All About Archeology!

Lake D’Arbonne State Park – October 24, 2009 – Presentations by Archeologists James Hardy and Fred Stewart.  10:00 a.m. – Meet at the Visitory Center.  For more information, contact Jon Witherington at 318-368-6291.

Mountain Biking Time Again!

October 3, 2009 – Take A Kid Mountain Biking Day – Lake D’Arbonne State Park – Always a fun day at the park – it’s Mountain Biking Day again.  Bring your child and his/her bike to the Visitor Center before 9:00 a.m.  Races and fun will begin at 9:00 with prizes in many categories.  For more information, contact Jon Witherington at 318-368-6291.

Annual Easter Egg Hunt April 3, 2010

Come join the Easter Bunny and look for over 3,000 candy filled eggs along with some special eggs for prizes.  Two age groups, 5 years and younger and 6 years and older will enjoy seperate areas to hunt for the prize eggs.  The hunt will start at 10:00 A.M. so please be in the park by 9:45.  It only takes about 15 minutes for all the eggs to be found, so don’t be late or you will miss the fun.  You will have a chance to visit with the Easter Bunny and take photos.  For more information please call the park at 318-368-2086.  Also please remember the day use fee is $1.00 per person unless you are 3 years and younger or 62 years and older.

Meet Butter and Tee

Although Butter (left) enjoyed the photoshoot, Tee just didnt seem to be feeling the groove.

 

This is Butter (poodle) and Tee (yorkie mix), their owners are the Foster family (Corey, Cheri, Dustin and Dylan) from Ruston LA.  I met these guys in the campgrounds the other day and was intrigued at the personalities of these two dogs.  Both are rescued animals (Butter was given away and Tee was adopted from the pound) but I’ve never met a more layed back dog than Tee.  I mean this guy didnt get excited about anything!  Later on Cheri explained to me that he only got upset if she left him home alone (he would tear furniture up and generally cause alot of havoc).  Butter on the other hand seemed to be outgoing and could not sit still if his life depended on it.  But here is a little background info on our two pets this week…

Favorite Toy:  Butter’s favorite toy is actually Tee / Tee does not play with anything (no comment on whether he likes Butter playing with him or not)

Hobbies: Chasing squirrels (Butter and Tee)

Favorite food: Cheese (Butter and Tee)

Hates:  Chickens (Butter), being alone (Tee)

Loves to: do anything with Mrs. Foster (Butter and Tee)

It was good to visit with the Foster family and I hope you guys will come back and see us soon.  I just cant get over Tee’s expression in the photograph above….the pose that they each strike says everything about their personalities.

 

The Stone family reunion

The Stone family reunion always happens in June like clockwork at Lake D'arbonne.

When I met these nice folks 3 years ago, they explained to me that they normally use a state park in Mississippi for their huge reunion (they take up our groupcamp, 16 cabins and 2 lodges for 7 days).  They heard about Lake D’arbonne from one of our maintenance staff who just happens to have finished grade school with one of the reunion organizers.  They have been doing a once a year reunion since the 1980′s and told us that our park along with its staff was the best they’d ever visited and from now on they’d be having their reunions here and nowhere else.  They’ve become a staple of summer here at the park because they are all great people and they treat us like we are part of the tremendously large family they have.  So to honor them with a big “thank you” from us here at D’arbonne I decided to do an article about them.  I hope everyone has a safe trip home, a great year and we will see you guys again next year!

Meet Bella and Piper

I think these two are ready to stop with all this "exercising" nonsense.

