Preparing for winter II

Chillout5892

Thank you to everyone who enjoyed reading of my plumbing antics! If I wasn't off topic I'd tell you how my Easter gifts of painted eggs raised the bar on bio-hazard infestation. :rotfl: However I digress.

Preparing For Winter
Last winter I upgraded from a double duvet to a king size duvet. I know it sounds a bit excessive, but I have chronic kidney disease and rheumatoid arthritis so have to stay warm, but I would recommend this arrangement to anyone. No more icy drafts if the duvet forms a 'pyramid' at the edge of the bed, and its long enough to pull up over your head without your feet poking out of the bottom.

I bought a winter/ summer duvet. A 4 and 8 tog which can clip together to give 12 togs. (Tip: I put covers on them both, bought a cheap satin duvet cover for the 4tog so if it gets too hot, give it a tug and it slides off the bed) and a 16 tog for when it's freezing. It also means I have a spare when visitors stay over.

I was going to donate the old duvet to a charity, but instead trimmed it down, added elastic straps and I've a excellent mattress topper.

Oh why am I single? :think:
I couldn't find anyone who could afford the insurance premiums!

NualaBuala

Chillout5892 wrote: »

Thank you to everyone who enjoyed reading of my plumbing antics! If I wasn't off topic I'd tell you how my Easter gifts of painted eggs raised the bar on bio-hazard infestation. :rotfl: However I digress.

Oh i think we will have to worm that story out of you!
Anyway, I realised it's all quite on topic - having a good laugh is a good way of keeping warm, not to mention cheerful ... very important for winter!

Mamzie

I've bookmarked and been following this thread Chillout, but your post has finally lured me out of my nice safe comping section of MSE...

I am nearly 7 mths preggy, and could swear I nearly went into labour I laughed so much at your poor drains story. Can't wait for the Easter Eggs one, xxx

OlGreeneyes

Great idea about the king size duvet, Chillout! My double duvet pulls up and lets the cold air in the minute I roll over. Maybe I'll get a kingsize blanket for now to chuck over the top. Really wish you'd relent and tell your Easter Egg story - your 'pipe bomb' exploits certainly warmed me up:)

Fruball

Chillout5892 wrote: »

Thank you to everyone who enjoyed reading of my plumbing antics! If I wasn't off topic I'd tell you how my Easter gifts of painted eggs raised the bar on bio-hazard infestation. :rotfl: However I digress.

No way.... come on - fess up

Its not off topic as painting eggs for gifts is moneysaving and we can all avoid bio-hazard infestation by learning from your mistakes, which surely will make the world a safer place judging from your previous antics

Pleeeeeeeeeeease

Well its been fairly warm round these parts the last week so my heating (on thermostat low) hasn't clicked on at all i don't think. The back is south facing and I now have french doors so the sun warms the room quite nicely, and more than before we had the doors.

I still need to fill some holes in the back walls from plumbing jobs but nobody came back to me on freecycle re the expanding foam so guess nobody has any to give, or its reminded them to get on with their own filling jobs! REALLY don't want to fork out for a can of it

Found that my large fleece blankets are not big enough to line my living room curtains so that is really annoying :mad:

Still need rugs for hallway (awkward shape) and maybe one for the kitchen as the floor in there is really cold (laminate with some sort of foil type insulation but still cold)

Bought the kids slightly too big slippers last year so they still fit :T

Dug out my old sheepskin ones bought on holiday in Majorca 3 years ago - they are so warm :T

Got the sky multiroom, wireless internet and found my old elec blanket so I can heat my bed, not the house, and still watch TV, be online :T AND the kids can pile in with me at weekends and watch morning TV and be snuggly :T

Really wish I knew where was good forraging places round here - I did see a man collecting rosehips which I had spotted but they are on the busiest road linking to motorway so I thought they would have absorbed too many toxins from cars to be good.

What is still around? Is there anything? Are we too late for b.berries?

Still haven't used my new garden shredder (for £10 second hand :money:) but might get out with the kids tomorrow and have a winter tidy up in the garden followed by some real winter food for supper like jacket spuds with sausage casserole

Still gotta make blinds but that means spending money at DIY shops and I am dangerous in those places... always spotting something I 'need' that I don't really need IYSWIM

annie123

Frugal wrote: »

What is still around? Is there anything? Are we too late for b.berries?

still picking blackberries here in London. My son's garden hasn't stopped producing them yet. Enough for me and the wildlife

Red_Doe

Amazing...after all the rain, cold and gales, we have a fabulously sunny day, woohoo! won`t last though, this is Scotland after all...
I`ve been making the most of it..been working outdoors (my work means I can if I like) and winterproofing the current hen hutches...home built things, but the planks of wood were old and there were gaps between them. Solution? Utilise a pile of old roofing felt tiles, so they are nailed onto the boards, essentially wrapping the hutches in roofing tiles. Has the added attraction of looking kind of quaint and countryfied too.
But...behind the hutches is an old ruin, a stone built thing that used to be a pig shed or byre, couple of hundred years old it is. Only the four walls, doorway and end gables of it, one side peaking, the other not. So I`ve begun clearing out the nettles, stones and rubbish that has gathered there, found a sycamore sapling that had taken root and transplanted it nearer the house (free tree, I do love a free tree ) and stuck the spade into the floor to see what was under the dirt. Feels like flagstone or hard pack rock, so over the next few weeks as weather and time allows, will clear that. Then all I have to do is add a corrugated flat roof over the top of the three walls, weigh that down with rocks from tops of said walls (one thing Scotland isn`t short of...rocks) and build a front onto it, then voila, chicken shed that`ll keep them warmer and drier than the present hutches.
Phew.
Aside from that, stockpiling food when I can, have preserved beet, cabbage, spinach and carrots and beans, got plenty meat in the freezer (I agree with the poster on another thread who said we eat too much generally) so have plenty beef, venison, chicken and wild rabbit, plenty tins, am lucky enough to have a walk-in pantry as this is an old house. Now just have to stock up on fuel for the fire, water as we often lose our supply, medicines and suchlike.

Edited to add, the reason I`m doing the ruin is so the hens go in there and when I get geese, they go in the wooden hutches.

mardatha

So basically...mine is the only village in the UK where its GREY AND FREEZING then is it ??
Off to sulk

mags50_2

can i come and sulk with you Mardatha? it's cold, grey and wet here too

dollydaydream07

mardatha wrote: »

So basically...mine is the only village in the UK where its GREY AND FREEZING then is it ??
Off to sulk

nope, it's grey and freezing down here in Lincolnshire too

have just been busy double sided sticky taping down the curtains in the bedrooms so that no breeze blows through the sides worked a treat last year