the color RED.

So very tasty...we need to make an effort to get some more crabs this summer and have us a little get together crab boil.  Nothing says summer like 90 degree days, hot boiled crabs and ice cold beer!  The other red item is a new addition to array of tools necessary to do what we need to do here; an item to which was often alluded in this blog and now is finally realized.

40 HP 4WD diesel, shown with a grapple bucket (I did get some other standard attachments).  I've already used it to uproot a few tallow trees and have cleared up some of the perimeter storm damage...it's going to be real handy.  It will take a little practice to achieve smooth operation...any observers must wonder what that geriatric spaz is trying to do with that machine.  Sorry - no videos allowed just yet.

We can now blend into the next color - (reddish) BROWN.  Denise started staining the railing and support posts on the front porch, and we were pleased with the tone.  Joe and Jack sanded and stained the steps and the flooring when they were here for the crabbing weekend.

If there is a downside to having the porch nicely finished, it is that a look at the rest of the exterior is now screaming "new paint job!".  Ouch.  Speaking of pain, the boys were delighted to discover that they were here on the last weekend of Louisiana's spring squirrel season.  They couldn't resist popping a few reddish brown fox squirrels.

Our reddish dog with the brown name, Roux, investigated, but wasn't nearly as interested since these critters didn't provide a chase.

The limit was only three, but the boys brought home enough for a fresh squirrel stew.  I had placed a restriction against shooting any black ones; we have at least two that frequent the yard with some regularity.  On that note, let's move to BLACK.

We had some crop depredation by a murder of black scavengers, so I sent Jack on a stealth mission to alleviate the damage.  The range was long and the prey was wiley, but ol' Eagle Eye did the job.

...and while we were crabbing, some boy across the way hooked a big old black drum.  You should have seen the excitement and listened to the sister-cousins whooping and hollering across the way.  It was proudly carried directly to the ice chest in their truck. yee-haw

I'll finish of with a MULTI-COLOR topic.  I was moving some old railroad ties (spastically with the tractor bucket, BTW) when I saw a flash of color.

Definitely a coral snake (or American Cobra according to venom type).  I've never posted a video on the blog (that's Chris' specialty)  but I tried one here.  If you get it to play, you can tell I'm in full hillbilly/redneck mode with the tractor idling in the background.

So that takes me out of the colorful blog.  Oh, you can win extra points (and maybe an invite to a crab boil) if you can tie the title of this blog post to the source from which it was drawn.  Just reply in the comments or drop me an email or text with your guess (or answer if you're really good).

Later!

Recovery and desecration

Well, there's been plenty to do on the farm after our recent wind event.  The cleanup crew came as promised and did a day and a half of work with the proper equipment.  At first it looked worse as they cut down 10 trees that were too damaged to salvage (mostly pines).

They segregated the pine logs to haul off and save us some burning and used an industrial sized stump grinder to take care of the stumps in the yard.

They also plucked the big sycamore butt log we had in the pasture burn pile and set it aside in another area.  It was smoldering and they started stacking the debris on top; it started burning and they began feeding the fire on an industrial scale.  It's amazing how much burned in the days since they started.

I also asked them to segregate any big oak limbs for firewood to keep me from running out of things to do (LOL).  They obliged.  I've started cutting out split-able rounds; maybe I can hire one of the grandkids to use the electric log splitter and finish the job for me.

We still have some cleanup to do, but it looks so much more manageable.  There's more light filtering into the yard now...that might be the impetus for grass to grow.

We're also going to re-do the bird feeder area after some selective pruning.  I think we may be able to save the redbud, but it was looking pretty hopeless right after the storm.  The bearded irises at the base of the birdbath have also shown signs of springing back.

The wild blackberry patches took a hit from the storm, also.  The big patch between the pasture and the deer feeder were sacrificed for the new burn pile, but there are a few on the south side of the house that may yield enough for a cobbler.

I finished my contractor gig yesterday and went to Houston to turn in all of my stuff, so I am once again fully retired, and can help Denise in the yard.  She told me this morning that Aunt Faye had a special request for some pine cones...but all of the yard pines were cleared and burned.  I had a real challenge finding a few - NOT!  

We still have some large trees down on the perimeter of the yard, including a couple of uprooted pines.  I felt like I was picking giant blackberries, and got her a couple of garbage bags of cones.  Don't make a cobbler with those things!  The big trees will be a project for another day (maybe after I get a tractor?).

I did take the opportunity between clean up chores to pull the cards on the critter cams.  One of them stopped working the day of the storm (Apr 24) but yielded a couple of interesting shots before it shut down...bobcat, and a hound to go with the fox.

The other camera caught a little bit of the storm and the aftermath.  Note the darkness in the middle of the day and the hail on the ground afterwards.

The camera was re-directed during the storm and showed all kinds of critters disrespecting "Critter Watch" (Buck's final resting spot).  Here's a sampling of the desecrators - 

Well, even though ol' Buck can't take care of the critters, his successor is more than willing and able to take up the slack.

And after a hard day of guarding us, Roux is glad to find a sunny spot on the back porch to take a little snooze.  Hey, that doesn't sound too bad, so I will sign off after this.  Happy Mother's Day tomorrow to any of you mothers who visit this blog.