sysd

http://www.wsbtv.com/news/18225670/detail.html#-

> A homeless man trying to keep warm in a back yard shed was killed in a fire Sunday night.

This shed was not one of ours. One of the interesting points in the story, however, is this nuggest:

> Investigators are trying to determine if the shed was up to code to allow someone to sleep there.
> "It was 90 percent involved when we got there," said Jackson. "So we needed to get the flames out,
> left the smoke dissipate so we could see if there was plumbing back there, power going back there."

We're asked sometimes if our huts are up to code. In a nutshell: no. We maintain that since the huts are movable temporary structures, without a foundation, code does not really apply, just as code would not apply to a tent. Our huts don't have power, they don't have plumbing. They do have heat, however, in the form of the wood-burning stoves that we also provide.

Mad Houser huts are not fireproof; they're made of wood, and have caught on fire on occasion. Huts have caught fire from arson; they've caught fire from improperly fueled kerosene stoves; one caught fire, memorably, from a lightning strike. But they have never caught fire because of a Mad Houser stove, and nobody has been hurt or killed in a hut fire.

The Mad Housers provide safety equipment for the huts with shielding for the stoves and fire extinguishers for our clients, but of course there's always the chance that something may go wrong. We're not about to eliminate heat from the huts just on the off chance that one would catch fire; if we were to do so, more huts would catch fire as the clients attempt to improvise stoves.

I would like to open a conversation about heat. Let's brainstorm:

* Is there a way to make the stoves safer, or to find another way to heat the huts?
* Is there a way to safely heat the low riders?

Keep in mind that the real issue with the huts most of the time is too much heat during the wam months, not too little in the winter. We could clad the huts in two inches of insulation, but they would swelter 90% of the time.

-Nick

10

Lots of folks who can't even imagine even wanting to do it.

9

Frantic preparation, followed by frantic improvisation

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You quickly get used to levels of filth you wouldn't have thought possible

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Great for night owls!

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Helps you appreciate the true wonder that is the flush toilet.

5

Those darn kids sure love their pacifiers, don't they?

4

Even the most trivial excursion from home base requires Donner party levels of equipment

3

It seems like the only thing you ever talk about

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You start sorting people into 'been there' and "haven't been there"

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Expensive, impractical, time consuming, frustrating, completely ridiculous - and totally wonderful.

Didn't do anything special for today. I think that our lifestyle is fairly green, but could be better. But I get the impression that by most folks' standards, we're eco-nuts. Not really, though. What happens is this: you make one change, then another, then another, and after a few years you don't resemble anyone around you anymore. We've done lots of easy stuff, and lots of stuff with fast payoff, but the many of the more tedious or long-term changes haven't happened yet. But they will!

Here's a list of various things, big and small, we've make our lives more eco-friendly: