Fear No Weevil

What happens when you travel to remote places and just start talking to people? You can have amazing experiences, learn new things, and meet great people... that's what happens. And if you're lucky, you will get to farm weevils.

At home or away, I'm not shy (... shocker, I know). You all know me well enough to know that with a little common sense, curiosity, and a modicum of caution, I will talk to, meet, listen to, and learn from just about anyone and anything that piques my interest. And Caddo Lake in East Texas is one of my favorite interests.

Before I left Texas most recently, I had the privilege of getting my hands dirty with some of the nicest, smartest, hardest working people I've ever met... and these people are tirelessly working to save a magnificent area of bayou country in the remotest of places: Uncertain, TX. Yes, that is the real name of the town, current population = 94. That's "ninety-four period"in the entire town. As in, six people less than the total people living in the modest little 18-unit mid-rise condo complex down the street from you and me. And it is as peaceful as it is beautiful... and it calls to me like no other place on Earth. I will devote an entire blog next week just to the town of Uncertain, it is that special.

One afternoon, while preparing to cook heaping portions of ribs and sausages on the grill, there was human activity in a tiny, unassuming greenhouse near my campsite. Just like a ten-year-old watches a vibrant busy ant farm, I watched some people stacking rakes and plastic tubs and pulling hoses, but my view was blocked by most of the opaque greenhouse walls. Wanting to see "the other side of the sand tunnels", and of course, being MimiDotLife and fully embracing the novelty of my prurience, I wandered over to investigate... because I just had to know what the fuck was going on.

And I was rewarded with one of the most interesting and enriching experiences so far in my life, thanks to the generosity, patience, and kindness of Robert and Laura. Laura is the manager of the greenhouse and Robert grew up on this Lake. Together, they affably shared their knowledge and answered all my tedious questions without any hint of exasperation. And I do tend to exhaust people. I just love to learn about new things, and for me to be allowed to jump in hands-on and experience this new something, well that was a gift to me. They and their friends and cohorts, were, in the most unexpected of places, some of the coolest people I've ever met... almost as cool as all of you guys.

Robert, Laura, Jill, Stella, Maddie, Darren, Becky... scientists, citizens, volunteers, agriculturalists, and locals. I met so many people in one short afternoon I beg your forgiveness for my not remembering all of their names, but I remember their faces (and you know I'd remember what their drink of choice was, had there been a bar set up just outside the Weevil Shed). Yes, that's right... the Weevil Shed, which is what I dubbed it. A weevil greenhouse where flea-sized superheroes are cultivated in order to combat an invasive noxious plant species from South America that threatens the beautiful area of Lake Caddo on the border of Texas and Louisiana.

These folks either volunteer regularly or work full-time in dedication to preserving and protecting this part of the 25,000 acre wetland which developed around the same time as the United States Revolution. And they protect it, working to eradicate the threatening villain known as Giant Salvinia (Salvinia molesta) by growing, cultivating, counting, protecting, and re-homing our mighty little bio-warfare agent known as Cyrtobagous salviniae, a.k.a. the salvinia weevil.

The Greenhouse is owned by the Caddo Biocontrol Alliance. I like that name, don't you? It sounds very modern and strong and effective, as it should. I feel so strongly about helping to preserve the beauty of this area and its native wildlife that I'm going back there this weekend for their annual fundraiser, and hopefully again in January to take some classes offered by the Cypress Basin chapter of the Texas Master Naturalist program. Some day, you'll have to join me on a trip there... then you'll understand the searing brand that East Texas now has on my soul. It's my next tattoo (pictures TBD).

I hope you enjoy watching this short video of the experience, and please stay tuned to MimiDotLife for so much more on Caddo Lake, and in particular, Uncertain Texas. It's a whole new world to city-dwellers... only better than you can imagine, because it's nature. And it's real.