h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The days are slow in warming. I welcome the Spring no matter that this year it is slow. The mornings are still in teens and twenties F. The days are in the 30's and 40's though and the sun feels welcome on my bones.The Winter was very hard. Many many nights of minus 20 and minus 30 F. Many days at 0F. It was hard to keep my home warm. My wife cannot live in the cold anymore with contentement. Because of my bones I need to sleep on a bed. My wife needed to sleep in the main room near the stove. The bedroom is not heated but I have never found it troublesome. She hates it though to see her breath when going to sleep. She howles like a critter when she gets in bed by reason of the cold and I must laugh because each time she does this and then strikes my arm and chest for laughter at her discomfort. We slept together only a now and again over the Winter because of the deep cold. I missed her a lot, she also was lonely for my company but there is no room for a bed in the main room. My dog would not sleep in my bed either. He is getting old and lazy. Now I have my wife with me again and I think that this is one reason that Spring is good. My dog wants to be in the bed now too. I told him he must sleep on the floor because he has been lazy. This is the first year in very many that I have not made camp in the Winter. I missed it a lot. A week from the home and from the noise of TV and Radio is good. It lets me think. I got my dog so he can pull a travoise in warm times and a sled in snow. He was made a very nice harness, very soft, and he learned to work as a pup. I explain to him that everyone works and he is no exception from this law. I told him that in working he should be happy since he is helping me do what I can no longer do alone. I thought he would agree but he runs when he sees the harness. He is worthless and does not even keep me warm unless we camp then it is I that keep him warm. He finds it an easy thing to be hungry though and now he weighs over 100 pounds and is still skinny, not too skinny, he is a healthy dog. I don't know why I keep him. I like him though. He makes me laugh and he is a good watch dog so maybe he is not without value. He likes me too I think. My wife gets angry with him because he will not listen to her voice but only mine, but if I speak of getting him away from our home she takes his cause. Last fall we decided to raise animals for food. Money is seldom around and I cannot hunt like I once did. Many times I come home ashamed sometimes after two or three days. I said, I will keep rabbits and then I won't have to find them and they will be helpful for us. Their fur is not worth as much as some but it to will help us. All Winter I cared for them. Even at three or four in the morning I arose from bed and went out to make sure that they had much straw and covered their homes with blankets sometimes. even when it was 30 below zero I would go in the middle of night to check them. One day I found that a little female had kindled young. I was surprised because they will not often kindle in the cold months. I worried always about them. But she was a good mother and pulled her own fur to make the nest a warm place. I thought this was a wonder since it was a very cold Winter and she herself needed the fur. I admired her. This Spring it was to be time to harvest the animals. I was not able to do it. I was for a long time confused that I had a place for them in my heart. Then I thought, it is not like hunting, I cared for these ones and even was burdened for their wellbeing. It would not be natural to take them. It would be against the order that the Creator has made for the world. To hunt is natural and is good order. To kill that wich a person has nurtured like kin, that is an evil thing and comes from a bad heart. So now I have seven rabbits. None can go to the wild places because they are stupid about coyotes and foxes and bobcats and owls and such. They do not even fear my dog who makes no secret that he wishes them to be guests at his table. So now I am at a loss. If I give them away they will be eaten and I knowing this will be their executioner. If they are given as pets they may be mistreated or neglected and it would be better for them to be killed and that one have their use. I have not decided what I must do. I ask the Creator to guide my steps in this dealing. I do not want to do evil.
I have noticed now that the small animals are comming from the deep woods back up into the high places. The deer are spending more time out of the shelters in the pines and the cedar swamps where it is warmer. I even heard birds this morning. Usually I hear only jays and ravens and chikadees but this morning I heard songbirds and was lifted. So I thought about Spring and Winter and what they had brought to me this year. I am hoping that next Winter I will be well enough to make camp again I am hoping one of my sons will go with me. I am hoping also that my dog will stop being lazy this year.

Hello John Redbear

Thank you so much for writing these journal entries. I did try to reply yesterday, but it would appear that the reply has got lost somehow, so I am writing again. (perhaps I didn't press the correct buttons)

It is so refreshing to come across someone who lives on the other side of the world, and who has a completely different sort of life than I do. In the 'real' world I would never have a chance to meet you. I live in the middle of England, in the countryside, but there is no hunting or making of camps here.

I did take one of my grandsons for a walk yesterday in the Spring sunshine and try and teach him some of the names of flowers and trees.

Please keep writing! I find the way you describe your life absolutely fascinating. Thanks again

Lanzababy

Hi John I enjoy what you have to say too ,so much so that I hope you don't mind but I am going to put you on my friends list so that I don't miss any of your posts in the future

Thankyou for telling me a little about yourself. I have been finding that there is a lot of sameness in everyone. People I read in this place are seeming like people I know. Keep teaching your grandson about the created world. I think that it will become of value to him when knowing it has names and their own places as he does.
J.R.

I am happy to make you a freind. Also I heard of the troubles of the Tibet peoples and wish them free to order their lives also. I nver can understand why one person must stand over another and meke themselves the leaders of others to be happy.