Preseason 2023

[Rick]

Curious if you've ever looked for your Comeaux's on the listing in St. Martinsville? Seems a popular pilgrimage.

One of the fun things I've found about the Cajuns is that most any time or place two meet, they start digging into their genealogies and find they're somehow cousins.

[DComeaux]

Curious if you've ever looked for your Comeaux's on the listing in St. Martinsville? Seems a popular pilgrimage.

One of the fun things I've found about the Cajuns is that most any time or place two meet, they start digging into their genealogies and find they're somehow cousins.

My sister did a good bit of research on our family history and found our ancestors had settled along the Bayou Teche near Port Barre. So, I'd assume some made it to St. Martinsville as well. My mom's maiden name was Comeaux and my sister discovered that her and my dad were distant cousins. I always say that I'm a pure breed. I'd like to know how many times I was asked for my mom's maiden name when I was young when filling out forms and such and the reply was no, her maiden name.

I live in what's called Prairie Basse, or low prairie. My house is about a mile or so from a much higher ridge that was once the banks of the Mississippi river flood plain. We are also 12 miles due west of the western levee of the Atchafalaya basin. In the flood of 1927 when the levees failed on the Mississippi and Atchafalaya rivers to our north there was said to be 4' of water here at my place. I live on the inherited farm property of my grandfather and grandmother on my mother's side, Athanase and Adelle Comeaux. My grandparents on my dad's side were Luce and Azelie Comeaux. They had a dairy farm just a few miles from here.

We had an ancestor that was a major figure in Port Barre. He owned a steamboat shipping company.... I could go on and on.

This is a link to an article on the flood.
https://www.wwltv.com/article/news/90-y ... -612915394

Bayou Teche (Louisiana French: Bayou Têche) is a 125-mile-long (201 km)[1] waterway in south central Louisiana in the United States. Bayou Teche was the Mississippi River's main course when it developed a delta about 2,800 to 4,500 years ago. Through a natural process known as deltaic switching, the river's deposits of silt and sediment cause the Mississippi to change its course every thousand years or so.

History
The Teche begins in Port Barre where it draws water from Bayou Courtableau and then flows southward to meet the Lower Atchafalaya River at Patterson. During the 18th-century Acadian migration to the area - then known as the Attakapas region - the Teche was the primary means of transportation.[2]


The 14 January gunboat engagement
The second engagement occurred on 14 January 1863. Union general Godfrey Weitzel learned that the J. A. Cotton was planning an attack on Weitzel's forces at Berwick Bay, Louisiana. Once again Kinsman, Calhoun, Estrella and Diana steamed into the Bayou, followed by Union transports. The bayou had been obstructed with debris. The Union gunboats and land-based units engaged the J. A. Cotton and Confederate infantry in rifle pits. During the battle Kinsman hit a mine and unshipped her rudder; the J. A. Cotton was badly damaged, and her crew set her on fire during the night to prevent capture.[3] The Union, however, was unable to hold the Teche, necessitating two more invasions of the Teche country in 1863 and 1864.

After the levees were built along the Atachafalaya River in the 1930s, the Teche and the rice farms located along the bayou suffered a drastic reduction in fresh water. Between 1976 and 1982, the United States Army Corps of Engineers built a pumping station at Krotz Springs to pump water from the Atchafalaya River into Bayou Courtableau.

The etymology of the name "Teche" is uncertain. One hypothesis is that it comes from "tenche", a Chitimacha Indian word meaning "snake", related to the bayou's twists and turns resembling a snake's movement. The Chitimacha tell an ancient story of how the snake attacked their villages, and it took many warriors many years to kill it. Where the huge carcass lay and decomposed, the depression it left behind filled with water to become the bayou.[4] Alternatively, George R. Stewart asserts that it is "probably a French rendering of Deutsch, the name by which the German colonists of the area would have named their stream. Cf. Allemand ['German']."[5]

[Rick]

Like the Indian "tenche" etymology better than the German.

[Deltaman]

Me too!
Cool history Dave!!!!

[DComeaux]

If any of you are interested expressing your opinion to the feds on the duck situation you have until March 11th.

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2024/02/08/2024-02517/migratory-bird-hunting-proposed-2024-25-migratory-game-bird-hunting-regulations-preliminary#open-comment

This also has some interesting tidbits. Just download the PDF.

https://www.regulations.gov/document/FWS-HQ-MB-2023-0113-0002

[Duck Engr]

If the Canadian prairies don’t get rain, I fear we’re going to feel the negative effects of usfws setting seasons based on the previous year’s data. Red tape strikes again.

[Rick]

Red tape strikes again.

Be little need of gooberment if someone wasn't needed to create red tape.

[DComeaux]

If the Canadian prairies don’t get rain, I fear we’re going to feel the negative effects of usfws setting seasons based on the previous year’s data. Red tape strikes again.

I agree. It doesn't look good this year and the government is lagging way behind, as usual. It'll take a crash of the population for them to go into emergency mode.

[DComeaux]

First pond visit. She had a splashing good time.

