-30

It's easy to tell when it's getting cold in Chena. The locals put on their coats. Yesterday at -21, hats were nowhere to be seen, and coats and gloves were optional. What about all those warnings--your ears will fall off, your breath will freeze your lungs, and all that? Oh, they say, that's only when it gets cold.

Rusty Foreacre, who runs the Chena greenhouse, doesn't bother with a coat until it hits 40 below. It's too much hassle to undress when he reaches the greenhouse, where indoor tempreatures range from 68 upwards. He wears his bunny boots because he can kick them off and wander the greenhouse in his stocking feet. The floor, equipped with radiant heat, is about 84 degrees and provides most of the heat for the greenhouse.

What Rusty does wear--24/7--is a headlamp. Small, with halogen bulbs. It seems an odd choice for someone who works in the too brightly lit greenhouse.

He explains: Twice he has been on a ladder, adjusting something at the 20-foot ceiling, when the power suddenly went out. Perhaps he was working in some dark corner? But how many dark corners are there in a greenhouse?

At 5 p.m. in December, every one.