A Portable Environment, A Portable Environment, or...How To Survive The Ice Age, In Comfort!

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There's more than one way to beat the high cost of heating fuel!

By Lisa Anderson

One cold winter morning—as I went about my usual daily routine—I answered the doorbell . . . to find an absolutely dumbstruck UPS delivery man standing on the front steps. He was motionless for at least a full minute . . . gazing at me in speechless bewilderment!

I stared back with curiosity, and wondered (briefly) what was wrong with the poor fellow. Then I remembered that I had come to the door in my snuggler sack, which—although odd enough in itself—was made more comical by the added bulkiness of the down warm-up pants and jacket that I wore underneath it.

Of course, my "below-zero" boots may also have caught the man off guard . . . they did add a certain elephantine effect to my lower extremities. And I'm sure the old kerchief around my head did nothing to diminish the peculiarity of my appearance.

Ah yes, I concluded after a moment's hesitation, this particular delivery person has obviously never knocked on my door before! I felt compelled to explain my apparel.

"I'm dressed this way because we keep our thermostat set at 48°."

"Forty-eight?" the bewildered carrier repeated. "Don't you freeze?"

He just wouldn't believe that my husband Tom and I remain perfectly comfortable in a chilly environment that not only saves fuel, but helps us keep our health—and stick to our budget—as well!

A PORTABLE ENVIRONMENT

Before Old Man Winter reared his forbidding head last year, you see, we had to decide whether or not to install woodburning stoves in our home. We knew we'd need four of the heaters to keep the sprawling house comfortable . . . and the alternatives to using multiple heat sources—such as breaking through the walls and installing ducts to channel warm air from one stove into all the rooms, or putting in a full-scale woodburning furnace—were expensive. And once we figured in the cost of wood (which is by no means exempt from inflation), none of these schemes enticed us any longer. Nor did we relish the idea of lugging logs, stoking stoves, and cleaning chimneys all season long!

So, after several days spent debating our heating options, I suggested to Tom that we create portable environments for ourselves. When he responded with only a blank expression, I explained that—from time immemorial—people who live in northern China have shielded themselves from the cold by wearing quilted jackets, pants, and boots. And, while Tom still looked a tad doubtful, I warmed to the idea and began to retrieve some of the various mail order catalogs that periodically appear in our mailbox.