[Rick]

Good news is she's plainly watery as an otter. Bad news is she appears as wild as Call at that age. Was kidding when I posted "Hang onto your hat." earlier, but it's looking a bit prophetic...

[DComeaux]

She's going to be a handful, no doubt.

[Rick]

She's going to be a handful, no doubt.

"Handful," is how his breeder described Call. You're screwed.

[DComeaux]

When I drove out to the breeder to pick a pup, she was the only one of the 7 or 8 that came straight to me and followed me around during the time I was there. It seems to me that she wouldn't have been his first choice. I felt he was talking up a different pup who had a lot of energy. The one he was referencing was hyper and Remi was calm and not near as active. I wanted something in-between hair on fire and a sloth. I was doubting my decision for the first week or two, as I thought I may have a nonenergetic, lazy dog........

[Rick]

I've been known to choose the litter and then let the pup pick me, too. Which begs the question, "How often did that pup then second guess its decision?"

Anyway, "kids will be kids". And you know she'll be fine. Hell, she's yours: she'll be great.

[Deltaman]

Good looking dog Dave!

[DComeaux]

Good looking dog Dave!

Thanks....I sure hope she becomes teachable as she grows. Starting with Ellie @ 2 years old I missed all of this puppy stuff. I think I'm trying to move too fast with this little twister.

[Pennydog1]

congradulations on your new pal im sure your ellie has earned a rest for her service, god love senior dogs .have fun they grow up fast.

[Darren]

She looks like she's willing to get after it! gotta love that

[5 stand]

First pond visit. She had a splashing good time.

I enjoyed the splashing Good times video...
That little young lady would fit right in around here, Moe is a busy boy, especially when he was young... But I had no expectations, and heck, I think he's turned out just fine (not for trade)...

Look forward to the future updates...

[DComeaux]

This is how I currently see Remi.

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/TmGuzQUcSVn9Gnzb/?mibextid=hLiTNg

[Rick]

Nice to know we're not alone.

[DComeaux]

My progress so far with Remi, or lack thereof, I think she may be ready to hunt in a couple of years or so. I have a wild animal.

[Rick]

Keep the faith. Took quite a bit longer to get where we are with Call's training than with past pups brought on much the same, but we're finding ourselves in Boxer Lady's shoes less and less often. Helps to chant "Better too much than too little, better too much than too little, better too..."

[DComeaux]

That's what I keep telling myself. See's a wound up rubber band with a zero attention span. I can't train on anything very long without her doing circus trick and ripping flesh from my body. It does make me laugh to see her go into zoomy mode, though. I'll just have to slow down and work with her personality.

[DComeaux]

$12,500 Reward Offered for Information on Shooting of Endangered Whooping Crane in Evangeline Parish


The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) are looking for leads regarding an endangered whooping crane that was found deceased in January of 2024 in Evangeline Parish.

On the morning of January 9, 2024, a juvenile whooping crane was found dead in an agricultural pond on the south side of Besi Lane in Mamou. A necropsy determined that the crane was shot, which resulted in a fracture of the spine and internal hemorrhaging.

A total of $12,500 is being offered by various organizations for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for the illegal shooting of this whooping crane. The reward includes the USFWS offering up to $5,000, the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Foundation up to $2,500, the International Crane Foundation up to $2,500, and the Dallas Zoo up to $2,500.

Anyone with information about this case should call the USFWS at 985-882-3756 or the LDWF Lake Charles Office at 337-491-2588. Callers can remain anonymous if they choose.

LDWF with support from partners has released 167 whooping cranes in the state since 2011 in an effort to reintroduce the birds to the state. Another 30 cranes have been hatched and reared in the wild or translocated to Louisiana from a previously reintroduced population in Florida. The Louisiana population is currently estimated to be 81 whooping cranes. This reintroduced population marked the first presence of whooping cranes in the wild in Louisiana since 1950. The crane in this case was released in November of 2023.

Whooping cranes are the most endangered of the world’s crane species. The Louisiana flock is designated as a non-essential, experimental population but is protected under state law, the Endangered Species Act, and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.

[Rick]

Hard to imagine assholes ever becoming endangered.

[Duck Engr]

Feels like there’s at least one instance of this every year. I don’t get it.

[DComeaux]

The breeder/trainer Remi came from posted a picture on his FB page of a black lab pup this evening that he said was "patiently" waiting her turn in line for training behind the big dogs. I sent him a text to ask if that was one of Remis litter mates. He said it was and that she was spunky as heck, too. I had sent him a text earlier this month of the pond video of Remi and wrote that he had sold me a Tasmanian devel. He laughed. I feel a little better now and will just have to wait for her to settle down and add some age.

[DComeaux]

After a long wear-down period I finally got her to settle down a bit and do a few things we've been working on.

20240315_174538.jpg

I had been seeing this white-tailed fox squirrel for a few years now and watched it grow. A couple of weeks ago I found it on the road. He was easy to spot running through my yard. I was a little disappointed to see him lying there.

20240310_162143.jpg

[Rick]

"Baby steps" and all, but that's a huge cornerstone in our progression that took us way too long to lay.