Ann Dail, Broker/Realtor,ePRO, SRS, B.A.Chem

This weekend is the big Louisiana Fur and Wildlife festival in Camerson, and after blogging on it I got some questions about Gumbo.  For all of you unfamiliar with this delicacy, it deserves a few comments.

Gumbo is a stew or soup which originated in south Louisiana in the 18th century.  Hunters and fishermen took meat of the day and mixed it with a strong stock, a thickener, and vegetables, often celery and bell peppers and onion which were plentiful.  One of the more famous varieties uses a spice called "Fele".  This powder is made from dried and ground sassafras leaves.  "Fele" can give some thickening when okra is not in season, as well as giving the stew a very distictive flavor.  Over the years ingredients and culinary practices of several cultures influenced the hundreds of recipes that are available today: French, Spanish, West African, and native American Indians (Choctaw); and later the Italians, Germans, and other Europeans.

The meat components can be anything available, seafood, chicken, sausage, duck, wild game meat, or sausage made from any of these things.

Here are a few of the more interesting recipes:

Some of the most popular Mardi Gras Gumbos

Andouille File Gumbo

Nutria Gumbo  (video)

Alligator or Crocodile Gumbo

Wild Duck Gumbo

Seafood Gumbo

This weekend just South of Lafayette and Lake Charles Louisiana along the Louisiana coastal waters, you will find a bustle of activity in the town of Cameron. If you love nature and living off the land, you will enjoy this event. There are the usual carnival events for the family, and a parade. But the skills required to live in nature are the unique things about this festival.

Often called the "Oldest and Coldest" festival in Louisiana, the lOUISIANA fUR & wILDLIFE fESTIVAL comes in the heart of winter; so bring your outdoor jackets and thermals. Some of the competitive events are skeet shooting and and duck and goose calling. You can watch trap setting and oyster shucking experts.

Why when you finish, you may feel like you can survive for a week in the wild! Or at least have fun trying.

In louisiana the natives like to protect our wildlife, so "if you shoot it or catch it, you eat it here." That includes alligator, crawfish, and all sorts of critters. Ever wonder what's in the Louisiana Gumbo? It's hard to tell.

HOMES NEAR CAMERON AND LAFAYETTE

HOME NEAR BATON ROUGE

It started this weekend, skating on the river in downtown Baton Rouge. The River Center has converted its arena into an ice rink and it's fun for the whole family! There are a series of 90 minute skate sessions, and the skate package includes Skate Rental, a small drink, and a small candy.

It only comes to Baton Rouge once a year, so be sure and come out for some old-fashioned fun!

Tickets on sale now.

It was a crisp, autumn morning when this pond became home to a family of ducks traveling south ahead of the cold winter. Much quacking and swimming and diving for a meal in this luscious, moss rich water. And the sun gleaming thru the oaks and willows brought warmth from the cool, breezy north wind. It was such a beautiful sight that I had to pause on my morning jog to enjoy this brief moment of nature's beauty.

While I paused, my mind reflected on my childhood. This scene reminded me of my many chats and adventures with my dad. My dad loved nature and we use to take long walks together and look at the birds and animals around our farm. He was 6' 7" tall man, and my little four year old legs had to walk at least twice as many steps as he did, to keep up with his long Texas stride. I use to laugh and blame him for ruining my "beauty pageant" opportunities because I never took petite, graceful steps but had a long swagger like my dad. So here I was this day again watching nature and cherishing all those walks with my father.

And as I watched, this family of nomad ducks joined the one local permanent resident white duck, for a day of friendship and feasting. They circled from one side of the pond to the other and occasionally walked on to the bank and stretched and shook their feathers in the sunshine. Water droplets hurled like jewels as the sun caught them. Ah, yes, a moment and memories well worth the interruption of my day.

This post is written as a submission to the ActiveRain 'Kodak Moments' contest. I have the chance to win the KODAK EASYSHARE M580 Digital Camera

To participate in the ActiveRain contest, visit the blog post announcing the contest from Kodak and ActiveRain.

As I reflected on the concepts of Gratitude and Rainbow of Holiday Miracles, it opened up 3 separate thought patterns for me.

First I thought about a rainbow. A Rainbow as pictured in "Sally" Cheeseman's blog is filled with many, brilliant but blended colors. So I thought of my recent visit with my grandsons to Dallas, Texas to see ICE, which this year told the Charlie Brown Christmas story in beautiful, brilliant colored ice carvings.

This picture of my grandson speeding down the ice slide is a great picture of just how often we get caught up in the activities of our life and don't stop and turn around to notice all the beauty behind us and all around us. Because I was a spectator watching my memories of this experience are filled with awe at the beautiful multiple colors of the ice sculptures, while my grandsons remember mainly the thrill of the slide. And on reflection on this brief moment in time in my experience, I am grateful and see it as a bit of a miracle that each of us can share a moment of time and come away with totally differenct experiences and perspectives. Somehow our world is better when we are able to embrace the value that is brought out by sharing each of those different perspectives. Yes, my appreciation for the beauty is enhanced when I share my grandsons pure high energy enjoyment of that second slide from top to bottom. When I asked them which part of our trip they liked most (and we did many different things), they answered spontaneously with thinking"Everything". If only we could go back to that 4yr or 5yr old attitude of experiencing pure joy in just living! And just enjoy all the multiple colors of our lives.

Second, I thought of Gratitude. To me gratitude is a feeling of thankful appreciation. Why, when I am feeling grateful about things and people in my life a big smile comes on to my face, like the smiles of my two grandsons when that crazy goat stopped and let them pet and oho and aah over him. The mind is a funny thing. When you begin to have grateful thoughts, there is less and less time to worry or feel sorry for yourself or moan and groan. Just starting a series of grateful thoughts will fill up your whole countenance with joy. And I am more grateful when I forget myself completely and just enjoy the world around me and the people in it. Why I can even chuckle at the old grump I run into or the crazy driver in traffic and hope that he, like Scrooge, will find the true meaning of Christmas.

Third, I thought about Holiday Miracles. To me a miracle is something you can't do yourself. Something almost supernatural that isn't just a natural sequence of events or something man can create. This is the kind of stuff that blows you away when you think about it. Those moments where everything come together perfectly without any effort on your part. Whle there are many miracles like life itself and the nature all around us, this holiday a miracle in my life comes to my mind. The one that occurred to me was financial. Gustav had a severe impact on Baton Rouge and for 5 months I had almost no income as people couldn't even drive down their streets, much less think about buying or selling homes. I keep a reserve of several months to cover those emergency times, but with the recession following right on the heels of Gustav I have had enough income to pay my bills, but not enough extra to build up those reserves. During an unusually slow summer here, I was stressed about my cash flow drawing close to the bottom, when I got a call from a man in Ecuador. He asked me about a property on the Internet from my IDX and after a few minutes of conversation he said "I would really like to work with you, but I am bringing my family in this weekend and I want to know if you can give up your weekend and find us a home by Monday. I have cash and want to close by then." Of course I was skeptical after all the Internet fraud that we hear about, but he was willing to meet with me in a the lobby of his hotel, and he gave me all kinds of contact information for him so I could check him out. I met briefly with him and his wife and daughter. They were real buyers needing a committed Realtor. The bottom line is that within 96 hours I had added several thousand dollars to my bank account. That took away my breath, and I was thankful that I serve a God who is big enough to provide all my needs even if I am sometimes tested.