I’m not sure whether these people are “my people” or not. But I think they probably are. I have to confess that for all the being-in-the-house-in-the-cold we’ve done, we do very little being-in-the-yard-in-the-cold. I really can’t abide the idea of an outdoor propane heater, with all those BTU’s spending just a few scant seconds warming your body before going on to warm the planet– but the idea of “sitting out in the snow, drinking a Scotch and watching the sunset” is appealing, as is the concept of a cold-frame winter (or, at least, early spring) garden.
This we do have in common with the folks interviewed for the article: ““The difference between summer entertaining and winter entertaining is less people.”
January 28, 2011 at 8:16 am |
I have great memories from my college years of sitting in front of the coffee shop on Commercial street with a steaming mug, a huge wooly fisherman’s sweater and wool cap on snowy mornings watching the pre-dawn action on the waterfront. I used to sit out there on all but the coldest days. Not so bad if you’re prepped for it!
January 29, 2011 at 6:53 pm |
C and I were just discussing the other day, that at our old house we used to be outside more.
On a Friday or Saturday night we’d go outside in the back garden, in the middle of winter, with a wood fire going in the outdoor fire bowl and a glass of wine/champagne.
Our neighbors thought we were nuts/certifiable
We invited them over a couple times, but they declined, too cold … hahaha.
February 2, 2011 at 9:37 am |
How about a jacuzzi? A small one. Somehow to me that seems WAY more justified. Now I gotta look up how those are on energy.
February 2, 2011 at 9:46 am |
“Now I gotta look up how those are on energy.” Don’t bother, I can tell you: horrible. You can insulate the hell out of them, but still. We’d probably use more $ to heat the hot tub than we do to heat the house. I’ve envisioned the possibility of a wood-fired tub, with some mechanism to reclaim the heat into the house after use… but overall, a sauna (indoors, so the heat stays here) seems much more efficient.
February 8, 2011 at 1:14 pm |
We’ve had a small electric hot tub outside. It is do-able. Though we opted to enclose it with a greenhouse to keep the snow off (yes), minimize heat loss when open (does heat surrounding air a bit), minimize heating need with solar gain (most certainly in mid day sun). Enough so in march and April that I recaptured heat for inside the house
I was going to heat the space with solar last winter, and see how that would do, but we moved and haven’t had the hot tub outdoors. I’d say a small tub is a couple bucks a day, on avg.