Well today I figured I'd better start making some headway with the pile of wood I need to cut; some needs to be split as well.  I've been accumulating deadfall, roadside stuff, a maple that died and had to come down, pruned limbs- the works. I figured it would be a good thing to start doing this myself- by hand. There is still some wood out there for sale- but it's not cheap, and will only get more expensive. So seemed like a good time to start. Boy do I ache- and I only have a little pile to show for my work this morning-would probably be enough for a couple of days of wood fires- not 20 below weather but just cold. I have a lot of respect for our forefathers(and mothers)-somehow they managed to denude my state of 80% of its forests- by hand. They were made of tough stuff.

I think of this a lot these days. Have you ever read the Little House on the Prairie books? These people were absolutely amazing. I don't know how they did it. Hitch up the horses and a wagon and take the family for a drive through a couple of states! Build a house and a barn, plant crops, knit/weave/sew clothing, cook everything from scratch. The set of skills they had to have back then. If we find ourselves needing even a fraction of these we are in deep trouble.

The other thing this makes me realize though is that these were family units. Everyone had jobs to do- even the kids. The work was shared by the whole family. It is no more work to chop wood to heat a house for a family of five than for one. Just the potential of more bodies to actually chop the wood- or do something else at the same time such as garden, can, cook or sew. Which makes me wonder about our current family structure. I live in a rural area- but most people who live here are not "working" the land- some have gardens or a couple of chickens- some don't even do that. But there are quite a few homes populated by only a single woman- mine included at this point. They run the gamut from 30 to 90 something, single, divorced, widowed, kids grown up or never had kids. But this sort of family unit is not one that would have been found at a time when survival depended upon physical labor- when one didn't just hop in the car and load up on frozen dinners.

So I have been wondering-if things get even worse than they are now, just how viable is this? Or even households with only a couple- although as long as they are younger and healthy they are way better off than a single person household. So what is the answer here? Are we going to see a shift in how we live- towards more people living in the same household- extended families, groups of friends? As for us- there is only one single guy up here on the road- and he is scary weird-so no help there. But there's a whole bunch of single women!

Tags: world without oil
Current Mood: tired