"Near the end of March, 1845..."

164 years ago in the region of Concord, MA, Thoreau records what he was doing "Near the end of March, 1845...."

"...I borrowed an axe and went down to the woods by Walden Pond.... So I went on for some days cutting and hewing timber, and also studs and rafters, all with my narrow axe, not having many communicable or scholar-like thoughts, singing to myself,--

Men say they know many things;
But lo! they have taken wings--
The arts and sciences,
And a thousand appliances:
The wind that blows
Is all that any body knows.

...Before I had done I was more the friend than the foe of the pine tree, though I had cut down some of them, having become better acquainted with it."

I do not know that many folk do or know any better than 164 years ago today.