Maybe it was just useless speculation and bravado to say that I was going to stay in colder climates this winter in order to avoid the usual overcrowded and known-by-everybody camping locations in the Southwest.
Yesterday I moved into a state that you can easily guess from this photo:
It is not a warm state. And I camped at 8400 feet. It gets down to freezing at night. Perfect. No bugs. But no snow or ice either. In the morning, the trailer is at 40 F or so. About 3 a.m. the Little Cute One decides that it is Snuggle O'Clock: she leaves her own warm bed and crawls up into mine.
Here is the drill: don't get out of bed and then sit down in a chair. Instead, do a minute of shoulder shrugs. Why is that so effective?
Put a half inch of closed cell foam on my chair. The chair itself is just a mesh which is great for summer, but an icebox in winter.
Heat up water on the stove and pour it into the right container. Then stick it in my parka as a body heater. If you put a an oversized waist belt around the outside of the parka, it will keep the hot water container from falling out, when you walk around. I need to shop around for a flat container of high quality plastic. Old-fashioned rubber hot water bottles might be OK if I can find big ones.
Drink some hot coffee.
This ritual is very satisfying. And I am not using any propane heat.
It's funny. Outside the trailer there is a nice firepit with some stacked firewood, ready to burn. But I am not even tempted. Ground fires are so ineffective compared to the "interior" things mentioned above.
I can see why our ancestors had hearth gods.
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