The Skeeter Daddle Diaries

I was out in the Back 40 this morning, chain sawing up some trees that blew down in the last few storms, what will, when I’m done bucking and splitting and hauling and stacking them, become our heat two years from now. Hard work, sometimes even dangerous, but part of the life I chose for myself back when I decided, as Joni Mitchell sang on Woodstock, to get back to the land and set my soul free. Nevertheless, as I approach my 70’s, I wonder when I’ll succumb to the temptation of a thermostat and gas heat.

Old age, so they tell me, is a state of mind. I wish my body felt the same way, but it wants to have a say in the debate too. We burn a carbon footprint of about 15 cord of wood a year, no doubt something the next generation will look back as fondly at as a Buick Roadmaster burning 10 miles per gallon. I guess I could argue that gas heat or electric heat have their downsides as well, but like I said, I’m nearly 70 and unless I want to move into a cave, chances are I’ve done my share of contributing to global warming already, no pardons or reprieves will be given.

Barring some unforeseen accident, I figure the day I put the chainsaw away in the shed one final time, foregoing woodcutting that year, that’s when I will consign myself to Old Age, no quibble. Just can’t do it anymore. I remember when my old man hung it up. He was in his mid-80’s and no, he didn’t heat his whole house with wood, just the fireplace. He quit heating his house back when he was about 75 when he moved into town from his lake place. He was a forester by trade and had worked in the Maine woods when he was a young man so woodcutting for him came naturally. I’m sure I’ve out cut him ten times over with a few close calls to make me glad I made it this long. Be nice to outlive him too, since he’s 95 and going fairly strong yet.

But the day will come, we both know, when age will catch up and I will call it quits too. A wise man, like my father, will know when that day arrives and accept it. Me, I’m not so sure. I’ll let you know when I am. Wise, I mean. I think old age is already rolled in.

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