Spring is finally here! Bring on the Crawfish!

Typical SpringFest

I know it's late April but this ridiculous Winter has put off Spring here in South Louisiana until now.  But here it has finally arrived, Spring!  Usually, in this part of the country we get very little Winter conditions.  Some off and on cold fronts in December, then a fairly cold January leads to a February that starts with a freeze or two.  Then by March 1st we are experiencing early Spring in Cajun land.  But for this year it has been a different story.  Winter started in late October and stayed all the way through until the first week of April.  Not off and on like usual.  Also, we had three snow/ice events.  We average one snow event every five years down here.  It's really a big deal because we don't know how to deal with the snow and our entire state shuts down.  I don't think there is a single snow plow in the state.


Although it usually starts on March 1st, Spring has finally arrived and that's means lots of good things in Cajun land.  It means the start of Fairs and Festivals.  You name a native food and we have a Festival for it. Anything from Tomatoes to Alligators we have a food festival for that.  It also starts the season of music festivals, including the world famous New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival and the growing Bayou Country Music Fest.  But to me by far the best the about Spring in Louisiana is that fact that it is Crawfish Season.  As the temperature rises the mud bugs come out and grow.  By the end of April and the beginning of May there will be a crawfish boil to attend almost every weekend.  That's the good life in Louisiana.

Boiled Crawfish!

Sure there are plenty of other things to do in the Spring.  There are company picnics, camping trips, gardens that need to be tended to, and lots of other family events.  Spring represents a rebirth and a renewal a things from the long cold Winter.  Especially after this insane Winter.  And those that know me and my family know we have big plans with graduation on our plate this May in our home.  It just seems the higher that Sun gets in the sky and the warmer it gets the more I think about soaking those crawfish in some cayenne pepper!  So I hope you enjoy your Spring Festivals, the warm Spring breezes, and your boiling pot is filled with hot, spicy, plentiful, delicious,crawfish. Happy Spring everybody!

Labor Day, by any other name.

In America, Labor Day is the first Monday in September.  Ever since 1894 Labor Day has been a Federal Holiday to recognize the working class people in this country.  It was born in a time when the working class were at odds with the big corporations.  Sound familiar?  In recent years this holiday has taken on new meanings.  When I was a child Labor Day was the time to return to school.  Times have changed and and kids go to school longer and start earlier.  These days Labor Day is mainly known as the official end of Summer.  Even thought the calendar says it's September 22nd.  There are some purist that would say that we've skewed the meaning of Labor Day.  The holiday is not a tribute to the American worker anymore but a tribute to all the fun things you can do on a three day weekend.

The men and women of Bridgepoint Church.

A year ago, Labor Day 2012 took own a whole new meaning in my world.  Last year, Labor Day was when the cavalry arrived to help me and my flooded home.  Over the weekend with the help of my family, we had managed to remove carpet, padding, and loads of furniture directly into the front yard.  I had cut several holes into the sheet-rock and determined that because of the way the walls were insulated, I could get away with gutting the house at the 2 foot mark.  The problem was we were spent.  The amount of work already done along with the lack of sleep and shock of it all was running us ragged.  I needed to gut this house quickly in order to get ahead of the mold and other issues. Bright and early on Monday morning, men, women, teenagers, and children showed up in force.  The entire body of my small church showed up.  Our church was only two and a half months old.  Work started getting done at a blistering pace. It was all the wife and I could do to keep up with directing all the traffic.  It was a welcomed diversion to the mentally draining event and we had to take full advantage of all the help.

My boys and their friends posing in the debris pile.

Labor Day was just that, a day of incredible labor.  In one day, my home had all the sheet-rock cut out up the my two foot mark.  In one day, a house full of destroyed furniture was haul to the highway (I have a thousand foot driveway) and piled eight feet high.  In one day, all the wet insulation was removed.  In one day, all the things that were salvageable were boxed and sealed.  In one day, my home was scrubbed from floor to ceiling with bleach.  These people, who should have been spending their holiday barbecuing with their family, worked all day at my home.  They didn't ask for money, or favors, or demand payback or have any stipulations whatsoever.  They saw a need and they filled it all in one day.  The emotions of the day were overwhelming.  In one day, I started to believe that we could regain our life.  In one day, my faith in human kindness was restored.  In one day, I realized that we were not God forsaken after all. Sadly, it would take many more days to fix my mental state.  But that's still debatable to this day.

