Wednesday, September 28, 2005

On Solid Ground

Buy land, they're not making it anymore. - Mark Twain

I was recently given a copy of Outside magazine by my sister-in-law, Kay. Thanks Kay, or should I say thanks Ethan… Ethan, did you know your mother is giving away your magazines while you are gone? Anyway, I took it with me to read while waiting on Madison at her piano lesson. I came a cross this interesting article:

Q) How many acres of land are there on earth? How many is that per person?

A) If you're looking for elbow room, how's 5.6 acres? That's what you get when the planet's 36.5 billion land acres are divided by 6.5 billion, the current population. Remove from the equation areas that the UN deems inhospitable, like Antarctica, the Sahara, and Terre Haute, Indiana, and your allotment drops to 4.7 acres. Now subtract one and a quarter acres for the crops that feed you (more if you enjoy an occasional burger).

Living out here in the country like we do, we sometimes take land for granted. We look out and all we can see are trees and sky. We cannot see our neighbor's house, we cannot see the road except when the leaves are gone. We can hear the occasional dog bark or kids playing, but those are just perks.

Just wanted to say (and I am sure all of the kids and grandkids and greatgrandkids would agree) that we are sooo glad Felton and Inez had a hankering for some mountain property back in the 50s, and shared it with all of us.

spring