pyoung's Blog
pyoung's Blog
Last Post 25 days, 8 hours Ago
Aug 13, 2008 | 3:28 AM PST
It has been some time since I last wrote so I thought I should drop a line. My son still has some tenderness but for the most part is doing fine. The Mother in law 71 years young is taking a little more time to heal up. She had to go back to her doctor for some more meds for infection and pain. Her legs have blood clots in them, not the kind that go to your heart but they are outside of the veins and the doc said it will take months for them to subside.
The lady admitted to the mother in laws insurance company that she just stopped paying her premium. So all the medical bills etc will fall to my mother in laws uninsured motorist to pay. The agent told my MIL that they will give her something for pain and suffering. MIL told me that she would use that to help fix her car.
Other than that it’s been "HOT". My spring garden is done; we are just trying to keep the flowers alive. I had to stake my crape myrtles back up straight after the last little storm. Later....
Aug 1, 2008 | 9:19 PM PST
Boy oh boy what a rollercoaster ride we have been on. My mother in law and my youngest son made a trip to Alexandria, Louisiana to see her oldest son. Well on the way home a woman pulls out in front of her from a side road and just stops in her lane of travel. My mother in law slams on the brakes and was able to slow down quite a bit before the impact. I am on my way to work and was just about to turn into the parking lot when I get the call from my wife who is understandably all shook up. I then call my son and ask if he and his grandmother are ok. He tells me that he has hurt his privates really bad and can hardly walk and that Maw-maw is ok but is bleeding from her face and leg. I tell him to tell the cops to get an ambulance out there and for him and his Maw-maw to go to the hospital. He tells me one is on the way.
In the mean time I call my oldest son who is a Sheriff’s Deputy and tell him to get there ASAP. The mother in laws car is towed to a nearby towing yard. And the other ladies car is towed off too. Nobody in their car claims to be injured and do not go to the hospital. The State Police tells my oldest son that the lady does have proof of insurance until January 14, 2009 and she will be issued a citation for failure to yield. Sounds good!
I finally arrive at the Hospital to check on them. Mother in law is having her leg x-rayed and her cuts attended to. My son has a terrible bruise on his privates and the doctor orders an ultrasound to make sure everything is ok. After receiving the good news from the x-ray and ultrasound they are released to go home.
The next day…..the wife and mother in law call the ladies insurance company. Well it’s an out of town company of course with no one here locally. They inform them that the insurance was canceled 2 days before the accident. Just Great! The mother in law not 6 months ago dropped her full coverage on her vehicle. So I tell her well you have uninsured motorist. So it will pay your bills and fix your vehicle. Not true! She does have uninsured bodily injury coverage but nothing for her vehicle.
I contacted the agent who informs me that if she had the uninsured property damage it only would pay if her car was totaled. What a rip off.
So today I went and got her car from the impoundment and was able to drive it home after I did a few modifications to the air bags and radiator fan. She does not have the funds to have it repaired so I will have to see what I can do myself. The frame is bent so I will have to have some help with that but the rest I probably can do.
My suggestion to everyone here is to check your coverage and find out what will happen if you are involved in an accident with someone who has no insurance coverage.
Jul 19, 2008 | 5:21 AM PST
Yesterday we did a little gardening right here at work! Recently we had an inspection done by one of the pipeline regulatory agencies and they said we did not have enough grass growing around in our yard. Go figure!!
So since we have tried everything we could possibly do ourselves with our limited hand pushed seed spreader we decided it was time to call in reinforcements.
We contacted a company that does Hydro-seeding. They spray your yard, right of way what ever area you need to be seeded with this Hydro-seed. Now what they do is they fill the trailer with water and then dump bags of seed mulch and fertilizer into the water where it is all mixed up then sprayed onto the ground. You may have seen this done around new construction sites like apartments etc.
Here is a picture of the trailer and some of the bags.
In the next two pictures. You notice he is spraying right off the trailer but if you look to the left you see the roll up hose that he can drag around to get into other places its quite an impressive rig.
Roll up hose is on the left.
Here is a shot of the ground after it has been Hydro-seeded. The darker areas are completed. 
Hope you enjoyed the picture presentation. You never know when or where you might end up doing some “gardening”. Have a great day!
Jul 17, 2008 | 4:37 AM PST
Well wtih things so hot we use to buy the smaller popsicles. After working outside we would eat 2 or more of the little ones.......but NOW we found the big daddies and one is all it takes to help you to cool off.
I am just a little bored here and thought I would share!
Jul 16, 2008 | 5:05 AM PST
We are back from our long but short weekend at Galveston Texas. We had a lot of fun at the water park and on the beach. We ate some good seafood at Joe’s Crab Shack and enjoyed a great steak at the Saltgrass restaurant. The gulf provided us with some great waves and we were able to do some board surfing. Lots of folks were fishing but we did not see anyone catch anything. That did not hurt my feels because I really don’t like the idea of fish being where I am swimming.
