Here Comes Old #10...

 Yesterday friends and family gathered to throw a baby shower for Mary and Miguel who are expecting their fourth boy in early August. It was good times with great decorations, karaoke, hamburgers, hot dogs and lots of kids running around that accompanied all the moms and dads there to help them celebrate. 

So far the name of what I'm calling old #10, our 10th grandchild id unknown to the public. They do have a system of naming, four letters ending with a vowel so guess away and post your suggestions in the comments section of this blog. 

Technically the world cup should be concluded by the time the baby is due. Looks like this crew needs at least one more set of hands on the foosball to make it FAIR. 

Lot of incoming fun for the rest of the summer. Old #10 will be here just in time for the first knee board ride, the baby in the tuba photo and more so stay tuned.  

 

  

It Was a Good Weekend For Music...

 It was a good weekend playing music with people and for people. It started out with a Children's choir rehearsal on Friday night, busking at Fae's Hideaway, a Ren Faire Pride Event Saturday and ended up playing with the children's choir for Spanish Mass at St. Patrick's Sunday morning.  

I was glad to get the invite for the Pride Event. Nice people put together a DIY day of local vendors selling arts and crafts with many people wearing costumes or sword fighting and it was the perfect thing to have a tuba player playing grooves, harmonica and didgeridoo. . 

Note that I also used my turtle shell shaker, the instrument that I am second most famous for playing. 

I got to jam on a tune with a strolling musician (i think I heard his name as Dawson, but you know the ears, tuba and big Fender amps) on uke playing a bit of harp, tuba and percussion. 

It was also the first time I opened for a harp player, Tris Day. As they say, check her out on the streaming platforms. 

Mass was good with the kids today. Great fun playing with Maria and Hugo who are the group leaders and we often have a great mix of kids singing, playing guitar, flute or Cajon drum. This photo grabbed off a video a couple of weeks ago. 

I think I might have actually grown up to be everything I wanted to be, 

Of course you have to eat and there was crawfish Saturday evening at the big Agular birthday party. 

 

Over and Over...

More proof I just keep doing the same old thing over and over. 

I loaded the canoe in the truck last night just so I wouldn't get lazy today and not go fishing. When I got up this morning I checked the fishing log and sure enough this day in 2020  I had about 20 big bream from the canoe trail area at Martin Dies Jr, State Park. I had decided on an afternoon trip so I played the tuba a bit, worked out at the water aerobics class and headed out.  

Fishing was not great today but I had fun. I caught several black bass too small for keepers, a beautiful too small crappie and a handful of bream. I think that mixed catch should count for some kind of Texas Grand Slam. 

Most of the fish were caught a trout magnet. I had picked up a thrift store tackle box for $5 that had one of these kits with jig heads, corks and tails all complete. One bass, a couple of inches shy of a keeper took an earthworm under a cork. I don't think I have caught a bass on an earth worm since childhood. 

The worms I gathered from the leaf mulch piles at home were not crowd pleasers. I caught a couple of fish on them but I did better with a yellow trout magnet fished under a cork. The lake at the State Park, B.A. Steinhagen, or what we used to call "Dam B" is a shallow body of water with lots of hydrilla, water hyacinths and giant salvina. Some of the floating mats get moved around by the wind covering favorite fishing areas and with warming water the weeds reach for the surface making it hard to fish ultra light jigs. You can paddle around tossing your bait in the holes in the vegetation but a throw an inch too far that hangs up can spook a spot where you are getting bites. 

I fished four hours and stopped for a standing break on the bank once. Back at the launch a young man paddled up in a short flat bottom boat from the opposite direction I had gone and I inquired about his luck. He said he caught 15 bass fishing since 10am but claimed he almost got too hot during those hours. I handled the heat pretty well but I note not being able to sit as long in the canoe and that will shorten my paddling career more than anything.  

There is not a size restriction on bream. In Texas you catch a bucket full and fry them up whole. They say Mississippi bluesman Howlin' Wolf could eat 50 bream at a sitting. I threw these fish back after the photo op because my baby would be all mad if she did not have 50 crunchy fried bream. 

I noted the Island trail, a good short walk for the grand kids is open but the other trail going the other direction is closed for work. I also saw plenty of the smaller green herons. I might hit Ratcliff for the next canoe adventure since it's getting hotter and the swimming area there is very handy. I've done that lake plenty of times and look forward to again.   

     

 

   

 

Rainy Day Finding Fun...

 Everyone has been craving a lake day since the great success and exhilaration of last week's tube trip (I want fried catfish!) but those pesky afternoon thunderstorms while bring much needed rain are cramping our style. This made us look around for land based fun so we visited Caddo Mounds and Mission Tejas State Park. 

This was the first time we had re visited the mounds, still sacred to the Caddo People and dating back 1,500 years since the reconstruction of the new visitors center and grass hut since a big storm wrecked the area a few years ago. I mentioned to the park ranger our visit to Poverty Point Mounds in Louisiana and he said I might have been your tour guide as I retired from there. The Poverty Point Mounds are much older and he told us that the Caddo mounds were sort of accidental as they kept building and having burials in the same spots and it elevated the terrain and the Poverty Point mounds, whose purpose is lost to prehistory were made by hunter gatherers for an unknown purpose.  

The Grass hut gives you and idea of how they lived. 

Good value for seniors and kids as we spent about $8 on admission but blew that savings in the gift shop as we bought a couple of books and kid fun items. 

Next stop, Mission Tejas just down the road had a ranger program called back yard bass. We occasionally visit here for hiking, to soak up the history of the Spanish Missions in Texas and I enjoy cane poling the small creek bass in the San Pedro. The ranger program the kids took part in was well done and you would have thought they were really catching fish. 

It was pretty close as to who the best casters were, the rangers or the kids. 

There is a pond in the park but it's pretty choked with weeds and if there was a swim area to cool off I'd probably come here for camping since the sites are recently redone but it's still a nice quiet place with a deep history. 

Ok, now the hard decisions, Mexican or Cajun tonight? 

It occurred to me as added the links about our previous trips to these spots is that I kind of keep doing the same old things over and over again. Maybe it's a quest to enjoy the spirituality of these places and the knowledge of long lost times. Might be something we need to know. 

   

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