A Gathering Storm...of sorts

from Will Perkins

With the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina upon us, I remember the myriad of feelings it wrought; the excitement of distraction from work as we waited for each National Weather Service update, the busy-ness of stocking supplies, storing or tying down items that would normally be leaning in the barn, stored against the greenhouse, or underfoot in the carport, the energy rush you feel when the barometric pressure drops and the winds pick up, the camaraderie and good times experienced when all the family came together at our house to ride out the storm…then, the sick feeling in the pit of your stomach as you realize that this isn’t “someone else’s” problem and it isn’t a matter of just cleaning up a few fallen trees or waiting for the power to come back on. The storm has destroyed what was our back yard, the beaches walked in summertime, the historic city visited in the spring and fall, towns where we once lived and had friends. Also seriously damaged was our family’s sense of security, our friends’ optimism, and to a degree our way of life.

We were one of the few areas in southeast Louisiana spared any direct damage from Katrina. We housed our whole extended family for a period, along with their dogs and cats. It was raucous, noisy, and nervy, but the kids headed back to their apartments as power was restored. Thais’ sisters found places to stay as their houses were rebuilt and roads home cleared. Our daughter, who bore our first grandchild two days after the storm, stayed extra time while my son-in-law and I cleared away some of the limbs from their house, cleaned their refrigerator, and carted provisions back to their recently-purchased home is Ponchatoula, La.

Of the less obvious impacts (to those residing outside of southeast Louisiana) from Katrina (and Rita), is the economic and population growth in the area surrounding New Orleans and Lake Charles. In particular, Baton Rouge’s population grew by one-third immediately following the hurricanes, and has settled into about 20% growth after some of the evacuees returned to the storm areas or relocated elsewhere. The Zachary area, which was already in a growth spurt due to the quality of life and excellent schools, is now in overdrive, with somewhere around 2,000 to 4,000 new homes planned or under construction in addition to the 3,000 or so completed in the last couple of years. When we move to the area seven years ago, there were six stoplights and, as we liked to say, one of everything – a grocery store, dry cleaner, pizza place, hardware store (2 actually), etc. Now, we have 4 (count ‘em, four) Chinese restaurants, a Chili’s, Home Depot, two supermarkets in addition to the super-Walmart, and two new 18-hole golf courses. The city is building 2 brand new huge schools and doubling the size of the high school.

Thursday night I attended a Town Hall meeting with the developer of the golf course that, two years ago, was constructed around and behind our little farm. The developer envisions a very upscale community of 600 houses on 70-100 foot wide lots. The number of houses being built will exceed all of the houses currently served by the road that passes in front of our property. Litter, noise, pollution, and opportunity will abound. This is not what we moved out here for. As Lyle Lovett said at one of his concerts, “I used to live in the country. Now I live in town…and I haven’t moved.” We have an eight-year plan that goes like this: pay off the house, sell, move further out, and start over. Nothin’ like a little incentive.

Late Summer afternoon

SO...check out the amazing grasshopper-dude. He was hanging out in a clump of weeds in the herb beds. I ran inside to get the camera...because I had to shoo him away...because I was weeding, and well...Actually he is much, much bigger than it may appear here. I'd sayhe was about three inches long. And check out those eyes! what an incredible expression! very elegant. I had been cooped up all day, and finally just got the garden gloves and a sweat rag (important piece of equipment, the sweat rag) stuffed into my pocket, and some clippers and just headed out. I felt like taking something apart - I thought I'd cut back at least one row of basil. Easy enough, and gratifyng. But there are SO MANY BEES. The big fat bumble bees. They're not aggressive, but they do not like to be disturbed, and they are very vocal about it. I wasn't sure whether they'd go home later in the evening and leave the basil to me, or whether it's late summer and they'd just hang around 24/7. They do that sometimes. They crawl onto the back side of a leaf (or flower) and just act totally drunk. Hanging on, bleary with pollen, and oblivious to everything, including you. If you grab a flower or leaf and aren't inspecting what you're doing, you're likely to just grab a very large bee into the middle of your palm. Not a good move. I've done that. In the end, I decided to leave them alone. As you can see, there are more basil flowers than there is actual basil. Cut back severely, there will be a fall crop. I can either do that, or pull it all up and just plant more. But it's kind of beautiful and there's plenty of basil to go around. I'll probably leave some and prune some. Spring is plenty of time for brand new basil, I think. So I pulled many giant weeds and threw them out to the edge of the garden, then carefully weeded my new bed of French Marigolds. They're not the showiest game in town, but I wanted some color...besides they're edible, even though Will can't understand why anyone would want to eat one, because he's not fond of the taste. In any case, they're dependable, and once they get going, will bloom until we have a frost. So that was fun. At least one new fresh-looking row at the edge of the herb garden. It gives one courage to wade into the rest of it and hack away, trying to restore some kind of order. The heat has lost it's scary power somehow, or maybe we're just more used to it in late August and we don't care so much. But it is becoming a little easier to work outside...maybe more garden news tomorrow.

ok, everyone...remain calm

Tuesday (August 29th) is, as we know, the 1st anniversary of 'Katrina'. This is an example of an occurrence we in the south like to refer to as 'The Recent Unpleasantness'. And here we see the week ahead:
Everyone just hang in there. As we know, anything can happen, and probably will. I'd love to think about the Fall garden, and we'll probably do some work this weekend. I'll be sure to post something positive tomorrow. This is a good time to work in order to provide needed distraction. Hey - the way I figure it, maybe we'll get a whole bunch of rain and it will fill up the pond....right?

I think we can agree...

