The Wild Ride

   Before the horrendous lightning storms set in for the afternoon, Son and I were hard at work with the yard cleanup.  Most of the smaller stuff is done so it is now onto the huge, mostly unmovable things...like old vehicles and tractors that Mark seems to love to collect.  I am seriously considering making some sort of planters out of them!  (Not really.)  One of those "unmovables" is an old pickup truck that has seen far better days.  The thing just would not crank since the wiring is bad.  So...we pushed.  Well, he did most of the pushing and I sort of pushed and steered.  I am sure you are familiar with the process of the weaker person steers through the open driver's side door and pushes when the opportunity arises.  We pushed.

 For those of you who do not know, we live on quite a steep hill.  While having no intentions of pushing that goofy, nonworking truck too far, we inadvertently got "caught up in the moment".  Yep, one little drop-off led to a nigh on calamitous event!  The truck started rolling faster and faster as it made its way down the hillside!  It had two possible ways of ending badly...in the marsh or in the creek.  Not good!

  So...me being the "pilot" of this thing did what any good, non-thinking driver would do.  I hopped into the truck!  (This is not an easy feat for an old lady.)  With the door still flapping against the wind, I tried to steer between oak trees, peach trees and yard tools.  Whee!  I had no idea where I was to turn at any given second.  It was my goal just to miss things as I barreled along all the while Son chased behind.  Bumpity, bump! 

  Within seconds, it blasted through my brain that I needed to stop the runaway truck...no brakes!  What???  Now how was I supposed to stop this rocket?  Well...it became apparent that anything "soft" would suffice in a pinch.  Mark had put new planking on the trailer about 5 years ago and left the old boards in a pile in the edge of the woods.  Dirt had washed down the hill against these boards and the mound was covered with vines, leaves and straw.  This giant "pillow" seemed an obvious choice if I could steer the maniac truck that way.  I did and WHOOMP!  The feisty beast came to a halt.  Whew!

  Son caught up with me just as I put the truck in park.  He and I both broke out in a fit of giggles but not before he asked "Are you trying to be one of the 'Dukes of Hazzard' or just going for a joyride?" making reference to the wild and crazy television show he had watched as a kid.  Yep!  That has been my life-long goal!  Actually, this ride was the most exhilarating thing that has happened to me in a long time!  What a wild. two-hundred foot ride on an otherwise boring, work-filled morning this turned out to be!

Floods, 'shrooms and old dogs

  Mississippi is flooding!  Most of the middle and southern part of the state seems to have acquired enough rain to fill our rivers and creeks to over flood stage. They are spilling out of their banks and turning the once dry land into one big lake.  Houses are under, camp grounds are under, railroad tracks are undermined causing derailments and major highways seemingly just plain do not exist anymore.  While all of this is happening around us, being on the Bayou has actually helped us.  The copious amounts of rainfall did not harm our hillside in any way, shape or form.  The water simply ran down the hill and into the Bayou and Bay.  We may be the target of tidal surges with hurricanes but rainfall fueled flooding is not a worry.  My heart breaks for those targeted by the storms, however, and will step up to help in any way.

  All of this rain has made me a bit more cautious as I am out and about with the old dog.   As with any dog, Mr. PJ has a tendency to sniff and taste just about anything in his path and that includes mushrooms.  The rains caused mushrooms to pop out overnight so this morning, I had to be vigilant in my watch over him.  He definitely does not need to take a nip of a poisonous 'shroom!  

  These mushrooms almost seemed to "glow" in the darkness of the early morn.  The heavily overcast skies kept it dark until mid morning.  This was especially noticeable at daybreak when I ushered the old dog out the door for his morning business.  As I wandered around behind the dog on mushroom watch, I noticed bright white blobs in the distance.  Yep, it was time to steer Mr. PJ in the opposite direction!  I am not up on my fungi so deciphering which are toxic and which are safe is not a strong point and not something I trust myself in doing.  Avoiding a potential harmful situation is the best way I know how to handle it.  I do have to admit that the mushrooms were quite pretty, however, in their own 'shroomy way.

Just a Hill

  Sometimes when you look at things from a strange angle, they can appear a whole lot different that you ever realized.  I know we live on a hill.  The front yard slopes down to the marsh.  I especially know it when I am pushing the lawnmower around that yard but I never really looked at how steep the hill actually is!  Usually, I am standing in our yard looking over towards my brother's place.  His yard is a gradual slope.  I always assumed ours was about the same.  Not so.  Unlike his gentle sloping yard, ours is pretty steep!  Funny how I never realized just how steep until today.

  The old dog and I were out on our afternoon hike when I spied some tiny oxalis blooms amid the grass. Since these tiny blooms always bring a smile, I could not help but drop to my knees to get a close photograph. That was when I looked at the hill like I have not in a long while. I did not see just the yard. I saw the land. I saw the trees, the bushes, the grass, the leaves and, yes, my lovely, little oxalis blooms. I also saw that large climb that I take probably thirty times each day!  It is no wonder my legs are tired!

  Living on a Bayou where the property slips down right into the water, storms can be a bit treacherous.  It is then that I fully appreciate the steepness of this hill.  That incline has saved the Little Bayou House countless times against the ravages of hurricanes.  Only once in my history of living here has the water ever reached the house.  Most of the time, storm surges stay far below us.  It is amazing how something you never really notice on a daily basis is literally what protects you.  Pretty neat!

Sometimes, there is no denying.....

  Mark always says that Darling Daughter and I are "too much alike".   He claims that we think alike, talk alike and find the same things interesting. Personally, I take it as a compliment.  She is my best friend after all!  If I was half as talented, witty, smart and beautiful as she is, I would be nigh on perfect.  (In my book, she is totally perfect!)  So each time he makes the remark, I smile and hope that she does not find it insulting that he makes the comparison.  

  As far as finding the same things interesting, he is quite correct.  We do.  Sometimes even to the point of being intrigued by some of the most unusual things. Take today, for instance.  Today, she sent me a message asking if I needed a deer ribcage for any reason. Alrighty then.  Well, it might come in handy....for something, I suppose.  She found one (or at least she hopes it was from a deer), on the side of the road and had pondered if I needed it.  Ha!  Maybe?  What was strange about this was the fact that at about the same time she spied the ribcage, I found a skeleton (or what remains of one) in the woods behind the Little Bayou House.  I had pondered the same question that she fired at me.  Do I need a skeleton for anything?  It was interesting, to say the least.

  I inspected the remains of a critter that I tentatively identified as a raccoon.  The skeleton was found while on my early morning hike about the hillside.  Back behind the homestead and not far from the creek, I heard the blue jays raising a ruckus.  Something was amiss.  The birds were troubled by some critter deep under the brush.  Whether this was the fox that lives near the canebrake or the bobcat that has been seen frequenting the area was unclear.  Something had them upset.  I eased my way through the brush to see if I could discover the source of their distress.  Nope.  Never found a thing except my critter skeleton. Perhaps the bones were the leftovers from a predator's meal not too very long ago.  I photographed the remains and returned to the house.  

  It was later in the afternoon that I received the message from Elizabeth about the ribcage.  I found it a tad ironic that, on the same day, we both stumbled upon the remains of a critter.  AND that we both were not repulsed by the discovery but were more interested in the bones themselves.  Yep, it could be that she and I are more alike that we think.  Yep, I take it as a compliment.