Another one down!

   It is no secret that I am a tad hard on yard equipment.  I figure if it is advertised as being able to do something then it darn well better be able to hold up to an old lady doing it.  I push my mowers to the limits, the weed eaters beyond the scope of their endurance and now...the dolly.  While a dolly is more useful in other situations, I use it to haul the huge potted plants from the yard to the greenhouse for the winter  and back out in the spring.  Dollies are meant to carry heavy things.  They are meant to be treated rough.  They are meant to hold up under extreme use.  They are....well, they are not.

  Since the greenhouse is still being used to house some of the hub's stuff that has spilled out of the shed because of overabundance, Son built a lean-to on the side.  Actually, I am beginning to like this "temporary" greenhouse even better that the original.  It is brighter and will provide a healthier environment for the plants.  As he was building, I decided to round up all of the plants that needed protection from the predicted cold weather coming around the weekend.  The dolly came out of the greenhouse.  I happily wheeled it around gathering the large night blooming cereus plants.  I have 6 huge plants that weigh a ton so the dolly was helping me grandly.  Well, was.  Then, the "accident" occurred.

  I had one more huge plant to haul to the greenhouse when I noticed that one wheel was wobbling.  "Hang on, Dolly!  We only have one more trip!"  Alas, Dolly limped weakly for the next 3ft then collapsed.  Dolly was lame and could not go any further.  The wheel had plumb fallen off!  It was broken!  Gone!  Kaput!  Yep!  I did the impossible.  I broke the dolly!  Oh, well.  Most of the plants will be warm!

**Update!  Mark bought new wheels so the dolly is back in action.  The plants will all be moved in time!

The Mud Princess Meets Trouble

  The other day, I made mention that we had to take the Bayou Princess Cat to the emergency room for pets.  There is a fine hospital just a few miles up in the country that takes wonderful care of pets that have met some dire fate.  Ms. Nycto had done just that.  It all started when she decided to traipse out into the marsh for a while.  She has been doing this lately against my better judgement.  It may have been safe going during the winter months but now that the weather has warmed, the cottonmouths and alligators are active.  No, the Princess did not meet either, as far as I know, but she did come back looking a dreadful mess.  The Bayou mud had caked upon her long belly hair and matted it into one rock-hard snarl.  Anyone who has ever successfully buzz-cut a cat is my hero!  She was having no part of any attempts to rid her of the mats.  She almost appeared to have acquired a shell of some sort on her underside!  Then, the next day, I noticed that she was having extreme difficulty eating or drinking.  Also, anyone who has ever successfully peered down the gullet of a cat is also my hero!  It ain't easy!

  There was nothing to do but take the poor thing in for a bit of medical help.  At the first examination, the veterinarian thought Ms. Nycto had a broken jaw.  "Leave her and we will get her fixed up no matter what it is and we will finish that hair cut for you."  (That last part was enough to convince me that these were good people!)  The cat remained behind and I waited at home for a phone call.  That call came late at night.  It seems that there was an odd wound that was causing the poor cat's complaint.  Somehow, she had sliced the underside of her tongue from the base to the tip.  The tongue was useless as it was so the veterinarian stitched it while she was sedated.  The cat would have to stay in the hospital overnight.   

  The Bayou Princess is back home now.  She is attempting all normal functions but, of course, eating and drinking is labored.  Cats fully depend on that lapping technique!  Son and I are doing our best to accommodate her every need and she is the perfect patient as she never complains.  She is, however, a bit embarrassed as she now looks like a terribly skinny poodle with a bad haircut!  Tufts on her feet, skinny legs, bare belly, fluffy back and head and a tuft of a tail make up the entire coat of this once extremely fluffy cat!  Poor baby slinks from dark corner to dark under-bed hiding spot.  Having that cone of shame on her noggin is not helping, either!  Hopefully, she has learned a lesson about going gallivanting in the marshes.  YOU are a princess, Ms. Nycto!  ACT like it!

Stranger things

  I should have been doing chores about the Little Bayou House.  I should have been watering the plants in the greenhouse.  I should have been putting the final touches on the Christmas decorations.  I should have been doing a lot of things....instead, I went fishing.  It was a gorgeous, sunshiny day and the weather forecasters are calling for storms for the next three days so it was only natural for me to head to the pier before the rains set in for the duration.  I needed to get in that last bit of fishing.  I figure the rainy days can be spent doing all the inside chores that need doing.  There was no use in letting a pretty day go to waste.  Make hay will the sun shines and all that good stuff.  In other words, I grabbed ahold of any reason just to get to the pier.  It seemed to me that it was my turn to catch a big fish.

  I did catch a nice redfish which will make supper tomorrow night.  I am sure that I probably could have caught more but it seemed selfish to take more than needed.  This one twenty-eight inch fish would more than suffice as a meal..or two.   The only problem was that with Hubby out of town, I had to fillet that fish.  He usually fillets the larger fish but, here again, I guess it was just my turn.  For anyone who has never cleaned a large redfish, it is no easy task.  Those scales are  rather tough and slicing through them requires a super sharp filleting knife.  It did not help matters much that I had just smashed my finger trying to repair the washing machine!  The wounded finger did not want to cooperate making the job doubly difficult.  

  Once I removed the nice slabs of meat, curiosity got the best of me.  It seemed that the stomach of this fish was unusually "packed".  Since I had to retrieve my hook (I had cut the line instead of digging around hunting for my hook.), I slit open the stomach. That redfish was a bit of a glutton!  Inside I found, three menhaden, one goby and one small catfish!  (I cannot believe the fish ate a horned catfish!)  But that was not all.  As I wiggled out my hook, I found another smaller hook.  This fish had already been caught once and had gotten free only to snatch my bait.  Here, he was not so lucky.  I caught him!  I picked out the other hook only to find that it was not the line that was broken but the hook itself.  The eye of the hook was missing!  A lot of folks make fun of me with my large hooks but I guess this just proves it pays to think big if you want to catch huge fish!  

  Finding the second hook inside the redfish made me think of an old that old saying "Even a fish would stay out of trouble if it would learn to keep its mouth shut!"  This one just did not learn its lesson well the first time.