Alternative living.

[flowerbug]

in thinking about how to get along on minimal resources i keep finding out that nature has pretty much figured out much of this many many years before us.

like the idea that in order to live we need to keep warm. we've lost our fur, built structures, keep them warm, intead of just heating our selves and the immediate space around us. some people wear layers of clothes, that actually does work well.

here it is coming up on the colder part of the season and i'm thinking again how nice it would be to have more fur. in the future people will likely have the option again of being more furry and perhaps even seasonally. i like fur.

on the other extreme is to think about living arrangements and thinking in layers. in the center of the house you could have your warm room where you keep a small heater and the hot water supply. when the weather gets cold you just close off the outer layers and leave them to be the buffer and if you've designed the place right then the inner layer stays warm and comfy enough. i can't quite do that here but i've done a version of it when Mom has been away by keeping the heat of the whole house low and just warming up this room if i need it warmer. most of the time i'm just reading or surfing the internet from this perch here and i can put more blankets on to keep warm and type with my hands/arms under the blankets. that can save a lot of energy from being wasted.

 

[Britesea]

If I have cold feet when I get in bed, I simply won't be able to fall asleep until they warm up- which can take quite a while on the really cold nights, so hot water bottle in bed rather than electric blanket or mattress pad- I always got too warm with those. Even the hot water bottle usually ends up at the bottom of the bed about halfway through the night. Once I'm warmed up, the blankets are all I need (I've even been known to take off the nightgown too if I get too warm). I've found that the longer I live with low-tech, the less I miss it. We use cotton or linen sheets, a heavy wool blanket, and a down topper.

 

[farmerjan]

I have a heated mattress pad. But I turn it on when I get in the house in the evening, and turn it off when I get into bed. I get too hot with it on, just need it to get the bed warm, then I'm good. I also use flannel sheets. House temps are 60's. I feel the cold more the last couple years. No ac so don't feel bad about a little more heat in the winter. Probably going with an outside wood furnace to run the baseboard hot water heat that is already in the house I just bought. Furnace is bad so have to do something different. Expensive to put in, but we have alot of wood from fence clearing around the pastures and such. I'm seriously looking at it. Got to get the rest of the stuff moved into the house so that I can eliminate the dual rent/mtg payments.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

she did chew up a hearing aide he dropped once...😢

She didn't think he needed it, lol!

 

[Hinotori]

Romans used urine as a mouthwash to make their teeth white.

Covering someone with oil and scraping it off was also a form of cleansing. That is still practiced in some places.

Birch or other non-toxic tree twigs were used to clean teeth. They wore the teeth down in a pattern that archeologists can recognize. They also don't work as well for a diet high in grains, starches, and sugars. The first toothpowders were ash and salt. Both are very abrasive to teeth.

The archeological record shows that humans were fairly healthy with good teeth when they were hunter gatherers or nomadic herdsmen. Graves of the first farmers from the same timeframes as the herdsmen show a marked difference. Poor health, bad teeth, shorter lifespans. It took until about the 20th century for us to regain the same cohort lifespan we had pre-farming. Infant mortality also went up with farming. People had more kids closer in ages and because they weren't as healthy even more died.

 

[Britesea]

In the winter, we close off the bathroom and bedroom during the day and only heat the living room and kitchen. I figure if I use the bathroom, I'm only in there for a few minutes usually; if I take a shower the steam warms the room for when I get out to dry off. At night, we open the doors to both rooms and they get some heat from the rest of the house- enough to keep from having windows totally ice up and such. We wear layers and remove or add through the day as our individual needs change (I tend to be warmer in late afternoon, DH in late evening). So far this system has been working for us.

 

[baymule]

For many years I lived in houses without central heat and air. Heat was an unvented gas heater. It got turned off at night for safety reasons. Turned it on in the mornings, off when we left for work. Old houses with little to no insulation, drafty wood frame windows, built up on blocks so the air could blow under it in summer for cooling, but cold in winter!! We keep the central heat low but at least have the option of turning it up to warm up the house.

 

[Hinotori]

I have a 90 pound heater that guards me everywhere. She'll happily lay on top of the blankets beside me or on my feet and add her extra warmth. Even the 45 pound aussie cross won't come under blankets though. He happily tries to become one with my chest if he's beside me. He also will gladly warm my lap if I'm in my chair.

I miss my 12 pound schipperke. She was a little portable furnace and preferred under the blankets and tucked against me. On very cold nights we used to put her between us to share the warmth.

 

[Hinotori]

People in current day US couldn't handle the smell from even a hundred years ago. Cleanliness has come a long way in that time. I know what I smell like after a week of camping even with the washing without soap in the creek.

Sand or certain plants can help clean. Ammonia helps kill the lice in hair and on the body. Lice can carry diseases. So yes, Napoleon wouldn't have lost as many troops if they followed the ancient practice of letting urine go stale and washing with it.

The mandatory showering in school after PE was to teach kids to be cleaner in the hopes they would in turn teach it to their parents. It was successful.

 

[Britesea]

Lots of interesting stories out there about cleanliness... Catherine of Aragon bragged that she had bathed only twice in her life: once at baptism and once when she wed Henry VIII.
... another story: an old backwoodsman came into town to see the doctor. He had not changed clothes for so long that his body hair had grown through and gotten entangled in his long underwear; they literally had to cut and shave his clothes off of him.

I imagine that our current day toothbrushes and toothpastes also wear down the teeth in distinctive patterns... they just aren't telling us about it-- until they come up with some New And Improved product.