The next morning after we got home the boys and I decided it was time to make a trip down to Rockefeller Refuge to catch some crabs and shrimp. The inland shrimp season is closed but you are still allowed to catch 10 lbs per boat.
The first pics are us in the boat on the way to the weir AKA “Mud Hole”. The refuge has several weirs and all have nick names, ie: mud hole, ant hill, LSU, cement and the list goes on.
Kyle on the left and Caleb on the right.
Me!
Once we arrive we set up and put out our nets. One can use a variety of meats for bait, some use chicken or turkey necks, chicken thighs, melt, deer meat etc. Our choice is melt and we also were using some old deer back strap. Kyle decided he was going to be the cast netter for the day and he caught most of the 10 pounds of shrimp. The shrimp were not running too well. He would only catch 4 or 5 at a time, with some throws coming up empty.
Me getting a crab net ready.
Kyle with the cast net and Caleb with a crab dip net.
We also had to contend with some visitors that were really hungry! We had to make sure we did not end up as their lunch. There were 3 large alligators hanging around where we were. Nothing new to the refuge you just have to be careful.
Once we caught our limit of crabs, which is 12 dozen and our limit of shrimp 10 lbs. We loaded up and headed home. The boat ride to the mud hole is only about 20 minutes. The refuge is 30 miles from my house. It only took us about 2 hours to catch our limits for the day!
Some nice shrimp.
The mode of transportation to the mud hole.
We de headed the shrimp and invited a few friends and family over to enjoy our catch. I cleaned up some of the potatoes I had grown and took some of my fresh corn out of the freezer. I boiled those first before we cooked the crabs and shrimp.
I don’t know what the rich folks had for supper that night but we sure ate like kings!
Caleb and Kyle posing for the camera.
Caleb fooling around.
Enjoying the good Louisiana Food!
There are more pics in my photos under the folder Crabbing trip 2008.
Edit for spelling.
Jul 9, 2008 | 12:09 PM PST
Finally getting around to replacing the Crape Myrtles! But planting them was another thing. The ground was rock hard. So Caleb and I decided we needed to use the pick to help loosen things a little. Well this is what happened to one end of the pick. You can see by the photo below the flat end of the pick ended up getting bent after a few hits in the hard soil.
Here are a few pictures of Caleb working on one of the holes.
Here is the finished product. You can see the banana tree still in the container. We have not planted it yet as we are not sure where we want it exactly. So since we are leaving on vacation tomorrow we put it next to the crape myrtles so that the mother in law won’t have to drag a hose everywhere to water it.
And then I went out to the garden and picked two watermelons. One was real heavy so we put it on the scale it came in at 24.8 pounds! We are taking that one with us to Galveston!
Jul 9, 2008 | 11:16 AM PST
Well what a couple of days! Right before I went to work on Monday night I realized that my A/C unit was not cooling any more. The fan was not starting on the outside unit. I did not have time to check it out myself as I had to head off for work. So I called a friend who does A/C work and his wife told me that Phil would not be able to check it until tomorrow. I told my wife of the bad news so she had to go next door to her mothers to sleep. Our camper was not at our house but it was parked in the campground in Tioga Louisiana, just over 100 miles from home.
When I got off work I stopped at the mother in laws and tried to sleep but could not get comfortable so I decided I just as soon get up and go get my camper. My youngest son Caleb and I headed out to Tioga. On the way we have to travel through the little town of Forrest Hill. Forrest Hill is the Nursery Capital of Louisiana (maybe not officially but in my book). We were able to find and purchase 2 Crape Myrtles to replace the 2 we lost in Hurricane Rita and also I found a Banana Bush! I will write more about them in another blog.
We then picked up the camper and headed back home. When we got home I plugged the camper into the power receptacle and guess what the a/c on the camper would not start. My heart just sank. Two things popped into my head…One no a/c tonight again and the other was the vacation is ruined. We are leaving Thursday to go spend some time at Galveston, Texas. Well luckily for me after further investigation it was just a bad connection! Phil drove up right after we got the camper a/c blowing and he looked at my unit for the house and found that I had a bad starter compactor for the fan motor and that the unit was a pound low on Freon. He had the part on his truck! And so we were able to sleep in our house in cool rooms after all.
Below is a picture of the inside thermometer with the inside temp at 6PM yesterday after noon at 89.3 degrees.
Jul 3, 2008 | 10:44 PM PST
I am working nights this week and so when I woke up I knew I needed to visit the garden as the okra needed to be cut, tomatoes, cucumbers, corn and peppers needed to be picked. My wife is out of town so me and the boys are taking care of things at home. I was able to put the okra up before I headed off to work. I broke 25 ears of corn and a bucket full of bell peppers. I took the corn and peppers to work with me to shuck the corn and chop up the bell peppers. Below is a pic of the bell peppers all chopped up and ready to be put in a zip lock bag. I had a full gallon bag!
Here is some corn that is ready for the freezer. I gave 4 ears to the guard and cooked 3 ears here at work tonight.
Happy 4th of July everyone!
I took these pictures with my cell phone.