Volunteer from North Carolina.

More help would come in the days and weeks that followed.  A church from North Carolina came down here to work on my house for four days without asking for a dime.  Other friends would help with different phases of the repair.  My floor was replaced by a kind soul that was 73 years young.  For 10 weeks we were homeless, but that was a short time compared to others that flooded.  Most would take 3 to 4 months to get back home. And those that waited for the government to fix their lives would wait for 6 months or longer. Our quick return was due to the incredible people that stepped up and bailed us out.

I will never look at Labor Day the same.  And given the chance, I hope you reach out and help someone in their time of need.  The life you change might be your own.  Enjoy your Labor Day! 

One year post Isaac. Part 2 of 3. It just won't stop coming!

View from the back yard.

We get up Wednesday morning.  The power has been out.  It's rained all night.  The two horse pastures that are next to my property are full of water already. We check the weather on our phones.  We are horrified to learn that Isaac is stalled in Barataria Bay. The rains will not let up and the winds will continue to pack Lake Pontchartrain.  Worse case scenario.  I get a call from my Dad.  His travel trailer is in a low spot so we have to move it.  We hook up his truck and the rear tires sink up to the axle.  We fight for three hours to get his truck out.  We use boards, blocks, and bricks.  Then make a train with my tractor and my brother in law's Jeep.  When it's finally out, I turn and fall into the hole the tires made.  I go underwater, then when I surface my family is screaming at me.  A small water moccasin his on my back.  After all that excitement, I look across my land and see something I've never seen before.  Water is everywhere.  This has never happened before.  Not in Katrina, or Gustav.  What is going on?


We head back to the house to change into dry clothes.  I keep going outside every few minutes.  I'm just in a daze.  Surely the water will stop coming soon.  But the water creeps up on the porch and I know it won't stop. It's time to start picking up things.  We get all the computers and such up on top of things and I instruct the boys to put all the guns in the attic.  We hear the thumping of large helicopters.  The subdivisions nearest the Lake are underwater and the National Guard is performing rescues.  Then my wife gets a text from one of her co-workers.  She lives in the nearest subdivision.  She waded down her street to safety with nothing but clothes on her back and a phone in her hand.  It's coming this way.   Night falls and I know the waters won't stop. We try to settle the boys but the wife is upset so I tell her, I'm not opposed to leaving.  I tell her to pack the valuables and the boys to stack furniture on top of each other. The house won't stay above water for another hour.  I wade to my parents house to tell them we are leaving.  By the time I get back the water is seeping in the corners of the house.  I tell the boys to grab their school clothes, a sleeping bag, and the dog and get in my truck.  The wife has already loaded the valuables but she's still fretting about every little thing in the house.  By the time I force her out the door we are ankle deep in our own house.


I ease the truck down our lane.  Going just fast enough to create a wake that keeps the engine out of the water.  It takes us half and hour to get to Airline Highway (the main highway).  We had to try three different streets to get there.  Once we get on Airline we come to the National Guard command center.  They are still rescuing people.  There is a line of coach buses on the four lane highway blocking everything for at least a mile.  At this point we think the entire town of Laplace is underwater.  I roll down the window and ask a state troop how do I get past.  He says, "drive on the shoulder with some respect or get in one of these buses bound for Houston".  I say my thanks and move on.  I ain't going to Houston.  We make our way about twenty miles down the road.  Our pastor and his family welcome us into their house.  It's late, the boys have been drugged with Benedryl, they bed down on sleeping bags while we tell our pastor and his wife about our long day.


