July 10, 2004
Bourg La
Grand Bois Campground
Made a formal Newman Family portrait this morning and after sad good byes and promises to stay in touch I was on my way again. I’ve been so blessed meeting such good people on my travels. The last eight days have flown past and it was good to be grounded, but the wanderlust and road have been calling my name the last day or two and it was time to be heading south. Towards New Orleans (sort-of) and on to Florida. Then up the coast to Maine, unless I head west. Or go to Maine then back to Florida, it’s kind of hot down here right now. Hope to spend a few days in the back country and do some exploring around the bayous. It’s hard to do while pulling the trailer so I’m looking for a place to camp for a few days and head out with just the truck or on the bike. It’s still kind of scarier heading down a dirt road that keeps getting smaller and smaller with 26 feet of airstream behind me and the possibility of no turn arounds in front of me. I believe it is possible to detach the airstream from the truck and using the metal wheel and a come-a-long turn the airstream around in a very small area, but as yet I have not tested this theory and probably should before I take any really small roads.
Hand and a Banana Spider
July 9,2004
Buller La
So after eating pounds of the little guys I began to wonder where they came from. A short drive brought us to Paul Heinen’s crawfish and/or rice fields. Paul’s son Scot and a fella named Red where out in the boats fishing, so I hung out on a levy and watched. It was about lunch time when Paul’s truck drove up and the two boats headed toward me. I introduced myself and talked about making a photograph or two. Paul jumped into one of the boats and said “Sure! Where do you want it?” Afterwards, a portrait was in order. See their portraits and the other images coming soon in the gallery.
The boats and the whole crawfish experience is quite unique. First the crawfish are held up in fields that are flooded with about one foot of water. The boats are driven by gas engine attached to hydraulics that turns a paddle wheel affair at the stern of the boat. The paddle wheel can drive the boat by pushing water or digging into the mud. The boats have rubber wheels about midway so the boats work as well on land as they do in the water. It’s quite a sight to see them navigate the fields, levies and muddy roads around the fields.
The crawfish are caught in wire traps that are baited with stuff you don’t want to know about. One day is spent baiting traps and the next pulling traps. Each boat is manned by one person who drives the boat and pulls traps, dumping the crawfish into a metal tray with 3 funnel like corners that go into burlap bags. As each bag gets full it is tied off and a new one is put in its place.
Crawfishing boat- note wheels
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
I’ve spent the last three weeks working with V.R.’s herd. Here are some of the fun shots and a few of the 4×5’s. This page may be a bit slow to load…….. Good time to go get some coffee…..
one of the final 4×5 images
V.R. feeding
V.R. and DMK
one of V.R.’s cows
DMK Running scared
Old Barn and Long Horn
Through the truck window
V.R. and His friends
Spent the afternoon fishing on V.R.’s lake. Great Day good bass fishing
Henry’s first boat ride
Henry Kissen Fish
All week, really since a day or two after I arrived on June 9th it’s been raining. The last five days, it’s really been raining! The last few days I’ve been watching the bayou as it has slowly crawled toward my camp. Obviously the creatures are crawling too as witnessed by Henry’s recent visit from the snake. Mr. Don, the camp manager, keeps assuring us the water never gets that high. But his warnings seem to always come with implied exceptions, and a twinkle in his deep blue eyes.
I have decided that the Airstream floating down the bayou, along with the various other object we have so far sighted; 55 gallon drums, logs, 1 and 5 gallon jugs, an icebox, some abandon boats and vast amounts of unknown objects washed away by the recent rise in water, would make a stunning photograph. Standing by the edge of the rising water with my fellow campers, many of them long term leasers here at Turtle Bayou, I hear stories about the last flood and the dead body they got to fish out as it floated by.
The rise in water seemed to excite everyone and even Bill Ellis got a ride down to the fishing pier via Don’s golf cart and caught hisself two catfish for dinner. I photographed Bill last week and got to know him a bit. He was a heavy equipment operator until a few years ago, when two strokes ended that and now he spends his days sitting outside his 1977 Airstream watching the goings on at Turtle Bayou. He’s been living here ‘bout 4 years.
Last night the water had covered the fishing pier and I made the decision to move in the morning…….
During the night I woke a few times and the water was rising slowly and about 4 AM I fell into a sound sleep. 6 AM brought a loud knocking on our door and there stood Don, rubber boots, jeans, bright yellow rain slicker, blue oversized umbrella and huge blue eyes. Standing there in torrential rain with the same twinkle in his eyes. “It’s risen kinda fast… you all might wanna move up a bit.” I stepped out of the Airstream into 5 inches of water, looked over at the bike and saw the bottom of the engine beginning to disappear under the chocolate brown water and decided it might be a good idea. I spent the next hour stowing gear, hooking up and hauling ass to higher ground.
After the flood
just to remind you here is before
Mr. Bill Ellis
Don the Manager
