Once again, my heart breaks...

   It always saddens me when I find any dead critter about the Bayou but when it is a mass death, it is downright scary.  Something terrible has to have occurred to have a mass kill of anything.  Yesterday morning, I noticed that in a small pool in the marsh that sits near the pier, hundreds of mosquito fish had perished overnight.  The mud in the shallows was littered with dead bodies.  My heart hurt.  What had happened to my little fishies???  I immediately contacted my cousin who lives down the shoreline to see if she had noticed any dead fish near her place.  That answer was negative so, obviously, the problem was over this way. 

  For a few mornings prior to the fish kill, I had noticed a highly "chemical" smell each time I would go out the back door.  This door is on the Bayou side of the property.  From the Bay, the Bayou meanders northward until it turns into a creek that originates on the other side of the road.  Plenty of construction is going on there plus lots of landscaping done by new homeowners.  It is my assumption that something...something deadly...had washed into that creek and then, with the heavy rains, made its way to the Bayou and its coves.  Once the tide went out, the small tidepools were so heavily inundated with whatever chemical was in the water, they became toxic.  All life was obliterated.  My poor fishies!

  Things like this anger me to the bone.  Why cannot people respect other life...any life, for that matter.  It appears that no one cares anymore.  This sure makes me question the intelligence of humans these days.  Be stupid enough to kill off the wildlife then it becomes our turn to perish.  

Trying To Make Sense Of It All

   When you sit on the pier at the crack of dawn, it gives you plenty of uninterrupted time to ponder things.  Once again, the eastern sky did not disappoint.  Even though the cloud coverage was scanty (before the storms set in for the day), the beauty was there...so was the peace.  That serenity is the main reason for my early rising.  Today, however, the thoughts were scattered about in turmoil.  Overnight, the alarms on my phone kept erupting like a volcano.  Two murders had occurred and the killer was on the run.  A young lady and the policeman coming to her rescue were both senselessly gunned down.  My brain cannot wrap itself around such violence...such stupidity....such hatred.  What has become of the world?  Where has commonsense gone?  Where has decency gone?  

  As I sat there exhausted from the constant blaring alarms and the heartache of what had occurred, I felt highly grateful for my upbringing.   We were taught right.  We were raised to respect life in all forms.  We were taught to be kind, generous and loving.  We were taught to be hardworking.  If we wanted something, we worked to get it.  Nowadays, it appears that these values are nowhere to be found.  The whole world has gone to pot and the powers that be are doing nil to correct it.  In fact, they seem to be encouraging it.  Sad...very, very sad.  Think I will sit and stare at the sunrise a bit longer.  Too bad I cannot share the tranquility with  the world...but it is probably in too much of a rage to even see it.

Another Throwaway Cat

   It appears that hateful people are still being hateful.  Yet another "throwaway" cat has arrived at the Little Bayou House.  Why?  Just why?  I can fully understand the occasional need to rehome a pet but to just throw them out as if they were trash is beyond comprehension.  It truly makes my blood boil!  People!  People!  Find a home for your unwanted pet! Do not assume that they can survive on their own. 

  I have been putting out food for several feral cats that have come to call the Bayou their home after being abandoned by their owners.  It does not bother me to feed them but it does irk me to no end that the animals are having to struggle so.  Early this evening, I found that I had a good bit of chicken soup leftover and, well, Son had changed his mind about wanting leftovers three days in a row.  I do not blame him as I was tiring of it, as well.  I, at the same time, found that I was out of the dry cat food that I use for my "outdoor" cats.  So...the cats would eat soup.  I filled the pan with the soup then slipped it near the shed so the cats could eat.  It has been raining all day so the eaves of the shed would shelter the cats as they ate.  I was surprised to see the first one to the pan was a newcomer.  Oh, sweet fella.  I am sorry you were not wanted by your family.

