The “Agriculturalization” Factor
February 20, 2011
My wife, Kelsi, and I floated away from ‘our’ beach early this afternoon, into heavy fog that prohibited us from seeing anything more than 10 yards away. It was the first day in a couple of months at least that the lake has been thawed enough to canoe, with the recent unseasonably warm weather (approaching 70 every day for a week in the middle of February). The water was glassy calm, and for the first time, we headed straight out from shore, headed towards the opposite shore, just far enough away to easily see the tree line on a clear day. Maybe a mile or so.
As we paddled up to the opposite shore, my first realization was that this side of the lake looks a whole lot less inhabited than the side we rent our house on. The second realization was something like this:
“See that little bend in the trees there? That would be a great place to put a house. And this little cove here would be great for swimming with kids. Deep enough, but not to steep of a drop off. And around the two neighboring points? Great places for trotlines and fishing, good trails to trap along. The soil looks great to garden. There’s about a 3 acre clearing here, we could put a goat pen over there, a workshop here,… …. etc., etc.
Am I predisposed to see every open piece of land as a possible building, gardening, homesteading site? Or is this place just particularly becoming? Is it a problem that I see a piece of land in terms of providing for my family, rather than the more abstract notion of “nature”? Is it bad that I see a healthy looking patch of cottonwood, ash, cedar, osage orange, mulberry, and think-the dead-falls over there would be enough to keep us warm through each winter, with enough good furniture wood to keep me busy with projects…Is this where people began to think of land as a commodity? Or am I just at the stage of animal life that necessitates burrowing in or building a nest or den of some sort to protect one’s mate and young?
