Mud..... and Mud Bugs

We're in Bayou country...  wetlands.....  swamp.....  and they've had a lot of rain lately.  So there's mud.  Lots of mud.

But work still needs to be done and this refuge has the equipment to do it.  As you can expect, the vehicles get quite dirty...

This tractor is really "John Deere" green....

Hard to tell with all the mud encrusted on it.

It's the weekend so all of the "brown shirts" (employees) are off, but Bill can always find something to do, so he got out the power washer and started cleaning up the vehicles....  did a right-smart job, too!  I didn't get an "after" picture of the vehicles, but guess I should before they get all dirty again.  

But I did get an "after" picture of Bill when he got done...

That mud was caked on so thick and so hard that when the power washer spray hit it, it would ricochet right back onto Bill.  Guess all males like to play in the dirt no matter what age they are ;-)

Before the day was over I got my chance to play in the mud...  well, sort of.

Crawfish, crayfish, crawdad, mud-bugs....  All the same thing.

There are lots of crayfish operations (farms) in this area.  Large ponds of water with traps laid out in rows.  While nobody was working the traps when I took these photos, we've seen guys in boats moving along from trap to trap harvesting their "crop".    

This being a Cajun area many of the restaurants here serve everything from etouffee and other dishes to just a huge platter of boiled crayfish...

That's about 3 pounds of "mud-bugs".

Highly seasoned (read: nice and spicy) this huge tray of crayfish are served piping hot.  I think if you look closely you can see the steam coming off the critters!

That was my dinner last evening...

The tray to my right holds the shells that I've discarded.

The date on on photos is correct, but the hour isn't.  However, you can see that I got my meal at 1 minute to the hour and 33 minutes later I'm still peeling and eating.  There's a method to eating crayfish and while I may not do it right, I give it a good try and sure enjoy my meal.

Bill had boiled (but spicy) shrimp.  Oh well...  he got to play in the mud earlier in the day.

That's All For Today!