tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3580247703206240142.post3893477258001464080..comments2023-05-16T02:08:42.858-07:00Comments on Degringolade: Goin’ North DakotaDegringoladehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11893964959960977677noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3580247703206240142.post-12883192264637254722009-01-29T17:38:00.000-08:002009-01-29T17:38:00.000-08:00Living in the kitchen is an old tradition in Québe...Living in the kitchen is an old tradition in Québec (probably in New England too). My grandmother had one of those big woodstove for heating, cooking even heating water for bath. Great way to make toast too.<BR/><BR/>Just a way to say hi and tell you that i like very much your blog. <BR/><BR/>And read that with a french accent :)<BR/><BR/>Salut et au plaisirmagouahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16309504601081146912noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3580247703206240142.post-55341821257209488872009-01-29T10:51:00.000-08:002009-01-29T10:51:00.000-08:00We've been heating only "vital" parts of the house...We've been heating only "vital" parts of the house for years. We don't even have a central-heating system, and don't need one. Wood-burning stoves, space heaters, and blankets warm the areas we use most...and cost a lot less than a furnace or heat pump system. <BR/><BR/>Just be mindful of the plumbing. Dripping the faucets prevents a lot of the problems, but keeping a space heater in the bathroom doesn't hurt either. (Makes that early-morning trip in there a lot more pleasant, for sure!)An Unsheltered Lifehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11185197919745800205noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3580247703206240142.post-86920524818643493372009-01-29T06:38:00.000-08:002009-01-29T06:38:00.000-08:00http://www.duffyslaw.com/current14.htmMy life with...http://www.duffyslaw.com/current14.htm<BR/>My life with the Eskimo Stefansson<BR/><BR/> excerpt<BR/> ESKIMO HOUSING<BR/> Eskimo houses were constructed with a hole in the roof to allow in light. The hole which was most often left open was covered with Bear intestine. The base of the house was five to six foot thick made of earth and sod and tapered and thinned out towards the top which was about six foot square. The top had about six inches of earth on it. The center of the house was about nine feet high and the walls at the edge were about five feet high. The opening on the roof was about three foot square. 3 or 4 lamps burned continuously and one of the most important duties of the wife was to make sure they didn’t smoke or go out. The entrance to the house was a twenty to forty foot shed-covered tunnel about four feet lower than the floor of the house.<BR/><BR/> The cold air in the tunnel would not rise into the house which was kept warm by the four lamps at a temperature of sixty to seventy degrees fahrenheit even when the outside temperature was fifty below zero! They would sit with only shorts on in the house. So they would be bare below the knees and above the waist. After five months Stefansson began to enjoy the boiled fish they would eat for supper. The entryway and the hole in the roof were kept open most of the time, but especially during cooking. The only time the entryway would be covered would be to prevent a baby from falling into it or puppies coming in from outside and this was only rarely. Stefansson would usually sleep next to the tunnel entryway to get more fresh air. Each corner of the room had an elevation for sleeping that was covered by skins as was the floor. The houses at first smelled bad but soon you realized that it was the cooking of food that gave the smell to the house. The lamp is a halfmoon soapstone about two or three inches deep kept almost full and the wick is a powdered ivory (walrus), sawdust, dried moss ground in the fingers, manila rope from the whalers with a strand taken and chopped into tiny pieces. The wick is made from the powder laid in a strip which the oil soaks. A piece of fat is suspended over the flame and when the wick dries the flame gets brighter and hence hotter and more fat drips into the halfmoon lampbowl which then fills and wets the wick more which cuts down the height of the flame and this works by itself for about six or eight hours.vladhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00434296343159953900noreply@blogger.com