The Cabin: Day 2

Hi Folks!

Well day 1 of our trip to granddad's cabin up north didn't do quite as planned... but we had high hopes for day 2. We woke up bright and early... well granddad woke up early and maybe bright... I would've just stayed in bed... couldn't have blasted me out with a stick of dynamite... but since granddad was up annnd he was obliging enough to get some Nauga sausage and some pan seared bacon goin on the stove... well who was I to just ignore all those delicious smells floatin in the cabin air.

Turns out he also was cookin something else as well. I don't know how but it seems he'd had the piece of mind yesterday, what with all the bitin and the swellin and the rushed trip back to the cabin for the anti-serum, to tuck the main part of the Eastern Water Adder in his creel and brought it back with us. Granddad said it would a been a shame to waste all that good meat. After I'd gone to bed, he'd stayed up for a little while more cutting the snake into bite size bits... after peelin off the skin of course. The Adder is surprisingly meaty with not much in the way of bones inside the carcass. With a high meat/fat ration, it's a perfect addition to stews and chili and casseroles and soups and... well just about anything you've got a mind to cook.

Well that breakfast was fine, just fine... couldn't've eaten another bite what with the eggs and sausage and bacon and rolls and snake along with something from his garden. Not too sure what that last thing was but it sure tasted good. Granddad'd been eatin it for years and he's still here so it couldn't be bad for you. After that we was all prepared for a good day down by the river... but that just wasn't in the cards. No sirree... when we started to get our gear together there came a sound like a thousand feet hitting the ground over and over again. Granddad just swore... under his breath of course, a gentleman don't do that sort of thing out where a body might hear. Seems a weather front had snuck into the area while we were asleep and all that noise was the sky opening up and just dumping a ton of water all at once.

Yes sir... that rain was coming down to beat the band. You could hardly see out the window for a spell what with the wind blowin it all sideways like... first one way and then the next. We took the next little bit to put everything away again and take care of cleanin up after breakfast. By the time we'd finished, the rain had slowed to just a kinda steady downpour... heavy enough to discourage most folks from goin outdoors but not so heavy that you couldn't ifn you really wanted to.

Well granddad said there weren't no helpin it. Might as well take advantage of the rain to do some weedin in the garden and around the cabin. I was a mite skeptical but he insisted that it was the best time to do it... all the roots would be loose in the soil from all that rain and after all... surely I weren't afraid of a gettin a little wet now was I?

Well what could I say? I sure wasn't goin let that old man go out there by himself. Besides there wasn't much to do in the cabin anyway. I followed granddad out to the shed and we grabbed a few tools. Then he led me to the garden and told me I should work on the southeastern corner while he started from the north. I wasn't sure which way was which at that point what with all the rain so I just waited 'til he headed off in one direction and I went the other way. Ran into trouble straight on. Saw this huge stalk of something that had these big flexible leaves and just humongous flowers. Can't rightly say I've ever seen anything quite like it before. It had a real pleasant smell and almost seemed to wave at me to come over and take a smell. I'd just taken my first step when I felt granddad's hand on my arm. "I wouldn't do that." he warned.

Well now that only got my curiosity up more and made me want to get a little closer to see what all the fuss was about. Granddad seemed to sense this and reached past me with a stick he'd picked up somewhere. He poked it at the flower, just a light touch really, when that thing just slapped shut with such force that it just snapped that stick in half. Seems granddad had got it in his head to plant a Venus Flytrap one summer just for grins. Put it in the garden to see if it would keep down some of the pests that just naturally seem to gravitate to any place a body tries to grow food.

