I did a part of a winter at Tinkers' Bubble, where the only fossil fuel is the oil in the paraffin lamps and to start the steam-driven saw bench, and the only electricity was generated by their wee windmill - enough for a little bit of lighting and recharging batteries and laptops. Mostly everyone had head torches with rechargeable batteries, and a hurricane lamp.
Every dwelling had a woodburner, and the communal roundhouse an open fire and a Rayburn, on which they burnt wood and cooked. There was an outdoors camp-style fire with tripod for hanging a cooking pot and/or kettle - we made the cheese there.
The Bath House had a burner to warm the air in it and to heat the water; when someone wanted a bath they'd set up a notice 'Bath Night Tonight'; they'd start the fire and have the first bath, then others would sign up to keep the fire stoked and have a bath themselves. Otherwise you washed using water heated in the kettle over the campfire or on the Rayburn. Hot water bottles were filled ditto.
First person up each morning would start the campfire, whoever was about during the day would keep it going.
Task teams would include wood-getting every day - the wood used communally was fetched by a task team, using the Shire horse for carting if suitable (it was too muddy for the cart when I was there, all wood was hauled by person-power
), the wood used in the individual dwellings was fetched by the occupants.
Another task team would be fellers and choppers, felling the next tree to be chopped and stored. The logs were stored in 'cords', seasoned for two years, then brought up as needed.
It was never boring, there was always plenty to do!
I was rarely cold, the fetching, chopping, sawing of wood warmed you - we used to say all the wood warmed you four times. Felling and chopping and storing; hauling; sawing / chopping ready for use; and finally, the fourth time, when it was burnt.
Most of us lit a fire in our dwelling to warm the place to go to bed, and I took hot water bottles. It was cold - snow some of the time - when I was there, I even had a duvet and hottie for the dog!
If you went to bed warm, under sufficient duvets, you stayed warm till morning.
Getting up was cold, no two ways about it. Run to the communal loos (big holes in the ground with hessian sacks around as screening) while your clothes warmed on the residual heat in your bed. Dress quickly! Then over to the campfire; if you weren't first up, there'd be warmth and hot water already
, otherwise you'd busy yourself making the fire. Two large flasks would have been filled the night before to give warm water in the morning for a wash and a cuppa until the fire got going.
I enjoyed that winter and I learned heaps. It was too hard for me, I couldn't have lived there full time, but I loved the way the business of surviving took up all your time and energy - and kept you warm in the doing of it.
