Salutations from the soggy wetlands of Monticello, AR. On a past weekend, we had a social gathering sponsored by the church. This event was a catfish fry. It was originally scheduled to be held at the church building grounds, but since the rain was threatening (again) it was moved down to the local park where there is a covered tabled area. The way that the fry the fish, was to batter it in cornmeal and flour and then dump it into a vat fryer. This vat reminded me somewhat of a witches cauldron. It was home-made and had an iron wash tub with a tripod made of 3" boiler tubes. It would hold a 5-gallon tub of peanut oil and then have plenty of room for everything else. The heat beneath the pot was supplied by propane. I asked the owner of the pot about how he made it, and received little help. When we came to the pot, all I could get out of him was that he got it from the barn, like everyone always gets them from the barn.

As I don't own a barn, and was looking for some more detailed information, I pursued the discussion a little further and found out that it used to be a wash basin. As to where to procure one, I have no idea. However, it is very useful if you ever want to deep fry anything for large groups of people.

In other news, Karren and Jim came out for a visit, and they also thought they would ease some of our mexican food woes and bring us some tortillas. Now, when I say that they wanted to bring us some tortillas, they sure did, and I think that one well made burrito would feed our entire family off one of these things. I don't know exactly where they found them, but they are awesome. That is probably the single thing that I miss the most from Arizona - the food, and especially the tortillas. In addition to the tortillas, we enjoyed their company. On Sunday afternoon we thought that we would take a drive around and go look at the mill and then drive down the levee on the Mississippi river and see the water/wild life.

At the mill there is a weather station which, among other things, measures precipitation amounts. From our trusty environmental department I have been told that during the first 15 days of the month of May we received 18.5" of rain. All of this moisture has resulted in the water levels of the river being slightly raised, and it was very easy to see from the road. We found lots of animals including about 10 turtles on logs in the river and a couple of turkeys that flew over the road in front of the car as we drove by. We failed to capture any photos of these animals, but did manage to capture some photos of the slower variety.

We have been told that "everyone in southern Arkansas is a hick and hunts everything" from those who live in the Little Rock area. This sign is located on the fence around the paper mill and would appear to support their conclusions. Hunting and fishing is certainly one of the locals favorite pass times here. On the trip down to the river we found another turtle crossing the road. We stopped to get it and Terra hoped out and tried to pick it up, but just couldn't bring herself to do it, so Karren had to hop out and grab it after many failed attempts to kidnap it. It turned out to be a fairly large red eared slider, and we didn't keep it. I know that these animals are a few dollars from almost any local pet store, but the fact that I live in an area where these turtles (that require lots of water to survive) live is a bit unnerving.

I would rather not live in a place that gets enough water to keep them alive. Although we didn't take this one, Karren and I found another turtle that was crossing the road, and we brought it home for the kids to see. It lasted a couple hours before it could not be located by the kids and (if it knew what was good for it) made a break for it. I know that the survival rate for animals on the road ways is not great, but it might be higher than in the hands of small children...

One thing about living here is that we see the missionaries on a more frequent basis. They stop by frequently and we now have then over on an almost weekly basis for dinner. On one of these occasions, we were eating ice cream sundies. These sundies had maraschino cherries on top of the whip cream, and Kyle ate his cherries as well as the stems. One of the missionaries that was here told him that eating the stems is not good for you and you shouldn't do it. Then Kyle looked at him and said, I am not dead yet. When it comes to matters of health, Kyle thinks a lot like me.

I don't know if Karren and Jim had a good time or not, but they seemed to be well. I am surprised at how Jim is able to travel at his age (of course if truth be known, I think that he would have rather stayed in Tucson - but Karren is fairly persuasive) nevertheless, it was good to see them both. Jim has a hard time to get in either of our vehicles. It seems the minivan that they have is ideal to be able to slide in and out of. In our cars you either have to step up or stoop down. I guess that is the downside of flying - when you reach your destination, you are without any ground transportation.

We are still looking around at different property that is available in the area for purchase or rent, and have not decided what we will do long term. I like owning because I can tinker with it in any manner I please. I like the idea of renting because when things break I can just call someone else to fix it (but I never do) and it makes us very mobile if we wanted to up and leave. If we were to purchase another home (or build one) I would like to minimize the costs, but at the same time I would want it built just so. Either I am picky or everyone here doesn't design their home the way I want it done (is there a difference?), so we have not even found anything that we really like. If we were to purchase one it would be out of wanting to stop paying rent, rather than finding just what we wanted. Building one would be fun, but time consuming. Local builders say that they can do one for around $63-$65 per square foot. Any suggestions you have are welcome, but time will tell what we eventually end up doing.

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