Buller, La
The last few days have been spent catching up on images, running film and fellowship with the Newmans and their friends. But tonight the crawfish arrived…. A real “coon- ass dinner” to quote T Jon. About 5 o’clock I noticed two large burlap bags moving around by the back door. Upon closer exploration I realized they were full of live crawfish (mud bugs to be exact). Seems these critters live in tunnels in the mud that have low areas where the water can settle. They dig cave-like areas to back into out of the water. Then to feed and breathe, they run through the tunnel areas that are under water. I thought they lived under water. Paul, the farmer who raised the ones we ate alternates the fields, one year rice, one year mud bugs.
Anyway T Jon’s Dad got the water to a boiling and in went pounds and pounds of crayfish, with Angie adding onions, potatoes, corn, mushrooms and Cajun spices of unknown quantities. Soon the think swampy night air was permeated by the smell of truly fine mud bugs slowly cooken. . A short time later we ate standing around a wooden table ripping apart the little bastards and sucken up their juices. One really great meal.
Where they come from
gotta clean em first
Dakota likes em hot
T Jon’s Dad serves em up
T Jon and Dixie
A good time was had by all
Truly amazing day yesterday with Sister Reiddie Harper! After meeting her at the barn we were invited over to the house and we spent the rest of the afternoon and early evening engrossed in conversation and photographing her. For ninety-one she has a steel trap mind and has deep family ties to the Dry Creek, La. area that go back many generations.
She has written and self published four books and has two more to write. We are talken total self publishing here. They are printed on her computer, then cut and put into her home made glue press and glued up. They are bound by hand and she reads each book twice to check for errors. Her dining room, bedroom and small office have books all over in various stages of completion.
The books deal with her life, the early history of Dry Creak, the depression and Hoover Hogs. Her stories entwine history, religion, humor, and The Holy Ghost. They are written in a style that is truly her own. To read them is to be sitting in her kitchen, as the lighting and thunder seem to punctuate her words as she serves up everything from frozen pizza to smoked chicken. Sister Reiddie is a Pentecostal Preacher and just talking to her you feel the power of The Lord. Her Bible is so old and worn; many pages have had to be replaced. You can reach her at: Reiddie@peoplepe.com, I recommend getting all her books!
Sister Reiddie Harper in front of her smoke house
Sister Reiddie at her computer
The author in her “production room”
In Sister Reiddie’s living room
Up at 6 am to find Angie and Jayde loading sheep into their air conditioned trailer while T Jon and the guys unloaded the watermelons they picked yesterday. The days start early and end late at The Newman’s. Right now the watermelon business is hot being July 4th. Because of this years heavy rains most of the watermelon crop was lost. The fact that T Jon planted his watermelons on a hillside while most others growers planted in lower fields means the Newman’s melons are in high demand, but T Jon’s prices remain the same.
I’ve been invited to go to the watermelon fields this morning. They have a six acre field behind Mrs. Harper’s House about 30 minutes away. So far they figure they have picked about 5,000 melons since early June and maybe have another 3,000 sitten on the ground. I have heard some stories about Mrs. Harper, her 16 gauge shotgun and her prolific use of this particular weapon from her back door. Watermelon picken and a 91 year old woman with a shotgun, sounds like a good time to us and off we go.
By 9 am; T Jon, his nephew Jake, the other Jake, and Dakota are out in the field. There is an orderly plan to watermelon picken- T Jon walks the field checking the melons, cutting the vines on the ripe ones and points to them. The two Jakes pick ‘em up and load the trailer behind the tractor driven by Dakota. It’s hard work in the hot humid sun and not many breaks. Once in a while a melon accidentally breaks open and out come the knives … They will load over 400 melons today.
Under a large open sided metal roof sits two flatbeds full of past picked melons resting on beds of straw. As the day progresses, peddlers come to buy melons and the activity in the field slows down as the melons are sold and loaded onto pickups.
It is under this roof we first meet Sister Reiddie Harper, Grandma to the folks around the Newman Household……
The Boogah Camp
Boogah Signs
Dakota on Tractor
DMK and the Watermelon Men
Watermelon Toss
Jake
The other Jake
Speaking of wrong turns….
I left Turtle Bayou around noon and crossed the Texas Border into Louisiana heading toward O’Brian’s Flying Service. In the town of Iowa, Louisiana a wrong turn down HWY 383 brought me to Boogah Red’s Vegetable Stand and family farm,in Buller La. After purchasing watermelon, tomatoes, green chile, squash and other goodies I made photographs of the Newman Family and friends. As the sun set on us, in the swamps and farm country of Louisiana, I was invited to park the airstream next to The Newman’s barn for the night. Tonight, the whole family would be working late into the night sheering sheep for a livestock competition that their daughter, Jayde is attending tomorrow. Hours later as the sheep quiet down and the night slips away I had the feeling that I really did make the right turn after all.
The Newman Family and Friends
Dakota, and The Newmans: Jayde, T Jon and Angie worken the sheep
T Jon and Jayde Newman
DMK and his new Friends
Jayde worken a sheep
28 days at Turtle Bayou! Amazing how a one night stay can expand into a 28 day adventure. I’ve met so many great people here and made some good new friends. The fellowship with V.R. and Jean, his wife, was unquestionably the high point of the trip. Spending time with them in their home, in the field with the Longhorns, and at their Church where V.R. is the Pastor, has given me memories that will last a life time.
While staying at Turtle Bay I made one of the multi media images of Bruce Springsteen, The Nebraska Session, for my gallery in New York. (The Gallery at the Katonah General Store). The images were printed in the airstream, the plastic was poured in the dinning room/kitchen of V.R. and Jeans’ Church, The Day Spring Church, in Liberty, Texas and the steel frame was made by V.R.’s son, David Hylton, who owns The Lone Star Fab Inc. company in Mount Belvieu, Texas. David is a true artist with metal and if you are looking for any metal work in the South Texas area, from fabrication to fine art be sure to look him up. His email is HYLTONDAVID@cs.com.
Now I come to the matting and framing of the work. This really is more of an installation piece than a straight framing job and we were truly blessed to find Dakota Framing, owned and run by Joan Bueling. Joan runs the framing show and is also a private dealer of fine art, primarily photography, but has a very eclectic group of artists ranging from potters to very fine rug weavers. Meeting her and her significant other, Jerry Herring, who is a photographer and owner of a graphic design firm made the numerous 80 mile round trip drives to Houston something I could almost look forward to. So while in Houston the best frame shop and dealer has got to be Joan! And special kudos to Frank, my friend and the owner of Frontier Frames in Santa Fe (just the best little frame shop in the Southwest) for recommending Joan to us!
Now I’m not gonna try and tell you that doing a multi media piece while on the road is something I’d do often…. But with the support people we found here it turned what was beginning to look like a complete disaster into a finished image I am quite proud of.
The time I have spent here has been what I’d hoped the trip would be about. To head off into the unknown with little or no direction, allowing The Great Mystery to unfold, trusting in it to guide us down a path of discovery of the American landscape. Not only the hills and valleys but of the People who reside here. Learning that there are no wrong turns, no missed exits because it is unfolding as it should and perhaps that’s better than the way we think it should be. Each wrong turn only deepens the Mystery and allows so many new possibilities to come into our lives. If only we can learn to trust enough and believe.
V.R. and Jean in front of their Church
Singers at Church
Food
Shooting on the road to Liberty Texas
The Turtle Bay Camp
