Baja St. Martin

Love the cooler weather! It’s really beautiful outside with the exception of the dead vegetation compliments of the big freeze. I am still picking broccoli, Swiss chard and Romaine lettuce, but that’s about it. I am going to start planting spring seeds in heated flats in my little greenhouse by the first of February.

The purple martins haven’t returned as yet, nor have the cormorants. My birdhouses are ready. Cleaned, freshly painted, braced for the wind. The cardinals seem to have given up their attack on my windows, which may be related to a suspicious hole in a window screen I discovered upon my return from my last Florida trip.

Food for Seniors for Lower St. Martin Parish will begin again on Thursday, Jan. 24, in the Stephensville Fire Station from about 8:30 a.m. until 10 a.m. (or thereabouts) and in the Belle River Fire Station from 10:30 a.m. until 11:30 a.m. (or thereabouts). Sometimes we finish early in Stephensville and can get to Belle River by shortly after 10 a.m. Just depends on when the boxes and people arrive, etc.

According to the Lower Mississippi River summary, the water at Morgan City should rise (or has risen) nearly two feet — a pretty good increase. Not much indication of what’s coming in back of that as yet, but local rains are certainly going to help keep the water up for awhile. And will high water now help the crawfish to come? That’s one of the things I love most about crawfish season: all the speculation, gossip, predictions, tall tales, secrecy. Such fun! And of course, it’s got to be nice to haul in all those big bucks!

I recently passed along Highway 3127 in St. James Parish and the crawfish ponds there are being readied for use. Pumps going, traps already out. No sign of actual fishing yet.

A section of Highway 70 between the Pierre Part and Belle River bridges is in the first stages of being widened. In front of the Pierre Part Elementary School stands a huge, very, very, old oak tree which hangs partly over the present highway and a lot over the proposed lane. After a bit of public commotion, the powers that be agreed to just trim the tree but not cut it down. I passed as the trimming was being done and it was an awful thing to see. Hopefully, the tree will survive but it looks pretty terrible right now with big, raw, branch stubs sticking out like wounds. Didn’t I read way back once about a tree in St. Martinville — maybe the Evangeline Oak? — that died or was dying because of all the foot traffic on the exposed root system? This poor tree will have three lanes of heavy traffic rumbling over its roots!

Linda Cooke

The Teche News’ Lower St. Martin correspondent, Linda Cooke, can be contacted via e-mail at mamasan39@peoplepc.com.