A Modern Day Mountain Man

My family comes from a long line of mountain folk.  Being in the mountains is in our blood.  We just can't get situated on level ground, and nothing will get us lost faster than a big flat section of land.  That is scary stuff!  In the mountains, however, we are right at home.  It is next to impossible to get lost in the mountains, but if it happened, we would not care.  Many a time I have just laid down where ever I was at and went to sleep.  Get up the next morning and off I go again.  

When I was nineteen years old, I bought a small cabin on an acre of private land in the heart of a wilderness area.  I moved into it and lived there alone until I was almost 28 years old.  I did have a few dogs during that time, and I had two cats once.  Other than that, I was on my own.  There was a girl or two who tried to impress upon me they would be good living companions, but I did not have time for any of that stuff.  Anybody could get a girlfriend.  Not everyone was free as a chicken on Sunday like I was, and there were plenty of jealous guys who wish they could live the life I had.

 I hunted, fished, and searched for various kinds of edible mushrooms and berries to live off of.  I have even eaten cattails.  Believe it or not, it tastes much like corn on the cob.  Sort of tough though if you pick it too late.  Sometimes, however, when you live off the land you got to take what you can get. 

I had a topographic map of the area on the wall in my cabin.  By the time I moved out there was not a place on that map that was not highlighted which indicated everyplace I ever walked.  Or climbed.  Or waded, or swam.  I loved living in those mountains.  Every hollow was like a room in my house.  Every stream was my water fountain.  Every high place like being on the roof of the world.  I walked the old logging roads at night talking to the Lord all year round unless the weather got too bad.  Eventually it always does get plumb terrible on that north facing slope during the winter.  The sun hits the ground there very little then.  Snow and ice lays heavy on the ground for weeks, even months; and the temperatures in that area are at least ten degrees colder than anywhere else in that county.  Makes it nice in the summer though.  

I left out after living there almost nine years.  I reckon the Lord done did all the work He could do on shaping me up in that neck of the woods, so He had me move down to the evil village.   My dad, mom, and two of my four brothers had bought a place in the adjoining county and moved there.  Yes, it was in the mountains.  I started going to church out there in that valley, and the next thing I knew I was an assistant pastor and married!  We bought us a place next to my family, and I have been living here ever since.  It is almost the same scenario as where I lived in that cabin.  A big mountain behind me, a big mountain in front, with ridges and hollows running all over.  The house sits on the North facing slope and the snow and ice lay heavy on the ground for weeks or months at a time.  I still hunt, fish, and look for mushrooms and berries.   Only difference between here and where I used to live is I can be at Walmart in thirty minutes.  I like it here.