The act of living simply has been written about by many folks, from Henry David Thoreau to Wendell Berry. My favorite book on this subject is that written by Duane Elgin in 1981. I find these readings inspiring. Elgin discusses how, by embracing the tenets of voluntary simplicity and frugal consumption, ecological awareness, and personal growth, people can change their lives and, in the process, save our planet. Nothing beats voluntarily living simply.
I am having the chance of doing that, house sitting for my daughter in Vermont while she is teaching in residence at Goddard College. She lives very simply, in the little town of Middlesex. You get to her home by taking roads called Molly Supple Hill and Shady Rill. It is a wonderful ride, and in the “mud season” it takes great skill in keeping the car from bottoming out in the large ruts. But now it is winter. The roads are frozen solid, plowed and sanded. The temperature regularly plunges to double digits below zero.
Sarah heats her home with a single wood burning stove that is strategically located in the center of the main living area. There is something therapeutic about loading the stove, keeping it at 400 degrees F. The warm air rises and heats the upstairs. Having the stove going all day and night requires about 6 cords of hardwood a season, most of it harvested off the 25 acres of woods surrounding the house. It is quite a chore getting the wood ready for start of fall and then winter, with stacks of it located within walking distance of the house. Some of it is stored on the porch, some in a wood shed, and some of it outside the back porch, in which case it is covered with sheets of reinforced waterproof paper salvaged from a construction job. This particular face cord is covered with about three feet of snow.
Next to the woodpile, Chickadees come for their morning breakfast, along with the blue jays and the resident squirrel. They share equally in the bounty. The dogs keep watch over the wood pile, hoping to someday catch the squirrel. The rabbits are cuddled in the passages they burrow in the straw in their coop next to the wood pile. A pileated woodpecker is at work on a pine tree nearby. The pond in the back yard has ice a foot thick that the kids use to practice skating.
Last night Sam skated by candle light as the temperature fell to -8 degrees F. The lifestyle is not easy, but it is simple, with the people enjoying the most wonderful things. Soon it will be spring and the bears will come out of hibernation, looking for food. Sometimes they go after the birdseed. The days will get longer fast, and the sap will start running in the sugar Maples. The frogs will go bananas making their “kokak” noise and wood ducks will hang out on the pond for a rest while on their way back north. Likewise, the wood pile will be gone until next season, when it will miraculously reappear just in time.
