On 12/25/2014 4:19 AM, songbird wrote:
> George Shirley wrote:
> ...
>> Miz Anne and Tilly Dawg went out for a little walk this morning. They
>> walk around the retention pond and on this trip she scattered wild
>> flower seeds here and there plus some Louisiana iris seed. Hoping to see
>> something beside the other weeds come spring. Will probably spread some
>> more next week and later. The retention pond has a few turtles, some
>> frogs, and a family of nutria living there. I call it our emergency
>> pantry myself. Some critters and a few roots from the cat tails and you
>> have a meal.
>
> nutria? i thought those were coastal and swamp
> critters? how big do they get?
We are coastal bird, only about fifty miles to the Gulf, heat zone 8b,
mostly flat as a board, lots of bayou's, creeks, small and large rivers,
etc. They get up to about twenty lbs. Most coastal states now have a
bounty on nutria. Louisiana had a bounty, if I remember correctly, of a
few bucks on the tail alone. Lots of people eat the meat and the hides
are still valuable in Europe so there are sometimes hide buyers around.
>
> i've never dug up a cattail root. what are
> they like? supposedly the tops are also edible
> when eaten young but i've not ever tried that
> either.
Think of a small potato, the cattail tassels used to be harvested for
the seeds to make a sort of flour, haven't done any survival hikes in
years so haven't taken any in a long time. In addition the tassels make
a good fire starter when fluffed up. Very useful the cattail plant.
>
> around here there's not many places close that
> i would trust any cattail roots, the ditches are
> too full of runoff from agricultural poisoners
> and in many areas the cattails are sprayed in an
> attempt to get rid of them.
Then they're making a mistake, cattails are filter feeders and will
accumulate a good bit of those poisons and then can be harvested and
burned or buried in a landfill.
>
> i think we got a bit of snow last night, i
> went to bed early thinking i could use a few
> extra winks for a long day and i wake up early
> anyways.
We had frost on the cars parked outside this morning, low was 37F.
>
> hope you folks have a nice day down there.
>
>
> songbird
>
Since we're doing family Christmas tomorrow at our daughter's home today
will be lazy Christmas with just the two of us and the dawg. Tomorrow is
also our 54th wedding anniversary and the 28th will be our daughter's
54th birthday, get it all over with at once.

Got to sleep in this morning until 0800.

George