My Garden Cures

   For the past couple of weeks, some sort of illness settled in as a resident of the Little Bayou House.  It started with Mark and spread on to Son.  Each of them had full blown cold symptoms with sore throat, fever, congestion and a general bit of just feeling blah.  That mess hung around in each of them for nigh on a week or better.  Son is still congested.  There has to be something "going around" because my sweet sister-in-law had it the same time that Mark did and now Darling Daughter has it (and she lives several towns over).  When Mark first said he did not feel well, I was determined not to catch the mess.  Exposure to him meant it was likely but then exposure to his sister and Son put my chance of avoiding coming down sick to slim or none.  Three exposures to any contagious illness is not very good.  Still, I was determined so I headed to the garden.  I gathered herbs and went back to the kitchen to "stir up" a brew.  I am a firm believer that boosting the immune system can do wonders so most of the herbs were chosen because of that.  To the sage, rosemary and ginger, I added my standby of crape myrtle blossoms. (Those I had dehydrated last July.)  Steeping this in a base of fruit juice for Vitamin C gave me just what I needed.  My favorite juice to use was home-canned blueberry.  Crazy enough, the blueberry, sage and rosemary blended well!

  While some ridiculed me about drinking so much of the tisane, I never gave up hope.  For three weeks now, I downed this brew!  I went through several pots a day for the first ten days then eased off to just one pot per day.  Several times during those weeks, I thought sure I was coming down ill.  NOPE!  Not happening!  I made more tisane.  Now, both Mark and Son are mostly well.  Son still has a lingering cough but feels back to his old self.  Mark is doing fine.  My sister-in-law sounds much better and Darling Daughter is on her way to being well again.  Me?  Well, I am still as healthy as I was before all this started.  Perhaps, my garden "teas" are the answer.  I don't have time for that mess!  

The Velvet Throne And The Very Ill Prince

   The Little Bayou House holds a wide variety of "treasures".  By anybody else's standards, these so-called treasures are mostly clutter.  By my standards...I do not care what others think...my house...my treasures.  That said, one has to have an understanding that these items should perhaps more properly be defined as oddities than treasures but it is all a matter of perspective.  I see them as treasures so that is how it is.  In the living room, there is a very old settee and rocker set.  The set is covered in red velvet which definitely not what one would think to find in a place like the Little Bayou House but I have it simply because it reminds me so much of my great-grandparents' house.  That set started the eclectic, eccentric theme for the whole room..."Anything Goes".  

  Mr. Bat, the Bayou Prince has recently been very ill.  The cat gave us quite the scare when he showed up one evening intensely lethargic and feverish.  A trip to the veterinary clinic found him with a viral infection and extremely dehydrated.  After a complete checkup, two shots and an IV, he was sent home.  The poor cat was miserable.  He slept...and slept...and slept.  For days there was nothing but sleeping...no eating, drinking, bodily functions nor movement.  Son and I tried to keep him hydrated with syringes of water but there was not much else we could do.  Days went by with no change.  We would be elated when he would sluggishly move from one sleeping spot to another. It has been heart-wrenching to see him in this state.  Thankfully, after a full week, he seems to be on the mend...I hope.  At least, he is a bit more mobile and is making attempts to eat and drink.  

   It was during that illness that the Bayou Prince found his throne.  Yep, the red velvet settee became a favorite sleeping spot.  It was either there or on a dining room chair.  Occasionally, he would rouse enough to change locations with the throne being his favorite in the late afternoon when the sun streamed through the west windows and warmed the settee.  He would stay curled up there until late evening and then move back to the chair for the night.  While some would argue that an ill animal should not be "on the furniture", I feel it is his house, too.  The Little Bayou House is his castle, hence, the settee can be his throne.  After all, if he is going to be a prince, Bat deserves a throne!  Get well, little one. You are using up those "nine lives" way too fast.  You have been through enough in your short life from being discarded like trash by your previous owner to being bitten by a cottonmouth and now this debilitating illness.  You can stay on your red velvet throne as long as necessary.

On Fire!

  Well, it is that time of year again where folks don't use a lot of commonsense.  Sometimes I get slap frustrated at people who come to the Little Bayou House knowing they are ill.  Usually, they seem all fine and dandy but then will tell me something to the order of "I had the worse sore throat but I took 3 Tylenols so I am not sick."  Oh, come on!  Not sick???  You are still sick!  You just downed pain killers so don't feel it.  You have, now however, just exposed me.  Great.  Head smack!  This year, of all years, STAY HOME if you are sick, think you are sick, may possibly be sick or have even thought about being sick.  I do not want your illnesses!

  I am prepared, however, for the insensitive twerps that have no better sense than to share their sicknesses.  For the past several weeks, the Bayou Fire has been fermenting on the kitchen table and today was the day to bottle it.  Two quarts of the fiery brew is ready to be dosed out to anyone that even sniffles in my presence.  This stuff is good...at "fixin' what ails you".  In fact, one young man insists that all he has to do is "threaten" his colds/flus with a dose.  "I just think about coming to get a dose and suddenly everything goes away."  Well, it may not be that good but, hey, whatever works.

  For now, the two bottles sit alongside of a bottle of hot pepper vinegar.  The Bayou Fire will stand ready for action just in case I feel that telltale tickle in the back of the throat.  The hot pepper vinegar will stand ready for action in the next salad or seafood dish.  Both are fiery delicious...or, at least, fiery!

Calling on the Bayou Magic

  A friend called me last night and made an unusual request.  "Man, I don't feel well.  Can I come find some peace on the Bayou?"   It seems that her jobs (she works three), her family and her physical health are all wreaking havoc on her mental state at the moment.  She needs a break from it all and knows that the Bayou can bring peace to even the most stressful situations.  "You need the Magic of the Bayou to heal the emotional wounds and some herbal concoctions to heal the sickness of your body." I told her.  

  I have often felt that the Bayou offers peace to those who need it most.  There is something that draws those who are weak, stressed or merely confused.  Once here, the magic starts to infiltrate their minds and, by the time they are ready to depart, all is well once again.  No one can see it.  No one can hear it.  But all can feel it.  It sneaks in to push out all troubles.

  So, she will come to the Bayou.  She will receive a few tisanes to heal the body and then will soak up a heapin' helpin' of Bayou Magic to soothe the mind.  Life is good here.  The Bayou Magic can always wash way the troubles.

The Most Caring!

  I am not sure if there is anything more caring than a critter.  Folks tend to malign animals as being without the ability to understand but I wish to take these folks to task!  Critters seem to have more heart than people give them credit!  Take Old Mr. PJ, for instance.  I rarely get sick to the point that I am bedridden but this crud is something else.  You literally do not want to even think!  Today, with me being as lazy as a sloth, the dog did not know how to react.  He was accustomed to our thrice daily hikes about the hillside and my being in bed was confusing to him.  He was concerned about me and stayed by my bedside.  It seemed that his understanding that I was not up to par was clear.

  All day, PJ stayed by my bedside and at times was reluctant to leave when Son took him outside for potty breaks.  Say it is because I am usually the one to give full care to the dog but I like to believe that a bond has formed between the two of us during his short time of being on the Bayou.  I like to think that he cares. It has often been my belief that my critter friends are the truest.

  After downing copious amounts of Bayou Fire, it seems that the crud has come to the understanding that it is not welcome here.  This evening, I feel much better. The fever has subsided, headache and body aches are minimal.  Hopefully by tomorrow, I will feel up to venturing outside at least for short periods of time.  Fresh air has healing powers and, with the old dog by my side, I am positive that things will be ok.  Friends!  They are good for the soul.  Where would we be without them even if they are of the critter sort?

I Knew It!!

  Yesterday when I made my great escape from the "sick house", I had a feeling.  Something just did not feel quite right with the old body so I knew it was just a matter of time before the inevitable happened and I caught this nasty bug from Mark and Son.  Mark seems to have encountered someone somewhere that was ill and he carried the stuff back to the Little Bayou House. Son caught it soon after since they were working side by side on house repairs.  So, I took care of the two of them.  Now, who is going to care for me?  Me, I guess.  I knew it was going to happen and, sure enough, I woke up this morning with the telltale signs of headache, scratchy throat, nausea, muscle aches and chills.  This stuff is not happy.  It racks the body until it seems that it is about to go to pieces.  

  But...back to that great escape and the omen that I should have heeded or, at least, paid attention and done something...anything...to ward off this illness.  The omen?  A trio of turkey vultures circled above our heads as we lounged on the pier.  The old dog was oblivious to what was soaring high in the sky but I was pondering what had their attention.  Lets hope it was not me!  Go away vultures!  I ain't dead yet!!

  The Bayou Fire brew has been fermenting now for some two months.  It has been waiting for someone to fall ill and need a "helping hand".  Hopefully, that will be all it takes to nip this stuff in the bud but, if not, a visit to the doctor may be in the near future. I have made threats to people that they are not to bring illness to the Little Bayou House but, in all fairness, Mark lives here and it was unavoidable.  So now...Folks, stay away from the Little Bayou House as we are sick folk here!  And do go away, vultures!

