Fill Dirt Wanted But Just a Little Bit...

A few months before my mom passed she was still pretty spry. She could hardly see and had recently had a surgery but with the aid of a cane she walked around the yard and I shot two short videos of her pointing out various plants that grew in her yard, what they were, who gave them to her and where they came from. Back in the old days plants in your yard were not bought at the store. You took a cutting from a plant your friend had, put it in a pot and nursed it along till it had roots good enough to be transplanted into the yard and survive. It's kind of something people did before cell phones. I later tried to make some more oral history recordings with my mom but I guess nothing interested her like the plants because she dismissed it as unimportant. 

I can recall where many of the plants in my yard came from also. There's the ones my mom gave me, a tree here and there that was a prize for taking a used up Christmas tree to the recycle, the two oaks Darwin brought from Austin, the rain lilies from Cathy's old Houston house grown by her mom, some I dug at the lake or in the woods and more. I don't remember when this oak tree that disrupted my water pipe from the meter to the house came from. It has not always been here. It grew on my watch of this property. I don't know if I should blame the tree or the long forgotten workman that ran the pipe away from the house instead of using a direct path and then angled back in an unexpected way and when the tree came along it embroiled the pipe in it's roots.     

I had the plumbers out for a little repair of the aerobic septic system which took all of 15 minutes to complete. I had already noticed this leak before their arrival and began digging but like I say, things with the water pipe were not as expected. The tree roots were just too big and too many and the pipe path too screwy so after a lot of digging and root cutting this over the ground path is what we settled on. I was warned that a reroute would be expensive. I asked will this be ok as a permanent solution? As long as it does not freeze. 

I figure I have at least 5 months to prepare against that possibility. I'm looking for fill dirt. 

This tree makes one end of a flower bed that in spring grows wild onions I sometimes cook with, blubs, an azalea and a gardenia that a home health patient gave me. A tallow tree that was a volunteer grows on the other end and there is a holly tree growing out a crack in the roots of it that can't be separated but tallows usually don't live so long and maybe I can wait it out to enjoy the holly. There are no other ones around here. 

Before all these trees were here and this was a pretty sunny area I planted tomatoes in a raised bed along here. Best ones I ever grew. I remember it was the year the Chernobyl reactor in Russia blew. Big old red tomatoes that makes me wonder if the radiation had anything to do with it. I don't use that spot anymore because it's too shady and I like me some shade. My tomatoes have been fair this year. I have some big bushy plants with lots of blooms but not much fruit. Maybe they can hang on till the next blast which also might help the pipe to not freeze.  

    

 

The Great July Forth Catfish Adventure...

Last week I went on a bream fishing expedition in the canoe. Cathy thought they were so tasty when she was crunching the boney, crispy fried little critters it sounded like the skidding impact of a car wreck. She wanted to fish for bream on this trip but with dropping lake levels receding from the bushy hiding places along the bank and the difficulty of stealth with the big boat compared to the canoe we were having no luck so we headed out to try a deep water summer pattern for catfish. Hard to believe our last fishing trip when they were still in a shallow pattern was June 7th but with the hot weather the swimming trips with the grandkids have nearly splashed all the water out of the lake.    

 The wind was from the south and the boat laid out over 27' of water. I broke in my on sale Academy Sporting Goods spinning rod that I paid a whole $10 for. I saw this sale and had a reel and thought it might be a good pole for a marsh fishing trip I have planned later this summer to Galveston Island State Park in the canoe. It's a bit noodly and I might should have spent a buck more on the stiffer saltwater version but I felt the reel I had matched this one better. It is sensitive to a catfish bite and casts a beetle spin well.    

Cathy complains I did not take a photo of her biggest fish. We were fishing a spot we have caught hundreds of catfish the last several years. We call it the dog walker because it once had what looked to be a dog leash tied to the stick up we tie to. If the wind blows from the west the boat lays out with the stern in 37' of water and it seems we catch many small bait stealing blue cats. I think wind from the south or east is best for this place. It puts the boat on the shallow side and though only a few feet apart the fish are bigger.   

Cathy's brother Matt holds up a fat channel. 

Even though it was July 4th and it seemed that boat ramp traffic picked up after lunch we were never even rocked by the wake of a passing boat. All them folks in the air conditioning looking at ticktoc videos are not a threat to my way of life.  

Total for the day was 38 cats. All caught on JPIGGS punch bait in less that two hours fishing between 12 and 2pm. 

I traded 3 pounds of fillets to my brother's neighbor for these vegetables. A good vegetarian meal of cheese and tomato sandwiches with hot peppers on the side will counter act the effects of artery clogging fried catfish. If you need more medical advice than this my venmo link will be at the end of this report.  

We fried those catfish right up and had Father Denzil, our pastor at St. Patrick's Catholic Church and his nephew Ramon out for dinner. They are from Sri Lanka and that's a long way from Sam Rayburn but I think I could probably make cat fishermen out of them.  

 

Catfish, Hot Sauce, Global Trade, What Else Do You Want to Know?...

For the first time this summer, since the catfish left their spring time shallow water patterns and found cool shelter and shad to feed on in deeper water our new fish spot Los Brazos did not pay off. Maybe it's because the water is dropping a bit. We headed over to our old favorite hole which was is a stick up that had been submerged earlier this year by high water. We call this spot the Dog Walker because when we first fished it there was what looked to be a dog leash tied to it. The leash is long gone, but the fish were there. 

