After the flood

A pair of old work boots where they were left almost three years ago. A sun-bleached hat on a hook. Tattered rain gear draped over the railing Most folks called it "mudroom" a place to take off anything that would track into the house. Coming in after a long day in the fields, they would start the undressing ritual as the smells from the kitchen filled their senses with anticipation of something great.

This day there was no work in the fields, and the work clothes were like fallen soldiers with no place to ever be used again. The flood came through three years ago, taking almost everything from them. The entire crop was destroyed, the barn washed away. All the equipment was totaled, and most weren't insured because of their age. It hurt them badly as was the story for many farms in this once vibrant and fertile land. The house was set up high on a hill overlooking the land, and it survived the wrath.

The ground was filled with chemical waste and would never produce anything of value, so they now looked down at a dry, but destroyed farm. Their tears and anger subsided eventually, and they tried to get by growing vegetables in a greenhouse they built mostly from garbage left behind after the waters receded. They built a large greenhouse on the hill next to the house. Every day they tended to it bringing in soil from nearby counties that weren't affected. In time they had a huge crop that they used for personal consumption and sold at a roadside stand again built with scrap lumber found.

Word got out across the county of a beautiful market filled with a big assortment of vegetables, and the people began to come. They came from the towns and the city buying the best produce to be found anywhere. They eventually built a "Mudroom" going into the greenhouse, where old work boots were once again covered with mud and faded hats were taken off and put on a hook. It wasn't really needed this "Mudroom," but it gave a tiny bit of order to a place that had been stripped of it. Things would never be the same again, but they were still farmers and lived life accordingly.

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