Pearls...

 Well they are good buddies but I wouldn't necessarily call them pearls...

 We were eating oysters and something was a bit hard...  I carefully separated them and found two rare pearls from Eastern Oysters, Crassostrea virginica.  Unusual, but kind of fun!

 They were only a couple millimeters in diameter but lovely little white pearls.  A good day.

Mole for dinner

That is mole', the Mexican food with hot peppers and chocolate in a sauce, in this case rice and chicken.  As a bit of an extra bonus, we tried the mole salsa as a kind of salad dressing. 

 Green salad with salsa dressing at Chez R, are we mixing metaphors?  It was pretty good, but we may have to work on the mix for the salad dressing.  Enjoy!

Off to school

 While waiting for the bus, might as well review your math flashcards...

Play

 Well school has started but there is still a bit of time to play in the evenings...

Kids on the Kidd

Well, there is a former military ship, the USS Kidd, at BR.  The kids went to check it out...  It was hot but interesting...

 On deck with the Mississippi River Bridge (I-10) in background

 How to cook on a boat....

 Where to sleep if it's not too hot

 I hope the guns don't work anymore...

The boat is this big...

Growing Louisiana...

Got a chance to visit a site inspired by our work (but paid for by federal funds...)
 We went out to the site (southwest LA) about a year ago and there was not much growth, and we are so interested in the biology side of coastal bioengineering...

But I have some great things to report:  First, things are growing, oysters 2-3 " in height, and lots of them, plus barnacles, algae, seaweed, and lots of crabs, birds, etc.

Second, the land is growing too: first, a salient grows in the lee (landward side) of the breakwater (oysterbreakTM) where the wave energy has lowered enough for sand, silt and biological material to settle.  Later (if all goes well), the land "grows" out to the breakwater and forms a tombolo.  Yesterday we confirmed one salient and the first tombolo in this project.  And plants growing on the new land.  In a place where we are losing a football field of land every half hour, gaining land and growing reefs and land (animals, plants...) is very exciting!

 First, put some good substrate where oysters want to set... then wait for them to grow...

 Wait a bit longer for some sand to settle behind the rings.  Be careful, there's still a bit of water there!  But the sand is pretty solid!

 Now add some biological material (seaweed in this case, sorry for the trash, but nature uses what nature finds...)

Then wait for some plants to grow in the new soil, thus holding it in place for some time to come...
(Ideally repeat several times to expand the state and protect inland wetlands, communities and infrastructure...)

Back to school

Well, it is back to school time, at least in the south...

So far, the kids have dodged the rain and the mosquitoes have not been too voracious...

 Pretty good zoom...  they are already learning before they get on the bus...
Homeschooling - it's great...

Not all bus loading zones are created equal.  This one has lots of long grass...
D, can you please lean on the stop sign the other way?  Maybe you are stronger than you think!

Have a great day and year at school!