The dog walker water is 30' deep. We have spent the summer catching the cats suspended, more or less pitching to them around the flooded timber. At this spot the thermocline seemed to be located in a channel drop off into 42' and the cats were close to the bottom on the edge. We had some nice fish and a good many throw backs but maybe not as many small ones as last trip where we fished Los Brazos.  

Again we used our favorite bait JPIGGS. All punch baits work but I have good confidence is this one. 

Matt, who came up from Houston to fish shows a bent rod. 

Final count for the trip was 34 cats. They were cooked up. We ate them with Miguel, and the grandkids Ezra and Luca. For those that don't know, Ezra only eats wild caught catfish. It seems that most restaurants, unless they specify, serve imported fish which if they don't call it catfish does not have to be subjected to the same meat inspections that farm raised USA catfish does. These laws hurt the American catfish farmer and I have always doubted the wisdom of shipping a product like this thousands of miles to a consumer. Can't be a good practice so you should probably do what Ezra does and eat local.  

We did not cook all the catfish but I took several pounds of fillets over to a friend in trade for his fresh tomatoes and two bottles of Whisker Bomb Hot Sauce. This is a hot sauce that seems to be associated with the guys in that little ol band from Texas, Z.Z. Top. I have been eating the habanero and instead of the usual central American style with the heat tempered by flavors of carrot and lime this is straight on Texas heat in a good way. The other bottle is Louisiana style and I have not tried it yet.

Get out, go to the lake, eat wild caught meat, fiery hot sauce and listen to your grandkids.       

 

I Get Cards, Letters, Email...

I get them all the time. Most ask why I don't get punched in the nose more often. For once and for all I tell you guys my wife is really nice to me. 

The latest request came by email and wanted me to give the blog treatment to the Late Country Singer George Jones who passed this weekend. I had to study about that a bit. I play a bunch of George Jones with the Back Porch Band. I had a guy in the audience for a Strat Kat Gig hollering he would whip us if we did not play George but that turned out ok. He was out of breath by the time he got to the stage. The kind of gigs I play and probably the kind George has been playing for the past few years are like that with people getting out of breath.

Anyway as I pondered George to the universe I walked out and took a look in the garden. The was a tomato on the vine. George goes. A tomato appears. Maybe he is back again.  

Spring...?

Heck, it aint even Ash Wednesday yet.

One of my most suscessful plantings, a bed of bulbs about 5 or six years ago. Bloom each spring, last a long time and then I cut down the left over greenery with the weed eater at a time convenient to me in the summer months.

You can't beat yard work like that.

Memorial Day on the Lake...

Although it was not real bright and sunny it was nice to be on the lake and have a holiday. Started out good with girls on a tube.

















But then El Guapo threw the boat into a hard left turn and we felt the

foot of the outboard barely strike an unseen object. I could feel a different vibration in the motor. The prop was broken.






This boat came with an aluminum prop. They are not as durable as a stainless steel which is the better prop of choice for a lake like Rayburn. Don't worry folks, this is nothing that $300-$400 can't fix. We will be back in action soon.













It might have been a blessing in disguise. When I removed the prop this is what I found, a big tangle on mono fishing line. This would have eventually worked it's way up the shaft and caused the foot to take on water, damaging the gears located there. Cathy will try to locate a prop, stainless steel while I am at work tomorrow.




















We just limped back to the boat ramp at a slow speed and fished around there. There is usually a pretty good bream spot, but as we launched I noticed two small boys coming from that direction on foot with a nice little stringer of pan fish so fishing was slow there. Cathy had a tomato horn worn plucked from her plants and she punished him by catching 3 small catfish and one bream with him for bait.

I ain't no Dan-Danz...

But here is some flowers and stuff around the yard. To see better flower photos, check out the Dan-Danz link on the side bar.

Here is looking down a row of oleanders.

Here is the tomatoes in the porch planter thing. Getting bigger all the time. Click on the tag to see previous pictures.

Here is some porch pots, Cathy and the squirrels are at war for control of this territory. This is a mouse plant.

The squirrels really like these.

Desert scene with purple rock imported from another solar system

Easter lilies might finely bloom. That's lantana in the background.

Wild onions dug up and transplanted years ago from the old scout house.

New side of the house decoration smiles down on all.

Country Evening...

I had the best day at work yesterday that I have seen in some time. Cathy had no patients either so she stayed home that evening on call. Course the on call kept us from going anywhere but we kept ourselves amused with the spring day and cooking steaks.

Should have taken a picture of these boys when they started. I think planted during Holy Week. They have doubled in size this past week. Some kind of water from the bottom tomato grower that Cathy bought and planted. Works good. I have a few pepper plants slipped in there somewhere. You say tomato, I say tomato, we all say tomato before long. There will be more pictures of this progress.

Here is my neighbor, I mean my neighbor's mule. I call her Jenny. Cathy is feeding a handful of vetch she could not reach. Looks like we have made a friend for life and a possible re-occurring blog character. We need a replacement since the big white dog has not made an appearance in quite sometime now. He usually had a way of appearing when out of town company visited, but failed to show last time.

Morgan showed up about dark and picked up his drums. He said he had a friend that bought one of those pointy guitars. I said wear safety glasses during the jam. You can Google a picture of a pointy guitar if you like.