When hard times arrive, as they have for generations, some Vermonters have turned to the land for help.

#In this land of a thousand hills, the soil has—with its ubiquitous rocks, verdant woodlands, and edible wildlife—helped define our character. In modern times, the land has mattered less for ex-urban and suburban dwellers moving here, but for some poor folks this land has been their insurance policy.

#A few weeks ago, I watched a father and son scavenge large pieces of wood in front of a well-appointed house in Salisbury. The wood scraps they picked looked like the remains of a recently downed sugar maple tree. The tree was probably blown down during the violent wind storm of Dec. 21, 2012.

#The duo filled up the back of a rusty pickup truck with the free timber and then sped off to parts unknown.

#For the non-native property owner, I am sure the dead sugar maple was just so much worthless vegetable matter which needed to be removed from the landscape. But for father and son, this collected wood could either serve to heat the house for a week or become firewood-for-sale.

#A few days later, a solitary man—wearing a faded jean jacket—was walking along Route 7 north of Rutland Town picking up discarded soda and beer containers and placing them in a large, plastic trash bag.

#My guess is that this itinerant collector wasn’t interested in getting a jump on Green Up Day; instead, he was turning roadside trash into cash via Vermont’s Bottle Bill. So, thanks to all the lazy litter bugs traveling that stretch of Route 7, the land provides for those who would dare “harvest” it.

#Quaker Rowland Evans Robinson of Ferrisburgh once observed that hardscrabble Vermonters of the 19th century showed their “independence, the pure air of heaven to breathe, and the blessed privilege of daily communion with nature” in spite of their material poverty. 

Source  http://www.addison-eagle.com/news/2013/apr/15/dignity-and-land/