Down on the bayou

A huge red metal crawfish adorns the kitchen counter of Debbie and Rick's open kitchen.  A promise of the hospitality to come!

Over the Easter weekend, I took a road trip to South Louisiana.  It is one of my favorite places to go because I get to spend time with my friends, Debbie and Richard, who I have known since BK (Before Kids).  That, folks, is a very long time!  The mid-70's as a matter of fact. They are the epitome of welcoming, generous Southern folks. I pull into their driveway in Pontchatoula, Louisiana, and I think:  Laissez les bons temps rouler!  And .... they do!

This time I brought with me two gallon bags of frozen figs from last year's harvest with the idea that Debbie and I would make fig preserves. It was also time for strawberries from Ponchatoula's area farms to be for sale on the roadsides and street corners.  So, Friday and Saturday, she and I spent our time together "jamming", while Richard ran to the store for more sugar, more pectin, more jars, and once for a new blender so that we could chop the strawberries more efficiently.  He also kept the Diet Cokes (Debbie) and beer (me) coming.  He had a vested interest in all of our activity.

We got 7 pints and one quart out of the 2 gallons of figs I brought.

You see, Rick is a Certified Fig Fanatic.  He loves them.  I mean, REALLY loves them, and he was keeping track of where each filled jar was at all times. Upon opening and tasting from the first jar, Richard declared that our fig jam tasted just like his grandmother's and that he claimed every jar as his.  " They can have strawberry!" were his exact words, as I recall.  Richard is one reason I am trying my darnedest to root some fig twigs.

We bought a flat and a half of freshly picked strawberries, still warm from the fields!

They smelled like strawberry cotton candy, full of sunshine and natural sweetness!

We made 5 batches of strawberry jam, and they have been declared "scrumptious" by those who have tasted them.  To one batch we added cracked black pepper, and another, vanilla extract per some recipes we came across.  Not bad, but  not especially interesting either!

Friday night it was time for boiled crawfish and shrimp, potatoes, corn and "real" French bread ... the kind they only make in South Louisiana..... wonderfully soft in just the right places and perfectly crusty everywhere else!

I had another good reason to visit the bayou country that weekend. In mid February, Debbie had asked me if I would be able to knit an afghan for her that would go in a very special friend's living room in a very special home in the Garden District of New Orleans.  I would have a deadline, that being May 15.  Could I do it?!  I said yes.  

She told me that it needed to be very particular colors:  a very grayed blue (no lavender, no green), ivory, buttery yellow, and a peach that was not too pinkish, but was more orange and brownish.  She wanted a variety of yarns for textures and no squares (too "quilt-y"), but stripes would be okay.  I was excited!  No problem!

Well, yep, problem!  Hard to find yarns in these colors.  Hard to make these colors work in one piece.  Hard to find a variety of textures in yarns in these colors.  Before long, I began to hyperventilate and lose sleep.  Fortunately, I had already planned that road trip to Pontchatoula because I was going to need her input on this.  I couldn't do it alone!

In the meantime, I gathered up yarns I thought would work from my own stash, Hobby Lobby and from some of my online sources.  There was also a budget, mind you!  I knitted at night after work, and most of the days on the weekends.  I planned and knitted, and "frogged" what I had knitted and started over again.  I did not like what was coming off my needles!  Panic!  Hyperventilation!  Oh, NO!

The blues and peaches were just not right.  I needed to dye some yarns to get what I needed in those specific shades.  I thought we should add some greens after looking at a photo of the room itself.  I gathered up several shades of Rit dyes,both powdered and liquid, that I could mix in my dye pot and, hopefully, come up with what I needed.  I absolutely love to dye, and prefer to use Kool-Aid, Rit and sources from Nature itself, so this was exciting.

I gathered my dyeing pot, my dyes, my salt and my vinegar, and skeined off yarns for dying.

And I got to work in my kitchen!

A break in the rain that weekend allowed me the pleasure of hanging my new yarns out to dry on the clothesline.  A colorful sight!

