Fishin' on the Bayou

This weekend we got a chance to go down to the Voisin family camp. It's a cabin-like house built up on piers over part of the bayou as you go toward some of the brack-ish lakes on the way to the Gulf.

Here are some pictures of some of the other "camps" along the way to the river.

Some are built up pretty high.

Some are actually pretty nice...

Others are cpretty close together...

Here's Jenny and Scottie coming out ready to head out on the boat.

So I'm in the bathroom inside the house when Greg comes running to tell me that Amy had caught a fish and to bring the camera. I go running down the dock so proud of my little wife who I didn't know could fish. I get there and she's got a big limp fish on the line... I think to myself, "Wow, I must have taken a long time getting down here, the thing isn't even moving."

Amy could barely even hold it up... it was a sheep head fish which we'd caught a few just like it earlier in the day. Later they all started laughing because Greg had just stuck one of the fish we'd caught that morning on a hook and tossed the line in the water to make it look like Amy had caught it. What a deception!!!

These are some of the ugliest fish I've ever seen. They call them sheep head fish because they actually have teeth like a sheep which are used to open up clams and eat them. Pretty gross!!!

Caleb had a great time... he just ran from one room to the next, to the next and inbetween would hold down the tap on the bottled water jug (which we eventually had to hide in the bathroom).

It was a pretty nice day too... about 76 degrees with a little breez. When we woke up at 5:00am to go fhishing, it was pretty cold, though.

We had this boat so overloaded when we left the back was only about 2-3 inches out of the water.

Greg would make a great river boat captain.

Caleb looks like he's doing fine now, but he was faking...

Caleb's Christmas hat

Caleb sure does love this Christmas hat. I I think he thinks that it gives him invisible powers, or permission to just get into whatever cabinet he wants.

Caleb's vacuum

We were at Greg's parents home for Thanksgiving dinner and afterward Caleb went out back to play with this little vacuum. He LOVED it. He wouldn't put it down. He wouldn't leave it.

He would "fix it" if it was broken...

He would carry it if it got stuck...

Would pull it...

He would pull it some more... until he found...

THE SWING SET!!!

He loved going down the slide and could do it by himself after just a couple of trips.He kept trying to kick the other kids off so he could use the steering wheel - we'll need to work on his sharing skills.My favorite part was watching him try to walk up the slide. He kept getting stuck, so I'd hold his hands and then he'd walk right up as fast as he could at a 45 degree angle until he got to the top.

Bayou Swamp Tour

We decided to go on a little Cajun swamp tour yesterday. It was really cool. The only problem is that the temperature was 65 degress (it had been below 30 a couple of nights before) when we went out and the tour guide said when the temperature hits 72 degrees the alligators will burrow themselves underwater and hibernate. They live off the fat they've accumulated during the summer months and they get oxygen through their bottom jaw (kind of like gills).

We decided to go on a little Cajun swamp tour yesterday. It was really cool. The only problem is that the temperature was 65 degress (it had been below 30 a couple of nights before) when we went out and the tour guide said when the temperature hits 72 degrees the alligators will burrow themselves underwater and hibernate. They live off the fat they've accumulated during the summer months and they get oxygen through their bottom jaw (kind of like gills).

Oysters, Oysters

Okay, so here's the whole process of Greg's work involves. 1st the oyster boats bring their loads up the intercoastal canal from the reefs out in the Gulf. The intercostal canal was built in the early 1900's for the oil fields to protect ships during hurricane season. Motivatit seafood's property backs the canal and here's one of the boats they use. It's an 85 foot boat named after Greg's grandma "Miss Joyce."
They just scoop all the oysters up in these big rakes and then clean them and dump them into 100lb sacks which are weighed back at the warehouse.

Then a guy uses a mini-crane hung from the ceiling which measures each oyster sack. The boats who bring them in are suppose to make sure they each weigh 100lbs, but sometimes they only load them to like 95lbs so they can squeeze a few extra bags out of the load. Greg use to do that by hand from 3am - 6pm during the summers during high school. No wonder he played O-Line at Snow. After they're unloaded the oysters are cleaned off and put in crates in the SHUCKING ROOM.

In the shucking room a guy loads this little conveyor belt which carries 300 oysters into a cylinder about a foot in diameter and 4 feet tall.

Then they pressurize the cylinder to 3600 psi which kills the bacteria and separates the oyster from the shell (the most time consuming part of "shucking" the oysters). That is their patented process which creates the "perfect oyster." It also saves them a ton of time and money on day laborer "shuckers."

Then the cylender is emptied onto this table where the "shuckers" separate out the oysters into different sizes and open them up and cut out the meat.

Looks kind of gross at first...

Smells even worse later...

Some of the meat is frozen with Nitrous Oxide and placed on "the half shell;" which are the perfectly shaped oysters. Restaraunts pay the most for these.
Here's the big tank of Nitrous Oxide outside the cooling room.

They then ptu them in these nice little trays and stick them in the freezer to sell them year round.
So these "oysters on the half shell" are th emost profitable item the company has.

I wonder why they let Greg drive the forklift around them??? Here's what a crate of oysters looks like... I don't know why I'm including this picture.

Greg is amazing!!! Once the oysters are shucked the shells are conveyed outside the building into trucks. They use oysters for everything.

Even as a base for pouring concrete. Greg's Dad says they work great because they're hollow and they hold the concrete "cupped" into shape. this is for the floor and wall of the new building where they'll freeze the "half shell" oysters.