Bop-A-Mole and the Great White Owl

  Since Sunday, I have been ill.  This is a rare thing for me so I am not sure how to respond to not feeling well.  Things hurt.  There are pains wracking the body but my descriptions must leave something lacking. On the first day of this malady, I started with a severe sore throat and fever.  A good heaping bit of sage/turmeric tisane squelched the throat pain but did nothing to assuage the fever.  I figured since it was not overly high, the fever could just run its course and all would be fine.  The next morning, Son checked on me.  "Everything ok?" he asked.  He had suffered the same malady back around Christmastime so knew that I was miserable.  I told him I was ok other than my head feeling like that Bop-A-Mole game.  "Huh?"  Never mind.....never mind.  It was hard to explain. With few other symptoms, I could not complain.  The low-grade fever lingered throughout the day and come nightfall had risen a good deal.  During the night, it had evidently rose to an extreme but being slightly delirious, by this time, I was unaware.  Morning saw me suffering quite a bit.  Once again...."You ok?"......"No!  The Great White Owl came last night."   Son understood this, handed me a single Tylenol and ambled off to make me an apple pie.  "No use in over-medicating." he said. Ha!


  The Great White Owl is a pretty exact gauge to how ill I am.  Ever since I was a child the owl would linger about in my dreams....terrifying the bejeebies out of me.  This all goes back to my folks.  When I was a tot, I had Scarlet Fever.  I was deathly ill since the medicines of today were not readily available at that time.  I was pretty much bedridden for a while.  It was at this same time that something was terrorizing Pop's chickens.  Each night dozens of hens were savagely attacked.  Most were only hurt but always the remains of one would be found.  Baby pigs were also starting to go missing.  Pop knew something had to be done so he took matters into his own hands.  It was early one morning that Mom bundled me up and took me outside to "see what Daddy has!" I expected something sweet and cuddly.  What I got was a lifetime "fever gauge" and nightmares.  I remember wobbling out to the yard.  When I was just a few feet from Pop, he reached down and picked up this huge barn owl that he shot.  I can remember screaming and bursting into tears as I thought the bird was attacking me.  I guess delirium does weird things to the brain.  Since that day, whenever I have a high fever, the bird visits.   My fever on the second night had reached above 103 degrees.  (Since I was pretty much out of it, I had not taken my temperature during the night but morning's reading was a bit above 103.)

Not exactly a "Great White Owl"  but pretty much how I have been feeling with Bop-A-Mole and all!

  The third night saw me back to Bop-A-Mole mode.  The Great White Owl had visited and obviously helped me through the roughest point.  I felt I was making progress since on the fourth night, even the moles vacated the premises. (I guess maybe the owl scared them!)  That night, I spent making a swing in dreamland.  I was much happier.  Last night, the Great White Owl returned as did the delirium.  The temperature jumped up once again.  

  Hopefully, things are on the road to betterment now.  Two visits from the Great White Owl in one week is almost too much.  

This cannot be comfortable!

  The old Bayou Dog is still battling whatever ails her.  The pet hospital called me last night to do a check on her.  We had a long conversation about what to look for as she deals with the illness and what to expect if she is not strong enough to fight.  It is hard to think things may not heal in the old dog but it may be a reality.  The medicines seemed to help some but as the veterinarian said, she is one sick dog.  It is his thought that she ingested either rat poison or some other lethal substance and it has damaged her kidneys and liver.  I do not doubt this as the dog seems to be having symptoms of both.  It is hard.  At least the medicines have eased her pain.

  Last night and then again today, she has insisted in snoozing in the most unusual position.  I am not sure if this relieves some of the pain or if she is just too exhausted to move.  Her body will be on the fine orthopedic mattress and her shoulders and head extended out onto the hardwood floor.  This seems as if it would be most uncomfortable but obviously not. She was like this before I took her outside for a few minutes and then returned to the position as soon as she got back on her bed.  Must be something to it.

  Ms. Ez, the old Bayou Dog, is right at ten years of age.  She has been with me since she was a mere five weeks old.  My daughter rescued her from being "knocked in the head" by the owners.  These folks refused to have their female dog spayed and she had sixteen pups.  Ms. Ez was the runt and they were going to get rid of her.  Nope!  Elizabeth snatched the tiny puppy from their hands and brought her home.  Here she stayed.  And here she will stay for the rest of her days...however long (or short) that may be.