I Heart The Mudflats

Best known worldwide as a great place to fly fish trout, the lower basin of Penns Creek is more popular as a recreation waterway. Here, the waters are shallow and get quite warm in the summer, thus, not a great habitat for the famous Penns Creek trout.

We live on a waterfront property outside of New Berlin, PA (population 838). Although our closest town, our address is Winfield –a small village about 6 miles away, and our phone number is from Mifflinburg, a larger town 7 miles in the opposite direction. Thus, our actual “location” includes a 13 mile variable.

We have had a tendency to move a lot over the years, for no other reason than to go somewhere else and do something new. When we landed here, it was home. It’s the place, in my heart, I never want to leave.

Living in a flood zone does require risks, but as I have aged I realize there are only a few things that cannot be replaced –and these are the things on our “emergency evacuation list:” the document box (so we can prove we exist), original artwork, and photographs. Otherwise, in the event of “the big flood,” there is nothing we own that cannot be replaced. Somehow living here and having that list makes me feel less attached and encumbered by the possessions we do own.

But I’m getting off track…

Having spent much of our lives working (we used to be dairy farmers, need I say more), the location was chosen because the house was small (less upkeep, expenses and care required), the taxes are cheap, and the location allows us to –when we’re not working, to live our lives like we’re always on vacation.

Because we live in our vacation home, we do more than swim, tube and sit on the deck watching nature. Our property includes organic vegetable and herb gardens and we spend many summer Sundays making pasta sauces, salsas, pickles and jellies, as well as canning vegetables, a task we enjoy as a family in both preparation and consumption!

Since investing in kayaks, I have become addicted to the activity. Since the weather has turned warmer I have devoted myself to starting each day on the water. As the world runs off to work, I drive a mile and a half upstream and dock my kayak on the shore.

The one hour ride is my escape from the entire world and on the water at an early hour it almost seems no one else exists.

No one human, anyway.

Little cottages, black and white silhouettes in the morning sun, sit quiet while dancing fish create swirls upon the water and glistening mayflies tease them. While Canadian Geese bark at my presence and scurry away with their goslings, a groundhog on the bank doesn’t even notice me and continues collecting his vegetarian breakfast. Far enough away to feel threatened by my passing, the nesting duck stays poised on her eggs as I pass by.

For one hour I am immersed in the noisy silence of nature. And then I am home. Back to writing, sipping coffee on the deck and watering tender garden greens. It’s a good life.

And despite all of the chaos in the world, despite the Sarah Palin’s and Rush Limbaugh’s, I know that with a little fight, we can save the Penns Creeks of the world. Little pieces of the planet that were here practically before time and will be here long after opposers of wildlife are gone. In our little worlds, in our little spaces, we can all make a difference, one paddle stroke at a time.

This I Heart The Mudflats post was submitted by mudpuppy Paula - you can read more from Paula at Palin’ Around With Pooh Pooh.

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