Country life

As I may have mentioned from time to time, I live in a small town, a farming community. Like a lot of people here, I heat my house with wood. We do it because we can, basically. There are only three retail businesses in town: a liquor store, a seamstress (yes) and a chainsaw shop. In my case, between my own wooded property, and my neighbor who owns extensive forest land and is constantly having trees fall down across his roads, I get all the firewood I need by dint of my own efforts.  I pretty much exclusively rely on deadfall, unless for some reason we ' re removing a tree anyway, so I ' m not angering the ents. It does cost money, between patronizing the chainshaw shop, fueling and maintaining my tractor and log splitter, and having the chimney cleaned every year. It ' s somewhat cheaper than fossil fueled alternatives, but the main benefit is that I don ' t have to pay gym fees. Harvesting and processing firewood is my main form of exercise.That ' s all well and good for us country folk, but it doesn ' t work in the cities, and therefore it doesn ' t work for 90% of the population. In addition to the problem of wood supply, the concentration of smoke would be a major public health problem. Out here, the chimneys are far enough apart that the smoke dissipates before it can bother anyone, and our air is actually a lot cleaner than city air that ' s full of automobile exhaust and smoke from oil burners. We also can buy most of our produce from the local farmers mark...
Source: Stayin' Alive - Category: American Health Source Type: blogs