Sadly, it is time for the zinnias to go....but, hey; that's ok because if I don't yank these up, then I can't have even more zinnias! I had planned to wait until now, Friday evening, because tomorrow is Saturday and I don't care if I go out and get all nastified and tired. So I got the truck and pulled it into the yard; put on some gloves and started yanking and throwing. But not before I picked a few...but this is all I got, and that's from both sides of the fencerow. Hey, better than none. I made it a little more than halfway down the row before I hit the infamous and expected wasps. I was actually surprised it took that long. But no matter. I was exhausted anyway. Half the truckbed was full. Will had come out to see how I was coming along, and all the animals were there, becasue it was dinnertime. The CrazyCat checked the truck out: then he decided that if he was cute, maybe he'd get his food a little sooner...I was SO hoping I wouldn't have to get up in the morning and do this some more; but I'm not finished. And that's only one side of the fence. But I want Fall flowers, and this is the only way to get them. We have more 'pelletized fertilizer', otherwise kown as 'chicken ***' and if I can get this done, Will can spread some and till it in. Planting is not a deal. So easy. But this is all I have in me for one evening; so more later...

Ending and Beginning

And so it is Fall, but not really Fall. Not down here. The weather says no, but the season says yes. Here are Ibis passing over the farm today, on their way to somewhere...we call this a 'bird group'. So we can say "bird group!"and I know that's hard to see, so here is a lonely Ibis...a very large and beautiful bird. We have a lot of large and beautiful birds down here. One sign of Fall, yes - those bird groups - but there are many. Flower beds to re-plant and, as you have seen here, many battles to fight as things begin to look weary and weedy. Will was in Mississippi, and picked up a ton of chicken *****. Let us see now, he calls this 'pelletized fertilizer'. My oh my, it is fragrant. It comes in a giant plastic sack, strapped into the bed of the truck. He borrowed a cone-shaped spreader from a friend, and went through the field spewing it everywhere. Now, some may think that pictures of dirt are boring, but if you know the ground has just been plowed and spread with 'pelletized fertilizer', it is a very satisfying sight indeed. If you look at that picture very closely you can see Dude the Dog out there, in the dirt. Although it looks like he's keeping watch, he's just following us around hoping for dinner. All season we've been piling up the vegetable matter...plants pulled from rows, compost from the kitchen, etc. The compost pile looks happy. In the middle you can see two old watermelons from a couple of months ago. It takes a while for things to break down in a compost pile: We're getting ready to 'pull up some rows' to begin the fall planting: At the very beginning of this blog, in May, what we had was an overload of lettuce. That's always the first thing to come in, Spring or Fall. So the lettuce will be planted first, and of course Red Beans for Fall. The trick with red beans is always to harvest them before the late fall rains begin. There will be a folk festival here in early October, and we are responsible for growing some of the veggies the campers will partake of during that weekend. So, we had better get busy! Some things refuse to quit, like the eggplants; and then there are the late-starting but ever-increasing loofas. And, I am sorry to say, the 'black-eyed peas but who cares we are so sick of peas'. There, I said it. But that's ok. You can't be gloriously happy all the time with every garden event.

Mow Mow Mow...

Everything
Is
Mowed


Yeah. well that lasted about 4 days...time to get back out there and decide where to start, because it's time to do it all over again. And to think that in a few months we'll actually put the mower up for the 'winter'. We've been pulling stuff up and mowing and plowing. Some things I just hate to pull, but that's just a shortcoming of mine...I suppose it's related to that thinning problem I also have. As much as I love the zinnias, they have to go. I mean, you can't have MORE zinnias if you don't pull these up first. Will is bringing home a truckload of fertilizer (chicken-related) and I want the flower beds to be ready. I worked like a dog on the old Cosmos bed last week. That was a scary project. It was a jungle in there, lots of nettles (ouch) which have to be chopped. They can't be pulled, because they're full of nasty thorns. But I got it done. It will have to stay this way until the ground is prepared again. Like every other August, it's hard to believe you can (and have to) plant in this heat. If you don't it will just be too late. It works out...I have Dianthus seed I want to start, and Pansies can be put in as soon as they're available. It's not all rip and tear, however. There are a couple of things just coming ito their own. If you can stand another loofah picture, here is an update. I love these big yellow flowers. And, as you can see, things are coming along nicely. There are plenty more, but here is an example of how fast these grow: Well, I put in my early morning time before the heat. I left buckets in the field, because I meant to pick purple hull peas. I would have done that, even in the heat, but they were still full of dew, and hauling in peas when they're wet is a dangerous proposition. They will mold before you can shell them. I'll just wait until later today. If it doesn't rain, they'll be dry by this afternoon, and I can wait until the relative cool in the evening. Or, if things look stormy, maybe I can get to them before it rains. Oh, and this is cool; we had a very nice family come up here from way south Louisiana a couple of weekends ago. They wanted to know when the limas were ready, and they'll be coming back for them maybe Saturday. We're going to trade veggies for fresh crabs. We're really excited about this. I must say, living in Louisiana does have it's advantages.

Head's Up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Time for the Perseids Meteor Showers! Best night, fortunately, August 12th. Recommended snacks and beverages; boiled peanuts and wine; take a nap during the day, because the best meteors are way after midnight. In the Northern hemisphere, here's a map... I am posting this non-gardening event, because it is not to be missed! We've watched these meteor showers every year for probably 30 years or so. Invite your friends. Find a dark spot away from town. Bring the bug spray (read the labels - find the least objectionable) and a blanket. Works best if you have (1) a pickup truck (2) a picnic table, or (c) a reclining lawn chair. Also good...when someone goes inside to the bathroom, everyone should say WOW! DID YOU SEE THAT ONE? ha.