Penny and I go lay in a bed shortly after midnight.  There will be no sleep tonight.  We lay there holding hands with tears in our eyes.  Our house is filling with water and there's not a thing we can do about it. I think to myself, "this is the worst feeling in the world".  Tomorrow will prove me very, very wrong.

One year Post Isaac. Part 1 of 3. Preparing for a small storm.

Hurricane Isaac

It's Monday the 27th of August.  Tropical Storm Isaac is wobbling across the Gulf of Mexico.  He's not that strong of a storm but models put it on a bee line to Louisiana and it has to cross some of the warmest parts of the Gulf.  It will strengthen before it gets here.  We've survived Katrina, and more recently Gustav but the slow moving, heavy rain forecast has everyone on edge.  It's time to start prepping for a hurricane. The kids are excused from school so we stay busy by securing the house and property.

It's a standard routine.  We've prepped for many storms in the past.  We take all the plants, chairs, and other things off the back porch and pack them into the garage.  All my wife's bird feeders have to come down and put away.  By noon the garage is overloaded and I have to go to school to secure the concession stand.  Everything is put indoors.  Doesn't matter if the garbage cans stink, they have to be put away.  What doesn't fit is tied down.  With that done I head back to the house.  Take a little time to check the updated models.  Still a Tropical Storm but they have it as "near stationary".  This is not good.  Memories of Hurricane Juan enter my mind.  It was 1985, and Hurricane Juan parked off the coast for five days.  Barely a Hurricane, Juan dumps more that thirty inches over Louisiana.  I remember seeing deer, rabbits, and other wild life standing in the middle of the Interstate because there was no other dry land.  This storm needs to move faster.  I'm wore out from all the work of the day. We devise a plan to move the vehicles in the morning and get some sleep.

Lights and lanterns.

Tuesday morning comes and they upgrade Isaac to a Hurricane.  The outer feeder bands are starting to pass over every so often.  There's not a lot left to do. I take my tractor out of barn and park it on the back porch. The boys help me put small 110 window unit in and set up generator. We gather flashlights and other things to prepare for when the electricity gets knocked out.  It's a long, slow day.  Endless updates are coming over the news channel.  They keep slowing down the storm.  The storm will make land fall over night. They always do.  We get comfortable for the night when the electricity starts to flicker on and off. We already ran the A/C hard so the house is cool and we get some rest. Surely everything will be fine.  We've lived through much worse.  Tomorrow we will get up and be busy keeping the ditches clear and dealing with debris, but this is just life in Louisiana.  The thinking is this storm will pass, threaten, then leave like all the others.  But Isaac has other plans.  By midnight He stalls again.  Being on the western shore of Lake Pontchartrain is about to but us in the bulls eye of this storm.  Isaac is about to teach us some hard lessons of storm surge that the meteorologists on TV can't explain. Wednesday will be a punishing day.

Cajun Traditions. Washing away with the Coastline.

Map by Wikimedia

Traditions are something that most people take great pride in. Traditions are also something that authors love to write about.  But the truth is traditions often fall victim to progress.  Such is the case of the many traditions of Cajuns in Louisiana. As most know, our ancestral roots can be traced back to the eviction of the area now known as Nova Scotia. But the assaults have never really stopped!


My Grandparents spoke fluent "Cajun french" but, never taught it to my parents or my generation. They would only speak it in front of their peers, usually inside while sharing coffee. The oddest thing was that every so often they would all stop as one and look around the room, then resume their dialect. One day as a teen I decided to ask my Grandmother (whom I worshipped) why. Why not teach us and why do you all look around the room? Her answer was somewhat hard to believe. In the 1920's the all knowing government decided it was unintelligent to speak two languages and more specifically to speak "Cajun french". The solution to these little Cajun brats speaking their native tongue was to use the school system to eliminate such behavior. My Grandparents who only spoke "Cajun french" at home would be paddled for doing such at school. Which explains both behaviors of not teaching their children and looking around the room when speaking. Thanks to "intellectuals" the native tongue of my people is now a thing of folklore!

