lifestyle

If you are reading this, you are already extremely wealthy!  You may not be rich by your definition or even by the definition of the society you live in, but by the standards of a large percentage of the world's population, you are in fact, rich!  You can read, you have access to a computer and the internet - this makes you much better off than many people in the world.

What is the longest you have ever gone without eating?  Has it ever been even 48 hours?  Many people have gone without food for a week or more, or had regular but insufficient food for months or even years.  By these standards you (and in some countries, even the homeless) are in fact very wealthy, so what are you going to do with all your wealth?

Years ago some new "Green" organization was being created by a group of people and, among other things, one of their stated goals included something about making a new generation of "less toxic" houses.  This got me to thinking, if someone offered to sell you a house that was 10% less toxic, would you want to buy it?  My reaction would be "what about the other 90% of the toxins still in the house?".

My tiny cob house is unheated, another one of those unplanned events.  While the climate here is "moderate", the temperature range each year is well outside what is normally considered comfortable, with temperatures each year typically ranging from 15 to 100 deg. F. (-10 to 38 deg. C.), though it has been much higher and lower on rare occasions.  Between the thermal mass of the cob and the heat of the earth below the house, the temperature inside the building has ranged from 38 to 85 deg. F. (3 to 29 deg. C).