Jumping the Gun?

March 12, 2015

Our neighbors have been out trimming trees and cleaning out flower beds. I decided to join them.

I pulled some weeds that have been annoying me lately, and pulled out the dead remnants of tomato, pepper, and squash plants in the raised beds, making sure to set aside the stakes so I can re-use them. It will be time to plant soon! Won't it?

May 14, 2015

Then it dawned on me. Daffodils are springing up all over, but I've yet to see a crocus. The juncos haven't left yet. A few trees are budding out and people are starting to prune their roses and Crepe Myrtles back, but waaaay too early! So, I asked my neighbors if they thought we might just be making a late February snow storm head this way. They gave me a nervous little giggle and said they hoped not.

Hmmm. For many years, a columnist for the Demo-zette, the late Richard Allin, published an annual column heralding the arrival of "The Frozen Daffodil and Snow Tire Festival." I hope he's not just finishing up a column in Heaven for 2016!

I think.

One more pretty snow would be nice. And the streets are too warm for it to stick on them much, so why not?

My father would tell me I've lost my mind. But, I didn't move all the way to Little Rock from New Orleans to have to shave my legs so I could wear shorts in February!

Seriously.  Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Photo by Brian Chilson

Moogie Dodges a Bullet, or a Mortar Round

The tornado warning sirens went off last night. Pepper, the dogs (after we convinced Mysti to come out from under the desk in Pepper's office), and I went downstairs to our "safe place" where we remained for a good thirty minutes as the sirens went off and back on. And off and back on. And off and back on. We're pretty sure the cell passed overhead nearby, but we were spared any damage -- we didn't even get any hail(to the relief of the newly planted plants!). The lights also stayed on -- just a couple of flickers. We lucked out.

The good people some 20 minutes from here didn't, including some of our long-time friends from the National Guard. This is near where their new house used to stand, next door to their son's home. Their new brick house. Both houses are now little more than piles of rubble.

Thank God they weren't physically injured. Many Guard friends, including us, offered them a place to stay, but they went to their daughter's. That's probably for the best. The death toll has been revised down to 14 from 16 (because two people were counted twice), but the Governor expects that number to increase.

Weather experts are speculating that the tornado will be classified as at least an EF3. Pretty powerful. It's so very hard to see all this devastation -- the poor town of Vilonia was wiped out yesterday after re-building following an EF2 that hit in 2011. The emotional toll is heavy -- even on those of us who were spared. All we can do to help right now is to donate money to relief agencies -- State Troopers and the Guard are keeping non-residents out of the hardest hit areas to prevent looting and other wrongdoing by scammers who invariably show up to capitalize on disaster. Or to gawk. Been there.

To lighten up a bit, this is a picture that Younger Daughter posted on Facebook after the all clear -- it's Grandbaby #5, and it's captioned, "Baby's first tornado. It's an Arkansas thing."

Sometimes we just need to hang onto a sense of humor. And to train our kids about storm preparation -- #5 has his flashlight and some fruit snacks.

Welcome home to Tornado Alley, Moogie and Pepper, after 14 years in Hurricaneville. I don't think I'd like to be our neighbor if given a choice -- we seem to be storm magnets.

Happy Easter!

May the blessings and promise of Easter be with us all.

Love, Pepper, Moogie, Mysti, and

Bouie Cottontail.

April Showers and April Flowers

Have I mentioned before just how very fascinating the yard is at Moogie's Manor?  Spring has been a season of continual discovery.  Something new pops up every day!

There are several varieties of Maple.  This is the flower/seed pod from one of them. How pretty is that!

The Harry Lauder's Walking Stick that was featured here so prominently during the ice storms is interesting in the Spring, too.

My herb garden survived the gully-washer of a rain that we had a few nights ago -- and the dips into sub-freezing temperatures.  I think I'm going to give peppers -- both bell and jalapeno -- a shot. Bunnies and chipmunks don't eat peppers, do they?  After that rain, we now understand why it is so difficult to keep mulch in the downstairs flower beds.  We could have done a little white-water rafting if we had been so inclined!

Wishing you a glorious day before Easter.  I hope you get all the jelly beans your little hearts desire.  I'm off to babysit with #4 so his parents can have an early 4th Anniversary celebration.  Can you believe it's been FOUR years?!?!

Being "Thankful For My Family" Doesn't Begin to Describe How I'm Feeling Right About Now

 The funeral was yesterday.  My heart broke for those parents whom Fate had led to sit in front of an open casket, draped with both a folded American flag and an Arkansas Razorback flag, bearing the body of their 24 year-old son. My heart broke for his siblings.  My heart broke for the love of his life and mother of his child. For his son and extended family. For his brothers and sisters in arms. For his church family. For every parent in that room.

