THIS GUY HAS GOT THE WOOD!

We have spent the week doing a bit of shopping, sunning and relaxing. We are going to move Kelly on Friday from her apartment in Palestine to a self storage place in Katy. When she returns from Ohio, she will stay with her sister, Carrie, for the week and then they will move her into her new apartment in Katy.

Each day the temperature has been in the mid to high 90s…with two days reaching 102. Now that is HOT!

Since things have been a bit slow, we want to share another adventure we had when we were staying at Betty’s RV Park in Abbeville, LA.

Friday, May 28 - After the swamp tour, we drove over to meet Gerald Judice at his workshop. Gerald salvages all types of wood from the swamps. Most of this wood dates back to before the Civil War.

Gerald explaining the type of wood used in this bowl.

 

There's cedar, cherry, mahogany, popular, oak, and many other species.

This table of bowls has all the different types of wood.

Paul was looking for Cyprus and boy did Gerald have some beautiful Cyprus. He has literally tons and tons of wood stacked everywhere in his barn, shelters, workshop, and even in his former house, which sits on the property.

 

His daughter, Emily, who is learning the wood turning skill of making beautiful wooden bowls from her father, is also trying to get her dad to quit storing wood in the house so she can move into the place....LOL

Gerald also makes other wood items including furniture, bird feeders, benches, spoons, and other works of art.

Small boxes

He has enough wood to last him and his family for a hundred years but says he can't stop digging it out of the swamps because it may not be there next year!

Here is some of the beautiful wood he had for sale. Great for bowl making.

Here is Gerald showing Paul some great pieces of wood stored in the shop area.

This was Marsha’s favorite part. Emily made a bowl from start to finish while Marsha took pictures.

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Different view of Step 3

Once she was done with this step, Emily used sand paper and hand sanded until it was smooth as glass. Beautiful work, Emily.

We spent about two hours with this remarkable man. Before we left, Gerald invited Paul to go pick out some wood. Paul was like a little boy in a candy shop.

The perfect piece….he was soooooo happy.

Another great Cajun experience! Thanks Gerald and Emily for sharing your talents with us.

Thanks to you all for stopping by. Hope to see y’all real soon.

LAISSEZ LES BONS TEMPS ROULER

Sunday, May 30 – Can you read French? No. The title of the blog is the motto for Abbeville…Let the good times roll!

Formerly called La Chapelle, the land that was to become Abbeville was purchased by founding father Père Antoine Désiré Mégret (Père is French for 'Father'), Capuchin missionary, on July 25, 1843 for $900. Father Megret modeled his original plan for the village after a French Provincial village.

Visited downtown Abbeville this morning to see some of the historical buildings some dating back to 1903.

This building is the site of the local bank.

Being Sunday, EVERYTHING was closed! It is center of government for the Parish of Vermilion. Founded in 1850, they have a proud Cajun heritage of living close to our coastal environment.

This is an unusual small town in that it has two city centers. One is the courthouse square with a surrounding traffic circle

and the other is Magdalen Square, which is a beautiful town square accented by huge oak trees, a fountain, and gazebo. Today, a statue stands in Magdalen Square in memorial to Father Megret.

There is also a beautiful huge Catholic Church called St. Mary Magdalen Church‎.

The Church also has an above ground cemetery that is customary in Louisiana.

In case you would rather read it in French.

The town is also know for the Steen’s Cane Syrup. This typical setting of a small syrup mill is much like the one C. S. Steen started with in 1910. This mule drawn mill could produce a couple barrels of syrup a day. Steen’s has a famous recipe called STEEN'S Cane Cured Pheasant. Briefly it is a tender young breast in Pure Cane Syrup, Balsamic Vinegar, Madeira Wine, Rosemary, and Thyme over Andouille Potato Pancakes with Shiitake Mushroom Au Jus. If you visit the website, they have the recipe ingredients listed.

We stopped at the local grocery store – Robie's. Marsha loved shopping for local grocery items. Things like spicy chicken salad, egg salad, Cajun spices and Cajun spicy green beans.

We relaxed most of the afternoon. We planned our next stop in Houston. We watched the college softball playoffs on TV and the Indy 500.

We got a couple heavy rain showers this afternoon. Lucky all our sightseeing adventures have been completed.

We went to happy hour at 4:30. Betty grilled some Cajun sausage, another RVer made ribs and green beans, and Marsha made some delicious rice. We had a really nice picnic.

We visited many other attractions that we will tell you about in future posts.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon.