Adventures in Tallulah: July 6 - 9

A couple weekends ago, Andy and I went to Tallulah for a nice relaxing weekend. Dad had told us about these really old cypress stumps that had been dug up by the Corps when they were trying to dig a borrow pit, so I had to go see them.

Our adventure started on a rainy Saturday afternoon. We headed down the turnroad, Dad on the 4-wheeler and Andy and me on the Mule. At some point, Dad stopped to tell us that if we felt the tires slipping, put it in 4-wheel drive and low. Immediately upon his driving away, Andy and I found that we were stuck. The muck had glommed up in the left tires and prevented us from moving. This stuff was THICK Mississippi River clay. The tire below isn't even the worst of it.

Dad taught us the art of wiping the mud off in the really wet weeds growing in the ditch. Then he taught us the art of wiping fire ants off of your legs after they had crawled up from the really wet weeds growing in the ditch.

We made it to the levee, and this is what it looked like. The Corps is digging the borrow pits to use the sediment for levee stabilization. I think it's kind of dumb to put all this sediment on the levee and then provide no form of erosion control, but what do I know. Dad said that they'd do some sort of erosion control eventually. Maybe after all the sediment is washed off the levee.

Dad decided that it was just too muddy for us to go up the levee. AND it was raining a good bit and he had no windshield and roof on the 4-wheeler like the mule did. So we gave up the mission and headed home, defeated, wet and muddy.

Sunday was a fresh new sunny day, so we waited until the road would be "dry" and started back out on Mission Cypress Stumps. We got to where we had been before we got stuck the next day and promptly turned around. It was a better idea to take the paved road to a gravel road which would then lead to the levee. Good thinking.

Up on the levee, Dad explained about the borrow pits and how they'll be fishing holes and then another area will be a duck hunting area. This was on Carpenter land. Intravia land was right next to this and was where the cypress stumps were.

And there they were. It was really a sight to see. They are all 8 to 10 feet tall and beautifully preserved. Dad thinks that they must be several hundred years old and were covered up through years and years of the river flooding and depositing sediment.

The Corps stopped digging once they realized it would be really difficult to get all of these stumps out. I'd be interested to see how many more are covered up on the adjacent land, but I guess that will have to remain a mystery!

Moose came along for the ride and quite appreciated the water that had collected between the stumps.

Dad and Andy made sure not to stand TOO close to one another. I really like that picture, though!

I, of course, had to get all up in the muck and climb around in the stumps. The mass amounts of mud sort of prevented too much exploration, but I was satisfied. Check out my sweet socks. I'm always stylin.

Andy finally ventured down into the muddy depths and stood with me next to the stumps. I know they don't look beautiful in these pictures, but they were just amazing. They'll probably start decomposing much more quickly now that they are uncovered and exposed, which is sad to me.

We explored one side of the dig and loaded back into the mule for a view of another side. Andy too looked hot, as you can plainly see. The mud on the boots made us look like we had really big flat duck feet. Note: 4-wheeler wheels are really efficient at removing thick mud from your shoes.

Along the other side was more of the same beautiful mess. I have no idea exactly how many cypress stumps were dug up, but it has to be over 100.

I took these pictures standing on the top of one of the stumps that wasn't dug up as much as these others.
A cypress stump grave yard.





After the cypess stump field trip, we headed off to explore more of the Carpenter land. Dad stopped to give us a quick lesson in cotton. I am ashamed to say, after growing up on a cotton farm, I did not know what I'm about to tell you.


Before the cotton bowl forms, the plant flowers. First, it flowers in white. Then, in pink or red. The bud forms underneath that red flower and grows as the flower blooms and then falls off.




At the old borrow pit, I spotted this tree growing out of I don't know what in the middle of the water, and it reminded me of Mom. She's on a bonzai tree kick, and I thought this looked a lot like one. Just formed on it's own in the middle of the borrow pit. Very cool.


After a long hard afternoon of driving around in the mud, we went back to the farm and proceeded to thoroughly (hopefully ) wash the mass amounts of mud off of the 4-wheeler and mule and then ourselves.

It was really a cool day and I highly recommend anyone that visits the Carpenter Plantations to visit the cypress stump area too!

(All photos in this blog are courtesy of Dad's awesome little camera. I didn't think to bring mine, so he let me borrow his, my muddy hands and all.)