I woke up at 5:30 this morning with the middle finger of my left hand locked in the closed position. I have had
trigger finger, a condition where the finger locks in a closed position, in several fingers for years but they haven't been too painful and unlock relatively easily. Last fall, this finger started having trouble and it is much more painful. Some day, the surgeon I have been referred to will call me for an appointment but I live with the condition for now. Anyway, this time it was locked as solid as I have ever seen it and I was afraid to pull to hard for fear of breaking something. After dancing around the room for a bit, I got a lucky angle and it popped free with quite a bit of pain in my palm but no apparent permanent damage.
After yet one more great Thomas prepared breakfast, he went to the hardware store and got some bright shiny chicken wire to augment the fences he put in the two back corners of the yard to keep Oscar out of where he is going to plant tomatoes.. Oscar didn't understand the purpose of the fence and just walked through the holes in the grid. After the chicken wire was attached to block the holes, he bumped into it and looked puzzled for a few moments. Then he got distracted, as usual, and moved onto something else.
Thomas installing chicken wire
Later in the morning, Thomas got out some of the crawfish tails he had saved the other night and started to remove the shells and veins. He took this mass of crawfish meat and used it to prepare a crawfish
étouffée for lunch. The crawfish were in a thick gravy-like liquid surrounding rice that was covered with herbs and spices. I thought the mix of flavours was fascinating but Sandy found it a little too spicy for her tender palate and had the large shrimp left over from the other night. I will tell you without reservation that Thomas is a master in the kitchen.
Thomas preparing crawfish for the étouffée
After lunch, I went through my records and prepared a list of the purchases we will have to declare at the border on the way home. This included RV equipment we bought last November that stayed in Birmingham over the winter. It seems we have $3,300 worth of goods and only have a $750 exemption each so I'll probably spend some time in Customs and will have to fund our governments a little more.
After the list was done, I played fetch with Oscar by throwing his blue squeaky toy across the yard.. He would run like mad to get it but then thought I should chase him to get it back. I was able to regain the toy because, every time he came back, I would pick up his favourite bone and he would drop the toy to take it. Then I'd grab the toy and throw it again.
When Pam got home, we assembled another fishing expedition to the dock on the Grand Bayou Reservoir, as I now know it is called. Pam and Thomas fished while Sandy and I watched. They like to do this to decompress at the end of the day. Thomas caught one sunfish while Pam got the catch of the day. It was a piece of bark but it put up a good fight. On the way out, Sandy got a photo of a killdeer on its nest.
The fisherpersons
Catch of the day
Killdeer on its nest
Back at the house, we had spaghetti with meat sauce, salad and garlic bread for supper. It was very good but I'm glad I didn't bring my scale with me on this trip. Then we watched a new episode of Deadliest Catch (we won't get this in Canada for months) and had apple pie before turning in for the night.
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