The slide show celebrating his life brought both tears and laughter. The three different preachers got their message of salvation across. The music was both iconic and touching, ranging from "Amazing Grace" to Kenny Chesney to Christian rap, among others. I must admit, I've never heard Christian rap before. It was interesting.

The whole service exhausted me. And it terrified me, as you will see, with good cause.

SIL#2 and Younger Daughter sat beside #2's mother in the front row.

The evening before, Wednesday evening, my precious young family was on I-30, on its way to the visitation, in stop-and-go rush hour traffic.  #2 was driving their 6 day-old Toyota Venza while YD sat in back with 10 month-old Grandbaby#5, without wearing her seatbelt so she could more easily tend to #5. (The car was their second brand-new car in less than a month, by the way, because the first one turned out to be a genuine, irreparable, dangerous lemon. This one was much better.)

SIL#2 had come to a safe stop, along with the flow of traffic, and (fortunately) within a reasonable distance from the car ahead of him, when YD saw him coming. She flung herself over the baby the split second before she felt the impact.

Daughter was slammed around the back seat; SIL#2 smacked his head on the windshield, even though he was wearing his seat belt. No air bags deployed. Thank God for a strong car seat -- a little fear was the worst that the Grandbaby suffered. The new car was, of course, rendered not drivable, but SIL managed to get it limpingly to the shoulder anyway, and without being driven into the car in front of them..

The unlicensed, non-English-speaking driver, with no insurance, who plowed into them at 50 mph in stop and go traffic told the State Trooper, before he was taken away on a stretcher to be treated at a hospital at taxpayer expense, that he had just consumed "solamente tres cervezas." (Only three beers.) And, we all know that "solamente tres cervezas" probably means several mas cervezas than tres.

Is my rage showing?

Pepper pulled into the driveway from running with Grandbaby#1 just as I was pulling out, so he hopped in the car with me and we got to the kids, during rush hour, in record time. I took #2 an ice pack. I'm not sure it helped him, but it helped me to be able to do something.

Today, the day after that sad, sad funeral, just remembering that phone call from Younger Daughter and its aftermath has opened the spigot on my teary faucet. I have sent up countless prayers thanking my good God for sheltering my family and preventing what might have been. My Facebook post thanked God and Toyota for their safety. The kids went to the ER later Wednesday evening with #2's father and his wife and checked out fine, but for the whiplash. They took a goofy photo there that showed them trussed up in neck braces, grinning and flashing thumbs up. YD texted the pic to me and Elder Daughter, captioning it as this year's Christmas card photo. I think the good drugs had kicked in by then.

They were stiff and sore yesterday, and SIL#2 still has a pretty impressive goose egg on his forehead, but they could have been so, so much more worse off. I can't imagine the panic that SIL#2's mother must have felt when she got that call from #2 explaining why they couldn't make it to the visitation.

The stress level at Moogie's Manor is running pretty high right about now, and we can't really put all of this behind us until Tuesday. We will bury that young man in the VA Cemetery on Tuesday -- the first day available for a burial. Pepper worked his contacts to smooth the process for the parents. Thirty-five years of military service pay off in the most unusual ways sometimes.

So. I need to turn my thoughts to happier places in my mind. How about more Spring flower pictures?

This is the bed in the side yard.  We put in the geraniums and croton earlier in the week. The pop of color makes us happy.

This is another view of the bed. The Son and his family gave me that Bottle Tree for Christmas. I really like it. Annnnd, I've added a couple of bottles to it since Christmas!  ;-)

I love the white azaleas beneath the Japanese maple at the top of the driveway.

This is the white dogwood and its companion Japanese maple beside the front door as seen from the dining room windows. I took this pic yesterday because gazing at this natural beauty reveling in the filtered sunlight gave me such a sense of peace.

Tell your loved ones how much they are loved. We are not promised tomorrow.

I hope this is the end of that Case of the Creeps I posted about in March. I think I'll go play in the dirt some more.

A Little Dirt Under the Fingernails Can Be Pretty Therapeutic

A Louisiana friend swears by the notion that on gorgeous days like today, by day's end you should smell like dirt. Pepper and I are doing our best. Spring is bustin' out all over at Moogie's Manor!  Look at these gorgeous trees that greet visitors from their spot next to the front door.

