Exploring the Land – Cheniere

Recently we had the timber cut on some land that we have at Cheniere, LA. It has been some years since I have been able to walk the land because it was pretty grown up from being logged back in the 80's. When I was a boy my Dad and Grandfather would take me to walk around the land and they would show me the boundaries and all of their favorite spots. I decided that we I would avail myself of the opportunity to start showing the boundaries to my oldest five boys.



We hadn't been out of the van for more than a couple of seconds - and my boys already had their walking sticks.















We could not get across the creek - so we decided to head back to he highway and cross over the bridge and make our way around the back way.





The Water was by far the most exciting destination. I think water most excite the imaginations of most boys.



Cade came upon a Deer Skull and a collection of leg bones. They were greatly impressed.



There were some great obstacles to cross. Everybody did pretty well - except Cai - he landed face up in the middle of a mud puddle.



Abram looks like he is pretty focused at this particular moment.

We probably walked around for about 3 hours and we were all pretty tired. I was glad that Abram was able to keep up. I was concerned that his little legs would give out - but with a little encouragement - he finished the journey.

Neighborhood Trails

When I arrived home a few days ago - I saw my oldest two boys playing the in the back yard. I realized that I needed to spend some time with them ( I have been really busy the past few months with our moving and the freshing up of our old house in preperation to sell it.)

Being young restless boys - they are always in need of some adventure and knowing that it is important for fathers to train their children and guide their natural inclinations - I was looking around for something that we could do together.

I remembered that we have a community trail that runs behind our property and the home owners association mentioned that it was cluttered and somewhat unpassable since Hurricane Gustav rolled through last summer.

I decided that we should go and search it our for ourselves. Once we got through a lot of brush and downed trees - the trail system opened up to a nice little gravel pathway.

We found a few bridges that were in need of repair but still passable.

Some parts of the trail were almost undistinguishable - and we probably would not have known where they were - except for the bridges that served as landmarkers.

You can see this bridge was lucky to be standing with this large oak laying across it. The boys crawled under the tree and I opted to jump over it. (maybe I just wanted to see if I could - but probably would have been smarter to crawl under it.)

We also found the pier (located on Bayou Manchac) that we learned of from a neighbor.

It might be nice place for fishing - however we did see a small gator swimming by while we enjoyed the view.

After we made it most of the way around the perimeter of the neighboorhood - we doubled back and made it home in time to eat supper. I imagine that this will not be our last excursion - but next time - we should bring some water and a machete.