On the Yahara

"'Come on, moon,' she implored. Didn't it know she was in a hurry? As soon as she said the word 'moon,' she chewed on her bottom lip. So much had depended on tonight's moon, a blue moon, second full moon of the month." – Kathi Appelt, from Keeper









Cora hadn't figured out yet how to stand upright on the stand up paddleboard. "You are supposed to stand up" Shaw said, who herself, of course, was paddling from shore to shore in a zig zag over the perfectly lit green water. "You can see right down to the bottom," she said, and sure enough, right at this twelve noon sunshine beaming straight down before the Rutledge bridge, she could see rocks on the bottom and a few slippery fish dart to the tangled banks. "Don't fall in" said Cora, who herself was sturdily on her knees. There was no way that she was going to go into that water. It was green for a reason. She wondered if it might take her skin off. It had been only a month ago after the big rain in spring when the little white fish floated down over a green haze. That very day that she saw that parade float from under the bridge and out into Lake Monona, there were a group of boys at the next bridge up toward Willy street who were jumping off the bridge a good fifteen feet into the water. She wondered what their feet felt. She hoped they hadn't accidentally drank any of that 'green tea' as her dad had called it. "Catfish!" she yelled out loud at Shaw. "Catfish two o'clock." She had never ever seen a real catfish along the Yahara here, but they were very scary dudes, big as the paddle board itself, and this river had once been called 'catfish alley,' as dad had said. Oh, this didn't bother Shaw in the least, not a single eyota. For Shaw was a true naturalist, had been from the get go. Dad said some are born Huck Finn's, others have to grow into the role." Cora was a grower into. She was going to save the neighborhood bees, that was a given. But it was Shaw that she let lead the way and do all the work, of course. "Catfish are like pets anyway," Shaw said, paddling now with greater ease and grace. When she swiped off the left the board went right and circled back to Cora now. "The reason I wanted to come out here is because now we can see the house from the proper distance. The first thing we do if we are going to do do Luscious Landscaping is see what our trees are like." Luscious landscaping was the title from a book that had become the families farm bible for the last few months. There was usually a new book and plan at least every week. Dad would try anything. The house on the corner was to become a nature center, and if it was going to be a nature center, we had learn how plant permaculture, he had been saying. Shaw understood intuitively. She knew for certain they would have to draw a map, first. "Remember there will chickens," she said back then, and now there were seven chickens in the back courtyard dropping their stinky pellets all over the place, clucking, pecking. Cora thought they were a funny group of birds, not particularly bright. The plan, however, was in action. "First we have to get you up on your board otherwise you can't see a thing." Nothing had said anything about getting up on a board first to create luscious landscaping. Cora was leery.