  I watched as the cat ate his fill then crawled back under the shed.  At least, he will have his belly full and will have a dry place to sleep.  It is to be cold and rainy for most of the night so I am sure he appreciates the help given.  So far, not one of the feral cats wished to come inside.  I have tried but they are skittish and untrusting of humans now.  All I can offer is a meal and shelter.  (They have the option of the shed or greenhouse.)

  My hope for humanity has gone down yet another notch.  Critters...I can handle.  People...not so much.

First The Bayou...Now The Bay

  Commonsense seems to be a thing of the past.  Or, perhaps, people just do not care anymore.  Either way, the actions of the "non-thinkers" are not for the best of the environment.  Take, for instance, the water plants that have now fully clogged the Bayou.  Coontail is an aquatic plant that is highly invasive.  It has excessive growth habits that will fill an area and soon clog the waterways.  The Bayou is clogged.  The Bay will be if something is not done soon. 

  A few months back, someone decided it was a fine thing to dump their unwanted pond plants into the Bay.  Well, the little amount they dumped has now turned into acres of the invasive plants.  Truly...acres.  The sad thing is, there is very little that can be done to remedy the situation.  The amount is too massive to be removed by normal methods.  This could be the end of an era for the Bayou...and Bay.  Fish will perish, marine mammals and birds may become ensnared and boating may even come to a halt as the weeds tangle around the propellers.  Life is changing....and not in a good way.  And those responsible go about their merry way.  Saddening.  Saddening for the rest of us.  I am beginning to lose all faith in humanity.

Hornets, Whales and Bonsai Crepe Myrtles!

   It seems that 2020 has been a topsy-turvy sort of year and we are not finished with it yet.  What else is to come?   Any day now, I half expect to see Godzilla come sloshing up out of the Bayou.  Trust me...that would be no surprise after what this year has thrown at us.  In fact, I was reading a few oddities that have occurred and I am still astounded.  Have you heard about the whale in the rain forest?  Come now.  Does that seem normal?  Viruses, hornets...bah!  But a whale in the rain forest?  Seriously?  Yep, seriously.  It was all over the news about the dreaded Murder Hornets but I am more concerned about that whale!

  Now my oddity is nothing compared to the earth-shaking things the media is trying to shove down our throats but, when you have been confined to the Small Gardens for more than a month, things are exciting.  My garden "claim to fame" is...wait for it...a crepe myrtle tree!  Yay!!!  Oooh!  Ahhh!  Ok, enough of that.  But, indeed, I was totally engrossed by such a tree this morning and spent a good ten minutes weeding around it.  You see, I have never seen a baby crepe myrtle tree bloom!  Yep, THAT is something that should be news worthy!  "Breaking news!  Climate changes have started creating miniature versions of trees that are blooming all across the South!  We are thinking these trees are harbingers of bad times to come as the trees will spread like wildfire!  They will kill off all food supplies and, worse yet, will steal toilet tissue causing massive shortages!"  Sound about right?  Yeah, well, this is exactly why I do not have a TV in the house.  

  But I do have four inch tall crepe myrtle trees blooming in the front yard.They are like cute, little wild bonsai trees!   Obviously, I neglected to cut back the spent blooms of the large trees last year and the seeds were viable.  Tiny crepe myrtle trees are everywhere and all are blooming!  They are so adorable! 

  Well, that is my all important news flash for today.  Other than that, all is quiet on the Bayou.  We are at peace here.  I do, however, have so many questions about that whale.  Why?  How?  What on earth was it thinking to go there?? What was it seeking?  Did a bird drop it?  If so, I want to see that bird!  Which opens another can of worms!  

What Is With Trashy People???

  I am amazed at how disrespectful people have become.  This rant is not directed to any of the stupidity going on today simply because I have become totally disgusted at the "poor me" society that has been pampered by everyone trying to be so politically correct (and to those doing the pampering.  Suck it up, people.  YOU are the problem.)  but is aimed at people who cannot even respect the world which we all share.  What is wrong with people???  You notice that I do not even call them "folks"...they are people.  Folks are kind. People seem to be just frustrating and I am just about done "peopling" for good.  I find myself respecting critters far more than most people.  I sure like them a whole lot more so it is only natural to respect them more.  In fact, most people don't have half the sense that critters do. 

