Life at Salamander Springs has been so wonderful – I can’t stop smiling as I think of it. We’ve been staying with the aforementioned residents – Debbie, Eyal and Daniel. On top of that we arrived at the same time as Dot and Daphna, two of Eyals friends from Israel. When we left for Thanksgiving to join Cait’s family in Chattanooga, we came home on Sunday to another WWOOFer, Hank. And then yesterday, two more WWOOFers arrived – Shannon and Anders, who spent six months last year traveling in South America!!
Last night we cooked up a turkey stew (thanks so graciously to Auntie Liz who donated her amazing, delicious turkey carcass to us) with a mirepoix and all of the veggies we could gather – sweet potatoes, idahos, butternut squash, cabbage and S&A made a scrumptious cornbread over the fire… all of us sitting around the campfire was such a beautiful sight to behold, it still makes me all warm and fuzzy inside (kind of like when two of the dogs, lilah and bingo were snuggling together, squeal!!).
I can’t stress how peaceful and wonderful this little liberal island in the midst of Georgia’s sea of red is - especially as you traipse along the trails in the forest to the spring where you dip a golden ladle into the fresh water and sip to your heart’s content. The conversation around the campfire drifts from one topic to the next, but just about always questions why the world is the way it is, how it got there, and how in the world we can make sense of America and all of her flaws. And let us not forget daily adjectives, where we throw out ten dollar words (think assiduous, magnanimous, acrimonious) and define them, either from deep in our memory or with help from the “shitty dictionary” that’s kept in the kitchen.
The love of literacy abounds here, with references to great books peppering every conversation. If you haven’t read something, Debbie always replies with, “Oh, it’s in the library, you should check it out!” And when she says library, she means the trailer not too far from the communal kitchen which houses many of the volunteers as well as books everywhere the eye can see!
It’s an excellent example of alternative living and I’m so grateful for the time that Caitlin and I have been able to spend here, filled with the laughter and joy that comes with being surrounded by genuinely happy, compassionate, magnanimous individuals.
Like usual, it’s ever onward and tomorrow we are heading out to Savannah, where we will be camping a little south of the city in Fort McAllister state park! Then we’ll have a couple of days on Cumberland Island in the National Park (thank you National Parks Pass!) before heading down to Florida for a two and a half week farming and sight-seeing pre-holiday spree.
“Oh the girls all dance with the boys from the city, and they don’t care to dance with me… it aint my fault that the fields are muddy, and the red clay stains my feet! And it’s under my nails, and it’s under my collar, and it shows on Sunday clothes… I do my best with the soap and the water, but the damned old dirt won’t go…..” Gillian Welch, sure to make an appearance around the campfire this evening!
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