When we moved in late June, the Japanese Maple was identifiable, but I didn't really pay much attention to its companion tree.  We didn't realize that it's a magnificent, mature white dogwood until a week ago.  Wow! What a color contrast! There are Encore azaleas, too, and we put in an orange Hibiscus a few days ago (because I'm pretty sure the big Firecracker plant didn't survive the winter). I can't wait for the peonies to bloom!

There was not a whole lot of dirt at Moogie's Mansion, and that caused me to have to grow my herbs in containers where they didn't always survive the brutally hot summers. So, I'm understandably super excited to have tons of rich soil, brimming with friendly earthworms at the Manor!  You probably can't tell from the pic, but in the two beds I've put in sweet basil, lemon thyme, rosemary, both curly and flat-leaf parsley, lavender, chocolate mint, and chives!  They're already growing!  I'm thinking that I need to add a little cilantro and dill now, too. There's also a new baby gardenia in the curve of the back bed to give us a little gardenia action before I plant JB's in the front side-yard next fall.  I'm letting it grow strong in the controlled indoor environment before subjecting it to the whims of Mother Nature.

We lost our minds yesterday and went to Home Depot (which honors the military discount now, by the way, so they no longer have to bite me) where we invested in three flowering fruit trees and a pink dogwood. Pepper planted them this morning while I was out, so he'll be stove up for a few days.  He put the peach next to the hibiscus and hydrangea we planted earlier in the week. I also added some solar landscaping lights.  I'm looking forward to this evening to see how the configuration looks.  That's a good thing about solars -- you can move them around if you need to. And, you can bring them indoors when you have a power failure and don't want to bust out a bunch of heat-generating candles. (Helpful Tip of the Day!)

We also got some hanging baskets for the deck and colorful plants for the containers. One of them is a fern. I'm a little leery of the fern -- I've never been successful at keeping them alive in baskets, so we shall see. This one will be in a nice shady spot when the trees get through leafing out so it at least stands a fighting chance.

It's good to immerse oneself in happy, life-affirming things after a week like this. Please think of Younger Daughter and SIL#2 tomorrow -- the funeral will be in the afternoon.

Then go play in the dirt.

The Circle Remains Unbroken

There's an angel on my shoulder.  JB's gardenia cutting not only survived and is growing, it's blooming!!!

You know how Moogie can be a little strange when it comes to the prophetic value of ordinary things that surround us.  Well, I believe that the successful rooting and thriving of my treasured gardenia is JB's way of celebrating the upcoming birth of her third grandchild -- and first granddaughter.  She'd just do something like that!

I also treated myself to some potted tulips from the Krogerville earlier this week.  After they wilt, I'll plant the bulbs in the backyard where we can see next spring's blossoms from the deck.

I'm such a happy girl.

Except for the pollen part of spring.  I'm kinda hatin' on the pollen thing.

Welcome, Spring!

Landscaping, Spring?, and St. Patty's Weekend

Spring has been teasing us up one side and down the other at Moogie's Manor.  I spied a bunch of daffodils about to bloom before we left for New Orleans a few weeks ago.  They burst into flower shortly after we left, according to our friend, the Dog/House sitter.  Then came the sleet, and they never quite recovered. Here are our disabled daffodils:

And, today, I noticed for the first time that we have a Flowering Plum tree.  A BIG one!  It is sneaking into bloom in the side yard:

I am still so enthralled by the landscaping around The Manor. Every season delivers something new. Pepper and I are plotting how to add to it without detracting from any of it.  I know I want herbs and probably some tomatoes and peppers.  And daisies. He'd like a spruce or some other Christmassy evergreen. One thing we'll plant for sure, probably in the fall, is the Gardenia I rooted from a cutting of JB's huge plant in the yard at Moogie's Mansion.  I was sooooo excited to be successful in rooting it! It's presently sitting in a sunny spot in the entry hall in Moogie's Manor -- I figured that would be a good place to strengthen it before we transplant it outdoors since it's already demonstrated a liking for the sunlight there.  I wasn't able to get back to the Mansion before we left New Orleans to take another cutting, even though the new owners said we were welcome to cut as much as we'd like, but there's always next trip.  Look!  It has set flowerbuds!  (One of which has been decapitated by Mysti's excited tail. *sigh*):

And, here's my favorite pic of the day! Elder Daughter and family headed to New Orleans yesterday so that SIL#1 can join his family in the Irish Channel St. Patrick's Parade tomorrow. You read a little bit about it here once before. They split the trip into two days because they had to leave so late yesterday (and because #5 Grandchild's transportation attention span hasn't reached a full Little Rock to New Orleans length yet). So, today's second leg was filled with electronic entertainment and traffic, hence:

The Jack Kaleidoscope!