And now, back to Easter weekend in Pontchatoula.  After the wonderful jars of jams were made, I brought out my yarns and swatches for Debbie to look over and tell me what she thought.  We culled some colors and yarns immediately.  Debbie said "no!" to any green and praised the shades of peach I had produced.  As expected, the blues were the hardest to decide on as to which would work and which would not.  She loved the textures, both in the knitting and in the yarns themselves, that I had produced.   And the stripes she wanted, were what I would call "bands" of color.  In the end, we had a plan and there was Excitement on both our parts.  For me, there was also Relief!

This is what Debbie and I ended up with as our Afghan Plan.  This shows 4 of the 5 color bands

that we decided on.  The fifth was a beautiful blue chosen from a small sample I brought with me.

Back home, I began ripping out squares and re-knitting them into the chosen bands, but the blue chosen from the small sample did not coordinate well once it was knitted into a larger amount of color.  Dang!  It happened to be my favorite of all the yarns, but I just could not make it work!  My friend, Judy, and I took a road trip to Tyler on the following Saturday to check out the brand new JoAnn's Fabric store, and there I found a blue yarn to use for that final band.  It was a much thicker yarn, but I felt it would work.  The color was just perfect.  I breathed a sigh of relief!

As the deadline quickly approached, I finished the five bands of color, joined them with a mattress stitch, and knit several rows of edging on all four sides, with smaller size needles, to give it stability.  The various textures and thicknesses of the yarns needed to be controlled, you see.

I steam blocked it, pinned in place, on my bed.  This helped it maintain its shape.  Very important,

as the different yarns had different weights, as well as a mind of their own!

Under the ceiling fan in my bedroom, the afghan dried quickly, and while it dried, I gathered and cut the ribbons and yarns I  planned on using for the long fringes that Debbie wanted.  At this point, I was still not yet confident in the design of  this piece.  Something was missing.

As you can see from my photos, these colors can look so differently in
different lighting.

The fringes are 8" long and made of narrow ribbons and textured yarns.

Once the fringes were on, it looked beautiful and all the colors and textures came together, and I sighed a HUGE sigh of Relief.  And smiled!

I got the afghan in the mail to Pontchatoula in plenty of time for the events at the New Orleans home, and Debbie said she loved it and was pleased with how soft it was.  I want to see a photo of it in the room on the back of that sofa before I can know for sure!

With this project I learned a few things. One is that "simple is usually better", especially with things that are complicated.  Also, when you are doing a project for someone, find out as soon as you can, EXACTLY what they have in mind .....  BEFORE you start working on it!  It turns out, Debbie said "knit" when she really meant "weave"!  When she said "stripes," I thought no more than an inch wide, possibly thinner.  She was thinking wider, more like what I would call "bands."  Ask them to show you what they mean, because once they do and you are both on the same sheet of music, you can have your Ah-Ha moment without pushing the Panic Button  .....  hopefully!  


Now, for those of you who didn't see my post on Facebook of the photo of my first little leopard frog:

Leopard froglet.  Is it not just the cutest thing you have seen in awhile?!

Here you can clearly see his "leopard spots".

I named it "Prince," but I did not kiss it.  I thought about it, but I didn't.  Within the week, Prince had left the tadpole habitat and gone off on his Life's Adventure.  I hope he is able to live a long and happy life, eating as many mosquitoes and flies as he can around here. It will be a good year for those mosquitoes what with all this rain!  Meanwhile, another tadpole is growing hind legs, and soon there will be another little froglet here on HeartSong Farm's back porch.

And crawfish has made another appearance in my life!  

Last night, Tammy and Chris brought me some boiled crawfish because they had too much! Now wasn't that nice of them to think of me?  I sure thought so!  There was enough to enjoy right out of the bucket, and some reserved for making etouffee later.  Almost as good as being back down on the bayou!

And Richard ......  it looks like we may have another bumper crop of figs this July and August!  YAY!

Figs developing on my fig tree, loving all the rainwater this spring.

It is still very very muddy here on the farm, but we have not been involved in any of the tragic flooding of this past week, and for that we are grateful.  Prayers to all those affected by those recent storms.  More evidence of Global Warming, I wonder?  Hmmm....

