Preparing for winter II

rigsby1967

annie123 wrote: »

:eek: I'd rather freeze my b*m!

chopped fingers off of old gloves to keep hands warm, kept the curtains closed, and hot water bottle wrapped around my back with a scarf.
My back muscles hurt big time if they get cold.

I read that as.....chopped fingers of to keep hands warm :eek::o, i really must slow down my reading :rotfl::rotfl:

rigs

sb44

annie123 wrote: »

Wouldn't want to model that, you don't know where it's been!

nicki_2

My boiler has broken down as well :mad: Have been on hold for nearly an hour now! Thankfully its a local number that I can call & since I'm calling from my mobile its included in my free minutes :money:

I have curtains drawn, DD is still off school ill so she's under a quilt on the sofa, with a fleece blanket, her new hat, cardigan, fingerless gloves & a hot water bottle. I'm wrapped up as much as I can considering I'm supposed to be decorating, will be adding more layers if they don't hurry up and answer the phone and forget the decorating. :mad: I realise they're busy but I've been cut off twice now! :mad:

lostinrates

Can anyone help me with a woodburner question? I was directed here....sorry its long...

We moved here in summer. Had a sweep who said he wouldn't sweep because he didn't like the way the stove was fitted nor the state of the chimney. He said he'd write a report for me but disappeared and doesn't answer the phone now. Have recently just had our architect and surveyor and a historic building guy here, who said no, it was fine as it is, light it it would be better for the house because the chimney stack will hold damp without it -before our works are done.

So, we have lit it twice experimentally in autumn, both times were fine, and now in preparation to try again I have bought a carbon monoxide alarm just in case.

BUT now the thing will not light. I've bought two silly expensive little nets of wood from garage/supermarket in case its the wood I tried (one looks like ash the other birch I think, hard to tell from logs though!). The kindling lights and burns away and will continue to burn merrily if I add more. The logs willnot take, even if I stoke with kindling a few times to keep the flames going for longer, the longs turn into charcoal but do not light. I've lived with open fires a lot, and a woodburner in past homes and never had this problem and am quite good at building a fire,so its not that I don't think!

Having read a bit it seems that the chimney could be too cold now in this cold weather....is that very likely or more likely we have duff wood? I don't fancy sitting with a hair-dryer pointed up the flue for an hour if its really unlikely to work.

coco1980

Just been sent home from work due to heavy snow, now cant decide what it wants to do and i need to go to Mr A's tonight !!

[Deleted User]

I put this on the tough thread. Its important

****** according to rain today premium: the next lot of precipitation coming over (and its fast moving and seems to last an hour or so) is rain which is going to turn to ice as soon as it hits the ground. It is coming from the west and will start to hit land at around 3.30 pm so don`t dither re getting home from picking children up. Cardiff at 5 ish and bristol at 5.30 so moving quickly towards the east

Frozen rain is no joke. I got caught in it once and it is really frightening. Much worse than snow

.

suki1964

Sounds like a cold chimney and/or damp logs - I have a lot of wet wood here that wont flame

The other thing is lighting a stove is really quite different from lighting an open fire, you have to feed it from the start really

crphillips over on the LPG forums has a linky somwhere to a video he posted on you tube on how to light a fire in a stove

Start as you have with the kindlers, then you need to slowly up the anti and add smaller logs - or larger kindling - and get a real good roar before you get to those big expensive logs

I found the link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7ewoH7FWT0

annie123

Confuzzled wrote: »

now the idea occurred to me that maybe oats are good but i worry they may have the same effect as uncooked rice (swelling up once they hit the stomach acid) does anyone know if it's OK to give birds uncooked oats? or what about little bits of cooked porridge? unsalted of course... i'm just trying to think of little things i can give them

todays menu is very finely torn up bits of stale tortilla, apple, a few last grains of left over COOKED rice with veg and some mixed seeds (pumpkin, linseed, sunflower and a few pine nuts!) hope they're enjoying it, i know my daughter gets a kick out of mothering the neighbourhood birds... i think she has what i call my 'Italian Mother Syndrome' (and no i'm not italian, i just need to feed people!) :rotfl:

http://www.rspb.org.uk/advice/helpingbirds/feeding/whatfood/index.aspx

taken from the link:
Porridge oats must never be cooked, since this makes them glutinous and could harden around a bird's beak. Uncooked porridge oats are readily taken by a number of bird species.

I make my own fat breads/cake for the birds with all sorts of things listed on their site.

Like this idea even less:eek:

"you could do a bear grylls... wee in a jar, screw the lid on tightly then tuck the jar inside your jumper near your chest to keep your core temp warmer
"

annie123

nicki wrote: »

My boiler has broken down as well :mad: Have been on hold for nearly an hour now! Thankfully its a local number that I can call & since I'm calling from my mobile its included in my free minutes :money:

I have curtains drawn, DD is still off school ill so she's under a quilt on the sofa, with a fleece blanket, her new hat, cardigan, fingerless gloves & a hot water bottle. I'm wrapped up as much as I can considering I'm supposed to be decorating, will be adding more layers if they don't hurry up and answer the phone and forget the decorating. :mad: I realise they're busy but I've been cut off twice now! :mad:

Sorry its happened to you too.
I just hope hubby can fix ours when he's back. He's fixed it before so fingers crossed.

Justamum

My new washing machine has been delivered. YIPPEE!!!

Sorry, just had to share It's going to be working overtime to catch up on all the washing. I'll probably need a replacement on Monday :rotfl:

Clean clothes again!!!