Preparing for winter II

SuziQ

Yesterday my local Asda had the draught excluder brushes for the bottom of doors reduced for £1.50 so I got one for my back door-they are quite wide and you cut to size. My local charity shop also had some of the double sided draught excluders for doors 'as seen on TV' (lol!) for £1.99 so I bought one for my front door-it seems really good quality and fits really well without impeding the door open and closing. I picked up a couple of blue fleeces from Tesco for £2 to line my oldest boy's window-have been looking everywhere locall for some velcro to fix but wouldn't you know, I can't fond it when I need it? I was supposed to be waterproofing the front of the house yesterday but the rain was torrential-hope today is better! Both boys back to school today 9what am I doing still awake?) but DD doesn't go back to Uni until next Tuesday, have got her to agree to help me with doing a major clear out and tidy up the next couple of days.

twiglet98

grn.w.nv wrote: »

We've ordered 2 large round bales which should just about fit in our shelter, though not sure when they're going to arrive. That should keep the 2 bigger ponies going all winter. The old girl, Penny, has a wave mouth (her cheek teeth no longer line up properly), so she has HiFi Lite (for anyone horsey) which is a chopped chaff, with some sugarbeet (Speedibeet) which she can't get enough of. Fat Shetland Rosie we think got laminitis in the winter last year, due to her eating as much hay as the others, so we're going to give her the low sugar chaff as well.

Incidentally my cats, who are the outdoor kind, have had enough of the weather today and have hibernated. The chooks are also flummoxed by the rain, having never seen it before and are standing in their run looking out of the door!

We used to have an elderly TB pony with wave mouth, he was a nightmare to keep weight on. We had him on soaked senior conditioning cubes, HiFi Senior and speedibeet when he was hunting and competing regularly, and the dentist performed various miracles with him each year! Every other pony has been a challenge to keep weight off!

What is one of your big round bales equivalent to in small bales? I've got just over 100 from my usual guy, and was hoping for another 80, but he won't reserve it and isn't sure he can let me have that much. We just have the two old mares now, 20 and 21. The 14hh Welsh D got lami in January: suddenly having to feed haylage and molassed chaff over Christmas and New Year; turning out all day in deep snow because I couldn't get enough bedding to leave them in 24/7; and with DD working full time too, it was the first winter she was unclipped, unshod and hardly being ridden, and had put on too much weight. She is sound now :j thanks to my wonderful farrier and DD's dedication.

Their usual feed is HiFi Lite and Speedibeet, this mare is on Formula 4 Feet (£££:eek:) and the other one just has Equibites added for vit/mins. The Pets Corner shop in our local garden centre stocks a small selection of horse stuff and a leaflet came through the door with a series of vouchers for 20, 15, 10 and 5% off any purchases. Unfortunately they only ever have one bag of HFLite and one SB, but they're cheaper than the feed store. I also got their entire stock of Aubiose - 2 bags - and some wild bird food, and will use the other vouchers as and when they restock. Chicken feed comes in a bulk delivery from D&H to the farm where I work, and I get F4F and wild bird food from G W Titmuss, via TopCashBack.

My hens and ducks were appalled at the wind today and not laying enough eggs to earn their keep. The cats do go a bit mad when it's windy, chasing leaves, and have been very silly, but my dear old terrier hates rain, wind, mud, cold, and likes his duvet days. Even the baby swallows wouldn't go out of the barn this morning, despite the parents calling them from outside, and they need to be getting used to flying in rotten weather as they'll be leaving very soon.

bexs.ua

Hi everyone! :wave: After reading all 341 pages of this thread I thought I'd better come out of lurkdom and say hello to you all!

After horrendous fuel bills last winter I am determined this year to pay ALOT less than the £700 bill I got after last winter :eek::eek: Thanks to you lot I somehow think this will be very much possible! I live in a detached bungalow which seems incapable of holding in ANY heat whatsoever. The loft is well insulated (and will be more when I've been to the orange DIY store for some more insulation lol) and I am in the process of creating some window quilts... should be interesting as I haven't sewn since I was at school but hey I'm going to have a go! :rotfl: Front door has been sealed (not shut!!) with that squishy stuff someone recommended off fleabay a few pages back, I have bought some of those moisture traps and they are currently working well in the bedroom as its always really damp in there and I have no idea why? I am working my way through the house at the moment and having a massive sort out as I go trying to be more organised. Store cupboard is small but well stocked and thanks to you lot I have 36 rolls of toilet roll stashed in the loft..... :T:T (I have NEVER hoarded bog roll before so you lot have a lot to answer for!! :rotfl:) I still have lots of small odd jobs to do but the list is diminishing sloooooowly :j

List to do:

Go to Primarni (BIG trip planned for tomorrow :j going with DS Aunties one is stocking up on winter clothes like me and the other is off to Barbados next month so shopping for summer clothes :rotfl: so jealous!)
Attack the window quilts with gusto
Medicine stock up
Wardrobe clear out (done one large cupboard-three to go!)
Kitchen clearout :eek:
Been trying to source a (broken) chest freezer for outside use- hens teeth anyone???!
Need to go to local fire shop and get quote for log burner... after the quotes some of you have had I keep putting this off!
Need a rug for front room
Finish picking home grown produce and preserve/freeze it all
Make more Jams/Chutneys
Clear the gutters

