Since I live just across a road from the levee, it has been easy (unavoidable) to hear all sorts of banging, whistling, bumping and clanging noises coming across the seawall for several days.

My curiosity got the better of me today so the dog and I took a walk in a different place to see what was going on. Straight across the levee from my house is a loading platform, and there, an excavator was moving dirt from one place to another behind a parked barge, adjacent from the existing loading platform.

Just upriver a big barge was parked and just past that, where the government pipeline crosses the levee, was another excavator slinging mud about, with a barge parked nearby, two small work boats going in and out of a small slough. And just beyond that was a big tug attached to a big barge, and while I couldn’t see anyone, it sure sounded like a person was inside the metal barge using a big grinder.

The noise was pretty bad and if there was someone inside the boat, I sure hope he had good ear mufflers on.

So, after all this investigation, I now know where all the noise was coming from, but I have no idea why. No clue as to the purpose of any of these activities.

The river is really going down! Fast! I see lots of boats passing the house loaded with crawfish traps, moving them into deeper water, I suppose.

The price is momentarily at $1 a pound to the fishermen, but probably that will change after two days of no buying. I’ve heard that some crawfish have been sent back from buyers because the crawfish were too small, but that could just be idle gossip.

One fisherman said, “The price of crawfish will probably go down, but the price of gas and bait are just as high as ever.”

At the corner by the bridge, gas is still $3.99 a gallon. Over in Pierre Part it’s $3.89. I saw quite a few places in Morgan City selling gas for $3.79.

We are probably like most people who look for the cheapest gas at least in our own town.

My husband filled up his truck tank the other day and paid $3.89 a gallon for a total of about $100, then passed a station on the way home where the gas was just $3.79.

I’m following orders from Catholic Charities, and updating all the Food for Senior clients, and it’s breaking my heart to have to tell some people they no longer qualify for commodities because their income went up a bit.

Fortunately for many people in Baja St. Martin, another commodity group, Liberty Heights, I believe it’s called, comes once a month with edible items and sometime other stuff so some people can get help from them.

As I’ve said before, to make sure things are clear, I have nothing to do with the ‘other’ commodity entity and neither does the St. Martin Sheriff. His office bring the Food for Seniors each month and that’s the one from Catholic Charities.

I read in the Teche News a little quib about the Butte La Rose pontoon bridge once rolling over with a car on top. Nobody was hurt apparently, but I’m going to hustle crossing the Belle River pontoon bridge from now on!

I attended the last Morgan City Community Concert program the other night and it was terrific. “A tribute to John Denver.” Jim Curry sounds exactly like Denver, kind of looks like him also. The music was wonderful and played against a big screen showing scenes from Aspen, Colorado, Denver’s home, and wild horses, wolves, mountains and Denver himself, the whole performance was memorable.

If anyone is interested in buying season tickets for the coming year, give me a holler. I will mail you an application/brochure. It’s only $45 for seven concerts!!!! Can you believe how cheap?

Teche News’ Lower St. Martin correspondent, Linda Cooke, can be e-mailed at lcooke9417@bellsouth.net.