Jun 28, 2008 | 12:50 PM PST
Today it has been raining on and off! I am so gald as everything was drying up. My grass was starting to die in spots. Inbetween showers I took a few pics of one of my crape myrtle trees that was blooming. I also picked a bucket of figs and the wife and mother in law started processing some of the tomatoes for salsa. They told me I could not go back out side with a bucket!
Here is a close up of one of the blooms. There is some kind of bug at the very top of the flower.
I checked on one of my satsuma trees and I don't have as many satsumas as I did last year.
And the tomato washing and cutting assembly line for processing to salsa.
Jun 27, 2008 | 3:39 PM PST
Well today my youngest son had his wisdom teeth extracted. So since I am on my days off I was elected to take care of him. He did real well had all 4 removed. He has been resting most of the day and only got sick one time shortly after we got home. So while I was stuck inside I dug around and found a few pics of my sister and my grand mother. These pictures were taken on her 86th birthday. I hope to live that long myself but each time I go to the doctor he finds something wrong! She raised tomatoes in the 5 gallon buckets. I can remember that she did really well growing them there too. The first two pictures are of Carolyn and our grandmother getting things ready. The last one is of our grandmothers house and yard. Sorry about the pictures not being too clear, the originial was not either.
Jun 25, 2008 | 9:47 AM PST
Yesterday was a busy day around my house. I started out by driving over to where my moms house was. I had noticed a week or so ago that there were a lot of mimosa trees that were coming up, and I decided I wanted one. So I went and dug one up. Came back home and planted it. Sorry no pic of it.
I then got my son up and he mowed the yard while I picked my produce for the day. I started out by picking the figs and ended up with a Ice Cream bucket full. I plan on cooking some today.
Next I went into the garden and picked the veggies. Tomatoes, cucumbers, okra and peppers. I should have some more corn to break tomorrow and the water melons are still doing well. I have a couple of cantaloupe on my only plant that came up.
Here is some pics of the okra, peppers, cucumbers and the bucke of figs.
After that I pressured washed the front porch and the side walk and began to pressure wash the cement drive way. Sure looks better now.
We also got .6 tenths of an inch of rain last night. The sky has turned real blue the last several afternoons and lots of thunder but no rain drops. The .6 inches was all soaked up in no time.
Jun 22, 2008 | 8:23 AM PST
Well we could not wait any longer and broke the first melon! It appeared to have passed the thump test and the little tail was dried up......
So we cut it open and all is well. It could have stayed on the vine a little longer but after a taste test I think we did just fine!
The camera flash makes the melon have white tint when in fact it was not.
I also picked my first figs yesterday afternoon. I don't have a good crop this year and those that are there are small due to not having any rain fall. The last couple days it has rained all around me but very little fell at my house.
Jun 20, 2008 | 6:07 AM PST
We take the Reds and filet them leaving the scales on. I will then cut strips in the meat down to the scales and put butter in the cut. Season the fish with Tony’s or Zatarain’s, onion powder, a dash of garlic powder and some black pepper. I then will put the fish scale side down on the grill for about 7 to 10 minutes until the butter is melted and the fish meat begins to turn golden brown. We then remove the fish from the pit and serve it up! Now that’s some good eating…I don’t care who you are sha.
The picture below is one of my oldest son Kyle and a Red he caught.
Jun 20, 2008 | 4:02 AM PST
Well here are some pics I took yesterday afternoon. The sun was hidden but no rain fell. If you look back at my first pics you can see that the garden has come a long way. And yea there is some grass in it. I try to keep it down as best I can, but I do have other things to do!
Cucumber patch, okra, peppers and corn. You can see the sugar cane in the back ground!
Watermelon soon to be picked!
Corn and Okra patch.
Corn and Okra again
Watermelon my fav kind
Close up of the okra, and Fema trailers in back. They have been moving some out.
Tomato plants starting to show signs of the heat. Dirt where snap beans use to be.
Figs are starting to get ripe. We need more rain or they will all be small!
Yellow bell peppers, okra and some tomatos
Tomato harvest. I had picked the day before and still came out with these.
Cucumbers
Jun 19, 2008 | 6:56 AM PST
I also posted this in the forums section in hope to get some input.
I use to be able to shower off at my back porch after doing yard work and sweating outside. I would use the garden hose hanging off of a nail…(big invention there) I could do this without the fear of being called a nudist. Not that I mind being nude but that’s another story. But now I have too many neighbors! The Fema trailer park in the back of my house, and there are neighbors who now have a good view of my shower area.
So that brings me to my question for all of you! Do any of you have an outdoor shower? If so do you mind posting some pics on here or sending them to me so that I can get an idea on building one? I can remember my great uncle having one behind his shed when I was a kid. I don’t know if he had hot water piped to his or not. I have a small cement slab off of my house that once was used for a wash/spray down area when we had an above ground swimming pool…..I am considering putting in a toilet and shower on that slab. It’s close to my sewer system and I have cold water out to it already. This would be a new twist on the old time out houses! So I need ideas on hot water and any other problems I might incur. I don't have to worry about permits etc...I am country!
