Finally, more building supplies arrived! We were out of lumber for the house we were framing, missing doors and windows for others which held up siding etc. All of us felt very productive this morning so of course we took the afternoon off. It was 89 degrees after all - a perfect day for a swamp tour.The swamp is really beautiful and our boat guide was great. He was one of 11 kids, all raised in the swamp - in fact, he paddled 5 miles to school every morning (this was at least 50 years ago). The swamp he grew up in is no longer there - destroyed by the rerouting of the Mississippi by the Corp of Engineers. The house he owns now was 89% destroyed (insurance company analysis) by Hurricane Rita but FEMA will not give him any assistance. (I'm telling you, it's a toss up in Louisiana who surpasses who on the thumbs DOWN scale - FEMA or Corp of Eng.)
But back to the swamp... The alligators are just coming out of hibernation so are rather lazy -our guide could only get a couple to take chicken fat from his stick (personally I wouldn't want it either!) Also sighted - 2 types of snowy egrets, 2 types of vultures, 2 types of herons, a red-eared turtle - we didn't get close enough to see if he actually had red ears. Our guide said they used to be sold in pet stores but it's now illegal in Louisiana. However, it is legal to sell all the supplies to keep a turtle at home and then they can give you a turtle - go figure.
By far the cutest bird was an owl (sorry - I don't remember the kind) that hunts snakes during the day (more power to them - the owls not the snakes!). The owl we saw sat in a tree about 20 feet away and "whoooo-ed" at us. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately we didn't see any snakes to feed him.
How were the mosquitoes? We got lucky - they weren't out today. The guide said just wait until night... and then there's spring, summer, fall. Actually, we were told they were really bad up until the week we got here. Now they're only coming out once the sun goes down. We'll hope our luck holds through the end of the week!