Then came the ingenious idea of flood control! It seems that living along side nature and it's bountiful harvest was not how a man should live. We must upstage nature. We must decide where rivers flow. We must drain swamps. And all this has gotten us a few more steps away from our Cajun heritage. Our way of life is dictated by floodgates. Or in the case of my home, lack of floodgates.  Our bountiful marshes erode everyday with no silt to cross the mighty levees. Our homes sink on the land that was pumped dry. The barrier islands waste away in the tide.  It seems the more billions of dollars we spend the more hundreds of acres we lose to the Gulf. All this thanks to great engineering minds.

Satellite by Fotopedia

In 2010, we faced a dire future.  An explosion and fire on an offshore drilling rig threatened the entire Gulf Coast.  For some six weeks the nation was glued to the TV while oil gushed out of the sea floor.  The bounty of seafood we love, eat, and take pride in was in harm's way.  Fortunately, we've survived that doomsday. Mother Nature always finds a way.  And that's the key.  Let nature take it's course.  We've lived along side of nature and lived well for over three hundred years. Cajuns will live on.  The same uniqueness that caused my grandparents to be punished is now held is high regard. No where else in this nation can you have a social gathering over some boiled bugs caught in a ditch.  Our marshes and coast lines may disappear.  God knows those idiots in D.C. haven't got a clue how to save the land or the culture.  But we will persevere.  We've been evicted before, we can build anew and bring more wrinkles to our storied past.  Come what may, we will find a way to coexist with whatever nature has and we will hand down as many traditions as we can to our kids.  So forget all the catching slogan's, Cajun life is out in the swamps and lowlands and it truly is the good life.

Crawfish Platter by Wikipedia.

The Dog Days of Summer

In the swamps of southern Louisiana it gets quite hot in the Summer.  Add on top of that the muggy, humid feel to the air and it is down right miserable.  Working, playing, and living in these extremely hot conditions makes for dangerous situations.  I hope everyone takes the heat seriously and has a way to keep cool.

I happen to like researching the origins of words, phrases, and sayings.  Which brings me back to the hottest part of the Summer. Everyone has some saying or the other.  Some refer to frying eggs on the sidewalk.  Others just have a few choice curse words for the heat.  Have you ever wondered where the expression, "The dog days of Summer" came from?  Interestingly enough it has it's origins in Egypt.  First you have to turn the clock back about four thousand years.  In the days of Pharaohs the happenings in the sky were just as important has the things on the ground.  One of the brightest stars in the night is Sirius.  Sirius is the brightest star in the constellation Canis Major.  Obviously, that translates to Big Dog.  You see male testosterone has been around for a very long time. At the time of the Pharaohs the constellation and the Big Dog star rose in the East just before the rising of the Sun from mid July to mid August.  Being the sky watchers that they were, they knew that Sirius (the brightest star) was in the sky at the same time as the Sun. This lead to the belief that the Big Dog Star was adding to the heat of the day.  So the four weeks from mid July to mid August were referred to as "The dog days of Summer" because of the influence of the star known as the Big Dog.

The Sirius star no longer rises at that time because everything in the universe is in constant motion. We now know that other stars add almost zero radiant heat to Earth, but it is incredible to see how much detail these ancient people noticed about the world around them.  Do you pay attention to the details around you?   Do you know what time of year some stars are visible and others are not?  I wonder how many people in Louisiana notice that New Orleans and Northern Egypt are very near the same latitude?  The same angle of the Sun that bakes Egypt, bakes Louisiana.

We are so quick to write off other people's customs or beliefs.  Yet we weave their sayings, expressions, and phrases into our everyday language.  Be curious, and ask your parents and grandparents about things instead of watching YouTube.  While technology makes us more advanced, in some ways it causes us to not look around our world and see the incredible spectacle that surrounds us.  Sometimes it's good to just turn off the TV and be an Egyptian and watch the stars rotate in the night.  After all in the Dog Days of Summer, the night is much cooler than the day.  

