With a system of low tech moveable plastic greenhouse tunnels, Eliot Coleman
grows and commercially sells "ski season" lettuce and greens on the central
Maine coast with an enegy expendature of 5% of California lettuce. (FOUR
SEASON HARVEST, Chelsea Green and personal communication) Were fuel to rise
to the 3 or 4 a gallon it is throughout much of the world there would
certainly be more NE agriculture. In my hometown, southern NH, there are
only two agricultural endeavors above home garden level, a small orchard and
a sweet corn field, whereas 100 years ago probably 80 to 90% of food was
local.
At the rick of being drawn and quartered by the teamsters and NASCAR fans I
would like to see fuel so rise and often wonder about the order I would
give up my addictions. First would be my trips to town for champagne and
twinkees {joke with Swami Tathagatanda) and last my chainsaw at 40 to 50$ a
gallon. I have cut all firewood with bow and crosscut saws in the past but
it is quite time consuming and as long as I have a working chainsaw would
probably use it for dropping large trees and large cuts.
As far as happiness goes I consider one of the main treats of wood heat
country living is to lounge around on sunny winter afternoons in a t shirt
or less. I have an old associate who for reasons you can imagine can't be
trusted with fire so has lived winters locally in an unheated trailer
(occasioally getting his picture in the paper for bycycling in a blizzard}.
He has us all beat for energy consumption, but hardly one to emulate.
