Full Replacement Moon

So, there aren't that many of you reading this, however I wanted you loyal friends to know that I will not be here to write the next FMA. Either I will be on very strong pain meds and making less sense than normal OR I will not survive knee replacement surgery (left), which is always a possibility. The date is June 18, 2018. Please send prayers or good positive energy for my surgeon and I.

The Nature conservancy Wall Calendar hanging in my office says May 29 is full moon. My fancy iPhone Lunar Phase App says that this full moon rises at 813, right after sunset at 802 Tuesday. It will be a fine show. There is a threat of rain here and I would take a gentle soaking rain over a full moon rising about now. It has been very dry but we have received 1.5 inches since Sunday 4-20-18, so I have no complaints.

From An Agricultural Testiment by Sir Albert Howard, C.I.E., M.A., 1943.

"Since the Industrial Revolution the processes of growth have been speeded up to produce the food and raw materials needed by the population and the factory. Nothing effective has been done to  replace the loss of fertility involved in this vast increase in crop and animal production. the consequences have been disastrous. Agriculture has become unbalanced: the land is in revolt: diseases of all kinds are on the increase: in many parts of the world Nature is removing the worn-out soil by means of erosion." 

I purchased this book some 12-15 years ago for 25 cents at a Friends of the Library book sale and have wanted to read it and now I am. In that same time frame I also read F. H. King's "Farmers of Forty Centuries. Both about how to feed yourself and your community without wearing out the farm (Soil), something industrial agriculture has not figured out yet and perhaps never will! Y'all, we are in deep doodoo!

"What a glorious world Almighty God has given
     us. How thankless and ungrateful we are, and
                               how we labor to mar his gifts
                                                     --Robert E. Lee
Stone Wind Water, poems, David Lee

4-28-18 MIKI over pool party in Prairieville, and a grand event it is. Mathew is 10 and Emma is 12. Boiled crawfish and way many loving family members and with 5 of their dogs, two cakes, made by Mom and Dad and ice cream, not necessarily in that order.

4-29-18 MIKI over my house very low, may be nest building time.

4-30-18 MIKI over Lafayette with branch in beak, oh yes! It is nest building time! Final exam week y'all, can you hear the wailing and gnashing of teeth? I will spend the entire week ruining young lives.

5-3-18 I declare this the Year of the Frog on my tiny rectangle of Our Sweet Mother Earth. The little green suction cup Frogs, the ones with the gold racing stripe down jaw and side, are so present. The numbers seem 3-4 times of what is normal for our yard.

5-4-11 Picked up a box of Langlinais French Bread from my nephews down at the bakery, gave my last final, graded them, entered grades and headed out to meet up with my family at my sister's "camp" on the river, False River, near New Roads. P and I are looking forward to spending the weekend with our four children and nine grandchildren and one great grandson and Ol Ollie, P's dad.
Friday night was a little fishing, french bread pizza, too much wine and a big long lasting, loud card game, then to bed too late.

5-12-18 Saturday: Big breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, biscuits was fully consumed by the hoards, 21 in all. Joe brought Paw Paw in this morning after his 24 hour shift at the fire station. Mathew and J fished all day and Mathew (10) says he caught the most. Many Catfish, Bream and a Bass or two bit the dust, yes the dust, this bunch is no sissy "catch and release" gang. Tiger, sorry to report this to you. It was a grand day. Jake and I drove Ol Ollie back home before dark.

5-13-18 Sunday: Fish cleaning day! I high tailed it for the Berry to feed cats and release the gurls then off to finalize grades and turn them in to the University officially. Hey, I didn't catch any so I did not clean any. Them's my rules and I'm sticking to them.

5-14-18 Monday: Rachel's for fried fish and Mathew couldn't be there because of school, bummer! I ate his share though. I'm kind of glad it was not a catch and release weekend.

5-15-18 Tuesday: Loaded out family "hairlooms" in the U-haul trailer, these are one reason Jake came for this visit. His family just moved from Oahu to Virginia for work. Their new-old home is not ready to move into yet so they are wandering about. We are so grateful.
Joe was working his side job in construction, today at Avery Island. He texted that a "huge Bear" had just crossed the road in front of his  truck. I told him that was a Garbage Bear because it was after household garbage and that the Louisiana Black Bear is usually smaller, like a big dog, and very reclusive. Turns out that this bear is estimated to be 150lb, the size of a really big dog (Rachel's dog Pete is 125, and he is BIG). I love being right.

5-16-18 Wednesday: Jake and family loaded up early and headed back East. We love them but P and I are so exausted and delighted to get our home back, so quiet and restful, just us, three cats and 14 hens. Jake and Ran's kids are not quiet, these are my loud grandkids!

5-22-18 Off to Baton Rouge yet again. Emma is part of the Sixth Grade Band at Dutchtown Middle School. It was a grand performance. We are so proud of her.

5-24-18 Joey texted again today, he was back at Avery Island, he just saw a Bobcat at the dumpster. I said that that was not a Garbage Bobcat like that Bear he saw, rather just a Bobcat making it's rounds and the dumpster is good place to find a stray rodent, a wonderful bloody hot breakfast slider to start her day.
P was at a end of school year dealie-thangie and I was finished my day awaiting her return so that I could scramble the eggs and almost burn the toast again, I'm known for almost burning the toast.
So let me set the scene, I'm sitting sideways on the swing on our covered patio with a grand view of the hummingbird feeder to the south, it is 745pm and the last hummers of the fast-fading day are zooming in to dip for their last snack of the day when I noticed the tip of the Nuttall Oak limb that hangs over the feeder moving like some creature was walking about on it. I'm thinking hummer, or Green Anole Lizard but noooo, boy was I wrong. It was those plentiful Green Tree Frogs with the suction cup toes and gold racing stripe. Yes those! Only it was many. It seems there is a carport cover edge about 18" from that branch tip and in the manner of Lemmings running off the cliff edge into the sea, I watched no less than 25 Green Tree Frogs hop up and one at a time jump off that roof into the abyss. Each one made it to the branch end and stuck like glue with all those suction cup toes, to crawl on up the branch to do what I have no idea but this was a very cool phenom, Lemming Frogs!

Margaret is publishing, June 18, 2018, same day as my surgery (so I will not be at the book signing at the Books Along the Teche Margaret), a new first book of poetry, Bayou Song: Creative Exploration of the South Louisiana Landscape, and boy is she excited, read below!

Publication Day

I’m flabbergasted
by anticipation,
dizzy with expectation,
nauseous
with nervousness.

I’m sidestepping
assumption,
antsy for predictions,
impatient
for beliefpower
to hurtle into
my psyche.

 

I’m dancing
with my destiny
with heebie-jeebies
and butterflies
splitting me into
a hive of many bees.

The day of publication is near.

--Margaret Simon, (c) 2018

It seems as though my bud David Lee is about due to put a new one out there as well. Dave teases me with a new pome every now and again but as far as I know has not compiled a fresh book of poems in a bit. Come on Dave, the anticipation is killing me. Here is fine one from Stone Wind Water, poems by Dave:

July Whirlwind

A black and gold
and brown
and green and white  flecked
banty rooster
scratches in the dust
like a devil
who will take on
any adversary
with red eyes and long spurs
and raised hackles and a bright comb
that can make
even a subaltern deity's
soul sweat
                          --after Wallace Stevens

Dave, I think I knew that rooster, we named him Mr. Comeaux, and dagburnit he was the boss!

It was good to visit with y'all, pray for me and my worn out knee, please. Enjoy that moon, I'll be there with glass in hand...
peace love possumhugs
BT