Today, we are enjoying a day of mostly sunshine here on HeartSong Farm!

All creatures, great & small

All things bright and beautiful,

All creatures, great and small.

These timeless words by Cecil Frances Alexander, published in her book, Hymns For Little Children (1848), have spoken to me ever since I was a little girl.  The past two weeks have brought a number of creatures to my farm's door, porch and wheelbarrow, and I wanted to share them with you!

Female cardinal feeling somewhat woozy after a slam-bang into my bedroom

window.

Sunday afternoon, November 1, the cats and I heard a very loud bang on my bedroom window that overlooks the back porch.  It sounded like a gun shot, louder than a bird hitting it, but it turned out that is exactly what it was.  I went outside, and huddling under the porch swing, was a very dazed and confused female cardinal.  She not only a had a really bad headache, her beak could not close, one eye was half-closed, and a dark fluid was coming out of one side of her beak!  Look closely above.  Poor dear thing!

Feeling somewhat better

After about 10 minutes of my stroking her feathers and talking to her, she was able to grip my index finger with more strength and stand straighter, although her left eye was still half-closed.  A few minutes more, and her beak (jaw?) could close and the fluid (saliva?) stopped flowing from her mouth.  She looked at me when I spoke and seemed to enjoy the stroking of her feathers.  I was able to admire up close and personal all her lovely shades of brown and red.

Feeling better and almost ready to fly again!

As I continued to stroke her back and to speak soothingly to her, her balance improved, and her beak was able to finally close properly.  As her grip on my finger-perch grew tighter, I gently tossed my hand, palm upwards, into the air a few times.  She kept her balance by spreading her wings, but she was not quite ready to leave my protection.  I decided that I would take her to the arbor between the backyard and the vegetable garden where I felt she would be safe from Max the Outside Cat.  Fortunately, he was nowhere to be seen at the moment.

I left the safety of my back porch and started toward the arbor.  A few feet from my destination, Ms. Cardinal took flight and landed near the top of the crepe myrtle nearby.  She was back on her own!

Tadpoles in the wheelbarrow full of rain water!  Several hundred of them, at least!

The weekend that I was planting my garlic and winter greens, I passed by my wheelbarrow and saw a very interesting, unexpected sight ....  tadpoles swimming around in the rainwater from a recent heavy downpour.  It brought back memories of scooping up ditch water full of tadpoles in mason jars, and watching them grow into frogs or toads!  I think that it has gotten too cold for the little fellas to survive to be frogs, but I will be keeping an eye on them, for sure.  It has been in the low 30's, or lower even, for several nights here this week.

A leopard frog, probably one of the parents of the tadpoles in the wheelbarrow.

Leopard frogs are really quite lovely with their spots and sleek, moist skin.  They can make almost as much noise as a bullfrog sometimes.  BURRUMPH, BURRUMPH!  Sometimes I find them in one of the llama water troughs in the pasture. I remember finding one several weeks ago, after a lighter rainfall, in this same wheelbarrow!

A yellow jacket (left) and honey bee (right) on a tassel of goldenrod near the wheelbarrow.

My little green (sometimes brown) back porch friend in a bucket of rainwater.

This little guy (a green anole) is the one who lives behind my door-facing on the back porch.  He has startled me a number of times this Fall when I reached to open the door and he jumped out.  I swear he said "Boo!" once! It is unclear to me as to whether he was intentionally swimming or he fell into the bucket accidentally.  But, he looked pretty water-logged to me.  I think he appreciated my helping him get out of the water when I did!

I put him on one of the vines that covers the arbor off the back porch.

Soon he was relaxing and enjoying the sunshine on his back.  I love these little creatures!

I grew up calling these cuties "chameleons" because they could turn from bright green to brown, depending on what they were perched on.  We loved to watch them run along the top of our redwood slat fence, and we loved to try and catch them, too.  Sometimes, we would grab them by their tails and we would be left holding only the tail as the lizard scrambled away!  You could always tell the ones who had lost their tails at some point because, when the tail grew back, it never quite matched the original.

The opossum on the back porch of HeartSong Farm.

