“While the total amount of lumber and fuel wood consumed continued to rise with population growth until the peak year of 1906, per capita lumber consumption had by then already begun to drop. Growing use of coal, oil, natural gas, and electricity reduced demand for wood as fuel. Also, aluminum, steel, and, later, plastics began to be substituted for wood in building construction” (Sterba 39). 

I would like to take this passage, as well as other statistics about this fuel transition, and shove it in the faces of those who doubt that our economy can transition away from fossil fuels. In the early 1900’s, people & the market realized that wood was becoming a scarce resource and that other, more sustainable technologies had the potential to direct us away from depleting a scarce resource. Sound familiar???

“The hares were very familiar. One had her form under my house all winter, separated from me only by the flooring, and she startled me each morning by her hasty departure when I began to stir,- thump, thump, thump, striking her head against the floor timbers in her hurry. They used to come round my door at dusk to nibble the potato parings which I had thrown out, and were so nearly the color of the ground that they could hardly be distinguished when still. Sometimes in the twilight I alternatively lost and recovered sight of one sitting motionless under my window. When I opened my door in the evening, off they would go with a squeak and a bounce” (Thoreau 304). 

Thoreau includes many encounters with animals present in the winter in this chapter, but I was particularly drawn to this one. Although it could be because of my affinity for rabbits/hares, I think how his description models the movements and mannerisms of the hares is remarkable. I love how he points out how deceptively they can blend into the ground and be difficult to notice until they move.