A taste of Louisiana

Life in Louisiana is very unique and it's food is even more unique.  We are very passionate about our food.  We eat everything we can find and we spice it up like nowhere else.  Let me start with a few breakfast items.  Yes we eat coffee and beignets like advertised to the world.  Heavy on the coffee.  Most are familiar with "French toast" here we make it a little different and have two different names for it.  Some refer to it as Pan Pan Deaux, and others call it Lost Bread, but simply put it's stale bread coated in milk and egg wash then fried and sprinkled with sugar.  We love grits in the South.  Shrimp and grits is not uncommon but in my family we put Boudain in our grits.  What is Boudain you ask?  It is a sausage made from pork, rice, liver, green onions, and other spices.  In Louisiana, pork is a basic food group.  Boucheries don't happen as often as they did in the past but they still are a clinic in how we use the entire pig.  As the locals say, "we eat everything on the pig except the oink".  Most people would throw away a perfectly fine pig head.  In Louisiana we make Hog Head Cheese and pickled pig lips. Whoever made the commercial that says, "Pork, the other white meat" has never been to a boucherie.

Next we have our fruits and vegetables.  We love our onions and down here we refer to green onions as shallots.  I grow my own vegetables so I know a thing or two about tomatoes and in Louisiana, Creole tomatoes are things of idol worship.  My personal favorite is cucumbers.  We also brag on our own personal favorites when it comes to squash, beans, and peas.  One local favorite that is not for me is the mirliton.(pronounced "melly ton")  It's a "prickly pear" or a "vegetable pear".  But the vegetable that is a staple of Cajun cooking is okra.  Okra is something that can be cooked any which way and served at almost every meal.  It is also the base veggie for gumbo.  We also love our fruits, growing strawberries is an art form and picking wild blackberries is a rite of passage.  Figs are also included with those two and more jelly and jam you can eat is made every year. Also, if you grow fruit you must know how to make wine.  Whether it's strawberry, blackberry, or muscadine wine, everyone has a very passionate opinion about it.  As far as nuts go, there is only one you need to know about.  That's the pecan.  If you can't make pecan pie then you're not marrying material.  Most of our seasonings fall into the veggie category. Onions, bell peppers, parsley, celery, and basil are all chopped fine and considered seasoning.  And of course we love our cayenne pepper.  Whether it's in a jar pickled in vinegar, or a sauce, or dried season, a little red pepper makes everything better.


Everyone knows that Louisiana is a seafood lovers paradise.  Crawfish is one of our favorites.  While these mud bugs are plentiful, they are only available for about half the year.  Crawfish season usually starts in late January and ends in early June when they start to get to hard.  What can you make with crawfish?  There's crawfish etouffee, fried crawfish tails, crawfish bisque, crawfish jambalaya, crawfish stew, and oh yeah we like to boil them.  If you don't know how to boil crawfish, you'll never get a good woman to marry you.  We love shrimp as well.  There are two types of shrimp.  There is brown shrimp and white shrimp, and it would do you good to know the difference.  My wife's shrimp etouffee is the best.  Name a fish and we probably have it.  We have an abundance of freshwater and saltwater fish.  Two of my favorites are Red fish on the grill and the wife makes a mean fish court bouillon.  My all time favorite seafood is oysters.  While there are many ways to cook oysters, I prefer them raw.  In Louisiana they are good and salty.  They are so good you can pull one out of the cool water, crack it open and eat it on the spot.

Seems like I've only scratched the surface.  I haven't mentioned all the wildlife we eat.  Such as deer, squirrel, rabbit, alligator, quail, and ducks.  By the way nobody uses the word venison.  Most people that eat deer don't know it's called venison.  I've also failed to cover all the different types of dishes.  We have gumbo, jambalaya, etouffee, court bouillon, stews, deep frying, pan frying, barbecues, boiled seafood, baking, caking, preserves, and a few more that escape me at the moment.  Anyway, I hope that if you get to come to the bayou you don't waste a meal at a burger joint.  There's food everywhere and there's usually a good story told behind every meal.  Cooking is a part of our heritage and we not only enjoy it, we love to share it.  So in the words of my Dad, "come to la vey, and bring a little pig sha!".  That's truly C'est bon!