Elder Daughter can make electronics sit up ad do tricks. I think that's just too cool for school.

And, I'm still a little under the weather, so I'm easily entertained.

Happy Friday!

Moogie 1, Thieves 0!

Ah ha!!!  Victory over the thugs is mine!!

Remember when we discovered the theft of our lawn mower (and other stuff) from our garage after Thanksgiving?  Remember how I bought padlocks and heavy chains to reinforce the gate closures?

They worked!

Since Pepper has been out of town for a few days, the Bouie-poop-walk duty has fallen to me.  As we rounded the corner and approached the gate on the side street this morning, I noticed the gate to the back courtyard looked a little whoppy-jawed (translation for those not fluent in Southern: misaligned; crooked; off-center).  Sure enough, upon closer observation, I found the tongue was out of its little slot, meaning that someone had tried to unlatch the gate, to-wit:

And, this time the miscreant thief couldn't simply reach over to unlatch the clasp!  The padlock held! 

Ah, the smell of victory over reprobates is sweet indeed!  But, it's also a little creepy to know that someone was trying to gain access to the yard while Pepper was gone and I was here alone.  Fortunately, I am armed with both weapons and a large black dog who loves me.  He loves to squish plants in the sun, too. 

Nonetheless, I'm glad Pepper comes home tonight.

This has been the strangest winter -- it never got cold enough, for long enough, to kill my potted jalapeno plant, and now it has set five flowers!  And last year's petunia just went a little dormant and has now exploded in purple blossoms!  It was just too mild to kill the annuals, I suppose, except for the basil, whose remains you see beside the pepper plant.

Or, maybe I've become a magical gardener.  Yeah -- I'll go with that.  I'm magical. 

You'd best beware Moogie the Magical, thieving scum, or I'll transform you into the literal slime that you are and deliver you up to Obama's algae-based energy experiments!  At least there you'll be among your own kind, and potentially productive, instead of just another leeching wart on the nose of society.

There.  I feel better.  Can you tell I overdosed on Harry Potter movies this weekend?
          

April Showers Went a Little Overboard This Year

There's been a little excitement around here the last few days.  We get a little over-anxious in New Orleans when the "F" word is being bandied about.  No, not that "F" word, the "Flood" word.

The Bonne-Carre spillway is slowly being opened to divert Mississippi River water into Lake Pontchartrain (which causes its own problems with fish and other marine critters, both salt and freshwater varieties, but I digress), but we've already hit flood stage here.  So, by Tuesday, the Morganza spillway northwest of Baton Rouge will be opened, thus dooming lots of land in the Atchafalaya Basin to flood, but the most densely populated areas of southeast Louisiana should be spared.  If the Morganza stays closed, this is what the Corps projects:

Moogie's Mansion, at 10 blocks from the Mississippi River, would be in the yellow 15 to 20 foot flood depth level.  Not a pleasant thought because the Mansion's dirt is 8 feet above sea level, and the actual structure sits another 3 feet above that.  Even math-challenged Moogie can cypher that (8 + 3) < (15 to 20).

But, even though we got a pretty good preview of what's coming as we drove home by a different route last weekend that tracked the Mississippi and spat us out in Vicksburg near the Yazoo's confluence, I don't have that "impending doom" feeling like I did before Katrina, and the ghosts aren't acting up, so I believe we should be just fine here.  My heart breaks for those who aren't so fortunate.

From an historical and intellectual perspective, this website contains more than you would ever want to know about controlling the Mississippi and flood protection.  It is kinda interesting, though.

Let's say a few prayers for those in the waters' path.

The Day the Rodents Found Themselves at Loggerheads

It's Groundhog Day and that little scaredy cat Punxhutawney Phil didn't have to hide from his own shadow, portending an early Spring for folks north of the Mason-Dixon Line.

On the other hand, in Lafayette, Louisiana, Pierre C. Shadeaux, the Cajun Nutria, did see his shadow, thus dooming us to an early, long, hot, humid summer.

On yet another hand (or toes or something), it sleeted and flurried in New Orleans today, and we are now under a Winter Weather Advisory until sometime Friday!

I think there are some confused rodents out there.

Return of "the Spring"

Although Andy thinks the signs of winter have arrived, it's "Spring" here at Moogie's Mansion.

Yep.  You guessed it.  It's b-a-a-a-ack!