  What started my frustration is the insolence of whoever is throwing invasive pond plants into the Back Bay.  This is far from mere ignorance.  This is stupidity at its worst.  Does anyone care any more?  What am I saying?  Obviously not.  While a lot of folks do not think twice about the water plants being in the Bay, I do.  These plants often grow just to the size and quantity of the pond they are in but, hey, toss them in a huge bay and guess what?  They grow to fill THAT "pond"!  So what, you say?  Well, that just creates a big, ole mess.  The native fish cannot breath, sea turtles become ensnared (if the plant is a vining type) and algae can now grow and bloom at a rapid pace.  Soon the bayous are clogged.  Then, the creeks pouring into those bayous are clogged.  Now...there is no place for rainwater to flow.  Get ready, folks, your sweet little yards will become flooded.  Oh, my....that means your cutesy, fish ponds are backed up with sewage since the sewers are flooded. Aww, poor cry babies...your pristine pond (where you just cleared your pond plants) now has nastiness bubbling up like some bilge pump.  Way to go.  Do not complain to me.  YOU threw the plants into the Bay.  YOU were too lazy to discard them in the proper way.  YOU did it to yourself.  So wipe your own tears and maybe do a wee bit of research before discarding your trash.

  A huge mass of pond plants floated under the pier yesterday.  Mark was kind enough to help me make my first hike to the pier in two weeks and what do I see?  A mass of plants about ten feet in diameter on one side of the pier and a big, roll of some type pond grass on the other.  Then, in the marsh...trash...trash..trash that probably came from the same trashy people who dumped the plants.  My faith in humanity has gone out the window.  I am so over it.  

Balloon Release

  Ok, call me a spoil sport or whatever you wish but I am going to flat out say that I do not like balloon releases.  Sorry, folks, those balloons do not help raise awareness of any cause, they do not go to Heaven to let your loved one know you are thinking of them and, no matter what the packaging says, they are not environmentally-friendly.  Yep, releasing a bunch of balloons, whether Mylar, latex or paper, may give you that warm, fuzzy feeling but, in the long run, you are just hurting something else.  The balloons wind up in the Bayou all of the time and it frustrates me to no end.  Why?  Because they do nothing but litter up the place.  The balloons (of all types) become hung up in the marsh and there is literally no way to retrieve them.  It takes latex balloons up to four years to decompose and Mylar ones even longer.  That is far too long and critters do not understand that these things are hazardous.  Let a deflated balloon (which they all do at some point) fall into the water and fish, turtles, birds, dolphins or whatever critter will think it is a bit of food.  Once swallowed, there is not much hope that it will ever pass before killing the critter.  The strings and ribbons attached to the balloon are even a greater risk to the creatures.  Even if the balloon, itself, is swallowed completely, the streamers attached cannot be "pulled" in or cut off.  These strings either choke an animal or entangle it so it cannot move.  Both scenarios kill.  Even the paper "sky lanterns" that claim to be eco-friendly are not.  They are held together with wires that are a snare waiting to happen.  A few years ago, I found a small raccoon so tangled in the wires of a sky lantern that it was literally hog-tied.  The baby raccoon had starved to death before I found it.  It broke my heart. Animals are curious by nature and find things like this fascinating....until they are trapped.  The sky lantern had been released to raise awareness for breast cancer.  Ok, fine.  Raise awareness...noble cause...killing an innocent creature because of it...not so noble.

  Just this week there was another balloon release on the beaches across the Bay.  Well, guess what??  There are now balloons stuck in the marsh of the Bayou.  I cannot retrieve them.  They are too far into the depths of the Bayou to reach by boat and I am sure not traipsing in risking a bite by a cottonmouth.  It is invariable that these will most likely cause problems for some creature.  One of my critter friends will perish because of human stupidity.  It saddens me to think of it.

