Beginning the winter voyage.

November 28. Thursday.


Cold drizzling and misty rains, which have melted the little snow.

The farmers are beginning to pick up their dead wood.

Within a day or two the walker finds gloves to be comfortable, and begins to think of an outside coat and of boots. Embarks in his boots for the winter voyage.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, November 28, 1850

The farmers are beginning to pick up their dead wood. See November 28, 1859 ("Goodwin is cutting out a few cords of dead wood in the midst of E. Hubbard's old lot. . . . while Abel Brooks is hastening home from the woods with his basket half full of chips "); November 4, 1858 ("I took out my glass, and beheld Goodwin, the one-eyed Ajax, in his short blue frock, short and square-bodied, as broad as for his height he can afford to be, getting his winter's wood; for this is one of the phenomena of the season. ")

 

Embarks in his boots for the winter voyage. See December 3, 1856 ( Bought me a pair of cowhide boots, to be prepared for winter walks. . . .The man who has bought his boots feels like him who has got in his winter's wood.”); December 6, 1859 ("I took out my boots. .., and went forth in the snow. That is an era, when, in the beginning of the winter, you change from the shoes of summer to the boots of winter.") Compare March 30, 1860 (“It is time to begin to leave your greatcoat at home, to put on shoes instead of boots and feel lightfooted.”)