Bayou Life

In our media driven world the marshes, bayous, and plantations of Louisiana are all the rage.  The great state of Louisiana is now considered one of the most filmed locations outside of Hollywood.  For some it's the old southern charm of a plantation home.  For others it's the long and storied history of New Orleans.  And for most it's the sportsman's paradise.  As one friend put it, "Where else can you catch Red fish and Bass on the same trip?"  Then for reasons I don't understand most people (not from here) think that Mardi Gras is year round. Life in the bayou is slightly different than the movies. Let me burst a few bubbles for you.

First, to live in Louisiana you must know how to live on, off, from, and in the water.  You can't go more than three miles in any direction without hitting a bayou, swamp, lake, river, or canal.  So if  you are on dry land, you can't get lost.  Venture out into the swamp and it's a different story.  Most people either fish or have a brother in law that fishes for a living.  Everyone knows how to catch mud-bugs and make a meal out of them. Teaching your kids how to peel crabs, shrimp, and crawfish is a right of passage.  It doesn't matter if your 20 plus years old, if you can't peel your own then your still a baby.  Then you must know the direction of water flow to live in the swamp.  Most places around the world the river in considered the lowest place because the river usually carves out the land.  In Louisiana the banks of the river are the highest point you can be at.  That's why it's called a delta, because the land is built up from the river overflowing and depositing it's silt.  So the water always drains from the river out to the marshes.  Also, water comes in different forms, there is muddy river water, there is brackish lake water, and salty gulf water.  Notice there is no fresh water.   Next, not everyone in Louisiana practices voodoo.  It's the bible belt for crying out loud!  There is a church on every corner and on Sunday they are all full.  The whole reason Mardi Gras is such a big deal is because the overwhelming number of Catholics are about to enter the Lenten season.  The amount of fish consumed on a Friday, during Lent in Louisiana is staggering.  Voodoo is just for show down in the French Quarter to scam tourist out of their money.  And yes Mardi Gras only last a couple of weeks.  Speaking of tourist, plantations are a dime a dozen.  I don't have to hear your accent to know you are not from around here.  All I have to do is be behind you on the river road and realize you are stopping to take a picture of a house I pass three times a day.  The term "scenic route" is a contradiction in terms.  If you stop in the middle of the highway to take a picture then it's not a route at all.  Anyone who thinks it would have been great to live in a plantation has obviously never lived without A/C.  Not only is it hot it is steaming in the swamp.  I'm not sure what "dry heat" is but when the temperature is 98 degrees and the humidity is 90 percent it's hard to breathe.  I met a nurse who had moved here from Canada, she said the first three Summers here she cried all Summer because of the heat and humidity.  By the way it's Summer nine months of the year here.  She cried a lot.  All these movies they film of some detective walking along the bayou with a sports coat on is pure Hollywood fantasy.

Life in the bayou is hard but like everything else, it has it's rewards.  We work all day in oppressive heat but come dinner time, we get to enjoy some of the finest food in the world.  We literally eat everything. Where else can you enjoy some muscadine wine, garfish balls, and boudain?  Never wanted to do a recipe blog but maybe I should do one on the diversity of food in Louisiana.  Great now I'm hungry.  We speak our own accent and sometimes our own language because we are truly a melting pot of French, Spanish, Irish, Indian, and a few others.  We still stop on side the road to help some one who has broke down or to let a funeral procession pass by.  Our family includes everyone we know.  Blood might be thicker than water but it's the waters that connect us all.  So I guess it's only fitting that Hollywood would want to film this unique life we live, but trust me the movies don't come near to the real thing.  So meh shay, I hope you get to come to the bayou, pass a good time, fill your belly with some etouffee, dance at the fais do do, and live the good life that can't be captured on a movie screen.