Not a great photo, and although that is Max's food bowl, that is definitely NOT Max! What it is, is a
very plump opossum that has been regularly visiting my back porch the last few weeks.  So far, I have not been able to get it's face in a photo.  It is very wary, this 'possum!  And it has lots of tiny sharp teeth that I would not want to mess with!  It tends to "grin" at me, and then go back to munching on the kibble.

Now this is an adorable little fellow, don't you think?!

About a week after the opossum started coming around, a young raccoon began coming around about 30 minutes later than that early diner.  I guess word had gotten around that food was available on my back porch?! 

This is the second raccoon that we have had as a visitor over the years here at HeartSong Farm.  I think we will name this one Bandit.  The first one, Rocky, has not been seen for two or three years, and this is a young one, probably coming into its second winter.  When he stands he is about 24 inches tall, and is only slightly leery of me.  I can get within two feet of him, with no problem.  He has growled at me only once, and since then seems to have accepted my presence as non-confrontational.

I have always wanted a pet raccoon, for real.  My daddy's mother had one when he was growing up, in St. Petersburg, FL.  I am so tempted to try to catch this one, but I know it is really not a good idea.  So, I make sure there is always a bit of dry cat food on the back porch at night, and that way I get to observe it up close and to enjoy it in that way.

One night this week, I felt a pair of eyes staring at me as I sat reading in my den chair by the window overlooking the back porch.  I turned to look, and there was Bandit, front paws on the window ledge, watching me through the screen! Well, turnabout is fair play, I guess!

Ben says that he has seen this youngster climbing high in the pine tree near his "man cave," so it must have found Rocky's old nest.

A Hispid Cotton Rat.  Isn't he (I checked!) adorable?!  Looks similar to a hamster to me.

Last Sunday, I was at my computer in the dining room, when something caught my eye outside by the clothesline. It was Max the Outdoor Cat tossing something in the air.  Oh no!  I could see that it was a rodent of some kind, bigger than a mouse, but smaller than a gopher.  And, strangely, it seemed like it was playing a game with Max.  It was not even trying to get away, but would run around to his backside, then around him again, then leap up in the air on his own, and then crouch in the grass right next to him.  This was strange.  Strange, indeed!

I grabbed my camera and an old towel and went outside, intrigued.  Max walked off, but the little critter was hidden in the grass, crouched down and really quite hard to see.  After several attempts to locate it, and then capture it with the towel, I was at last successful.  What I discovered was that it was neither a mouse or a gopher, nor was it the kind of rat that I would have expected.  It's coat was rough, like a nutria, but he was way too small to be one.

He has a very coarse coat of dark brown and golden brown, and is about the size of my hand.

He was nervous at first, but, in no time at all, was relaxed enough for me to examine him and to release my tight grip on him.  He even felt comfortable enough to perch on the towel in my hand.  I had seen his sharp, yellow rodent teeth and I was not taking his calm acceptance of me for granted!  As you can see from the photo above, however, that Max had, indeed, injured him on his tail.

Eventually, I put him back in the grass near the clothesline, and he scooted off towards the back pasture fence.  I immediately went inside and grabbed my Peterson's Field Guide to Mammals of North America.  I discovered that he was a Hispid Cotton Rat, and are known for making runways and tunnels in high grassy areas.  I wonder how many are out there in my back pasture?!

And then there was this on the kitchen floor!

What the ..... ??!!!  This sure isn't one of the typical Dust Bunnies found in my home!  I have the feeling that Godfrey had something to do with this, whatcha wanta bet?!

Axl (aka The Big Guy) enjoys watching creatures, both great and small, from his perch at the dining room window. There is absolutely no way he could fit on the window sill like an "ordinary" cat.  He is, after all, a Maine Coon cat!

With the very cold temperatures here this week, out in the pastures the llamas have been looking like smoke-breathing dragons in the early mornings!  Steam rises off their woolly backs from their body heat.  I have been trying to get a photo of that, but I am having trouble pressing the buttons with my gloves on.  It is almost time to buy a new camera, I think.  The buttons on this one keep getting stuck!

There are a lot of interesting creatures here on HeartSong Farm!