 

Meet Bella and Piper, they belong to Celeste (mother) and Katherine (daughter) all of whom I met in the park today.  They were walking with the dogs and looked as if they were getting some great exercise (I think the dogs were glad to get a rest).  Bella is almost 2 years old and Piper is 7, the breed of dog is a type I have never seen in the park before and are called Brussels Griffon(for more information on them click on the link below).  

http://www.akc.org/breeds/brussels_griffon/index.cfm

Favorite toy:  toy bunny (Bella), plastic rooster (Piper)

Fears:  the vet (Bella), Whenever Katherine leaves the house (Piper)

Hates:  troll dolls with the funky colored hair (Bella), deliverymen and especially the mailman (Piper)

Loves: riding in cars (Bella), belly rubs (Piper)

These are two cool little dogs!  I want to thank the owners for their patience while trying to get a good photograph of their dogs (yeah it was kinda difficult).  Bella, make sure to keep an eye out for that evil mailman I hear he visits almost every day.  Piper, any dog that’s smart likes to get their belly rubbed at LEAST 3 times a day so make sure to not let your owners do any slacking!  Once again thanks to the owners Celeste and Katherine, I hope to see Bella and Piper at the dogshow this weekend thanks guys!  

Meet Bailey

This is Bailey, she wants me to give her chewtoy back.

Meet Bailey, a three year old rough coat Jack Russell Terrier owned by Mr. and Mrs. Thomas.  They are staying with us in the campgrounds and since we have so many pets in the park I decided to start a “pet’s corner”  category to feature some of them.  Here is some background information on her…..

Favorite toy: Plastic chicken leg

Hobbies: Enjoy’s fishing (she jumps out of the boat sometimes), digging for moles and chasing her arch enemy the gray squirrel, she also likes to play fetch.

Fears: Thunderstorms

Favorite food: Anything but dry dog food.

Dislikes: SQUIRRELS!!!

Loves to: Sit in the swing on the front porch

 

Her owners are regulars in the park and I wanted to give Bailey the honor of the first pet to be posted, keep an eye out for those pesky squirrels Bailey!

Meet the camphost at Lake D’arbonne State Park.

This is Charlie, the camphost at Lake D'arbonne State Park.

Meet Charlie, he is our camphost at Lake D’arbonne State Park.  He lives in the campground with his little white dog named Lil Bit and will be staying with us until June.  He is responsible for keeping an eye on the campgrounds, he also cuts and splits wood (out of his own private time) for all the people that stay in the campground.  He allows 10 pieces of wood per campsite per day so as not to deplete the fruits of his labor too quickly.  Charlie is a veteran of the Vietnam war and retired from the army after 22 years of service, he is also the state commander for the Louisiana Department of American Veterans.  His hobbies include hunting and fishing (if you want to know where the fish are biting just ask him) and he is one of the hardest working retired men I’ve ever seen.  I asked him whats biting right now and his reply was “crappie in the shallows and their biting shiners”. 

Thanks Charlie!

Local 4-H club gives park wildlife a helping hand.

These 4-H volunteers sow seeds by hand for the wildlife food plots.

A shot of the group after the planting was done, thanks guys!

The local 4-H club recently volunteered to help out the park by planting soybeans and browntop millet in 3 seperate food plots.  These plots will help the large population of deer that live inside the borders of Lake D’arbonne State Park.  All 3 plots measure out to approximately 5,875 square feet or roughly 1/8th of an acre.  They will also include an “exclusion zone” in each plot that will prevent any wildlife from feeding in a small area.  This area is usually 1 foot square and will be used at the end of the summer to estimate how much food each plot provided over its life cycle.  The 4-H club volunteered over 30 man hours of time during their busy spring break to contribute in a postive way to the park wildlife.  I would like to personally thank all the kids involved and especially the group leaders Charles and Melissa Rhodes.  I would also like to thank  Mrs. Carol Remy the Union Parish Extension Agent and last but not least Mr. Jason Holmes who is our County Agent and helped with our questions about what to plant and how to read those confusing soil sample results!  Thanks so much guys and we look forward to working more with you in the future!  I will provide updates periodically to let everyone know how the plots are doing and try to get some pictures of the deer!

Welcome to Lake D’arbonne!

Spring is well on its way when you begin to see these beautiful blooms!

Early spring in Lake D’arbonne means some color is returning to our beautiful park.  One of the main attractions during this time is the several species of dogwood that populate all area’s of the park.