I slid the 3-inch bolt through the bottom hole of the 10-inch terra cotta pot, then put five large washers down onto the bolt. Then I put the 8-inch terra cotta pot inside the 10-inch one, down onto the bolt and onto the washers. From there, I secured everything together with a bolt, finger tightening it so as not to risk breaking the pots. That resulted in something like a double bell arrangement, with an air chamber between the surfaces of the two pots.
I built a small greenhouse behind our home last year. That is what my terra cotta pot arrangement is for. It gets cold during the winter, but heating it with an electric heater or even a propane heater is not cost-effective. For the last few nights, I have placed a lighted candle underneath those two pots, which I set up on bricks in the center of the floor. The flame from the candle heats the bolt and washers; the heat from there spreads to the pots and the air space between them and helps to at least knock the chill off all night long in that greenhouse.
I did not need to do any of this during the summer; during those hot months, the greenhouse stays sweltering hot.
God was so very good to give us seasons from the very beginning of his creation. Genesis 1:14 says, “And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years.” Genesis 8:22 says, “While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.”
We are entering the late fall, and the winter will be close behind. Thanks to the wonderful Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, we commonly call this the holiday season. It is a time when our world generally cools for a while – in more ways than one.