  Folks, think.  Just think.  Think before acting.  That goes a long way.  There are other methods to raising awareness, honoring someone or celebrating.  There are ways that will not jeopardize wildlife nor cause a major littering problem.  Think....just think.  Please take better care of this earth....its the only one we have.

Another Plea to "Just Don't"

  Ok, so I am usually pretty tolerant of people.  (Notice that I did not say folks here. Folks do not bother me.  People do.)  I can accept their opinions.  I can deal with their quirkiness.  I am usually ok with whatever people choose to do as long as it does not affect me.  You do your thing.  I do mine.  We get along fine.  BUT....but occasionally, people irk me to no end and I have to call them on the error of their ways...even if it is a public plea that falls on deaf ears.  I will have said my piece and then I let it go.   This post is one of those public pleas.

  The other day, Mark and I were trying to catch some hardhead catfish to use as crab bait.  There is this unsaid rule about the Bayou that we do not kill anything that we cannot use is some way.  The catfish are considered to be "trash" or "nuisance" fish by most folks but I still insist that they have a right to live...unless, of course, we use them for something.  In this case, if you want to catch crabs, you need bait and it seems that crabs have a penchant for catfish.  So, catfish are caught, cut and used in the crab pots.  If you recall, I recently had a rant about someone putting a fish clip through the gills and out the mouth of a catfish then released it.  The poor catfish was suffering so much with that clip attached to it that Mark worked diligently to remove the clip without hurting the fish any more than it already was.  The fish was then released as we figured it had already suffered far more than it should have.  But, another catfish brings today's rant.  This one was being cut for crab bait when Mark realized that it stomach held something a tad strange.  Something hard and blue was embedded in the fish's gut.  He removed the object to find that the catfish had swallowed a beer bottle cap.    That cap would have created just as many problems as the aforementioned clip.  The fish could not digest food and pass any excrement due to the beer cap causing a blockage.  The fish suffered. Yes, before someone throws it at me that we killed the fish, it is far more humane to kill things instantly to be used as food or, in our case, to catch food than it is to do something stupid that causes suffering.  The blockage would have caused a slow, painful death.

  Now, people!  Use a bit of commonsense!  Why pollute the waters with any objects such as this???  These are the same waters that you fish in, boat on and swim in so why would you toss your trash overboard?  Are you that stupid that you cannot understand what you are doing?  Sure, this was one beer bottle cap but it caused suffering.  And, my (not) friends, you are probably one of the whiners that complains about the waters of the Gulf Coast being polluted yet you find it ok to toss your trash overboard.  Not so smart.  So...just don't.  It is the law to have a covered container with you to hold your trash so it can be disposed of properly.  Throwing it in the water is not proper disposal.  Sometimes, I wish I could smack people up side the head and maybe knock some sense into them.  Yeah, I know...I know...but things like this really irk me. Sometimes, I really do not like people.

Sometimes I Do Not Like People!

  Sometimes, I just do not like people.  Not folks.  I like folks.  Folks are those kindhearted, generous, understanding ones in your life who try to do right by others.  People, on the other hand, are those who don't give a rat's tail about how they treat others.  I repeat...sometimes, I just do not like people.

  This afternoon while we were on the pier, I caught a catfish.  While there is nothing unusual about that, I quickly noticed that something was amiss.  The poor catfish was suffering.  Yep, we will use catfish as crab bait but we kill them quickly and do not let them suffer and we never kill anything needlessly.  But...this poor fish had been maltreated by somebody.  Obviously, someone caught the fish then decided that the fish needed to be on a stringer.  The clip was placed through the gill and out the mouth.  Granted, what happened next may have been purely by accident but somehow the catfish got away with the clip still attached.  

