I caught the governor's state-of-the-state speech this week, and what jolted me like a chainsaw striking a steel-toed boot was the prospect that I could sell wood pellets.

I had harbored dreams of becoming a Lumber Baron, but that hasn't worked out. Bob the Woodsman has retired his chainsaw due to a bad ticker, and Gary the Energetic Logger has dedicated himself to clearcuts, not judicious thinning. I am not in a position to fell trees by myself.

But there was the Gov. Baldacci talking about a potential new industry in Maine: bludgeoning your backyard wood pile to create pellets that can be used in home heating.

A few verities:

Heating oil costs more than $3 per gallon. It is not likely to retreat. (An aside: The governor mentioned a plan that would ensure that oil companies would deliver even to small users but we know that will never roll out to more than 10 percent of the eligible - if that). People are increasing looking for alternatives to oil.

Cutting cordwood is expensive and cumbersome. Anyone with a woodlot thinks about selling wood to those with stoves or fireplaces, especially since the price per cord has been rising. But knocking down the trees, storing logs while they age and then cutting them up to useable lengths is a complicated process that foils all except those who have several years to invest in planning, execution and delivery.

Selling lumber to the mills is a tough chore. The woodsmen that I talk to at the Farm Store say that selling logs to the mills in Maine is getting harder every year. To clarify the term "harder": It can be done but you have to acquire the wood, provide saws and labor, and then pay for trucking. And then you have to hope that when you arrive at the mill, the I've-got-you-over-a-barrel buyers need what you are selling.

So wood pellets it is. I don't know much about this aspect of providing a fuel source for warming up a house but I plan to learn.

I do hope it shakes out better than corn. For all the press that burning corn has received over the years, it has not proved to be a viable product for buyer or seller, as far as Your Scribe can tell.

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