When the English Fall by David Williams

Author:David Williams
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
Published: 2017-07-04T16:00:00+00:00

October 12

It was a long night, and sleep did not come easily. When I awoke, the rain was still coming down in sheets, pouring down the side of the house, but the wind was dwindling away.

The barn seemed to have managed the night, as had the daadi haus. In the dull grayness of the morning, I could see branches down and scattered twigs and debris as I walked to feed the horses.

Sadie came with me, or rather, she ran ahead, as quickly as she could, covering her head with a shawl. Inside the barn, all was well, and though there was much moisture here and there, it looked like there was not much that needed to be repaired. I could see a bit of sky where the wind had pried some of the tin roof loose, but it hadn’t fully pulled away. I would be able to repair it.

As we returned to the house, Jacob came running from the chicken coop, leaping puddles as he came up to us. He breathlessly announced that they were all fine.

My check of the larder showed that all was well, just a spot or two of moisture there. But when I went to the root cellar, opening that door revealed that it was not quite as fine as I would have hoped. Water stood to the height of my knees, a mess of muck that would have to be cleared out. But the work that Hannah and I did to move perishables was time well spent. I do not think we will lose anything.

It did not stop raining until early afternoon, and the wind rose on occasion, stirring and shaking the trees.

When the rain did take a break, I went to look at the work that I had done yesterday. It was a mess. Much of the soil had been washed away, and the seeds that we’d laid in had probably not fared much better. It was too soon for them to have sprouted, so maybe some would have survived, but whatever remained would not be neat and orderly. The Lord would give us patience, and we would deal with it in due time.

But there was not much about that I could attend to, because the immediate need was the cellar.

We moved the meat up into the house, where we hung it from the rafters in the kitchen. And then it was back down to the root cellar. I had a pair of waders, which years ago I had used for fishing. Wearing them, I went in, taking with me our three five-gallon buckets. For almost two hours we bailed, bucket after bucket, me to Hannah to Sadie to Jacob, who’d toss it and run it back. Over and over again, me to Hannah to Sadie to Jacob.

We sang a little bit as we worked, which made the business of clearing all that murky water not quite so terrible.

When the water level was low enough, the buckets were joined by mops. I found myself

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.