  Obviously, this happened some time ago as the clip was now embedded, not only in the fish's mouth but even in its side.  Where the clip pressed against the side of the fish, there was a great indentation.  The side of its mouth was bloody and sore from the clip rubbing against the skin.  With the clip snapped in the locked position, there was no way for the fish to ever escape this slow and very painful death.  

  Yeah, like I said earlier, we will kill a fish for food or for bait but never let one needlessly suffer.  My heart went out to that poor, old hardhead catfish.  The fish was unhooked and Mark carefully removed the clip.  He tried not to tear the fish's skin any more than necessary to remove the embedded clip. As we held the fish, it seemed to know that we were trying to help it.  Not once did it try to flip around and stab us with its sharp fins.  After a few photos, I gently let the fish back into the water.  It seemed mightily grateful for our efforts to help.  I can only imagine how much easier the catfish's life will be now. 

  It is people who do things like this that I do not like.  There was no earthly reason to stick that stupid clip into the fish.  My goodness!  If you wish to keep the fish, use a bucket or, at least, be careful not to release the fish with that horrid thing still attached.  Whoever did this rates right along up there with the wannabe fishermen who use 5 lb test line with a steel leader and huge cork.  I have caught many a fish with the rig still attached to them.  Pulling that cork around eventually kills the fish.  People....use commonsense!  No wonder I do not like you!  You cannot fix stupid.

Nature mimicking people? Not a good thing.

  One has to ponder how things are in the world today.  With all of the stupidity ruling, where has commonsense gone?  There is nothing but a bunch of whiny folks complaining about anything and everything.  People think they deserve more than they have, find fault with everyone else and are so easily offended by the most unoffensive things has created a pitiful state of being.  Basically, in my humble opinion it all boils down to one thing....greed.  Just about 90% of the people nowadays think they should be handed everything on a gold platter.  (Yeah, I know that the saying is a silver platter but, here lately, if you stuck a million bucks on a silver platter and handed it to someone, they would be offended that the million dollars was not on a gold platter.  Sad state of affairs this mess is.)  

  I was thinking about all the greed that seems to have taken hold of the greater part of the population nowadays as I sat on the pier this morning.  The pier is where I do my greatest thinking.  I ponder things and, then as my Uncle Alfred used to say, put things back to suit myself.  Yep...I wish I could.  A lot of folks would receive a good whupping and then be sent back home.  Just as I was about to head back to the sanity of the Little Bayou House, I heard a lot of racket out over the Bay.  The cormorants had flown back into the area by the hundreds but, while they were peacefully diving for minnows, they were being attacked by seagulls.  Yep, about thirty seagulls were literally dive bombing the cormorants.  Greed had taken over the gulls.  In their eyes, the cormorants had no business being in the Bay eating "their" minnows.  Even though there was more than enough for every bird in the county to get breakfast, the gulls wanted everything for themselves.  There was no "share and share alike" with the greedy gulls.  I watched as the gulls would actually steal fish from the cormorants and other birds after it was caught.  The pelicans, ducks, mergansers and grebes were happily swimming right along with the cormorants but not the seagulls.  They squawked and attacked like a bunch of rioters who did not get their way on something.  Whiny, raucous, hateful and lazy...all over a tiny minnow that could have easily been earned the good old fashioned way.

  I stayed to see the outcome of the ruckus.  Would the greedy gulls win? Would the cormorants cede to the wishes of the rioters?  Would evil top peaceful?  Not in this case.  The cormorants, ducks, pelicans, mergansers and grebes kept feeding regardless of the ugliness of the gulls.  Yes, the cormorants did eventually leave the area but only after they finished feeding.  This was not by the intimidation of the gulls, however, as it is a daily thing.  By evening, the cormorants would fly back in to get supper. The riotous gulls would start their stupidity, once again, thinking they had succeeded in doing great things.  Delusional little rascals, aren't they?  The other birds were happy campers with full bellies while the gulls did nothing more than cause themselves a bit of grief.  Sounds familiar doesn't it?