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In the late 1800s, before narrow-gauge railroads crisscrossed the piney woods of southwest Louisiana, loggers prayed just as fervently as farmers for just the right amount of rain. It wasn’t because they wanted the trees to grow. It was so that they could get their logs to the sawmills.

Everyone has problems and all problems have solutions. The challenge lies in finding the appropriate solution for each problem. Some problems may appear unsolvable and leave you feeling overwhelmed. But you can rest assured that there is always a solution. Additionally, effective problem solving techniques can be learned.
Yet not everyone strives to actively discover the best solution. Some give up and let problems get the best of them. Others take the path of least resistance, embracing the easiest course of action that appears.

Here is why I believe there may be something to at least some of the ghost stories that we hear at this time of year.
In 1998, photographer Pete Piazza and I spent weeks driving all across south Louisiana, gathering material and taking photographs for the book Our Acadiana. We stopped one afternoon at Albania Plantation, on Highway 182 midway between New Iberia and Jeanerette, to see what we could find out about its history.