What weird times we find ourselves in. It is surreal to me. That’s the best word I can think of to describe this state in which we find ourselves, which makes me think I’m in the pages of a dystopian novel. Is that how you feel? So I guess I am now confessing to the…
Deep in the piney woods of Folsom, Louisiana, at the end of a well-worn dirt road, lies a ten-acre animal rescue sanctuary called Big Sky Ranch. Off in the distance stands the iconic big red barn, offering shelter to resident horses and donkeys, while cats of all colors and sizes play chase among the brush…
Unusual title, I know, but spring has sprung in more ways than one! I love y’all so much that I’m sitting here trying to keep my word about finishing this post, even though today was the first day of the Prothonotary Warbler Project, and not only did I haul the boat an hour to and…
A new post from Yours Truly is long overdue. Well, that’s a wee bit of a understatement, isn’t it? Hopefully, between knowing we’ve just been through Christmas and New Year’s, you’ll give me a pass when I say I’ve been in the throes of planning a “down-da-bayou-wedding” for my youngest son, whom we lovingly have…
Between the tranquil banks of Bayou Petit Caillou and Louisiana Highway 56 sits an icon of resilience among bayou folks. Weathered to a respectable patina, the old cypress board-and-batten building is home to an old general store, with counters covered in “penny candy” jars just like it did 100 years ago. Once inside Cecil Lapeyrouse’s Grocery,…
It was 1979, and I was working as a dispatcher for ODECO. She answered the old black phone in her native tongue, her words lost on me. I had called her house to ask if her son, the crew boat captain, happened to be home. Hoping she could understand me, I continued in English, “He has to go on a run right now.” His boat was next up to take a trip out to the Gulf to deliver emergency equipment, and as night dispatcher, it was my job to find him. She understood me well enough to relate to me in broken English where she thought he might have been.