February 21 through March 2 are the dates for the annual crabbing closure. Charlie’s Bait Camp and POC TPWD are the sites on February 22 for disposing of collected crab traps.

Show your cooperative spirit and get money for college or technical school. Victoria Electric Cooperative will award $10,000 in scholarships to the Class of 2014, applications now available.

Victoria Electric Cooperative announces that applications are now available for the Victoria Electric Cooperative Scholarship Program. The cooperative will award 10 scholarships for $1,000 to the Class of 2014, for a total of $10,000.

Victoria Electric Cooperative’s scholarship program is based on community service, academic grades, athletic performance or financial need. Candidates are required to submit a completed application along with an essay and references. In addition, candidates must be the son or daughter of a Victoria Electric Cooperative member or employee, graduating from high school in 2014 and continuing their education at a technical school, college or university after high school.

“This is our opportunity to recognize the sons and daughters of cooperative members and employees who have made a difference in the lives of others,” said Brittany Marsh, Victoria Electric Cooperative, Communication Specialist.
Scholarship applications are available at local high schools, the Victoria Electric Cooperative office at 102 S. Ben Jordan St. and online at www.victoriaelectric.coop. The application deadline is Friday, April 25, 2014.

Victoria Electric Cooperative scholarships are funded by unclaimed capital credits and do not affect electricity rates. “Giving back to the community and local youth is part of our mission as a cooperative,” added Marsh. For more information, contact 361-573-2428 or www.victoriaelectric.coop. – from Victoria Electric Cooperative.

Greetings fellow culinary enthusiasts! This column will be dedicated to giving you traditional recipes rewritten in a quick and easy way. For our first recipe, we will prepare gumbo. I know what you are thinking….gumbo takes several hours to prepare. Not this time….I got it figured out…stay with me.

Gumbo

Add 3 generous tablespoons of vegetable oil to a metal pot over medium high heat. Add 3 generous tablespoons of flour to the oil and stir consistently. The mixture (roux) will turn from white to red to black quickly. Before the roux turns black (burnt), whisk in 3 cups of chicken stock. Add 1 ½ cups of the holy trinity (celery, bell pepper and onion), two cups of precooked Andouille sausage, two cups of precooked chicken and two cups of peeled/deveined uncooked shrimp. Then whisk in about one tablespoon of tomato paste and salt, pepper, and Tabasco and file to taste. Simmer until shrimp are pink.

Serve over rice and invite your friends. Approximate cooking time 30 minutes and serves 4 to 6 people. Friends from Louisiana will argue with you about this recipe but tell them to taste it first.

When he speaks of her, the battered box
of old photos is sure to come out. A box full
of fading memories, tattered, black and white
with crimped corners saved for such moments.

She was a wild woman, the town’s people will
tell you. She hurt ol’ Henry the most. She didn’t
hang around long enough to see what she’d done.
Everyone in town has a story about her.

When they speak of her, palms rustle in the wind,
and on good days, boats beat gently against the
dock and the clouds stalk the sun for shade. The
words are excited and sad, like the high winds
of a hurricane.

Her name was Carla, it was ’61 – written large on
the battered box.
January 2014

Port O’Connor after Hurricane Carla

The winter Olympics will end on the 23rd of February. Sometimes the winter in Sochi was warmer than right here in Calhoun county and for sure it was warmer and nicer than it was on the East coast for many of the days of the Olympics.

Fortunately, the official end of winter will not be so many days after that. Winter finally ends in the late part of March. At least, we hope so. This has been one of the nastiest winters in a long time. This guy and the fuel budget are ready for some relief. March used to be when the flowers started popping up and the winds were not such blue norther type winds that we have had so many of this year. At least so far we haven’t had snow. But just before Valentine’s Day there was snow on the ground in 49 of the 50 United States. This climate change stuff is more than just worldwide warming. Even the sun is in one of its “cooler phases.” But change the Climate will.

Along with spring and March often comes kite flying. One weekend in the spring over in Rhode Island there was a hill overlooking the Atlantic, or maybe the bay leading to the Atlantic, where I saw about a hundred people flying all kinds of kites. That is the kind of sight I long to see as soon as possible.

Some of you may recall the old saying, “Go fly a kite.” Normally, one uses that saying to tell someone to bug out of here we don’t want you around. Well this year I would say it because what I want to bug out of here is that incessant overcast sky and the near freezing weather so one can fly a kite instead of huddle by the fire or wear heavy coats to go to the mail box. Then to fly a kite will be fun.

I guess someone told Ben Franklin to go fly a kite way back before the revolution. He was the kind of guy who just didn’t meekly bug out when you said go. He, after all , was not only a statesman and the author of Poor Richards Almanac but he was a Curious George kind of guy.

He said if I am going to fly a kite, I am going to find out what that lightning stuff that comes with spring storms is made of. So, instead of string he used wire and a key. What he found out was lightning is electricity. Now I don’t know if that was any help in lighting up his house but it did fill up his Leyden jar with electricity and might even have shocked him a little.

If I go fly a kite I am not going to check out what lightning is but I will sure be happy that there is no more winter. I didn’t move South to enjoy the coldness of winter, pretty much the opposite.