Saturday, October 17, 2009

Weathering the Wet in Coker Creek

Wet! That’s all we can say about Coker Creek this week. Mary with the muck gave me a “rain check”,literally,on collecting her “garden gold.” Richard is actually showing signs of cabin fever, and he’s not prone to restlessness. He was so desperate to get out that he took my van to Atlanta for the warrantied repairs.

Our poor Great Pyrenees mopes around looking for a dry outdoor spot to stand her watch. She’s quite miserable when it’s too wet to chase squirrels. Richard’s work shed doubles as her dog house, but she -- like her daddy -- seems kind of stir-crazy when cooped up in her “house.” She looks like a huge wet dust mop with big brown eyes trying to impersonate a door mat.

Many of the half-backs flee to Florida for the duration of the wet winters. Coker Creek natives hunker down. Many of them enjoy the break from all the work done in growing season. There’s a lot of time for catching up on family and photo albums. Mamie and I plan to go through her family photos while she shares her history in Coker Creek. Spinning yarn with the wool shorn from their alpacas living at Coker Creek Village is an activity practiced by Beth and Esther. Others spin yarns of a different sort. This winter, I’m sure there will be a lot of reminiscing about Frank.

Until mid-November, many will entertain leaf-peeper guests. This is a good opportunity to drive the areas that we don’t take the time to explore on our own. This is also a good opportunity to serve some of the garden bounty bulging out of our pantries and freezers. There are no restaurants in Coker Creek, so it’s nice to have the makings of a vegetable plate ready to be heated and served upon our return from sightseeing adventures. This year, we’ll be serving those veggies with cornbread made with cornmeal ground at the Autumn Gold Festival, at Coker Creek Village, a mile from our house. Now, that’s what I call home cookin’

Before the guests arrive, there are the ever-present cobwebs to clean out of corners. Mamie has pointed out that you can clear a cobweb tonight and the spider will have it built again by tomorrow morning. Not only does rain drip off the trees, the leaves are also dripping -- and drifting into the house on the bottoms of wet boots. And the endless mud... We keep boot scrapers by the doors, front and back, but that only gets the majority of the muck. Maybe we were better off when our floors were made of mud.

I think that this winter I’ll sit by the fire, and sew a fine seam, and feast upon strawberries, sugar, and cream. Not! Where would one get strawberries in the dead of winter? I know I’m too spastic to hand-sew seams, fine or otherwise. And how fat would I be by spring if I spent the winter ingesting sugar and cream? Not to mention that diabetes runs in my family.

Jack has many stories for me to edit and format for his next book. Bill wants me to publish his book about Coker Creek, and I’m working on an oral history of local families. I hope Richard doesn’t get tired of stoking our fireplace while I work on my manuscripts in front of a friendly fire.