Incredible view and lovely scenery!@ManueB There's been an article on British(?) houses and how they may not be ready to deal with the changing climate, did that prompt your question?
What a beautiful sheen on Theo's tail!
Our house is well insulated, we built with six-inch walls before it was in the regulations to do so, but I love the light and we also have a lot of (Low-E) windows, probably too many, there's not a lot of wall space! We heat with wood but with electric backup. Wood isn't too expensive in the rural area I live, and we buy green and DH stacks it which saves money. DH always asks for oak whenever possible and dries it for two years. If / when we get too decrepit to deal with wood the plan is to convert the stove to gas or buy a new one. Wood is now about US$750/year and our electric is maybe US$150/month, which includes the whole house (two radiant towel warmers upped it a lot but we love love love them. They heat the bathrooms to boot)
I love to sleep in the cold, as long as I have good blankets so I can adjust my warmth. It's best anywhere between 50F (10C) and 60F (15.6C). Windows open whenever possible. But I'm conditioned to it, I spent most of my youth sleeping in a large drafty uninsulated cabin in the woods from late Spring to late Fall, even during light snow, with just a stone fireplace open on two sides that really didn't do much. At best the house when all closed up in the daytime was ten degrees F warmer than the outside on a sunny day, if you really kept stoking the fireplace. Plus we went camping on occasion. There wasn't much difference except the "bed" was not as comfortable and there was dew (no tents). So I get almost claustrophobic in a too-warm sleeping situation.
I spend a lot of time outside if I can, and use different clothes for different temperatures, especially wind conditions. It's critical to be in layers as @RoyalChick said, especially to avoid any chilling from sweat when active. So when going inside and outside throughout the day, the routine is basically just stripping down or layering up. A lot of northern US households have traditionally had "winter wear" and "summer wear" and storage cabinets or cedar chests for storing different clothes. We just stuff everything in our working closets, as many things are used during the cooler summer days too anyway.
I'm not in the extreme cold like @Ponypoor now though. Wool and/or quilted cotton layers over a soft inner layer, then a hooded layer. Balaclavas for head and face, and/or headbands, sometimes caps. Eye protection most days. A hooded windbreaker if it's windy. Insulated gloves or wool mittens. I have a pair of Tough Duck leather mitten covers I love. Soft wool socks, in one or two layers, inside insulated boots. Different boots for different activities.
Made me think of an extreme picture to put in here - Here's me years ago near the very top of Whiteface Mountain in New York USA (above Lake Placid) on the icy path above the weather station, just before we turned back because it was getting too stupid dangerous to be hiking it in telemark ski boots without crampons. We had skied six miles up on the beautiful Veteran's Memorial Highway. The rock you can see is covered with glazed ice, the only place to get a grip was on the snow. It was a beautiful day and an incredible descent down the Highway on skis too! We have done this several times since then but never made it up that path again mostly because the conditions have never been as good. Snowing like crazy, howling strong wind, freezing fog making the path a giant icefall (yes, @Kris5902!).
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Weather tax. The Buckeye babies from 2020View attachment 3340580
Those chicks are just so darn cute! little fluff balls
“It’s my party, and I’ll purr if I want to. Purr if I want to,
