We "heated" our non-insulated popup camper last weekend. Of course the climate Maeve and TL are dealing with is much harsher as the winter goes on, but I'd be exploring insulating the trailer from outside, and plugging in an oil radiator, right about now. Or a teepee made from trees wrapped in old parachute silk.

Some of you (maybe Maeve) will think I am being too suburbanite or silly, but I spent a winter in an unheated tent, sleeping on the ground. My mother was my role model-- my great uncle spent several years, starting the first year in winter, in an unheated cabin he built from pine saplings and what cost, back then, $50 in lumber, heated by a woodstove with water hauled daily from the nearby creek. Built small to have the minimum space to heat. That was around Lake Champlain.

Why I say "there are always options" and that "I am confident Maeve and TL will figure this out" is that this-- sheer survival-- is exactly what human beings have been doing for thousands of years, and so I expect them to get through this winter.

"Species survival" is a tough instinct, stronger than our ability to hope. That's why when we lose hope, we tend to stumble upon solutions we had missed. That's why we're all here, now, despite having left warm Africa.

So I say, with all the compassion of one who has been there (and in many ways is close to a similar situation right now)-- Maeve, hang in there and keep flailing your way forward; you can and will do this.

~Susan