We have a whole-block bombard-the-Sewerage-and-Water-Board phonathon gearing up this afternoon.  You'd think they'd get a handle on this stuff after the entire East Bank of New Orleans went under a boil order in late November as a result of water pressure levels that fell below levels required to keep the water safe and uncontaminated.

At least this one's not on Moogie's nickel.

And, no, I'm not overloading the system by draining the pool for winter!

Successful Hunt = Happy Dog

For you non-hunters out there -- sorry about this! Skip to the next post on your blogroll.

But this is what our precious Bouie lives for -- to flush and retrieve and swim and retrieve and . . . retrieve and retrieve and retrieve. He carried one of the quail around the house forever that evening, showing it off to anyone who would look. That's a remarkable, innate characteristic of labs and other retrievers -- they love to carry things around gently in their mouths and show them off. Sometimes it can get a little annoying because they can get quite pushy in encouraging you to check it out, but they take such joy in their feat that you just have to look, smile, and praise.

These pics were taken a week ago, on a cold and rainy night in New Orleans. The intrepid hunters include Pepper, The Son, and our friend who was also Pepper's first aide de camp. They had just returned from a successful bird hunt and were cleaning the spoils on the front porch, assisted by their valiant retriever and a number of beerish substances.

While he's an experienced duck and goose hunter, Bouie had not been on a bird hunt before. The Son got a great video of him flushing (and nearly catching!) the pheasant, so it's understandable that Bouie would carefully supervise the cleaning operation in case the quarry tried to make good an escape.

We've already enjoyed a mess of quail (translation: a "mess" is a variable southern quantity, applicable to game birds, fish, and products of the garden alike), but it was Bouie who earned the pheasant egg. I fried it just until the yolk was runny and placed it atop his breakfast chow. There was no hesitating to eat on Bouie's part that morning!

Now I'm thinking pheasant for Easter dinner. Ah -- the bounty of this old Earth!

And the joy of a young black lab who has pleased his people -- nothing like it.

A Diversion on this First Day of Spring

I received this in an email today. #3 is my favorite -- I live with a guy who subscribes to that philosophy!

Things that I found helpful by living this long:

1. The purpose of fighting is to win.

2. The sword is more important than the shield, and skill is more important than either.... The final weapon is the brain. All else is supplemental.

3. Don't pick a fight with an old man. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you.

4. If you find yourself in a fair fight, your tactics suck.

5. I carry a gun because a cop is too heavy.

6. When seconds count, the cops are just minutes away.

7. A reporter did a human-interest piece on the Texas Rangers. The reporter recognized the Colt Model 1911 the Ranger was carrying and asked him 'Why do you carry a 45?' The Ranger responded, 'Because they don't make a 46.'

8. The old sheriff was attending an awards dinner when a lady commented on his wearing his sidearm. 'Sheriff, I see you have your pistol. Are you expecting trouble?' 'No Ma'am. If I were expecting trouble, I would have brought my shotgun.'

9. Beware the man who only carries one gun. HE PROBABLY KNOWS HOW TO USE IT!!!

But wait, there's more!

I was once asked by a lady visiting if I had a gun in the house. I said I did. She said "Well I certainly hope it isn't loaded!" To which I said, "Of course it's loaded, it can't work without bullets!" She then asked, "Are you really that afraid of someone evil coming into your house?" My reply was, “No not at all. I'm not really afraid of the house catching fire either, but I have fire extinguishers around, and they are all loaded too."


Since Congress seems to be ignoring all the rest of them, especially the Ninth and Tenth, I thought I'd remind us that, so far, we still seem to have the Second Amendment.

Hang in there, mes amis, it ain't over 'til it's over. And Happy First Day of Spring!

Invader!

Meet Mr. Buckmoth Caterpillar who managed to get INSIDE our house (probably on Bouie. There were some Bouie hairs in its spines); I spotted him on the dining room floor. This kind hasn't popped me -- the Io moth is the kind that taught me about stinging caterpillars.

Maybe we should send some to the C.I.A. These guys ain't, as Ann Coulter says, "adorable."

Ah, the joys of living in S.E. Louisiana -- soon the termites will be swarming!

Mystery of Life: Spring is Sproinging in New Orleans . . .

. . . and I haven't even planted anything new yet! The rosemary may take over the world. (The black thing in the bottom of the pic is Bouie's rear end. He's such a camera hog!)

The doves have nested on top of the garage door opener again. It drives Bouie nuts that he can't get to them, so he paces around the garage a lot, thinking about the birds. Gotta get the birds! At least he hasn't eaten the mulch -- yet.