OK enough for now! Sorry for the rediculously long post :o but I'd just like to say this thread is fantastic and I look forward to many more ideas :T thanks everyone :j

Red_Doe

My hens and ducks were appalled at the wind today and not laying enough eggs to earn their keep. The cats do go a bit mad when it's windy, chasing leaves, and have been very silly, but my dear old terrier hates rain, wind, mud, cold, and likes his duvet days. Even the baby swallows wouldn't go out of the barn this morning, despite the parents calling them from outside, and they need to be getting used to flying in rotten weather as they'll be leaving very soon.

Same with my hens...the rotten weather really puts them off laying and I'm getting only half the eggs I should be. The cat hates the wind, it makes him daft...he dashes about the garden chasing invisible things and gets all snarly, most unlike his usual cuddly self! The cold and damp makes my poor old Border Collie's joints ache. The only beasts that seem to like the harsh weather are the blackback and herring gulls, who happily float on the currents that would knock us down on our backsides! Mad beasts

sashanut

Hi all:j

Just popping in for a quick post - haven't been on for a few days so a lot to catch up on:D Just wanted to mention a couple of things - first my tip for the setting of the bramble seedless (jelly) - I was worried about this when I made it, but my book suggests adding just one chopped up apple to the mix to aid setting. Not sure if it's supposed to be a cooking apple, but I used a windfall - peeled it & popped in along with the blackberries. Since you strain the jelly the apple 'disappears' & you can't taste any difference, sets a treat. In fact, mine set a bit too well, as I was paranoid & boiled it a bit too much. No need for commercial pectin, a cheap & easy way to get a set. There is another recipe with more apples as well, but then you get a definite taste of apple apparently - thus it's then blackberry & apple jelly:rotfl:

Also a note of caution to those setting up stocks in the freezer/outside. Make sure you have good security. We had our 2 outside freezers broken into (and there was someone in the house AND we had 3 dogs at the time). After that we had weldmesh fitted to the front of the open garage, plus a bracket + padlock. A couple of months later they came back & cut off the padlocks:eek: and removed all my M&S chickens/meat.:( We have now spent ££££ s on having an industrial fence with padlocks fitted at both sides of the house (circular drive) so no-one can get round the back without scaling an 8ft fence. And we now have 4 dogs:rotfl:

Don't want to panic anyone, just be aware. We had talked about a fence for a long time, but after a £6000 quote (I'm not kidding!) we shelved that project. Luckily we ended up getting it done for much much less, but we were desperate for it not to happen again.

Red_Doe

That's awful sashanut. Hope your current preventions work this time and that you don't get robbed again. I've noticed a change in the things getting stolen the past couple of years. It seems to have gone from items like tv's, jewellery etc into 'practical' things like food, fuel and livestock! Don't know if it's a sign of the times but given that around here some OAP's had their winter fuel stolen, maybe we should all look at security for such things.

MRSTITTLEMOUSE

Its horrible when you get burgled.
It never ceases to amaze me what they'll do to get what they want either.
We have a nine foot wall all around the back of our house,the gates are bolted and padlocked and yet they still mangaged to get a tall freezer and a washing machine over the walls.
The workmen had only put them out there,well wrapped up overnight while they were concreting the kitchen floor.
They had the cheek to take a pair of ladders,two pairs of step ladders and a box tree while they were at it.
I don't even know how they knew what was there to steal since they had no way of seeing ,so they must have been climbing over the walls to have a look.
Other neighbours had stuff taken that night,all have high walls round their properties too.

elgar_2

I woke up cold this morning. Not sure what was wrong, I did look longingly at heating controls, which are set to 10 (I think its harder to heat a house when it gets very cold and have since student days where I learnt that worked best in the very old house we were in). but I imagined having to confess on here and couldnt do it (thank you). Might have to see about getting a fleece underblanket thing on bed (see last winter til january (bought double bed in sale in prep for wedding in june) I only had single bed and a lovely fleece mattress protector from dunelm), not sure if DH will like though. maybe it was that my socks (that I wear whatever the seasons as i do get cold hands and feet easily) had somehow come off in the night! it was almost time to get up anyways so didnt try that.

I think I might need to go a wee shopping trip on Friday for long sleeved tops and thermals too. (might need to get mum to bring up winter stuff soon, need to pack summer things awa, never really had them out)

Opps I do waffle dont I .....almost time for work, at least Im in a warmer office today!!
Thanks for tolerating my waffle!

CH27

My OH is off today so I won't get much done again today:D

squeaky

bexs.ua wrote: »

Been trying to source a (broken) chest freezer for outside use- hens teeth anyone???!

https://www.ilovefreegle.org

https://www.freecycle.org

Worth a try.

Also see if you have a "Furniture Project" near you... google furniture project