Winter fun in the Piney Woods and other locales

When a blogger waits too long to post, he sometimes struggles to find an appropriate theme.  Therefore, this potpourri of topics can only fit under the most general of themes.  We can start with outdoor fun during the winter months.

While most of the country has given up on fishing in December, Louisiana folks know that the fish still have to eat.  Scott and his buddies borrowed my boat to see if the West Cove bite was still on.

One redfish to go along with some giant specks...not too shabby for a sunny December day.  I went with Scott the next week; we started off with the drain plug in the wrong hole.  We had to turn around in the lake and get the boat back on the trailer.  Note the bilge pump stream as the culprit waits to re-position the plug into the proper hole.

After dutifully rubbing salt into the raw gash that was his wounded pride, I relaunched and we all had another nice day on the water.  The real prize this time was flounder.  Here's some in the bottom of a 154 qt cooler.

(That's a 13 inch filet knife and a 20 inch cutting board).  Flounders this size yield 4 pretty nice filets.

I stacked 5 into a greased baking pan and covered it with sauteed vegetables stirred into Ro-Tel and cream of mushroom soup, then baked it up and served over wild rice.  Yum!

Fish weren't the only thing obtained in the month of December.  Joe and Brian left the day after Christmas to find out what Colorado elk hunting in the dead of winter was like (following pics courtesy of Brian).

...hmm, not as green as Louisiana, but beautiful anyway.  It didn't seem to bother the elk.

The guys got their animals on the first couple of days, which allowed them to process the meat in the natural cooler.

When they arrived back here, the meat was all packaged and packed in snow in the icechests.  All they had to do was break out the grinder for ground meat and find freezer space for the meat.  I did get a few scraps thrown my way for lending them the F350...I promptly cut one of the donated roasts into round steaks for the crock pot - delicioso!

I hoped to continue the harvest of Nature's bounty with a few ducks.  Scott took me to one of his spots in the Sabine reserve.  We were able to launch a canoe from the road and make a short paddle to a likely spot.  He only took one shot, and I took none, but it was nice to get in the marsh again.

This is the first duck hunt where I wans't dirty or wet after a morning in the marsh...I guess having a retriever for the (non-existent) ducks that was also trained to pick up the decoys helped a bunch.

I think we are headed back to the squirrel camp next weekend to try for wood ducks and mallards in the flooded woods.  January camping...it's not Colorado cold, but it's not squirrel hunt in October weather, either.  If I'm not shivering too bad, there may be some pictures of that in a future blog post.

We sqeezed in some Christmas activites into all of the outdoor action, with Chris' family in town to provide the excitement...after they recovered from the long drive.

We had the tree decorated (with faux snow)...

I also had a merry campfire, but no one came out to sit around...wonder why?

The girls just had to open a present early; Maggie loved the cotton candy machine and Bea just loved her "hoochie" dress (and esp the SHOES!).

Of course they had to try it out right away.  Maggie went to town on the spun sugar confection while Bea was content to sip hot cocoa from her teacup.

Christmas was still a few days away, so we took them to the Children's Museum in Lake Charles to distract them from the still-unopened presents under the tree.

Bea loved the matchbox race cars, and Maggie mastered the art of the giant bubble.

Finally the big day arrived, and Maggie was checking the result of Santa's visit with a flashlight at 5:30 AM.  (Sorry, I did not capture any of that action with the camera.) I was able to get a few snaps a little while later.

Everyone seemed happy with their presents...especially this little fella with his Chewbaca backpack.  Just perfect for bringing to those interviews for PhD programs!

TMom and PapaT were able to make it for Christmas day to visit with the youngest set of Thibodeaux sisters...and try out the new porch swing.  You can sense the humidity as my camera lens kept fogging up.

Finally, with a spate of warm weather and a wave of guilt that Denise has almost painted the entire house by herself, I slapped together another couple of sets of fake shutters to dress up the side of the house.

Well, I started this post with some quintessential Colorado Christmas scenes; I would be remiss if I didn't do the same for our neck of the wood in closing; so until next time...