Archive for Out of Town
Nutria teeth
Posted by: | CommentsWe headed out to the bayou on a day that was supposed to turn sunny but never did, and on overcast days, particularly early in the morning, everybody and everything tends to sleep in.
Except for this family of nutria who were out foraging. And yes, with nutria, ‘foraging’ means ‘destroying everything in sight.’ Nutria are just eating machines, gnawing their way through the ecosystem, causing ungodly amounts of damage- it’s estimated that they are currently impacting 20,300 acres of marsh.
They look very much like beavers, but with a rat tail and bright orange chompers.
The beasts were intentionally introduced to the area in the 1930s as a source of fur, but the public didn’t like its feel and it never caught on. Their meat is bitter and unpalatable*, so nutria have no natural enemies and they breed like rabbits, in litters of 3 or 4. Hunters had no reason to bother to go after the animals until a bounty was instituted in 2005, paying $5 per nutria tail brought in to prove the kill, though it’s hard to know if the program has really helped very much.
So, yeah, they’re awful. Except, you look at the babies, and they don’t look like evil incarnate:
There’s a new movement afoot to try to make nutria fur fashionable. After all, there are those who’d like to wear fur, but can’t justify the cruelty- here you get to have your fur and feel like you’re helping the environment, too.
* Recipes for nutria meat tell you that you must soak the meat in brine a minimum of 24 hours to make it edible at all- and recommend 3 days in the salt solution if possible. How many people are going to be bothered?
An Oak Alley Christmas
Posted by: | CommentsIt’s been several years since we’ve gone, so this was the year. Everybody was staying home instead of travelling for the holidays, and we’ve decided to go in for a bunch of local traditions, like bonfires on the levee.
To stay true to the tradition, we would have had to do it on Christmas Eve, but Oak Alley Plantation’s fundraiser and whoop-de-doo is a few weeks before, full of music, amazing food, and the opportunity to walk the grounds without tons of tour groups all over the place.
It was damn cold that night, but we were glad to be able to have it at all after heavy rains the day before. Unfortunately, the pyre got dampened and took awhile to really get going, but it was lovely. Carols and music around the fire with Hot Cocoa to look forward to afterward. What could be more festive?
Roseate Spoonbill
Posted by: | CommentsWe recently went on a little expedition out into cajun country, wanting to see a little of the area’s history and some of the swampland as well. Unfortunately, it turns out that most of the National Parks out that way are still not reopened.
We were just about to start heading home when I saw this massive pink bird in a tree at the side of the road. We pulled over and realized there were a couple dozen of them around. Within half an hour I think we saw more wildlife than we would’ve if the Parks had been up and running.
We took lots of photos and later found out they were Roseate Spoonbills, which run about 2.5 feet high with a wingspan of about 4 feet. They are waders and use their bills to poke around in the water and muck…but hopefully not right under where they were, since there were dozens of alligators beneath them.
Crowley, Louisiana
Posted by: | CommentsOn our brief tour through southwestern Louisiana, we stopped in Crowley while we waited for a crawfish place in the next town to open for dinner. Charlie actually would have liked to tour a rice farm and/or processing plant (it’s a guy thing), but there were no such immediately apparent establishments.
Instead, we just drove around. It’s a nice little town with some interesting touches.
This certainly got my attention more than a typical neighborhood watch sign.
The streetsigns are still in both English and French…
And then we ran into this odd car. Charlie got went to take a closer look, and saw the owner was sitting under his carpark, repairing his accessories. It’s something that was put together for a charity, and he drives in all the parades. He’s always accepting donations- both for the car and for the charity.
What most surprised me was a) How many commercially recognizable items there were (likely from Happy Meals and suchlike) and b) How many vaguely naughty ones there were. Ah well. I guess we all contribute our own unique talents.
We left behind $5 for the car and $5 for the charity. Click on the thumbnails for a closer look.
Country Cajun Cemetery
Posted by: | CommentsWhen we were on our road trip around the coast of Louisiana, we stopped into Rayne, a teeny tiny town that happened to lead to Hawk’s, a locally famous crawfish place in the middle of nowhere.
Along this country road was this cemetery- it, like everything else around, was pretty small, but as we passed by I wondered why there was a carport in the middle of the thing. Since it was still light when we came back through, we stopped for a bit.
Despite having only a few dozen graves, there were some really interesting things. They like their statues in Rayne, they do. Lots of them about. And several had quotes and such on them, something that doesn’t seem to happen much in New Orleans.
And there was certainly a sense of style. Take Gertrude Hamilton Johnston’s marker, complete with dog etchings:
A slideshow gallery follows after the jump with more, including the carport that originally caught our eye.