It seemed to work... at least some... that Flytrap never seemed to go hungry that's for sure. Granddad put his garden below the little slope just below where he put his Nauga pen... that's where he kept the wild Naugas before taking them south to sell as breeding stock. The garden being where it was and all meant that when it rained, it always got the benefit of all that extra water that flowed down the hill. Course if it rained heavy... like it was doin now... that water was well mixed with whatever the Naugas had... left behind so to speak. Well before he knew it that Flytrap had thing started to grow bigger and started to change into something less Flytrappy. He didn't really give it much thought. It was just a Summer experiment after all and he expected it to die over the winter... but it didn't. It just died back and came back from the roots the next year and the year after that and so on, each year getting a little bigger and a little more different and powerful. It seems it's big enough now to trap squirrels and even somewhat bigger game that decide to check it out. He'd forgotten to tell me about it before he set me loose. So he came back over to let me know it was there and that I probably should just leave it alone. I just shook my head... only to clear off some of the rain of course... and stepped off to one side to put a little more distance between it and me.

Then granddad told me what he really wanted me to clear out. Seems he'd gotten an ornamental vine a few years back... something called a Canabrian Pea. well that's not it's real name... he doesn't really remember what it was called so he just made up the name a while back. It started out as a nice plant... pretty purple flowers that bloom from Spring to Fall... didn't take much care... seemed perfect for someone that didn't spend too much time tending to things. Planted some along the garden fence... just to attract bees and give that fence some color. Looked real pretty there... climbing up that fence and twisting through the mesh. Turned out to be a perennial... not all plants they say will come back do... but this one did... and granddad thought he'd hit a home run on bein able to just let it be while he went about his business.

But then... just like that flytrap... that vine began to change for some reason. Oh those changes seemed innocent at first... bigger flowers... and more of them... more than three times what was growing before. The hummers just loved it as did the bees and all sorts of pollinating insects. But then other stuff started happening. First thing he noticed... outside of the flowers... was that the vine itself started getting thicker and harder... the new shoots were still pliable and soft but give it a couple of months and that vine would harden up almost like hardwood. Took a good pair of garden shears to really make any headway at cutting it back. Grew like a weed too... it just started spreading out everywhere. He had to really work to keep it contained... leave it alone for a couple of months and it would just run wild. Then he noticed that the roots had changed. One day he just couldn't pull them out... took out them shears and gave a shot at cutting them... almost broke the first pair.

Seems them roots had become almost like steel they was so hard to cut through... made it real hard to control that vine... started spreadin everywhere. He'd almost given up on trying when he just happened to get stuck inside during a rainstorm one day. He got bored real quick... hadn't planned on the rain and didn't have anything set aside to do. Well it didn't take long before he threw on something to keep the rain off and wandered on outside. Some of that vine had migrated over next to the cabin and... whether out of frustration that the rain had spoilt his day or just out of sheer orneriness... granddad just reach down and grabbed some of it in his hands and gave it a yank. Well boy was he ever surprised when it just pulled up smooth as silk... landed flat on his keester. Just sat there for a moment or two while it sunk in what had just happened.

Granddad said he just stared at that vine for a while more... then he jumped up and just stared pullin out that vine wherever he could lay his hands on it. Every bit of it came out easy as the first. Eventually he stopped for lunch and for some reason just never went back out. I guess he figured he'd done enough for one day. Trouble is, it stopped raining. Once it did the ground dried up some and them roots went back to being just like steel and gripping the ground like a Muletoed Heaver. Came to realize that he'd only really have a chance of getting that Calabrian Pea out of every nook and cranny if he went after it every time it rained. Even then it he always seemed to miss some of it and it just crept back to be just as widespread as ever.

Well that's why we were out here in the garden in the middle of this downpour just pullin Calabrian peas out as fast as we could lay our hands on them. We must've been out there for almost five hours moving from one part of the garden to the next and then out into the yard and finally over by the cabin where some of them vines had taken hold. I gotta tell you I was pretty darned tired by the time we was finished... and really glad to get back into the cabin so I could change into something that wasn't wet and covered in mud. I hope we got it all... but granddad didn't hold out much hope of that. He figured that we'd missed some little bit of root or maybe there'd be a seed that just hadn't sprouted yet but sure as Sunday follows... well you know... that vine would be back.

Well that's pretty much how we spent day 2 up at the cabin. Maybe we'd actually get to do some fishin on day 3. 'Til next time. Jon